Luke 14:12-24 The man Who Came to Dinner part two
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 14, today we will look at verses 12-24, page 874 in the pew Bibles.
We are returning again to Jesus at a dinner party put on by a prominent Pharisee.
Things were already not going according to plan for the Pharisee and his friends as Jesus had already pointed out their hypocrisy and pride with the healing of a man with dropsy that they brought in as a set up to catch Jesus and with a parable about the consequences of elevating yourself out of pride.
Now Jesus goes on with instruction for His host and another parable about another banquet. In this text Jesus also gives a warning and an invitation to those who would hear Him.
Let’s look at it together.
12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
15 When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16 But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”
Let’s pray.
So let’s start with Jesus’ instruction to His host in verses 12-14.
12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Now, clearly from a plain reading of the text, those of you who had plans for coming over for lunch today… plans have changed.
Is that what Jesus was telling this man, stop inviting your friends and family over for dinner? I don’t believe that was His intent at all.
Just as we talked about last week, motivation is key when considering things like this.
“When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid.”
Is Jesus condemning having friends and family over for dinner? No, He is condemning doing good for people motivated by a craving for advantage.
What can I get out of the deal? This is clearly not generosity, this is a commercial transaction, hoping to elevate one’s social standing and influence.
In comparison Jesus said, “13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Doing good for those who can’t repay you has better rewards, eternal rewards.
It’s been said that, “recompense from man and reward from God seldom go hand in hand.”
Jesus was instructing His host to exercise generosity to those who can never repay it versus scheming for advantage and paybacks. It’s pretty straightforward.
If you are interested in looking further into what Jesus meant by, “the resurrection of the just,” you can look up Revelation 20:5-6, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-16, and 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 and study them on your own as that is not our main focus this morning.
So Jesus’ instruction to His host: Do good to those who can’t repay you not just to those who you can benefit from.
At this point somebody there at dinner pipes up with what appears to me to be some kind of toast, like a weak attempt to retake the room from Jesus.
15 When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
Can’t you just hear them all now, “Here, Here! Blessed is us, right guys?”
I know that we have the advantage of standing outside of this event and reading these things and we can see the beginning and the end of these events before we really react to them, but I can’t help but think, “How dumb can you get? Jesus is going to rip you up!” And that’s exactly what He did.
Not so fast fellas… You praise your blessedness thinking that you will be at that table but in fact you all refuse to come to the feast…
16 But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
It was customary for two invitations to go out for big banquets. The first was more of a “Save the Date,” type of announcement and if you accepted that invitation someone would be sent to you to let you know that the banquet was ready, the soup was on, so you can come on over.
But those who were invited refused to come.
18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master.
These were reasonable excuses I guess but what they were really saying is, “I no longer want to come.” The land would be there, the oxen would be there, maybe the new wife was legitimate…
Their minds were on their business, their minds were on their livelihood, their minds were on their relationships and they allowed those things to hinder them from going to the banquet.
Just like those men, many who have been invited to the banquet table of the Lord have allowed earthly-mindedness and love of this world and what it has to offer to hinder their acceptance of the invitation.
Those who were invited in this parable knew what was right but chose not to practice it.
This was, and still is, a warning to the religious.
Those religious folks to whom Jesus was first speaking had the Law and the Prophets, the first invitation to a true saving faith and then Messiah Jesus came, the Lord’s Servant that declared to them, the banquet is ready, the time is now, come to the table. But they were full of excuses and their focus was on the world and their own stuff.
Those religious folks to whom Jesus is now speaking are in danger of mistaking our familiarity with what Jesus said with genuine faith in who He is and what He did. We are in danger of having faith in ourselves, or faith in the church, and not true saving faith in Christ Jesus.
Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”
John 1:9-13 says, 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
His own people rejected Him, the religious leaders and teachers who should have been the first to recognize Jesus as the Messiah rejected Him, and so the invitation went out to everybody else, to the outcasts and the sinners, to the tax collectors, to the prostitutes, to the blind, the deaf, and the lame, and then to the Gentiles.
He has made rich provision for poor souls like you and me, and He has graciously invited all to join Him at His banquet table.
But that invitation is an invitation to come and die, to lose yourself, to bow down, to submit your will and your life to Jesus.
This invitation is not to those who think they are righteous. That’s who the warning is for. This invitation is to those who know they are sinners.
Have you heeded the warning? Have you accepted the invitation?
If you find yourself asking the question, “What must I do to be saved?” I would tell you, as it says in Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”
Amen.
