I love a good banquet, don’t you? Enough food to feed an army! The closest most of us come to a banquet meal anymore is a congregational meal at the church building, or maybe eating at Golden Corral. Ancient banquets could last anywhere from a few hours to a few days. The banquet marked incredible abundance as well as social standing with the host. He invited his closest friends.
Jesus used banquets to teach important lessons. In John 14, Jesus begins by talking about a wedding feast, which he uses to teach his followers about humility (Vss. 1 – 11). In verses 12 – 14 the Lord teaches us to respect and care for the poor and downtrodden, not simply those of power and wealth who could do favors for us later. And finally, beginning in verse 15, Jesus tells the parable of the great banquet. It is this section of scripture that I want to focus on in this article.
In this parable, an important man planned a great banquet and he invited many people. However, these people began to make excuses and did not come to his banquet. The host sent his servant to invite those of lower socioeconomic standing to the banquet. Many of them accepted, but the house was not yet full. Then, in anger, the host told his servant to go and force people to come in and fill the house. At the end of the parable, the host rebuked those who made excuses, and he declared that they would not taste of his banquet.
Jesus told this parable in the presence of the Jewish elite. It is certainly probable that the parable rebukes Jewish leadership for their refusal to accept and follow Jesus. But it is also true that this parable speaks to us today. So I ask the reader to see themselves in the community where the banquet was held. We should ask ourselves: How would I have responded to the invitation? Let us understand Jesus as the host and the banquet as a metaphor for those in his Kingdom.
An Undeserved Invitation
The original invitees seemingly did nothing to deserve an invitation. The host chose to give a banquet, and he invited people to come with no apparent obligation beyond attendance. The text says nothing about the host owing them an invitation or seeking to repay some previously done favor. It is a gracious invitation offered by the host. A gracious invitation they rejected!
The gospel invitation was first offered to the Jews (Romans 1:16). Today, the invitation is open to anyone and everyone who will accept (1 Timothy 2:4). Sadly, like the Luke 14 banquet, most will reject that invitation. Would you accept? Have you accepted? Why not?
Hollow, Unacceptable Excuses
The first group invited are not no-shows. They were at least kind enough to offer some semblance of an excuse. Those excuses were empty and unacceptable to the banquet host. There’s no reason to suspect the offered excuses were untrue. They were probably accurate. And in some circumstances they might have been acceptable. But to decline the free, gracious invitation to a great banquet given by a great man was unforgivable.
Today, people offer all sorts of excuses to avoid hearing the gospel message and especially to avoid responding positively to it. People will tell you that they just don’t have time. Or that “religion” is just not a priority right now. Some will honestly decline because they just aren’t interested. In the minds of people, these excuses are sufficient, and I suspect they really believe what they’re saying.
But just as the host in Luke 14 would not accept their hollow excuses, the Lord will not accept excuses for those who refuse to come to his Kingdom.
What are your “reasons” for declining his invitation? Would you really prefer to eat the scraps offered by the world when a great banqueting table awaits?
An Invitation for Any and All
As the parable progresses, we see that the doors are open to those whom the world considers lesser or lower-class. And the banquet intended for the elite of the day was now populated by people the world rejected. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
In the body of Christ, there are no levels or tiers of status (Galatians 3:28). The gospel invitation is for any and all who will come. Even the vilest sinner is invited to the Lord’s banqueting table. For it is there that sins are removed, and cleansing occurs.
Don’t miss it: there came a time when the host closed the doors and declared that those who did not come would not be allowed in (c.f. Matthew 25:1-13). That time is coming. Now is the accepted time of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). It is the time to respond to the Lord’s invitation.
Will you come?
