Welcome Home: Hospitality as Mission (Luke 14:12-23)

Hospitality, just because

We’ve been in a bit of a heat wave here in Deep South Texas. They call this a heat dome. Heat is trapped here. Like we need more heat…we already live in the community with the highest annual average temperatures in the U.S. Heat dome. About a month ago, it was just getting to be this hot and we gave away water at the Los Fresnos High School graduation. And the question seems to always come up as we are passing out free bottled waters at the stadium: Why are you doing this? They asked that question the first time we did it four years ago. But the answer is always the same. Why are you doing this? Because this is Deep South Texas, it’s hot, and you’re thirsty. That’s it. That answer gets all sorts of interesting responses. One lady looked at me when we did it this year and just kind of chuckled, said thank you, and kept walking.

That kind of generosity makes people uncomfortable. I’m going to say this right up front. We saw this last week in the story of Abraham and his meal for strangers. We are here because we have a very generous God. God’s generosity permeates the entire Bible. His grace flows through generosity to people who don’t deserve it. God was gracious with Adam and Eve. He was gracious with Abraham. He was generous with Israel… he rescued them from Egypt and then gave them the Promised Land of Israel, and all along the way they were a bit cantankerous and ungrateful. He was generous with David and Solomon. You get to the New Testament and Jesus is eating with sinners. Outcasts. Prostitutes. Loan sharks. Wherever God is generous, you find him eating in places that don’t deserve anything from God, let alone his presence.

He also eats with the very religious. And that’s where we find ourselves today in Luke 14. There are some very hard things to see in today’s story. In Luke 14, Jesus is eating a meal with the religious elite. The seminary professors. The conference speakers. The best-selling religious authors of the day. Those who followed all the rules and led upstanding lives. The self-righteous. These are the people who had the keys to the kingdom. They ruled. God’s kingdom, when it comes to earth again, is going to come through these people who are on their best behavior.

Jesus’ banquet story

Jesus is at their table, eating their food. During this meal with the religious establishment, Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath. And that causes a stir. Jesus is doing things outside the box. And so Jesus, as he is in the habit of doing, tells a story.

Jesus seems to always be telling banquet stories. Meal stories. And it seems Jesus is always at a meal when spectacular things happen. Teaching moments happen at meals. Jesus has already noticed that those who considered themselves really important were jockeying for the best seats at the table. Jesus gives them a word of caution, and when one of the religious leaders hears what Jesus says, he says this:

Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

It’s a true statement, but based on all that has happened… it’s clear that it is really meant to say “Blessed are those who are on their best behavior and the righteous who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

Jesus hears this being said in a self-serving kind of way, and he decides to run with it.

Here’s his story:

Luke 14:15-23 “A man was giving a large banquet and invited many. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who were invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’ “But without exception they all began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me.’ “Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m going to try them out. I ask you to excuse me.’ “And another said, ‘I just got married, and therefore I’m unable to come.’ “So the servant came back and reported these things to his master. Then in anger, the master of the house told his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in here the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.’ “‘Master,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, and there’s still room.’ “Then the master told the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges and make them come in, so that my house may be filled.”

Interesting story. The host throws a banquet and gets a bunch of excuses.

I’m sorry, I just bought a field, I have to go check it out.

I’m sorry, I just bought some cattle, I have to go make sure they’re OK.

I’m sorry, I just got married, and I can’t make it.

Excuses, excuses. And the guy who threw the banquet is not happy at all. He’s angry. He tells his servants to go find some people who would appreciate a banquet. Better yet,

Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in here the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.

Ruh-roh. Everything was good in Jesus’ story until he got to this part. The guest list has changed… dramatically. It was all good until Jesus mentioned “the poor, maimed, blind and lame.” You see, a few minutes ago, Jesus had given them a slap on the wrist for not inviting to their table “the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.” That’s the exact same phrase. Now that he has pulled the same crowd into this story, there’s no mistaking who this story is about. Their hospitality did not include the outcasts.

If you were part of the “in” crowd in Jesus’s religious community, you didn’t hang with the poor, the maimed, the blind, or the lame. In fact, hanging with those people meant contaminating yourself. Getting yourself dirty. These people are “icky”.

So when Jesus tells a story about a man who throws a banquet and invites the poor, maimed, blind, and lame to the table… what he’s saying is that those who are dreaming up excuses not to be at the banquet are the religious leaders. The ones who had been in synagogue all of their lives. The ones who knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards. The ones who were all about holiness and pleasing God. They are the ones who find themselves on the outside looking in at this grand banquet.

Jesus’ Full House

Jesus doesn’t stop there. He continues his story and kicks it up a notch. When the servants tell the banquet host that there is still room, he sends them out again… this time, expanding the area of their invite:

Go out into the highways and hedges and make them come in, so that my house may be filled.

By this time, the room in which Jesus is telling the story is very uncomfortable. It probably feels as though the AC isn’t on. What the host of that banquet has made clear is that not just his table, but his entire house is to be full of the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame. So full, that there is no room for anyone other than those who are poor, maimed, blind, or lame. The only people who will be at this banquet are the unwelcome, unloved, unlovely, outcast, marginalized, excluded, disenfranchised, and diseased. It’s only for those who have something dreadfully and drastically wrong. It’s only for those who know they have no business being at that banquet.

The meaning is now very clear to those who are seated there with Jesus. This whole story started with one of them, in a fit of self-importance, declaring a truism:

Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

And in this story about a great banquet whose only guests will be the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame, Jesus is saying… Yeah, let me tell you about the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. The reality is that the only ones eating bread in the kingdom of God are the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame. Those who you think are unfit for the kingdom are in fact the only ones who will be eating bread in God’s kingdom.

I think you probably would have heard a pin drop. You see… it hadn’t been long ago that these very same religious leaders had made an accusation against Jesus… Jesus is always eating with sinners. Jesus only eats with those whose lives are filled with immorality and disease and a lack of ethics. Jesus only eats with people who are never in our synagogues. They don’t keep the law of Moses very well, if at all. Their lives are a mess. They don’t seem interested in cleaning up their lives.

And now Jesus is saying…. Those are the only people who will be eating at my table in God’s kingdom. It won’t be you religious leaders. Those most likely to be at the table, won’t be there. You want to eat bread in the kingdom, but you’ve been making excuses… you want the bread, but you don’t want the host who is serving it. You want the kingdom, but you don’t want me. But there is no bread, there is no banquet, there is no kingdom without Jesus. There is no satisfaction without Jesus.

No reciprocity salvation

But there’s one more thing here. Before Jesus started the story, Jesus said this:

Luke 14:13-14 “When you host a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.”

Why is it that Jesus’ table and His house are filled with the poor, maimed, lame, or blind? Because they can do absolutely nothing to get it or repay it. Zero. No-reciprocity salvation. Christ’s kingdom and Christ’s salvation and all of salvation’s benefits are for those who can’t bring anything, have no capacity to bring anything. They cannot repay Jesus. The entire salvation experience is summed up in this: We cannot repay what Jesus has done for us.

God fills his house with sinners who cannot pay him and will never pay him back. One of the most popular Simpson episodes is the one where Bart has a test that he knows he’s not ready for and so he prays for a snow day so he can study. And overnight, there’s a bunch of snow and sure enough, school is canceled. Bart is headed out the door to go play in the snow with his friends and he’s confronted at the door by his sister Lisa, who overheard his prayer. And her comment is: you owe God big. You owe God for the snow day. Go study.

That’s not just Lisa’s view of God. That’s the way we view God. For our salvation even. I don’t know how many youth gatherings I sat in where some adult or youth pastor or preacher would look at us kids and say… Jesus died on the cross for your sins. You owe him your life. Jesus did this for you. Now you repay him with your life. That’s works salvation in a nutshell. We are consumed with this idea that somehow we can make up for all that we haven’t done for God and, oh, by the way, there’s this problem of doing what God has told us not to do. Lisa has it half right… we owe God, but there is zero chance we can pay anything.

Jesus is filling his house and filling his table with people who cannot pay him back. We are the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind in this story. That’s us. That’s Jesus’ hospitality for us. And Jesus’ hospitality is on mission.. to fill his house with more like us who cannot repay him. At his Table in His house, Jesus is throwing a banquet, feeding Himself to those of us who are poor, lame, maimed, and blind, providing us with forgiveness of sins and grace we need.

The message is clear. The kingdom is not for those who pride themselves on what great people they are… pride themselves on their sense of morality. The kingdom is for those who don’t deserve it and know and admit they don’t deserve it. Jesus says, yes, I hang with sinners… I hang with losers. This is love for us. Jesus wants us at His banquet. He loves us that much.

Christ’s mission is our mission. His hospitality is our hospitality. Twice in this story, Jesus uses the words “go out”.

“Go out into the streets and the alleys… go out into the highways and hedges.. and bring them in.”

This is the mission of the church. This is the mission of The Table. Those who are the poor, the maimed, the blind, the lame, those who don’t have their act together, those who are unlovely, those who desperately need Jesus are to “go out” and find others who are just like us… to “fill Jesus’ house” with sinners and outcasts.

This is our hospitality for the world. For Los Fresnos. Mission is an invitation to Christ’s Table. Our mission here is to not keep this to ourselves, but to go out and find others like ourselves and invite them to the banquet, to the Table, where they also will find grace and forgiveness of sins.

Let’s Pray.

The Table

This Table is that banquet Jesus talked about. And around this table this morning are those who are poor, maimed, blind, and lame. This table is for us. Only those who are sinners. Only those who don’t have their act together. Only those who are marginalized. Only those who are undeserving. This table is for us, because this is us. We are those who are desperately in need of Jesus. Jesus has sent for us… far and wide and invited us here to eat and dine with him. At His table. Even though we have no business eating here He says, “this is for you.” The church is for the sick. The church is a hospital for those who are broken. And in need of Jesus. The Table is a place for those who are “poor, maimed, blind, and lame” to come and sit at the feet of Jesus and have him feed us at His Table through His Word and through His sacraments. Through His people and His community. It is at Christ’s table gives us grace and forgiveness of sins.