The Great Reversal

This is the group that the Pharisees and lawyers belonged to. They spent their free time after working all day discussing and debating how to understand and keep the Torah (God’s instructions). They considered the “people of the land” to be unclean and would not have table fellowship with them.

The עַם הָאָרֶץ (ahm ha aretz): The “People of the Land”

These were those who did not spend their free time studying and discussing and debating how to understand and keep the Law. They did the “bare minimum”, as it were, and only attended the Temple when they were required to, but otherwise did not really concern themselves with keeping God’s Law. They were considered unclean and unholy and so unworthy of participation in the kingdom of God. Referred to as “sinners” in the Scriptures by the Pharisees. An example would be the younger son in .

Our text for this morning is from . But before we get there, we need to understand some of the background to what is going on here. To do that we turn to the beginning of this chapter. Luke writes in verses 1-6,

Luke 14:1–6 ESV

1 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.

One Sabbath, Jesus is dining at the house of one of the ruler of the Pharisees, and Luke tells us that they were watching him carefully. And so also in attendance at this meal are other Pharisees and lawyers. We remember that the lawyers were considered to be experts in the Law of Moses. These lawyers would be the same people as the Gospels elsewhere describe as the “scribes.” (νομικός (lawyers) = γραμματεύς (scribes))

Dr. Ken Bailey is helpful in understanding what is going on here. He writes,

Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels Dinner Party Conversations

The setting is authentically Middle Eastern. A traveling rabbi/preacher passes through a local village. The religious leaders invite the village guest to a meal during which they investigate his political and theological views.

So that is what is going on here. Dr. Bailey also argues convincingly that Jesus was among the Pharisees and known to them. The Pharisees belonged to a group called the “Haberim,” which means, “The Associates” or “The Friends.” The Pharisees were that group of people who worked their blue-collar job during the day to put food on the table but who spent their free time studying the Torah (Old Testament) and rabbinic tradition and interpretation and discussed and debated amongst themselves how best to understand the Law and keep it.

That Jesus was among them is evidenced by the fact that during his childhood he spent time among the teachers of the Law, asking them questions and discussing the Law with them (), and the fact that when he emerges on the scene as an adult and begins his public ministry he is readily referred to as “Rabbi,” recognizing his training and expertise in the Scriptures.

This is also evidenced by situations like this in , where he eats with the Pharisees. The Pharisees only had table fellowship with their own. They did not welcome those they called the עַם הָאָרֶץ (ahm ha aretz), the “people of the land,” whom they considered unclean because they were not scrupulous in their observation of the Law. And so the fact that they welcomed Jesus to eat with them shows that he was one of them, as it were, and this is also why it made them so angry when Jesus ate with tax collectors and “sinners,” that is, Jesus ate with the עַם הָאָרֶץ (ahm ha aretz), the unclean people of the land. (Bailey, Finding the Lost, p. 22-28)

And so this ruler of the Pharisees held a dinner party with his fellow Pharisees and lawyers and invited Jesus, the traveling Rabbi, to come as well and they watched him closely so that they could see where Jesus stood both politically and theologically. This is the setting.

A Question Concerning Sabbath-keeping

Jesus reverses the Pharisees’ understanding of what it means to keep the Sabbath

The Sabbath is about Redemption () and Restoring that which was damaged and lost in the Fall. It points us ahead to the true Sabbath rest, which we have now in Jesus, and will have in full experience in the new heavens and new earth.

A question concerning the keeping of the Sabbath is what starts off the engagement of Jesus with these scribes and Pharisees. A man was there who had “dropsy” or edema, as we would call it. This is a swelling of certain body parts due to the buildup of fluid. In such condition this man was considered unclean. And yet Jesus heals him. He restores him to fellowship in the worshipping community. This restoration is really what the Sabbath is all about and it points us forward to our true Sabbath rest in Christ in the new heavens and new earth where all of creation is restored and the effects of sin wiped out forever. Jesus challenges the Pharisees’ understanding of Sabbath-keeping and turns it on its head. Thus, we see a reversal of the prevailing understanding of the Sabbath by the religious leaders of the Jews in Jesus’ day.

So Jesus puts the question to the Pharisees and the lawyers, the supposed experts in the Law, whether or not it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Sabbath observance was a point of major contention between Jesus and the Pharisees, with their detailed descriptions of what was considered “work” and thus a violation of the Sabbath.

Interestingly, they didn’t answer him. So Jesus healed the man and sent him away. Something we should note here is that by healing this man Jesus made one who is unclean clean. He restored to this man liturgical access to God because he was now able to return to the temple and participate in the worship there.

This is something that the Pharisees and the scribes should have rejoiced over. It should have brought them great joy that one who was unclean and therefore outcast is now restored to fellowship and the life of faith within the worshipping community of Israel. They should have rejoiced in the mercy of God in restoring this one who was suffering both physically and emotionally and spiritually because he was not only sick physically, but he was cut off from the worshipping community in not having access to the temple.

But instead they are merciless toward this man and others like him and they refuse to rejoice because this man, and Jesus, too, by healing him, aren’t following their rules for Sabbath-keeping. They care more about their own ideas and man-made definitions of piety and holiness than they do about this man who was suffering. And they miss entirely the point of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was to be a reminder to them of God’s mercy upon them in taking them out of Egypt in the Exodus ().

And so the Sabbath was about redemption and the work of God in redeeming and restoring that which was damaged by sin in the fall–both physically and spiritually. And Jesus was going about this great redemptive/restorative work every time he forgave sinners and healed the sick and cast out demons. All of this points us ahead to the true Sabbath rest in Christ, which we enter through faith in Christ and the forgiveness of sins, and which we will fully experience on the Day of Resurrection when we enter into the New Heavens and New Earth. But the scribes and the Pharisees couldn’t see this because they were so blinded by their own self-righteousness.

Jesus exposes their hypocrisy by stating what they all knew to be true:

Luke 14:5 ESV

5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?”

Luke 14:5

And they couldn’t answer him because they knew that what he said was true and that it exposed their hypocrisy. So they kept silent.

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

God humbles those who exalt themselves and exalts those who humble themselves (a reversal of human reasoning)

Jesus then told them a parable about not choosing the place of honor at a dinner party, lest someone more distinguished than them arrive and they be shamed publicly by being forced to move to the lowest place. Rather they should sit in the lowest place and then they would receive honor by being given a higher place. ()

This was a critique of the pride and arrogance of the Pharisees and scribes who liked to take the seats of honor. They were so proud of themselves and their supposed righteousness. But Jesus tells them that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those that humble themselves will be exalted. The passive voice of these verbs tells us that God is the one who is doing the humbling and exalting. (Just, , p. 569)

The Great Reversal

God’s ways are not our ways (see, for example, )

God’s ways are often done in reverse of natural human thinking and reasoning (see, for example, )

This is important for us to note because it will help us understand our text for today. This parable of Jesus helps to illustrate for us what we could call The Great Reversal (Just, , p. 570 ). That is, Jesus often reverses human wisdom and understanding. His definition of righteous and unrighteous is different than our natural understanding.

We think, in our fallenness and sinfulness, that those who are righteous are those who follow the rules scrupulously. Those who don’t are unrighteous. This would be legalism or moralism. Righteousness is gained through keeping laws and rules.

Or we think that those who follow the rules are the unrighteous ones because they are hypocrites and think that they are so much better than everyone else. The truly righteous are those that break the rules and do what they want. This is called antinomianism, or “anti law-ism.” Righteousness comes from breaking the laws and rules and doing what you want.

But both are wrong. Even though they appear outwardly different, they really are the same. Both approaches see righteousness in man-made terms. It’s either this behavior or that behavior. Moralism, or legalism, and antinomianism engage in the same error.

Jesus’ definition of the righteous and the unrighteous is different. Righteousness is defined in terms of the recognition of one’s sinful state and that one has no righteousness of his or her own, and such a one as this looks in faith to Jesus as their Righteousness. Unrighteousness is defined as a lack of faith in Christ as Redeemer, and this produces either those who try to be righteous by following the rules or those who try to be righteous by breaking the rules.

In Jesus’ definition, those who think they are righteous in themselves are, in fact, unrighteous, and those who know they aren’t righteous in themselves, but who trust in Christ to be their righteousness are righteous. This is the Great Reversal, and we will see this played out again in our text for this morning.

In fact, this should sound somewhat familiar to us because we’ve been hearing about for the last couple Sundays. It showed up in the Parable of the Prodigal Son in , and it showed up again in last week’s Gospel reading from . In the Prodigal Son, the older son thinks he’s righteous and outwardly appears to be so. But in fact he is not. The younger son is a more obvious sinner and appears unrighteous. But in fact he is righteous.

In , the scribes and Pharisees think that they are righteous and appear so outwardly and pride themselves as being Abraham’s descendents, but they are the ones, in fact, who will suffer the wrath of God upon the unrighteous outside the Holy City, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. At the same time, the ones who will sit at Abraham’s table in the Holy City are the עַם הָאָרֶץ (ahm ha aretz) and the Gentiles–those who appear outwardly unrighteous and who were considered unclean by the Pharisees and the scribes. It is completely reversed and turned upside down. So it is in our text for this morning.

The Parable of the Great Banquet

Told as a critique of the Pharisees’ self-righteous and man-made standards for who would be welcome at the Lord’s banquet in the kingdom of God, which came in Jesus and is still coming in its full experience when Jesus comes again.

The background for this parable is

The parable in our text for this morning is told by Jesus in response to one of the dinner guests in verse 15. What comes right before this sets up this response. In verses 12-14, Jesus addresses the man who invited him and tells him that instead of inviting friends or brothers or relatives or rich neighbors, because they can repay in kind. But rather he should invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind. Doing so will bring blessing since they are not able to repay in kind. Rather, God will repay those who do this at the resurrection of the just. This teaching of Jesus elicits an outburst from one of those present at the table. This fellow says,

Upon hearing this, Luke tells us that one who was present there said to Jesus:

The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel Chapter 14

Jesus by no means forbids our inviting those who will in turn invite us; nor does he demand that we invite only such as cannot invite us again. What he does is to forbid us always to invite the former and to forget all about the latter.

Jesus is continuing his statement in response to how they took the seats of honor and how they were exclusive in their dinner fellowship…not inviting those they deemed unclean or unrighteous. And so Jesus is challenging their understanding of righteousness and who they should be associating with. Their vision is myopic in that they have narrowed the scope of salvation to the Jews, and then to only those Jews that they deemed righteous. They have forgotten the vision that God cast through his Word and through his prophets, such as Isaiah, that the scope of God’s salvation was the entire world, Jew and Gentile included.

When the Pharisees and scribes held dinner parties and only invited their friends, family, and wealthy neighbors, they will receive the full reward, that is, an earthly, temporal reward of being repaying in kind. It takes no special charity or generosity to give to those who will give back to you. Rather, if they invite those who cannot repay them, they will engage in true mercy, kindness, charity, and generosity, for they will bear the cost with no earthly return. But instead of earthly reward, they will receive from God reward at the resurrection of the just.

And in this way, they would actually mirror the God they claim to serve and obey, for he is a giving and gracious God who gives to sinners what they could never repay and have not earned. And they are forgetting that they are needy and unworthy of God’s grace and mercy and yet he has given it to them anyways. Lenski is again helpful. He writes,

The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel Chapter 14

Jesus wants genuine love and proper care for the needy, which are true fruits of faith.

Upon hearing this, Luke tells us that one who was present there said to Jesus:

“Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” ()

If we remember back to the beginning of chapter 14, we will recall that the Pharisees and scribes invited Jesus to their dinner party and they were watching him closely. We remember that the purpose of inviting Jesus was to ascertain what his theological views were. And this is the purpose of this statement. Dr. Ken Bailey again helps us to understand. He writes,

Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels Dinner Party Conversations

The person’s outburst is a challenge for Jesus to express his views on that topic. Those around the table would expect Jesus to say something such as, “Oh, that we might keep the law in a precise fashion so that when that great day comes, we will be counted worthy to sit with the Messiah and all true believers at his banquet.”]

Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels Dinner Party Conversations

English Standard Version Chapter 14

, e“Blessed is everyone who will feat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels Dinner Party Conversations

The reclining guests would then have nodded approvingly and thought to themselves, “Fine, he passed that exam. Now let’s move on to the next topic.” But Jesus responds with a very different view of the messianic banquet of the end times from the views current in the community.

Part of the background to what is going on here is the theme and descriptions of the great messianic banquet that begins in . (Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, p.310) Isaiah writes,

, e“Blessed is everyone who will feat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Isaiah 25:6–9 ESV

6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. 7 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. 9 It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

This text lies behind the comment made by this fellow that was present. To this point when Jesus is present at this meal, there had been a 700-year-long conversation as to the nature of this messianic banquet. Debates as to who will be included and how one is invited and included in this banquet. This vision of Isaiah is behind the banquet imagery in the New Testament, where the faithful are depicted as eating at the table of the Lord in the eschaton…in the new heavens and earth. (See for example, )

In Isaiah’s vision both Jew and Gentile are gathered to the table of the Lord. This is another instance in the Old Testament that testifies to God’s intent to save all humanity, not just one people.

However, the Pharisees, representing the rabbinic tradition and teaching, would have never included the Gentiles or the עַם הָאָרֶץ (ahm ha aretz) in this banquet, at least not in terms of receiving the banquet. They taught that the Gentiles would be there, but that at this banquet the Angel of Death would be there to destroy the Gentiles. (Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, p. 311) And since in their teaching, only pious Jews would be present at the banquet in the kingdom of God, the “people of the land” would not be present because they were unclean and impious.

This is what they expected Jesus to affirm. But Jesus turns the tables on them and what he teaches the Pharisees is quite explosive and not at all what they expected. :

Luke 14:16–24 ESV

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.’ ”

The Host of the Banquet and Those He Invited

The host of the banquet, the master of the servant, is the “God figure” in this parable

Given the context of this parable, that it’s told as part of the conversation about the banquet in the kingdom of God, we can know that Jesus intends us to understand the man who is hosting the banquet is God. God is the host of the banquet in his kingdom. We should keep that in mind and pay special attention to the words and actions of this host.

So the man is going to host this great banquet and he invited many people to come and attend. When the banquet was prepared and ready, he sent his servant to those he had invited and his servant was to tell them that now everything was ready and they should come and dine at his table.

The Terrible Excuses

These excuses are really just thinly-veiled insults

Those invited despise the host and seek to ruin his banquet

So far, all well and good. However, upon being informed that everything was ready, all those who were invited began to make excuses as to why they couldn’t come.

One said, “I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.” Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.” Another said, “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.” Upon hearing these excuses, the servant reports back to his master and his master becomes angry.

What’s going on here? At first blush, it may seem like these are legitimate excuses, and so, why does the host of the banquet get angry? If we examine these excuses more closely, I think we will understand why.

The first excuse is that one of those invited bought a field and he now must go out and see it. Let me ask you a question to consider: which one of you, wanting to buy a field, purchases a field without going out to see it first? This would be ridiculous, right? Of course you’re going to go and check out the field, probably multiple times, before you purchase it. What’s more, you will likely enter into negotiating a price for the field, which would certainly be impacted by the quality of the field and how big it is–things you would determine when you went to see the field before considering purchasing it.

The same is true in the Middle East. A transaction like this would take many days and this fellow most certainly would have already seen the field by the time he’s ready to buy. So he would have the host believe that he has bought a field without looking at it first and now, this very night of the banquet, must go and see it. Therefore, he asks to be excused.

What we discover, then, is that this “excuse” is a thinly-veiled insult to the host. It’s a terrible excuse and the one making it knows it. So does the servant.

Okay, how about the second guy? He says that he has to go and examine the five yoke of oxen that he has just purchased. And he asks to be excused from the banquet. Again, which one of you would go and purchase livestock of any kind without first examining them to make sure they are healthy and worth your money? And with a yoke of oxen, they are worthless to the farmer if they do not pull together. If they pull unevenly, it will make a mess of his fields as he tries to plow them, and so the yoke of oxen are worthless. It is utterly unbelievable that this fellow didn’t check out the oxen to make sure they pull together and are worth his money before he buys them.

But, again, this fellow expects the host to believe that he purchased five yoke of oxen without examining them first and he now, on that very evening, having purchased these oxen needs to go and examine them. Again, a thinly-veiled insult to the host. And the servant knows it.

What about the third guy? He says that he has married a wife and cannot come. The implication is that he cannot come because he needs to be home so that he can have sexual relations with his wife. This is what he’s saying. Now, I would think we would be mortified to give such an excuse for not attending a banquet. We might want that more than the banquet, but we would never say it out loud. We would offer a more plausible excuse.

And so, what we would never say in polite company, this man says publicly to the host’s servant. He would have the host believe that tonight, the very night of the banquet, he must be with his wife sexually. It sounds crass to us; it is a crass excuse and shows the intention behind this man’s excuse. We should note that this man doesn’t even ask to be excused–he simply says he cannot come. He is insulting the host–and more blatantly than the other two. And the servant knows it.

We should also note that the servant is so identified with his master that he is addressed as if he is the master. And so these fellows, and we remember that these three are just examples and representatives of the rest who were invited–all who were invited gave these kinds of excuses, speak to the servant as if he were the master and they are in essence insulting the host to his face, as it were.

The Unexpected Response of the Host: Anger turned into Grace

The Host is the “God-figure.” Instead of bringing retribution, he offers grace. See for comparison .

This grace is offered not only to the outcast, but also to those who rejected the host’s invitation. He doesn’t yet judge them. That will come if they continue to refuse. But the host still wants them to come, much like the Father who goes to his (as yet) unrepentant older son in .

So we can then understand why the host becomes angry when he hears the report of his servant. He understands that they have insulted him and spurned his gracious and generous offer for them to dine at his table and, what’s more, the banquet has already been prepared. If only one or two guests back out, the banquet can still go on. But if all the guests back out, there is no banquet. It is ruined. The host understands that these people he invited despise him enough to offer only thinly-veiled insults, or blatant ones, depending, and to attempt to ruin his banquet. And so he becomes angry, and we can understand why.

So here is the turning point of the parable: what will the master do with his anger? Will he, as expected, send his servant back to those he invited and tell them that after they insulted him, they are now his enemies and he is free to take any action against them? Again, this would have been expected and regarded as acceptable and understandable behavior. (Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, p. 316)

The Host Invites the despised in the City (the people of the land)

But the master doesn’t do this. Instead, amazingly, he re-processes his anger into grace and mercy. (cf. ) He sends his servant to go out to streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled, the blind and lame. These are the very types of people who 1) couldn’t repay the kindness of the master, and 2) they were those who were excluded from the kingdom banquet in the minds of the Pharisees and rabbinic tradition.

The Host Invites the Despised from Outside the City (the Gentiles)

The servant reports to his master when this task had been completed. He reports that there is still room at the table. And the master tells his servant to now go out to the highways and hedges–in other words, go outside of the city and into the countryside–and compel people to come in so that the master may have a full table and house.

Now, there has been some confusion throughout the history of the church in regard to the master’s command to his servant to “compel” people to come in. When we hear it, it sounds like the servant is being told to force people to come to the banquet. But this is nonsense. We know from the Scriptures that entrance into the kingdom of God and a place at his table in the eschaton is a gift of God and men and women enter by faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. No one enters the kingdom of God by force. So what is meant here?

Ken Bailey helps again to understand. He writes,

Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels The Master’s Reaction

The point the master is making is that he knows how the strangers on the highways will respond.

Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels The Master’s Reaction

When an outsider, with no social status, is invited to a banquet in the home of a nobleman, the outsider has a very hard time believing that he is really wanted. On first exposure, grace is unbelievable. The recipient of the invitation will at once feel, They don’t really want me. Impossible! Look at who I am. The intent of the invitation is to impress me with the nobility of the master, but the invitation itself is not serious.

We again see the master’s grace and mercy. He sends his servant to those outside the city, to the place of the Gentiles, to invite them to the banquet. He expects there to be initial disbelief and skepticism that they are, in fact, wanted at the banquet. And so the servant is to work to convince them that this is indeed the case. Even take them by the hand and bring them to the banquet table if they have to. We should also note that in the parable, this command is given but not finished.

Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels The Master’s Reaction

“Oblige them to come in.” This does not mean compulsion or force or persecution, but refers to the strength of the need for urgent solicitation, because those living outside the town see themselves as unworthy to enter into the places of the rich and eat banquets. Such outsiders need someone to confirm that there is indeed a welcome awaiting them there.10

10 Ibn al-Tayyib, Tafsir al Mashriqi, 2:257.

Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), 318.

Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels The Master’s Reaction

The End Result for the Self-Righteous who Refuse to Repent

Jesus is using the plural form of “you.” He is addressing those with whom he is sitting and eating.

Jesus declares the end result if they do not repent. His intention with this dire word of judgment is, as with all his words of judgment, intended to break their self-righteous pride and their trust in their works and humble themselves before God, acknowledge their sin, and be forgiven and welcomed to the banquet.

Jesus completes the Great Reversal with master’s statement at the close of the parable: “For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.” Up to this point, the master had been speaking to his servant. Now he uses the plural form of “you.” Jesus is now speaking through the master to those with whom he was sitting and eating. There is no mistaking that Jesus is telling them that they are the ones who were invited who despised God so much that they insulted him and would not come to his banquet. And in response, the banquet would be taken from them and given to the very ones they considered unworthy of the banquet: the unclean people of the land and the Gentiles.

The Reversal is now complete.

Application to Us

So what does all of this have to do with us? First of all, we remember that the task given to the servant of going outside the city to highways and hedges is left uncompleted. This is because that task is still going on. Christ has sent his Church out into the entire world to proclaim the Gospel of Christ crucified for all sinners. God’s invitation for all people, including the outcasts and downtrodden, is even now going out into the world, inviting through the Gospel all people to come to God’s banquet in the new heaven and new earth. Entrance into this eschatological Messianic banquet in the life to come is through faith in Christ for the forgiveness of one’s sins…which is brought about by the very Gospel we are commissioned to proclaim.

Man-made Righteousness is not God’s Righteousness

We must be ever vigilant, for it is easy to be taken in by the deceptiveness of sin. It is easy for us to think that we are righteous before God and are accepted by him because we follow the “rules,” whatever those rules may be. If we look good on the outside, we think we’re acceptable to God. We are warned here that it is entirely possible to be very religious and look pious on the outside, and be far, far, from the kingdom of God. And it is entirely possible to look bad on the outside and be close to the kingdom of God.

In neither case is sin to be downplayed or regarded as being of no consequence, but the point is that we cannot make judgments concerning one’s standing before God simply by outward appearance. We have no cause to be proud of our works as if they merit God’s reward and acceptance. We have no place to look down on others and judge them rejected by God because they don’t fit our man-made definitions of righteousness.

What matters is God’s definition of righteousness. And he has declared that the righteousness that avails before him is that of his Son, and his Son’s alone. In his grace and mercy, God gifts that righteousness to sinners who recognize their sinfulness and unworthiness and trust in Jesus’ blood and cross for them. That’s it. That righteousness that is Christ’s is alone worthy of God’s acceptance.

Some may object that this grace is too free. There must be something we contribute to it…such as following the rules. But to add anything to the sheer grace and kindness of God for salvation is to despise that grace and insult God. Because when we think this way, we are adding to grace our own definition of righteousness. Think about it, no one who imagines themselves righteous because they “keep the rules” ever has as their standard of righteousness God’s own perfect holy unbendingly righteous Law. There’s a reason for that: we know, if we’re any kind of honest, we know we cannot keep that. And so we water it down, take this law and that one and add in some more of our own and voila! we have our own recipe for righteousness. And, guess what? We are the very epitome and poster-child for such righteousness. Imagine that!

But this is exactly what the Pharisees and rabbinic tradition did. And Jesus condemns them in the harshest possible terms because they thought that they were so righteous by their own works and they despised the grace of God. And so God took the vineyard from them and gave it to others. And he took his banquet from them and gave it to those whom they judged unclean and unworthy and cast them out of the city into the outer darkness forever to be judged by the righteous wrath of God.

God’s Definition of Righteousness: Jesus Christ

We cannot judge by outward appearance the faith or unbelief of the heart. Yes, we uphold God’s righteous standard given in the Law, and as those redeemed by Christ’s blood and cross, we strive to conform our lives to God’s holy will. But we recognize, daily, that we fall short of God’s holy standard, too, and we stand daily in need of Christ’s forgiveness and grace, just the same as everyone else. The conformity of life to God’s holy will is a fruit of redemption and forgiveness, never, ever, the cause. The cause is the sheer kindness and grace of God in our crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ.

The Message we Proclaim to the World

This is the message we bring to the world. Not, “clean up your life so God will accept you.” Not, “God loves you just the way you are so your sin doesn’t matter.” Not, “God is love, so that means your sin is no big deal.” No. We don’t dismiss or downplay the seriousness of sin. It’s serious enough to land every single one of us, on our best days, in the fires of hell. So we don’t dismiss it. We take it seriously. So seriously, in fact, that we proclaim the one and only remedy for that sin: the cross and blood of Christ. That’s how serious sin is. It cost God the life of his very own Son.

But God freely paid the price because he loves his creation. He loves the people he has created in spite of our rebellion against him. And, praise be to God, Christ is an even greater Savior than we are sinners.

Conclusion

And his shed blood covers all of our sins, covers our guilt and our shame, and welcomes us to the eternal banquet of God and his Christ, there to dwell with him and eat at his table forever in everlasting righteousness, blessedness, and innocence.

Peace be with you. Amen.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

, e“Blessed is everyone who will feat bread in the kingdom of God!”

f [ch. 13:29; 22:16, 30]

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

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