Come One, Come All

There was a young couple getting married and they did the usual things a couple getting married does. They sent out save the date cards, booked the venue, got the preacher, chose bridesmaid dresses, ordered the tuxes, sent out the invitations, everything. The RSVPs started coming back and the guest list was finalized. The wedding shower had taken place and all the preparations had been made. The day of the wedding arrived full of excitement, but as the ceremony started, the chapel was empty. In fact, the only people who showed up were the wedding party, the pastor, and the piano player. As you can imagine, the bride and groom were devastated. Why didn’t anybody come? Don’t they love us? Did we do something? What about this reception? We have all this food. What are we going to do?

Jesus speaks a parable similar to this situation in Luke 14. At the beginning of the chapter, some Pharisees are upset with Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath. He had been invited to the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees and there is this man there suffering from dropsy, which is an abnormal swelling of soft tissue from a buildup of water or some other fluid. Jesus heals the man and these Pharisees are upset about it. Then Jesus notices that the people invited are picking out the good seats for themselves and uses it as an opportunity to teach them about humility. It’s better to be humble and have the host of the banquet invite you to move up than to be asked to move to the back.

While Jesus is on the topic, he presents this parable about a man who throws a bog dinner party. Let’s pick up in Luke chapter 14 verse 16:

Luke 14:16–24 NASB95

But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ “Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ “Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ “And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ “And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. ‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’ ”

What makes this story relatable is that we can imagine it happening to us. Imagine you invited a ton of folks to a party you were going to throw at your house. The day of the party came, you set the time of the party, let’s say 6:00, and 6:00 came and there was nobody there. 6:15, 6:30, 7:00 PM, not one person. You get on your phone and start texting all the people you invited and the responses you get are sorry excuses for not attending when they had already made the commitment.

This dinner party was a big deal. People didn’t just pick a day and time and order Sowell’s BBQ or fajitas from Agave Jalisco. Those things didn’t exist. Lots of preparation went into getting a head count and preparing enough food for everyone. This was a big deal. This was no small affair! The master of the house sent out his servant to go tell everybody dinner was ready. But he did not get the answers he expected.

Excuse #1: Property has taken priority.

In the ancient world, buying property was a long and complicated process. There would be multiple surveys or inspections to ensure the buyer knew what he was getting. In some cases, one might own the land, but might not own the trees on the land, or one will own the land but not the well on the land, or some other structure. The one who made the excuse should have already known what he was getting. Remember, the invitation would have gone out well in advance. He would have already committed to attend. Now was the time for everyone to come together but now he has to go check out a field he just bought? This is a misplaced priority.

Excuse #2: Work has taken priority.

The servant moves on to the second person, calling them to come to dinner, but the response is, “I just bought five yoke of oxen. I gotta go check them out!” Now five yoke of oxen is 10 oxen. One would think that you would know something about the performance of the oxen before you buy them. Who buys a racehorse without checking it out first? Who buys a new car before giving it a test drive? Again, this was something that should have been done in light of the commitment he already made. Perhaps he is just motivated by getting the work done so he could make a little extra money. The point is he placed his work over his commitment.

Excuse #3: Family has taken priority.

The final invitee says that he cannot come because he had just married a wife. Being with her is more important than attending this dinner that he has known about for some time. Now we have to remember that Jewish weddings were never a surprise. In fact, what wedding is? If you are invited to attend a wedding, you are not invited at the last second. But here this man has a new bride and it stands in the way of his commitment to the dinner.

Now the point here is not to analyze these excuses to death. That’s usually not the point of a parable. The story serves as a method of communicating truth through a simple relatable story. The reader is not intended to decide whether each person had a legitimate excuse or not. These excuses do provide types of excuses given seeing that there were surely more than three people invited. What comes next is really the important part of the parable.

What do you do when you throw a big party and nobody shows up? You invite everybody else.

Let’s look again at verses 21-24:

Luke 14:21–24 NASB95

“And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ “And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. ‘For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’ ”

The master tells his servant to go out into the city streets and bring in the poor, crippled, and lame. A man throwing such a lavish party is likely a well to do individual. The poor, the crippled, and the lame are not his usual crowd. But he tells his servant to go out and invite all these people. They are likely the ones that don’t have much going on. They didn’t double book themselves. Who in that kind of crowd would not want to come to this guy’s house and enjoy a party? Imagine that you get invited to the governor’s mansion. Who wouldn’t want to go that?

The servant goes out and does as his master says, and they all come! But there remains a problem. The house isn’t full. So the master sends him out again to the highways and hedges, further than he had gone before. He says to compel them to come in. Not under compulsion, or through force, but through persuasiveness.

Originally, Jesus was telling the Pharisees a little something about themselves. The reality was that though they were deeply religious, they had missed the point. They had rejected the true invitation. The invitation of trust and faith in the Lord was met with self-righteousness. The invitation to come to the dinner had been given out, but they were too busy trying to do it their way to notice what was right in front of them.

Therefore, the invitation was extended to everyone else. I want you to notice something about how the servant was sent out. First he was sent to everyone who had received an original invitation. I believe this is really hinting at the Jews. Jesus comes to his own people only to be rejected by them. If there were who was to know who Jesus was, it should have been those who knew the scriptures. Then the master sends the servant to the city streets to invite the people regarded as the lowest in society. Imagine if you were one of these and you got an invitation to a fancy dinner party. The master extended the search for people who would come. It was no longer just about the people he knew. Finally, when that had been accomplished and there was room for more, the master sent the servant out beyond the city to gather even more. The highways were the roads that connected cities in ancient times. The territory grew larger so as to invite more people.

The message in this parable is that the master has a dinner and it will be full of folks, and it will be full of those we might not expect. We can analyze the excuses, we can allegorize the parable, but the reality of it is this:

Believers in Christ are servants sent out by God with the express purpose of finding those who will attend his banquet.

Our master has prepared a great banquet where he has called you and I to go and invite as many as will come beginning with those within our sphere of influence, then the people we meet in the city streets, and beyond. We must share Jesus to the world but we must begin with our world right here in Three Rivers.

How can you renew your commitment to sharing your faith with your family, friends, and neighbors this week? How can you go out to the city streets and the highways to invite more people to come to the great banquet for the king? What would it look like for everyone in Three Rivers to get the invitation to come to the table? Remember, this is not just about church attendance. It’s not about filling this house. It is about securing eternity for as many as possible.

Have you accepted the invitation? Or have you made excuses? God is inviting you to join him at the table of his dinner banquet. All you have to do is accept it. You can’t earn it, but rather recognize that Christ has earned a spot for you. If you already have a seat at the table, are you finding those who have no invitation and extending one? Start with your sphere of influence and branch out from there. God has somebody for you to share with. Listen to him and he will guide you.