St Luke 14:15-24/1 John 3:13-18/Proverbs 9:1-10
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
And one by one they began to make excuses for why they could no longer come to the banquet, despite having already given their RSVP: “Yes, I’ll be there.” I have just bought a field. I must go try it out. Please have me excused. I just bought a team of oxen. I must go try them out. Please have me excused. I just married a wife. I must go try . . .
Well. You get the point. It seems that Jesus has a sense of humor. And He does this to show just how laughable these excuses are. They don’t hold up. “I have other things, better things, more important things to do than to come to your feast.” “I don’t much like who you are and what you stand for, so I’ll show you by not coming to your party.” These worthless excuses are meant as an insult. And they do just that – the Master became angry and instead invited the dregs of society.
Jesus was at a dinner party at the house of a well-known Pharisee. He had said 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, let they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
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!” Jesus then taught this parable as a response to that exclamation. For this statement is a mask of false piety. It is an excuse, like unto the ones our Lord listed in His parable. For it seeks to excuse why the Pharisees don’t invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind to their feasts. They invited those like themselves: the well-to-do, the healthy, the like-minded, the powerful.
Jesus said they should invite the outcast and the rejected precisely because they are unable to repay them. And those who do this are blessed, for they shall be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
You see, in the Old Testament the resurrection is pictured as a great banquet, a joyous feast in the gathered company of heaven. All those who are righteous will be present. And so eating on this side of heaven is sign of fellowship, a confession of one’s priorities and values. Thus the Pharisees don’t invite the poor, the crippled, the lam, and the blind to their banquets because, they presume, those people aren’t righteous. If they were righteous, they wouldn’t be poor, crippled, lame, and blind.
Once again, like the rich man and Lazarus from last Sunday, the Pharisees see material wealth, prosperity, health, as signs of God’s favor, of His blessing. “We don’t invite ‘those kinds of people’ to our dinners; they aren’t ‘blessed.’” Thus the man’s assertion: Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!
This, too, is a laughable excuse. But Jesus isn’t laughing. This statement is meant to insult Him. On the surface is seems like a harmless, perhaps even correct, declaration. The Pharisees apparently understood plausible deniability. The problem is, as what our Lord points out, is its tense: Blessed is everyone who will eat. Future tense. Not now, but in the future.
What the Pharisees refuse to see is that the kingdom of God is at hand in the coming of the Son of God in the person and work of Christ Jesus. What the Pharisees refuse to see is that they are eating bread in the kingdom of God because they are eating with Jesus! And they refuse to see this because they don’t like who Jesus is and what He stands for and who else He eats with: tax collectors and sinners. After all, they had invited Him there under false pretenses: they were watching Him carefully, seeking to accuse Him.
But Jesus makes the point clear: “If you will not eat with Me, the coming of God’s kingdom in the flesh, you will not eat bread in the kingdom of God in the future.” Not one of those men who were invited shall taste My banquet. In other words, if you do not see that the kingdom of God is already here in the coming of the Son, you will not taste of the banquet yet to come. If you do not recognize the One who is both Host and Meal in the Lord’s Supper and eat with Him and of Him there as the coming of God’s kingdom already, you will not taste of that which has yet to come.
The Pharisees didn’t see it. Stubbornly, they refused to see it.
But what of us? How do we refuse to recognize the coming of the kingdom of God in our midst already? It’s easy to point the finger to those who are playing hooky on Sunday mornings. It’s easy and it’s Pharisaical. What of us? How do those present at the Divine Service commit the same error as those who dined with Jesus?
Let’s ask it a different way: “How does God’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.”
That by His grace we believe His holy Word.
That by His grace we lead godly lives here. In time.
A godly life, or another way, a righteous life, is a life lived in faith toward God and in fervent love toward our neighbor. A godly life is lived inhaling the grace and mercy of God in Christ and exhaling that same grace and mercy toward our neighbor. A godly life is lived in confession and absolution, in receiving the forgiveness of sins and forgiving those who sin against us.
While living this life, by God’s grace, Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
But if anyone has the world’s goods and see his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
We make the same error as the Pharisees when we refuse to see the hurt in our fellow Christians and reach out in love to help them in their need. For in so doing we have failed to see Christ in our brother. We have failed to see that God’s kingdom has come. We have failed to believe His holy Word for we have not done what it says: love in deed and in truth. We have not lived a godly live because we have not believed His holy Word. We have abused grace because we have not believed His Word or lived godly lives. You ought to lay down your life for the brothers. For that is what love is.
Are not our excuses just as petty and laughable? Are we not like Adam who blames God for the woman He gave? And Cain who asked: Am I my brother’s keeper? What is our excuse? There is none.
Repent. For the kingdom of God is at hand. He has laid down His life for you. The sacrifice is complete. All is now ready. Leave aside your petty excuses. Come to His banquet to eat and drink with Him; with tax collectors and sinners, with your brothers and sisters in Christ. For the Table of this Rich Man, the Lord’s Table, is surrounded by beggars. If you would find yourself here this is how you must see yourself.
For the Lamb of God was roasted on the Cross. He is prepared and set before you. Jesus is your Host and your Meal. He takes away your sins and gives you His Holy Spirit so that by His grace you will believe His holy Word. So that by His grace you will lead godly lives here in time. And that by His grace, there also in eternity.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
And one by one they began to make excuses for why they could no longer come to the banquet, despite having already given their RSVP: “Yes, I’ll be there.” I have just bought a field. I must go try it out. Please have me excused. I just bought a team of oxen. I must go try them out. Please have me excused. I just married a wife. I must go try . . .
Well. You get the point. It seems that Jesus has a sense of humor. And He does this to show just how laughable these excuses are. They don’t hold up. “I have other things, better things, more important things to do than to come to your feast.” “I don’t much like who you are and what you stand for, so I’ll show you by not coming to your party.” These worthless excuses are meant as an insult. And they do just that – the Master became angry and instead invited the dregs of society.
Jesus was at a dinner party at the house of a well-known Pharisee. He had said 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, let they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
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!” Jesus then taught this parable as a response to that exclamation. For this statement is a mask of false piety. It is an excuse, like unto the ones our Lord listed in His parable. For it seeks to excuse why the Pharisees don’t invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind to their feasts. They invited those like themselves: the well-to-do, the healthy, the like-minded, the powerful.
Jesus said they should invite the outcast and the rejected precisely because they are unable to repay them. And those who do this are blessed, for they shall be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
You see, in the Old Testament the resurrection is pictured as a great banquet, a joyous feast in the gathered company of heaven. All those who are righteous will be present. And so eating on this side of heaven is sign of fellowship, a confession of one’s priorities and values. Thus the Pharisees don’t invite the poor, the crippled, the lam, and the blind to their banquets because, they presume, those people aren’t righteous. If they were righteous, they wouldn’t be poor, crippled, lame, and blind.
Once again, like the rich man and Lazarus from last Sunday, the Pharisees see material wealth, prosperity, health, as signs of God’s favor, of His blessing. “We don’t invite ‘those kinds of people’ to our dinners; they aren’t ‘blessed.’” Thus the man’s assertion: Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!
This, too, is a laughable excuse. But Jesus isn’t laughing. This statement is meant to insult Him. On the surface is seems like a harmless, perhaps even correct, declaration. The Pharisees apparently understood plausible deniability. The problem is, as what our Lord points out, is its tense: Blessed is everyone who will eat. Future tense. Not now, but in the future.
What the Pharisees refuse to see is that the kingdom of God is at hand in the coming of the Son of God in the person and work of Christ Jesus. What the Pharisees refuse to see is that they are eating bread in the kingdom of God because they are eating with Jesus! And they refuse to see this because they don’t like who Jesus is and what He stands for and who else He eats with: tax collectors and sinners. After all, they had invited Him there under false pretenses: they were watching Him carefully, seeking to accuse Him.
But Jesus makes the point clear: “If you will not eat with Me, the coming of God’s kingdom in the flesh, you will not eat bread in the kingdom of God in the future.” Not one of those men who were invited shall taste My banquet. In other words, if you do not see that the kingdom of God is already here in the coming of the Son, you will not taste of the banquet yet to come. If you do not recognize the One who is both Host and Meal in the Lord’s Supper and eat with Him and of Him there as the coming of God’s kingdom already, you will not taste of that which has yet to come.
The Pharisees didn’t see it. Stubbornly, they refused to see it.
But what of us? How do we refuse to recognize the coming of the kingdom of God in our midst already? It’s easy to point the finger to those who are playing hooky on Sunday mornings. It’s easy and it’s Pharisaical. What of us? How do those present at the Divine Service commit the same error as those who dined with Jesus?
Let’s ask it a different way: “How does God’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.”
That by His grace we believe His holy Word.
That by His grace we lead godly lives here. In time.
A godly life, or another way, a righteous life, is a life lived in faith toward God and in fervent love toward our neighbor. A godly life is lived inhaling the grace and mercy of God in Christ and exhaling that same grace and mercy toward our neighbor. A godly life is lived in confession and absolution, in receiving the forgiveness of sins and forgiving those who sin against us.
While living this life, by God’s grace, Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
But if anyone has the world’s goods and see his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
We make the same error as the Pharisees when we refuse to see the hurt in our fellow Christians and reach out in love to help them in their need. For in so doing we have failed to see Christ in our brother. We have failed to see that God’s kingdom has come. We have failed to believe His holy Word for we have not done what it says: love in deed and in truth. We have not lived a godly live because we have not believed His holy Word. We have abused grace because we have not believed His Word or lived godly lives. You ought to lay down your life for the brothers. For that is what love is.
Are not our excuses just as petty and laughable? Are we not like Adam who blames God for the woman He gave? And Cain who asked: Am I my brother’s keeper? What is our excuse? There is none.
Repent. For the kingdom of God is at hand. He has laid down His life for you. The sacrifice is complete. All is now ready. Leave aside your petty excuses. Come to His banquet to eat and drink with Him; with tax collectors and sinners, with your brothers and sisters in Christ. For the Table of this Rich Man, the Lord’s Table, is surrounded by beggars. If you would find yourself here this is how you must see yourself.
For the Lamb of God was roasted on the Cross. He is prepared and set before you. Jesus is your Host and your Meal. He takes away your sins and gives you His Holy Spirit so that by His grace you will believe His holy Word. So that by His grace you will lead godly lives here in time. And that by His grace, there also in eternity.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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