15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” 16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ 19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ 20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ 21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ 22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ 23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”~ Luke 14:15-24
In one episode of the cringe-worthy and funny t.v. show, The Office, Kelly, an Indian employee at
the paper company Dunder-Mifflin, invites her office co-workers to a
celebration of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. Her ever-clueless boss,
Michael Scott, somehow believes that the party is an Indian version of
Halloween and subsequently brings his girlfriend Carol dressed as a cheerleader while he
sports an extra papier-mache head, which he quickly removes, after recognizing
his mistake. He didn’t understand what kind of party this was.
Our story from Luke finds Jesus at a party when an anonymous
guy declares “Happy is the one who will party in the coming of God’s kingdom.”
He’s clearly a fan, even offers a proper beatitude but Jesus’ response appears
to question this easy declaration– “You say this but do you truly understand
this party. Do you want to actually come to this party? Do you know what kind
of party this is?” So Jesus tells a story.
What sort of party does God intend to throw? It was looked forward
to by so many and many held a variety of beliefs about the messianic banquet
that was spoken of by the likes of prophets like Isaiah (see Is. 25:6-8). A lot of
people had different ideas: some stressed the judgment of non-Jews by vicious
plagues, others imagined a victory party after a violent rebellion which pushed
the Romans out of Palestine, others argued for a more religious party that would
occur only after the exclusion of Gentiles and the ritually defiled or physically
handicapped.
Who was right? According to Jesus, what sort of party is
this?
1.
First,
this is a party where everyone is invited.
Many scholars mistakenly refer to this story as a parable of
rejection highlighting vs. 24 in which Jesus declares, “24 I
tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”
The problem with labeling the story in this way, however, is that it misses the
major thrusts of the parable that everyone is invited – the three invitations suggest
that no one is left out: rich and poor, healthy and sick, town and country,
lame not lame, seeing not seeing, etc.
Historically, when we place Jesus’ own teachings alongside
the many others that existed at the time what comes through so strongly is that
Jesus’ party is one of inclusion and embrace rather than exclusion. Jesus ate in the presence of
people normally on or beyond the borders of respectable society but he also ate
with rich people and religious people. Everyone was welcome. And this was a
major challenge to the world in which he lived which carefully sorted out
people with the belief that eating with some might get you infected by their
bad behavior or physical ailment much like our modern fears about contagion.
When we consider the fact that the handicapped are also
invited as guest another historical, cultural feature becomes very important. It was not
odd, actually, to have marginal people at banquets in the ancient world. They
were often compelled to come but not as guests but for the purpose of
entertaining the guests by their deformities or bizarreness – think Ripley’s
Believe it, Or Not! For example, Pliny the Elder, a Roman author and
contemporary of Jesus, recounts the story of a wealthy woman named Gegania who,
when purchasing an expensive Corinthian chandelier, also received for free a
hunchbacked slave named Clesippus who was “also of a hideous appearance.” Pliny
records that Gegania hosted a banquet in order to “show off her purchases,”
both the chandelier and Clesippus who she made appear naked “for the mockery of
the guests.”
So Jesus’ party stands in contrast to the parties of the past as well as the parties of the present that so many
of us experience. I imagine that there is not one person here who doesn’t have
a story of exclusion and mockery akin to the likes of Clesippus. When I was in the
sixth grade I was bussed to a school almost an hour away from my home. Everyday
that meant two-hours of navigating the social mine field of Jr. High in close
quarters. One day a number of my friends began to talk about a club they had
formed – whispering to each other about it, offering a secret handshake,
planning sleep over meetings, and even giving it a name – the Chinchilla Club.
Okay, I thought, the name was dorky but given that I was pretty low on the
social ladder I wanted to join. Besides, these were my friends. So after about
10-days of hearing them talk about the club I finally mustered the courage to
ask my friend Bill if I could join. He promptly shouted out to the bus: “10
Days! It took him 10 days to finally ask to join. Who bet close to 10 days?”
You see, there wasn’t a club at all. They simply wanted to see if I was
desperate and silly enough to want to be part of such a club. Friends, I’m 47
years old and this story still brings a lump to my throat. And some of you have
experienced such a story at church. But I’m here to tell you, in the name
of Jesus, that exclusion and mockery are not the party to which you have been
invited. Everyone can come.
2.
Second,
this is a party where some refuse to come.
While everyone is invited to this kingdom
banquet the reality, Jesus says, is that there will be ones who will not come.
What’s notable are two surprising features about this group. 
New Testament scholars point out that the three excuses
mentioned in vss. 18-20 loosely mirror or directly mention those from Deuteronomy
20:5-7 and discussed in subsequent Jewish commentaries: bought property (Luke
14:18/Deut. 20:5); bought oxen (Luke 14:19 / Deut. 20:6); got married (Luke
14:20 / Deut. 20:7).
When all three excuses are combined – property, livelihood,
and family – and we acknowledge their Biblical origins we see the full force of
these commitments. They aren’t bad or lame BUT they seem to stand as the
greatest rival to following Jesus. Jesus isn’t intending to suggest that
religious people are bad or that Bible is suspect. He is, however, naming a
reality that we would do well to ponder with a bit of fear and trembling. The
ones who refuse to attend the party are not the wicked or the marginal or even
the half-hearted. They are the ones who supposedly wanted to go, supposedly
understood it best, and missed it any way. They, with Bible in hand, chose not
to come.
What’s even more interesting, and this leads us to my final
point, is that these excuses from Deuteronomy are three legitimate reasons for
not participating in a holy war.
3.
Finally,
this party is fight about what God compellingly wants.
Our question at the beginning was, "What does God want? What sort of party is this? Why would
Jesus tell a story in which people opt out of a party by using legitimate
excuses for engaging in a holy war?" Friends, the answer it seems to me, is that
for Jesus the party IS the war. When we read the gospels and look at Jesus’
ministry we begin to understand that the banquet is not what people celebrate
AFTER God has won but the very place where the fight actually happens. This
party is a holy war. And Jesus’ choice of telling a story in which invited
guests use such excuses is proof of that. But we also know from a famous Jewish
commentary known as the Babylonian Talmud that none of those excuses were
legitimate IF the messiah was the one calling people to fight. It says, for
example, that for this war “even the bridegroom out of his chamber AND the
bride out of her chamber” must go. The table and belonging are the battlefield. For Jesus
holiness and hospitality are fused together. Our war, in other words, has
everything to do with how we handle the inclusion and welcome of others.
So the dinner table is the place for the Christian fight. For
all you children of the 80s – there is a certain irony to the fact that one of
the early rap songs was by a trio of Jewish men who sang, “You gotta fight for
your right to party.”
Eating with social and moral outcasts is so important to
Jesus’ ministry that he will risk its harm to his reputation and even its
violence. And funny enough – it’s a fight in which Deuteronomy appears again. In
Luke 7:34 the Pharisees citing Deuteronomy call Jesus a “glutton and a
drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” More than a mere verbal
slight, the Pharisees use this phrase to designate Jesus a “rebellious son” and
call for his death. Deuteronomy 21:18-21 states:
18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid. ~ Deuteronomy 21:18-21
The Pharisees, in other words, used Scripture and rejected
Jesus’ welcome and inclusion of the marginal and sinful and, in a way, placed
themselves on the other side of God’s holy war – a war not aimed at vanquishing
God’s enemies but actually welcoming them to eat, to party.
On February 1, 1960, four African American college students
sat down at a lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, and
politely asked for service. Their request was refused. When asked to leave,
they remained in their seats. Their passive resistance helped ignite a
youth-led movement to challenge racial inequality throughout the South. Over
70,000 people took part in the sit-ins, which then began to address segregated
swimming pools, lunch counters, libraries, transport facilities, museums, art
galleries, parks and beaches. By engaging Jesus' teachings and understanding that the table was the place for
the fight the students played a significant part in the history of the civil
rights movement.
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