An Unusual Guest List
It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 49:6
Banquet invitations in biblical times had two parts. The first announced the banquet—an exact date couldn’t be given. When all was prepared, another notice was sent. To fail to come after accepting, except in dire emergency, offended the host.
Jesus told a parable about a host who sent a servant to tell those who’d accepted, “Come, for everything’s ready.” But they all made excuses. One said, “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.” Another said, “I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.” Still another said, “I just got married, so I can’t come” (Luke 14:16-24).
Jesus presented the parable at a prominent Pharisee’s banquet. The religious leaders listening to Jesus would’ve sympathized with the host in the parable. The invited guests’ excuses weren’t only flimsy but also insulting. Who bought a field without seeing it or bought oxen without trying them out? And weddings were planned far in advance. The initial invitation should’ve been declined with an explanation.
However, Jesus’ audience didn’t expect the host to tell his servant to “go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” (v. 21). These people were outcasts: common people who weren’t invited to banquets.
The host’s new guest list would’ve appalled the religious leaders. But Jesus continued the story anyway. When the servant said he’d invited the outcasts but more guests were needed, the host said, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full” (v. 23).
Jesus’ listeners were probably silent at this point. He was implying that outsiders—Gentiles—were being invited. The religious leaders may have guessed that Jesus was talking about the Messianic banquet foretold by the prophets. Surely, only Jews would be invited to that. They disregarded the prophecies about God’s salvation being for all people. All—not as in all will be saved, but as in some from all nations will be saved.
Are you on the guest list? Accepting the invitation isn’t enough. You must be ready to come at a moment’s notice.
DIG DEEPER:
Luke 15:22-25 sheds light on why the host couldn’t give an exact date. What was involved in preparing the celebration planned by the father of the prodigal son?
As Jesus finished telling the parable, he made a chilling comment to the Pharisee hosting the banquet. What is the significance of his words: “I tell you,” and “my banquet”? Read the context for the parable (Luke 14:1-35). Why wouldn’t these men be invited to Jesus’ banquet (Revelation 19:5-9)?
Read Matthew 9:10-13. When Matthew, an outcast who became Jesus’ disciple, gave a banquet and invited fellow tax collectors, Jesus was asked, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Can you think of other outcasts and outsiders Jesus associated with? See Matthew, Bartimaeus, The Leper, and The Centurion.
Nancy J. Baker
This devotion is part of a series, The Parables.