11th Sunday of Luke
If a king invited you to a banquet, would you go? I think all of us would say, “Yes, of course!” But, in today’s reading, when a man (or a king in the other Gospels) throws a banquet, the guests find all sorts of excuses not to attend. But, why?
To Jesus’s original audience, it’s clear the excuses revolve around the Mosaic Law. The five oxen represent the yoke of the 5 Books of Moses, the field refers to the Holy Land, and the marriage is a symbol of faithfulness to God’s Law.
So, we have an irony here.
We know that the man represents God and the servant inviting everyone is Jesus: so it’s an invitation to God’s banquet.
But, after being invited, everyone basically says they can’t come because they are being faithful to God’s Law!
They think, by refusing God, they are actually doing what God wants.
Scripture: Luke 14:16-24 (click here to read)
Bottom Line: Despite our stubbornness, God’s stubbornness wins the day.
Discussion Questions
- Have you ever felt you weren’t “good enough” for God? What made you feel that way? How did it make you feel?
- God goes out of his way to find us and invite us into his Kingdom. How does this change or add to your image of salvation? How does this change your image of who your brothers and sisters in Christ are?
- An invitation is an encounter with Christ. How does this change you? How do you respond?
Moving Forward
We know that through Jesus’s ministry, God is inaugurating his kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”
But, some people in the 1st century thought that they could make the kingdom appear by mercilessly following every detail of the Law. This parable shows that those people have missed the point . . . they will actually find themselves refusing God!
However, God is stubbornly inviting everyone in the streets to his banquet—even if they haven’t even heard of the Law, let alone followed it.
This takes the burden off of us to be perfect. We are perfected by Christ and invited to the banquet as we are.
We are not invited because we are righteous, but rather, we are put right with God as a result of being invited. This is how our hearts are changed (μετάνοια).
And, as a result, we don’t have to impose heavy burdens on others. They too will be transfigured through a loving invitation to the banquet.
Changing Your Mind
“Then, enraged, the master of the house told his slave, ‘Go out quickly, into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in here the destitute and crippled and blind and lame.’” (Luke 14:21)
Thank you. I need too.