Sermon for 06-09-24

Sermons, The Word

 

Luke 14: 15-24

Trinity 2, 2014

 

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!” 16 But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant[c] to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

 

I would like you to keep a thought in the back of your mind as we sit at the feet of our Savior and hear from His mouth and learn from His heart the Words of eternal life.     The excuses offered here in the parable are regarding property, business, and family – each of the most urgent sort:

 

Property: ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’

Business: ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’

Family: ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’

 

In the near eastern culture, these three excuses would be tantamount to the worst kind of insult.    But You might notice that these are excuses that are common to each and every one of us.

 

  • We all have property and possessions that need to be maintained and taken care of.
  • We all engage in commerce and business daily, buying groceries, shopping for clothing, working for a living.
  • We all have families that need our attention, spouses, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents. There is nothing here in this list that is unusual to any of us.

 

So, I ask you to place this thought in the back of your mind: Is it possible that we use them as excuses to keep us away from the Divine Service and from the Lord’s Table which He sets before us during each Sunday?        The account before us this morning is often called “The Great Banquet.”    However, on the basis of our text I would like to present to you:

 

THE GREAT REVERSAL DINNER.

The invitation to the Children of Israel.

The invitation to the outcasts.

 

THE INVITATION TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL

 

Please let me explain what I mean about The Great Reversal Dinner.     Every parable has a main point.   The main point here speaks of an invitation that has been given, for many years, but which has been disregarded and the consequences of this disregard.    The “original” invitation to the banquet went out to all the Children of Israel, not just the Jews.    The words of our Old Testament lesson come from Isaiah.   He lived during the decline of Israel in the shadow of the Assyrian empire.

 

Isaiah spoke to both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah.     Some of the children of Israel had taken their special relationship with God for granted.     They had come to think that being a part of the tribes of Israel was about them and not about God and His promises in Christ.    Many thought that their relationship with the LORD was about this world and this life and nothing greater.

 

Indeed, they were God’s chosen people.    But they thought that being the Chosen People of God obligated God to them, but not the other way around.     The Jews felt a sense of entitlement, God owed them something.     Life, pleasure, business, family, whatever excuses they might have had, they were not ready or willing to come when they were invited to the banquet of salvation.

 

In a sense, they thought, “Oh, it is just the Lord.    It is not all that important.     We will take care of the more important things of life.”    Our Lord’s response to this: “For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”   May none of us ever hear those words either in this life or when we die.

 

                This parable is a fulfillment of the words of Isaiah 25.    The Feast to which Jesus invited the Jews was and is the Feast of Salvation in the food of forgiveness through the holy life, sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ.    That Feast is laid before us each Sunday through Word and Sacrament.     The Lord’s Supper in particular is the fulfillment of Isaiah 25 in which our Lord gives us “A feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine.”   That Food is His Body sacrificed on the cross for our sins and given to us under the form of bread.   That well-aged wine is His blood shed for us on the cross.

 

Earlier I noted that the excuses submitted by the Children of Israel are excuses common to all generations.    And so, they are common to us as well.    What excuses do we offer?   One commentator I read suggested that a warning against making excuses was not the point of this text.   As a faithful pastor, I believe I do have to warn against excuse making.     If we constantly make excuses for refusing to take time out of our lives to feed on the Word of God we are no different than the excuse makers in our lesson and the consequence will be the same: “For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”    

 

In Luther’s explanation of the second petition of the Lord’s prayer, we pray that the Kingdom of God may come among us.     Our Lord answers that prayer faithfully each week in the Divine Service as Word and Sacrament are set before us.   As St. Paul says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”     The Cross of Christ is understood, not by human wisdom, but through the hearing of Holy Scripture.

 

THE INVITATION TO THE OUTCASTS

 

As a result of their rejection of the heavenly banquet, the Jews were rejected.    I find it interesting that many denominations believe that the Jews will be saved regardless of what they believe or do because they are “God’s Chosen people.”      This text makes it clear that simply being a Jew by birth means nothing.      A person is saved by grace through faith.     Thus, as a result of their rejection, God initiates what we might call the Great Reversal Banquet.

 

That reversal is stated in these words: “Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.

 

The list of humanity spoken by our Savior are those groups or classes of people the Jews felt were “unclean” and could not be considered for the Kingdom of God.    However, given the Words of our Savior, this means that the Kingdom of God is for those who are unclean and unfit.   This means that the Kingdom of God is for sinners, real sinners who have looked in the mirror of God’s Law only to see a wretched and miserable sinner staring them in the face.     This means that these sinners cannot claim that God owes them something; that they are somehow entitled to God’s grace.   This means that they realize that God is not obligated to give them anything.

 

And yet, our Lord invites these kinds of people.

 

  • If you see yourself as one of these kinds of people, the invitation of your Lord here is for you.
  • If you see that so often you have made excuses for hearing, listening and taking time to study God’s Holy Word, the invitation here is for you.
  • If you see that you have dirtied your life with the sins of the flesh, lust, anger, malice, neglect of family, laziness, greed and envy, this invitation of your Savior goes out to you.
  • If you see that you often see that attention to the things of this life, property, business, family, have been more important in your life or have kept you from hearing the Word of God, the invitation of He who was crucified for those sins is for you.   Your Savior is saying to you, “Come for all things are now ready.”

 

It is important that we understand the word “compel” in the context of our lesson.   In the ancient Near East, an unexpected invitation, especially to an outcast, must be refused.   And so, they were afraid to come as a result of their station in life.     These outcasts had to be “compelled.”    They had to be told and convinced that the invitation was genuine.    They had to be made to believe that the host would not punish them for attending the dinner given an unexpected invitation.

 

As Gentiles, we are the outcasts.     We do not deserve God’s invitation and so we question if we should partake of His Feast, we question whether we should go to the Table our Lord sets before us.    Our conscience rises up against us and says, “If I go to the Lord’s Table, will it be to punish me for my many sins?”    But the word, “compel” tells us that Jesus wants to convince us that our “outcastness” must not keep us from hearing and believing that we are forgiven.

 

By the word “compel” Jesus wants to convince you that He desires your salvation and why Jesus says, “Whoever comes to Me, I will not turn away.”    By the word “compel” Jesus wants you at His Holy Table each time it is offered, so that He can assure you of the forgiveness of all your sins; assure you that He accepts the unclean and the poor in spirit.    He wants you to hear His Gospel based on His innocent life, His sacrificial death and His resurrection even though you are unfit and undeserving.

 

You see, the true power of the Gospel lies in that one fact.     We are unfit and undeserving, and yet He speaks His absolution over us, and feeds us with His holy Supper, and calls us His children, and claims us by name for His family in Holy Baptism.    The devil can come a’calling, and he does, and shout accusations that we are not good enough, or that we do not believe strongly enough, or that we have not shaped-up our lives enough – and he is right.

 

But God speaks to us, in Christ, and says that He has forgiven us, and He welcomes us into His presence, stands us up when we fall and simply invites us to go and sin no more.   Jesus says to us that in spite of what we think and regardless of how we feel, He does love us, we are forgiven, and we shall live forever in glory with Him.     When we are tempted to doubt, we are invited to look at the cross, and see what He endured for us, and hear Him say, “It is finished!”     And believe.

 

So here is the Great Reversal Dinner: People who should be turned away from the kingdom of God because they are unclean, are the very ones whom the Holy Spirit invites to partake of the Heavenly Meal of Word and Sacrament.     As Jesus says in our account: “Come, for all things are now ready.”     Go in peace.    Amen.

 

Soli Deo Gloria