Parable of the Great Supper

Welcome Prayer Song Silence

So, we left off at verse 15 last week where Jesus was teaching the Pharisees and lawyers at a meal some principles about humility. And he established the fact that if they chose to “exalt themselves they would be abased; but those who humbled themselves would be exalted.” Then he told them that if they had the attitude of living life as a means to serve others rather than just to serve themselves, that they would be blessed at the resurrection of the Just, and mentioning the resurrection of the Just, a person at the meal said the following:

“Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.”

And this led Jesus to say the following, which is our text for the day beginning at verse 16:

Text from the Gospel of Luke

Luke 14.16-33 Meat February 9th 2020
16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.
18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.
22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.
23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

25 And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,
26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

Jesus's Audience and the Kingdom

So, jump back with me to verse 16 where Jesus teaches the following parable as a means to address the idea of the coming Kingdom with His audience of expectant Jews who believed that they were going to be part of that Kingdom automatically.

16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:

A certain man made a GREAT feast and invited many to come and participate. The parable isn’t too obtuse – the man was certainly God and the many were the Nation of Israel who were all invited beforehand to the feast. In Matthew 22 Jesus teaches a very similar parable but the reason for the great feast was connected to the marriage of His Son. Either this is a similar story that Jesus tells on this occasion or it was the same story and perhaps Luke omitted the reason the certain man made the great feast in the first place. I tend to personally think that this parable is really important with the marriage element in it because that is the end-meaning of the whole thing: God had established a great feast as a means to have his chosen people, who were to make up the bride of Christ, join Him in the marriage of His son to her.

Invitations and Responses

We will continue with our study of this parable told here in Luke, but it is somehow lacking in not having the certain man throwing the feast because it was related to the marriage of His Son. In any case, in this story the certain man invited many beforehand. (verse 17)

17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.

An invitation had been sent before the supper (by virtue of the Old Testament prophets) but his servant was sent at the time that the supper was ready (John the Baptist or perhaps Jesus or the apostles). Interestingly, one Dr. Thomson in his book, The Land and the Book writes:

"If a sheikh, beg, or emeer invites, he always sends a servant to call

The Invitation to the Great Supper

You at the proper time. This servant often repeats the very formula mentioned in Lu 14:17: Tefuddulu, el asha hader–Come, for the supper is ready. The fact that this custom is mainly confined to the wealthy and to the nobility is in strict agreement with the parable, where the certain man who made the great supper and bade many who are supposed to be “of this class.” We recall that last week Jesus taught these Pharisees and lawyers that they ought to not invite those of their class to meals but the blind, and maimed, and lame instead. This teaching is directly related to that.

18 And they all (who were invited) with one consent began to make excuse. We will soon read their various excuses, and the excuses Jesus has the invited guests use begin with one who has obtained an inanimate piece of ground, to one who has obtained animals, and the last who have obtained a wife. Remember that one of the reasons Jesus gives for the hearers of the word in the parable of the sower was that the cares and riches of the world choked the word out. The Nation of Israel was founded in its relationship with God materially – if they did well they were blessed materially and if they did poorly they were cursed materially.

The Excuses

It is no mistake, in my estimation, that the reasons for rejecting coming to the feast by the people were all material, and starting from the inanimate and working up to an actual wife. So verse 18:

18 And they all (who were invited) with one consent began to make excuse. And the first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. This is the worst excuse because a piece of ground has no immediate needs and can wait a couple of hours or a day before whatever is being done to it has to be done to it – generally speaking. It’s like a girl saying that she can’t go out on a date because she has to wash her hair.

19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. This excuse is nearly as bad because in it Jesus does not have the invited guest say that he has to go and water the beasts but instead has to “go and prove” them – which appears to mean that he has made a good bargain in buying them. If this is the meaning it shows that this guest's interest was to see if he got a good deal in buying the oxen – which is a super materialistic focus and quite disrespectful to the host.

20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. Without question, the message here of the Lord was that when it comes to the Kingdom of God, nothing – not even a wife or spouse, ought to get in our way. This point will be confirmed by him in later verses.

The Response of the Master

21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house (being angry) said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. So, the servant comes back and tells the master who gets angry at the insult of having his feast rejected and preferring their land, animal, and spouse duties over the relationship with him and his hospitality.

In a literal sense, this parable is kind of odd that a master would be so angry and a refused invitation but in the sense of God calling the Nation of Israel out to be the bride of His Son and them refusing to attend the wedding feast, it makes sense. In another application, we might see this presentation of the story as God constantly inviting people to come and dine at the feast of life and the godless and wicked never finding the desire or time to join him – and in that setting we could understand his anger. Whatever the case, God tells the servant to “Go out quickly.” See, the feast was ready. There is no time to lose. They who partake of it must do it soon. And to me, this speaks plainly to the wrapping up of that age.

Parable of Invitation

The gospel was ready and was being offered up piping hot – but they didn’t want it. They were too busy and interested in other matters. So instead of waiting on them, he sent the servant out – into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

In this we have the imagery of the feast first being offered to those living within close proximity to the Kingdom and the Castle. But when they failed to respond to the situation the servant was sent out to the “Lowly streets and lanes of the city, and to bring into the feast the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.” Those who would be grateful for the invitation and the blessings and benefits of the feast. The rich had their own houses and castles and they refused to attend ss the servant to go to the streets and lanes of the city is to the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind.

Personal Encounter

As I read this verse a woman came up out of the blue and asked if she could sit at my table. All the other tables around me were open but she wanted to sit with me. She had a salad box in her hand and I welcomed her to sit. She was not well – psychologically she rambled about a number of things. I was bothered for a minute by the intrusion but shut my computer (after taking this picture) and asked her about herself.

Her answers were disjointed and rambling, but she suddenly said, I have four children and we used to go to the beach all the time. I asked, “what beach?” She said, “huntington beach.” I told her that that was where I came from – she didn’t seem to care. Then she rambled on and on about being in a jail in Thailand and being beaten there severely and tried to get her back to Huntington Beach with her children and she said: That all ended when I was in the Wells Fargo bank on Edinger and Brookhurst and the bomb went off.

“Bomb?” I asked. “Yes!” she said animatedly and then said it was something like Hiroshima, and she fell to the floor and the world ended then and there. She said she was infected with several parasites (which she showed me the sores on her hand and the medicine she was taking for it, and I told her to feel free to eat her food and that I would continue typing. And she went quiet. And after probably 45 minutes she got up, thanked me for the hospitality and wandered away.

She couldn’t have known that I worked in that branch of Wells Fargo more than 25 years earlier as an investment advisor. She couldn’t have known that I was a Christian though she mentioned Jesus several times in our conversation. But I found her appearance at my table uncanny, otherworldly, and somehow revealing – especially to what I was working on when she arrived.

Parable and Realization

In this parable Jesus was certainly referring to the Jews who were the initial guests, and the Gentiles being the ones in the streets and byways of the city with the latter being despised and looked down upon by the former. I had sitting across from me someone very easy to look down upon. Someone who in my former life I may not have invited to my house to eat, who would not have been invited to my feasts when I was working in finance. But now she would be one of the first people on my list. That event and the timing of it was personally sublime and surreal. Back to the parable (verse 22):

22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded (meaning I’ve gone into the city streets) and yet there is room. He went out and invited all he found in the lanes, and yet the table was not fall. This says so much! There is room – more room, plenty of room at the feast of God, held in his kingdom.

23 And the lord said unto the servant, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. This is the intention of our God – to fill his house, with all that he has prepared for those who accept his invitation, to come and join the feast.

The Invitation to the Feast

Invitations have gone out – they are always going out, and there is room enough. But not everyone invited wants to attend. That is a reality of the Gospel, the reality of the faith. In the freewill of Man, some, many, most do not want to accept God’s open unconditional invitation.

The Call to All People

Where the servant first went to the city streets and called the broken of life, to go out to the hedges was to go to those who labored for their keep, manually caring for the hedges used to divide the property of others. We can choose to see this as the servant going to different classes of men OR to see it as the servant just going out to any and all people that he could find. I think it is probably the latter interpretation as the biggest point seems to be God calls to all ONCE the nation the feast was made for rejected his invitation. However,

We notice that the first round of invites went to the House of Israel. Then the second round of Invites went to the lame and blind (which is who Jesus appealed to in His ministry) and the third round the invites went out to those in the highways and hedges. Meaning the gentiles and that the command in this stage was to “compel them,” urge them, press them earnestly, one and all to join the party. Express to them to join the feast, where they will be fed, nourished freely and invited into the realms of the host.

Invite the most vile, the most alienated, the most lost – those who are on the fringe of society into the central happening of the event, and then the point to those men Jesus was actually talking to (verse 24).

The Parable's Conclusion

24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

I can’t tell if this line is still part of the parable OR if Jesus adds it – the way it reads, it sounds like Jesus words to the audience there. “For I say unto you, that none of those men which were invited (in the initial round) shall taste of my supper.”

And this line brings it all in doesn’t it? It brings it in to the importance of the marriage part of the parable. It makes God the host of the feast that will be for His Son and those who make up His bride, and it has a clear application to the coming end of that age when those who were first invited and rejected the invitation, would NEVER taste of the feast created for them, and it speaks to those who received the invitation to absolutely taste of His (Jesus) supper – which would happen at the end of that age. Okay – verse 25-26

25 And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Understanding Jesus’ Words

Okay – this last passage must be addressed clearly. First things first – we must look at the passage in light of what Jesus is speaking about. He just gave a parable about God inviting the Jews to a feast he made and the last of the three reasons the Jew rejected coming to the feast was he took a wife.

This is the context of Jesus saying this. Now, if we are going to be biblical literalists we must take this passage at face value because the word for hate (used all through the New Testament in ways that mean hate is miseo – and that is the word Jesus uses here.) So linguistically, there isn’t much wiggle room – with an exception I will mention in a minute.

But we also have to admit that literary devices often become far more important than the literal meaning of a word. For instance, if I say I just made a ton of money we know that this is a literary device and that it is highly unlikely that I actually earned 2000 pounds of cash. Literary devices are used ALL over the place in the New Testament – which is one of the reasons we have so many differing opinions on doctrine because it can be difficult to see when scripture is being literal and when it is not.

Additionally, hate – miseo – is not always a negative.

Understanding Hate in Scripture

There is nothing wrong at all in a scriptural sense for hating injustice, hating evil, or hating any form of darkness. I really hate my ways and flesh sometimes. So hate, in the proper circumstances, is not necessarily a negative expression but a healthy one, right?

So now let’s take the setting around what Jesus has said. And let’s assume for a minute that hate here MEANS hate. What? Hate their parents! Hate their wife? Hate members of their family? How could the Lord teach such a thing? Remember the context and the story that Jesus has told. God made a feast and invited his children, neighbors, people to it – the Nation of Israel. They rejected the invite for all sorts of selfish reasons – the last being because of a wife. In the Nation at that day, family and family and religious tradition reigned over the lives of people. It was the allegiance to a wife that the third person rejected God’s invitation to attend. That would be wrong as the first great commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all your heart.

Giving Context to Stepping Back

So in the case of the Nation and their attitudes – attitudes that might even mean that some parents hated Jesus and what he represented, it was acceptable to hate this about the parents, or the wives that would support such opinions. Notice that there is not a single passage in scripture that commands a child to love their parents. The command is always to honor. I could hate the atheism in my father and refuse to embrace it as His Son, but honor him as the father of my flesh. And it is here that we have another way of seeing this command Jesus gives.

The final way most commentators make on the passage is to say that miseo does not always mean hate in scripture but it can mean “love less.” This definition works when we look at the Septuagint and the use of miseo there. And it also works when we read in Romans 9:13:

“As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”

So that is yet another way to understand the passage and if this is the case then we would read the verse as, "He that comes after me, and does not love his father less than he loves me, &c., cannot be my disciple."

Bearing the Cross

Jesus adds though another qualification to his words here and says

27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

In that day when people condemned to be crucified undertook the punishment part of the sentence was that they should carry the cross on which they were to die to the place of execution. Jesus said this prior to going to the cross so we know he either knew that this was part of the punishment or he was prophesying what was to come. It was the bearing of His cross that caused him such fatigue he fainted or fell under its weight – causing one Simon to bear it for him – a very symbolic act. Jesus here uses the imagery and act of cross bearing to explain to the mass that anyone who shies away from bearing the burden of following Him cannot be his disciple.

Obviously, to be His disciple was to follow Him in what He said and did, so if someone refused to take up their cross and follow Him they could not possibly be His disciple. Jesus has just told them that if they did not love father or mother or wife less than they loved him they could not be His disciple. For many, this would be taking up a cross to follow him. And to me, this was the context of this teaching here.

Of course, the principle of the teaching remains true for all of us individually, doesn’t it? We all have burdens to face when it comes to following Jesus. For some, it's familial, or parental, or societal, or occupational. We know what those things are, and every disciple must choose whether they will bear that cross and follow him as He bore His – or not. At this point (and remember, Jesus is speaking to a mass of people here), he continues to explain what it meant to follow Him. He has told them about loving family more, and he has talked about bearing the personal crosses – both.

Counting the Cost of Discipleship

Were requirements to being a true disciple. And now he presents a bit a reason to their minds relative to what some of them were considering doing – becoming a disciple of the Lord. And so he says:

28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

It’s a great example as only an insane person would wake up one day and decide to construct a tower in his yard without first trying to calculate the cost of the construction, right?

The Lesson of the Parables

Jesus explains the results of such a choice in the next verse:

29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

Of course, this was a parable helping them to examine for themselves the cost of following Jesus as a disciple. Through the parable, he was telling them to really think about what they were going to be doing – that following Jesus as a disciple was a costly venture, and it required pain and death to elements of their former lives, of their flesh, of their desires, and that they should be like a wise contractor who before taking on a job figures out whether he can finish it or not – because to start in on something, especially being a disciple of Christ, and to not finish, would be a reason for being mocked.

He provides another example of this principle, saying:

31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?

This example takes us a little closer to home for what it meant to be a disciple of Christ in that day – an example of war. Here, the example employs that of a King, instead of an attempt at construction, and the act is warfare instead of building a tower. And in this scenario, the King, about to go to war, realizes that his troops are outnumbered 2 to 1. And so, realizing that he will probably lose take an alternative course:

32 Or else (meaning, since he cannot win), while the other (army) is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.

The point of these two parables are to express wisdom – thinking, consideration, before taking action and the application to the crowd considering him as the Messiah seems to be: If you want to be my disciple, look deliberately at the situation – give it some real thought because there is a price, there is a cost, and if you don’t like the cost once you have put your hand to the plow, you will not be fit for the kingdom of God.

The Challenge of True Commitment

Building treasure in heaven, engaging in warfare against troops twice your size is a sobering, humbling, cross-bearing, often lonely way to live. It is not profitable in some of the ways we humans enjoy our profits. Count the cost, make the choice, and go all in – refusing to be lukewarm, because that will not carry us through. Jesus summarizes these teachings now by saying:

33 So likewise, (here is His connection to the parables) whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

That is sobering – and a reality for them/then. The question is, is this a reality for believers today?

I have a personal responsibility to speak frankly with those who hear me today and those of you who will be hearing me years from today – perhaps even once I am dead and gone. I do not speak for God, I do not know how or what He will say or do in the vast examples of human beings and their choices before him. All I can say and explain plainly is what the Bible says. That is my obligation to you and to God through the Spirit.

Additionally, I have chosen to speak to people who take their faith in Jesus Christ seriously. I am not speaking to the masses nor am I speaking to people who just like to have some church in their lives. This is not my audience at all. So understand these things relative to what I am going to say now.

Because I take God’s word as eternal, and

Principles of Scripture

The principles found in His word as applicable to people in that former age and in our age today, I cannot teach that the PRINCIPLES of scripture have changed. To me a disciple of Christ then and a disciple of Christ today, and the demands upon their person, their hearts and minds, and their lives, cannot be separated. What this LOOKS like may be different, and how it plays out appears to be a very subjective experience when compared to what those masses were facing in becoming disciples then – but the point remains:

I do not think we can disagree with the content of verse 33 where Jesus says:

“So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”

To them, that forsaking seems to have been largely physical and dealt with jobs, family and the like, because that was the wrapping up of the material age of religion. Because all that could be shaken was shaken leaving only unshakable things behind, and making this age spiritually based and subjectively lived and experienced, I think the material demands on believers today are not the same UNLESS the materiality of our lives governs us and our desires.

Forsaking and Discipleship

My point is what Jesus says here has true application to believers today but speaks to our forsaking EVERYTHING that lives in our unregenerated hearts and lives, allowing it all to go in and as a result of being His Son or Daughter. I cannot get around this nor have I been personally successful at it either – which is humbling and sobering and weighs heavily upon my soul.

The Meaning of Salt Losing Its Savour

Jesus adds some final thoughts to our teaching today and says something significant to them in light of all he has already said:

34 Salt is good: but if the salt has lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?

Salt is good. It is useful. It is good to preserve life and health, and to keep from corruption and decay BUT if the salt looses its saltiness, becomes tasteless, is worthless in terms of its original value, how can it continue to do what it was meant and made to do? This is the meaning behind the parables of sitting down and counting the cost – you, crowd, want to assess the cost as a means to complete what you started, and not become like salt that has lost its flavor. Because if that is the result of you initially choosing to follow me, then, you will be like salt that has lost its savor, and what is done with that? He tells us, saying it:

“is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

We will stop here for today.

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