The Parable of the Great Banquet
October 7, 2019
Commentary
Jesus gives a parable about a great banquet. In those days when you invited guests to dinner, you told them the day but not the exact hour of the meal. Then just before the feast was to begin, the host sent his servants to tell the guests the banquet was ready and they should come (vv. 15-17). Each of the guests had already agreed to come so the host expected them to be there.
In this parable all of the guests insulted the host by refusing to attend and gave a feeble excuse for not coming. Real-estate Ralph said he had to look at a piece of property he had purchased (v. 18). Farmer Frank said he had bought ten oxen and he had to try them out (v.19). Henpecked Henry said he had married a wife and he could not come (v. 20).
Having prepared a great dinner for these guests, the host did not want all the food to go to waste, so he sent his servants to invite the outcasts, the homeless, and the undesirables of the street to come (vv. 21-24). Not only did the host get other people to take the places of the previously invited guests, but he also shut the door so that the excuse-makers could not change their minds and come in (13:22-30). God never asks us to suffer for the sake of suffering. He never asks us to give up something good unless he plans to replace it with something better. He is not calling us to join Him at a labor camp but in a feast; the marriage supper of the lamb. This parable paints a picture of God’s abundant provision and invitation of salvation which was refused by the Jews and then offered to others not previously invited. People today make the same mistake.
Application
There is certainly nothing wrong with owning a farm, examining purchases or spending an evening with my wife. However, if these good things keep me from coming to the Lord or spending time with Him they become bad things.
Luke 14:15– 24 (NET)
15 When one of those at the meal with Jesus heard this, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will feast in the kingdom of God!” 16 But Jesus said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time for the banquet he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’ 18 But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please excuse me.’ 19 Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going out to examine them. Please excuse me.’ 20 Another said, ‘I just got married, and I cannot come.’ 21 So the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the master of the household was furious and said to his slave, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ 22 Then the slave said, ‘Sir, what you instructed has been done, and there is still room.’ 23 So the master said to his slave, ‘Go out to the highways and country roads and urge people to come in, so that my house will be filled. 24 For I tell you, not one of those individuals who were invited will taste my banquet!’”
Illustration: Zig Ziglar One Excuse is as Good as Another
Zig Ziglar writes: My brother, the late Judge Ziglar, loved to tell the story of the fellow who went next door to borrow his neighbor’s lawnmower. The neighbor explained that he could not let him use the mower because all the flights had been canceled from New York to Los Angeles. The borrower asked him what canceled flights from New York to Los Angeles had to do with borrowing his lawnmower. “It doesn’t have anything to do with it, but if I don’t want to let you use my lawnmower, one excuse is as good as another."(Excuses: Any Will Do?, Citation: Zig Ziglar, Something Else to Smile About Thomas Nelson, 1999).