Luke 14:15-24

Transcript

00:00:00:39 – 00:00:24:15
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. After a little bit of an extended break. Glad to have you with us as we continue our way through the Gospel of Luke, the 14th chapter. If it has, it has been a while. So it would be worth at least possibly revisiting our last study, which covered about versus 7 to 14. Today. We pick up in verse 15.

00:00:24:19 – 00:00:43:21
Clint Loveall
They don’t they don’t depend on one another, but there is a kind of connection. They are related a little bit, though. Today stands alone. Okay. So let me read it and then we’ll get into it. One of the dinner guests on hearing what Jesus said said to him. Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

00:00:43:26 – 00:01:08:12
Clint Loveall
Then Jesus said, someone gave a great dinner, invited many at the time for the dinner He sent his slave to say to those who’ve been invited, Come, everything is ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said, I bought a piece of land. I must go out and see it. Please accept my regrets. Another said I bought five yoke of oxen and I’m going to try them out.

00:01:08:16 – 00:01:32:49
Clint Loveall
Please accept my regrets. Another said, I’ve just been married and therefore I cannot come. So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to the slave, Go out at once into the streets and the lanes of the town and bring in the poor and the crippled and the blind and the slave said, Sir, what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.

00:01:32:54 – 00:01:57:54
Clint Loveall
Then the master said to the slave, Go out into the roads and the lanes and compel people to come in so that my house might be filled. For I tell you, none of those invited will taste my dinner. So this is, I think, a parable familiar to many people. If you’ve done much Bible reading, particularly in the Gospels, you probably run across this idea.

00:01:57:59 – 00:02:19:52
Clint Loveall
Sometimes called the Parable of the Great Dinner. There’s a version of this in most of the Gospels and in in Luke. It’s interesting because it falls on the heels of a real dinner that Jesus is sitting at with with people. He’s told them a lesson and one of them kind of getting the lesson to some extent said blessed are those who eat in the kingdom of God.

00:02:19:53 – 00:02:51:36
Clint Loveall
And then that prompts this story that Jesus tells. And I think, you know, Michael, the common thread through the various versions of this story, if we would look for what’s the same, there’s a master, there’s a banquet, there’s an invitation, there’s regretful, declining of the invitation, or in some cases there’s just declining of the invitation. And then there is a re invitation to those who weren’t initially included.

00:02:51:41 – 00:03:01:46
Clint Loveall
And I think, you know, if you kind of walk down the flow of the story, those are the basic elements. And certainly we see them here.

00:03:01:51 – 00:03:24:09
Michael Gewecke
The connection here to the banquet would be an easy detail to just take for granted. That’s the context of the story. But you’re right to point this back to the previous study. And part of the reason for the connectedness to this story is because the banquet in the New Testament is not just the context of celebration, and it’s not just a place where stuff happens.

00:03:24:09 – 00:03:52:24
Michael Gewecke
We’ve said this before the banquet as a very rich kind of tapestry of themes throughout the New Testament. Of course, it’s at the dinner table where Jesus gives the last Supper. It is the thing that to this day Christian churches do as a way of celebrating Jesus’s invitation to continue the practice of coming to table. So this theme is not just one that’s lived out in terms of the the context of Jesus.

00:03:52:24 – 00:04:19:45
Michael Gewecke
This story, it’s a part of the church’s continued story and celebration and the fact that this story is really working to define who’s invited to the table is an incredibly important teaching of scripture. And it is not going to surprise us if we’re really honest. What Luke is laying out for us is the reversal of expectation, and we’ve seen this reversal time and time again.

00:04:19:49 – 00:04:40:10
Michael Gewecke
The thing that you expect to happen, the people with power, privilege and money, you expect for them to get the leg up, you expect to them to have the social benefit. But in Luke’s telling of the gospel, it is the least and the powerless and the lost and those who are left behind. These are the ones who will in the end be given precedence.

00:04:40:10 – 00:05:07:53
Michael Gewecke
They’re the ones who will be favored. And in this story, the first ones, the ones invited, they all return with the no, they come back and say no for many different reasons. We’re going to be unwilling or unable or simply we’re not going to come. And it is those then that come in the next waves. The ones who are invited, the cripples, the blind, the lame, these are then invited.

00:05:07:53 – 00:05:42:28
Michael Gewecke
And when that doesn’t fill the room, then we have here in verse 23, the the people in the roads and the lanes will be compelled to come in so that the house will be filled. This idea that the master is so intent on filling the table at inviting to the banquet, that even when those who should have been the first to accept the invitation, the ones who even knew that the invitation existed, when they say no, the master will go from inviting to compelling whatever it takes so that that table is full.

00:05:42:28 – 00:05:54:28
Michael Gewecke
And this is a beautiful, encapsulated kind of story that illustrates the overall theme that Luke presents of the Kingdom of God. And I think that this is a beautifully told version of it.

00:05:54:30 – 00:06:21:05
Clint Loveall
I agree. And I think it helps to, as you’ve done, kind of go backwards here, the idea that what we learn about the master of the story and master in parables almost always mean God. What we learn about the master is that the master wants his house full and that the master will go through great pains to do so, and that the master will include those who aren’t always included.

00:06:21:12 – 00:06:51:07
Clint Loveall
The Master will make a place for anyone willing to come to his house and be part of the feast. And those are rich theological lessons. Those are rich gospel lessons. From a more meta perspective, Michael, we have this very interesting thing. You know, Jesus was it. We have to go back up to 14. Verse one, he’s at the house of a leader of the Pharisees, so he’s among pretty significant company.

00:06:51:12 – 00:07:28:08
Clint Loveall
And one of those says, Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the Kingdom of God. In other words, can’t wait for the feast. Won’t it be wonderful? But then Jesus tells the story. That is a warning to those who believe they’ve been invited to be aware of all of the things that can get in the way. So the first part of this story is about people who really did have an invitation and who neglect that invitation through commitment to other things or to busyness of their own life or through some other reason.

00:07:28:22 – 00:07:56:45
Clint Loveall
But but those who could have gone and didn’t and thereby make room for others. And when you read that lesson in the gospel, you think about the Jewish people, you think about the Pharisees, you think about all of those who think they have a seat there, but who might be destroyed, acted, and led astray by other commitments and other objectives.

00:07:56:45 – 00:08:21:09
Clint Loveall
And so this is a fascinating parable because I think it functions in two different ways. It does show that sort of Luke and by us go get the broken and bring them to me. But it also shows a kind of warning to those who think they might have a place without realizing that they can forfeit it by not heeding the invitation.

00:08:21:12 – 00:08:47:05
Michael Gewecke
That’s exactly the ground I want to walk as well. And this is a bit of a diversion from Luke. I think that this is more of a theological reflection than a biblical interpretation. But I think it’s worth mentioning that much of the scripture does have many nuanced senses. And when you look at it from different perspectives, you can see very different and equally appropriate and impactful lessons.

00:08:47:06 – 00:09:07:06
Michael Gewecke
And this is an example par excellence of that, because from one perspective, imagine this story for just a moment as one of those people, the crippled, the blind, the lame, those who are on the side of the street, who are hoping for enough alms for dinner that night, yet alone for the opportunity to be in a celebrated party.

00:09:07:21 – 00:09:31:48
Michael Gewecke
And you’re invited in. Imagine what that would feel like to go from. I might not eat to I’m going to eat the best food that can be eaten in the city tonight. I mean, that’s just an extreme gracious reversal of expectation. It would be unbelievable. Any one of us would be moved by that kind of invitation. From that perspective, this is a story of grace and abundance and hope.

00:09:31:53 – 00:09:57:59
Michael Gewecke
On the other side, we we shouldn’t read by this too quickly. Clint, verse 24. None of those who were invited will taste my dinner. This is also a story of condemnation of every person who has received the invitation, who should be able to come and take part in the dinner because of their real choice. They will not get to take part in it from a very different perspective.

00:09:57:59 – 00:10:22:19
Michael Gewecke
The people who should have been first through the door are not even welcome in the door. That kind of reversal is very sobering. I mean, that’s like throwing cold water on the face. I mean, that’s a shocking kind of consequence for the choice made in the story, because any one of us, if we’re being reasonable, I think we would seek some reason to give people grace.

00:10:22:19 – 00:10:41:36
Michael Gewecke
I bought a piece of land, you know, I got some oxen. I need to go. I’ll try them out. I got married. I mean, maybe they’re not the best excuses, but they’re real excuses that you could see. Okay, I get the merit in that. There’s no room in. Jesus is telling you this story. When you’re invited, you need to come.

00:10:41:47 – 00:11:03:36
Michael Gewecke
It doesn’t matter what thing stands in between you and that invitation. When the master invites you, you need to come. And that’s how you view this story, whether from the perspective of that cripple on the street or from the person who received that gilded invitation in the first place, this story reads very, very differently, and Luke encapsulates that in a beautiful way.

00:11:03:46 – 00:11:11:15
Michael Gewecke
And this is a way that Scripture often teaches, is for us to see it from these different lenses.

00:11:11:20 – 00:11:39:45
Clint Loveall
Obviously, we’ve said this before, Michael, you have to be careful on building a theology, on building a belief system on any single passage. But if you stop and you read this passage seriously and you say, what does this passage tell us about the master, about the kingdom, and about being invited? Here’s the takeaway. I think the master wants his house for.

00:11:39:50 – 00:12:09:30
Clint Loveall
The master wants to include as many as will come. And the only way that you missed the banquet, the only way that you’re not included at the at the feast is by declining the invitation. The master leaves no one out except those who have chosen something else. And I think that that is a beautiful picture. That is a beautiful sermon message that Luke is crafting for us here.

00:12:09:45 – 00:12:39:00
Clint Loveall
The two things we learn, We learn about the master that his bent is toward, including and we learn about people that they are all welcome unless they exclude themselves. It is not the master who initially tells them you can’t come. The master tells everyone they can come, but some refuse and therefore they are no longer welcome and it again, are there passages that say other things.

00:12:39:00 – 00:12:47:04
Clint Loveall
Sure. And we and you should not build everything you think on on one passage, particularly a parable, but this is a really good parable.

00:12:47:04 – 00:13:12:10
Michael Gewecke
And to that point, Clint, I mean, I think we should be explicit about this. When you read this story today, which character do you relate to? And I think that that matters, right? Because if you relate to the person who deserves to get to go to the party, if you think to yourself, yeah, I’ve been in church for a long time, I’ve done service, I’ve contributed to church, I this is a thing that matters to me.

00:13:12:10 – 00:13:38:20
Michael Gewecke
I’m a person who would receive the invitation. And the question is, will you take it? Will you be the one who makes the choice to go inside the banquet? Will you lay aside these other things that the stuff of life that may even be really important? Will you leave those things behind to take the invitation or do you see yourself as one of those individuals who doesn’t deserve an invitation?

00:13:38:20 – 00:14:02:33
Michael Gewecke
Do you realize, even if you’ve been in the church for a long time, even faith is an integral part of your life, do you think? Yeah. No. It would be a great gift for me to receive that invitation that day to get to go to this celebration, because if that’s you, this parable then provides for us a way of it’s not a map per se, but it does help us situate ourselves in the state of our soul.

00:14:02:47 – 00:14:29:02
Michael Gewecke
Are we those who will act as if we’re entitled, or do we act as those who receive the gift? An invitation? Because how we respond to the invitation is what this parables about. It’s a question for each of us. What will you do? Will you allow the business and responsibilities of life to make your decision? Will you have no choice but to see that invitation with joy, or will you be compelled?

00:14:29:02 – 00:14:42:37
Michael Gewecke
Will you be one of those? Hey, you’re coming in whether or not you wanted to come. That’s the kind of expansive question of the text, and I think it’s a beautiful question to ask ourselves Where do we fit in? The story wasn’t have to say about our present place of faith.

00:14:42:45 – 00:15:17:26
Clint Loveall
Yeah, and we’ve seen this before, Luke and certainly Luke’s presentation of Jesus. Do not consider faith one thing among many things. And so I think one of the questions of the text is exactly that. Michael, will you prioritize the kingdom above all else? Will you prioritize following Christ and being at the Master’s banquet above friends and family and tasks and work?

00:15:17:31 – 00:15:40:51
Clint Loveall
None. Not that any of those things are not good, but will you prioritize that? In fact, we won’t meet tomorrow. But when we come back on Thursday, a very, very challenging saying statement from Jesus along those lines. Will you put the kingdom ahead of all else? And I think that that is one of the implicit questions in the parables.

00:15:40:51 – 00:16:06:52
Michael Gewecke
Well, and we should not miss you. We’re right in the beginning of this study to go back and to point out to beginning of Chapter 14, and it should make an impact on us that likely the people in the room hearing this teaching were the people who expected the first and best invitations. They were the religious men who were given highest place in esteem in Jesus’s time and culture.

00:16:06:57 – 00:16:37:40
Michael Gewecke
And the idea that Jesus offers this story in which those invited choose not to come and those who would have never received an invitation are the ones who get to come. This is a unbelievably challenging inversion of the way that things are supposed to be air quotes. And I think that that is one of the ways that Luke sort of lets us see that this isn’t just like a metaphorical spiritual teaching.

00:16:37:49 – 00:16:51:33
Michael Gewecke
This is happening in the room with the people who are going to be offended by it. They understand what Jesus is saying and the teaching that we really get to when we get together on Thursday. It’s going to make that so explicit that it will be uncomfortable.

00:16:51:37 – 00:17:03:13
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think if you just read this parable itself, it has a little edge. But when you understand the context in which you just told us, there’s a sharp point here for those who are listening.

00:17:03:18 – 00:17:09:23
Michael Gewecke
You’re right to point out. We will be on break tomorrow, back on Thursday. We hope you’ll join us then. Until then, be blessed, everyone.

00:17:09:23 – 00:17:10:04
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.