The Great Supper Will Be Attended By Unexpected Guests Because Those First Invited Have Made Excuses In Order To Avoid Attending (14:12-24).
In the previous parable Jesus had hinted at the danger of not partaking in the future life because they were too proud. Now He makes clear that most of those present will not be there in the everlasting kingdom because they have refused the King's invitation to partake in the Kingly Rule of God. The introduction and the parallel have a twofold message.
· Firstly the need to be concerned for the poor and needy. Here the injunction is to invite the poor and needy to his table. In the chiasmus the parallel is with the story of the rich fool who also ignored the poor and needy and grasped for riches and a good time (Luke 12:13-21).
Some have suggested that Jesus would not have spoken to his host in this vein. But they overlook the fact that Jesus was a recognised prophet. That was why He had been invited. And people, even Pharisees, expected a genuine prophet to speak strongly to them, and be straight with them. And besides Jesus was a Galilean, and they were much more open and straight than the southerners.
· But secondly there is also a second, deeper message, and that is that many of those first invited, the religious Jews, who thought complacently that their place in God's kingdom was secure, will not enter under either the present or the future Kingly Rule of God, because they have refused His invitation, while many from among the outcasts and the Gentiles will.
There are similarities between this parable and that in Matthew 22:1-14. The two parables indicate the flexibility of Jesus' mind and His ability to adapt His stories so as to get over different points. We can tend to forget that like us He had to sit and consider how He could reach His audience, and that He would learn from experience, commencing with a simple story and then later expanding it in order to make it more powerful. Many of us have done the same thing time and again until the stories become quite sophisticated (or at least we think so) although it is necessary to ensure that they do not become overloaded. But Jesus never made that mistake. The Rabbis on the other hand were not noted for the simplicity of their stories.
Analysis.
· He said to him also who had invited him, “When you make a dinner or a supper, do not call friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbours, in case they also invite you in return, and a recompense be made to you” (Luke 14:12).
· “But when you make a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they have no means with which to recompense you, for you will be recompensed in the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:13-14).
· When one of those who sat at meat with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is he who will eat bread within the Kingly Rule of God” (Luke 14:15).
· But he said to him, “A certain man made a great supper, and he invited many, and he sent out his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready' ” (Luke 14:16-17).
· “And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I find it necessary for me to go out and see it, I beg you, have me excused' (Luke 14:18).
· “And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am on my way to prove them. I beg you, have me excused' ” (Luke 14:19).
· “And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come' ” (Luke 14:20).
· “And the servant came, and told 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 here the poor and maimed and blind and lame' ” (Luke 14:21).
· “And the servant said, ‘Lord, what you commanded is done, and yet there is room' ” (Luke 14:22).
· “And the lord said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and constrain them to come in, that my house may be filled' ” (Luke 14:23).
· “ ‘For I say to you, that none of those men who were invited shall taste of my supper' ” (Luke 14:24).
Note how in ‘a' he is told not to call those whom he knows, and in the parallel none of those invited will eat of his supper. In ‘b' he is to call the needy, and in the parallel the needy are finally called. In ‘c' one present says ‘Blessed is he who will eat bred within the Kingly Rule of God', and in the parallel even after the Lord's command there is still room because those who were invited had not responded. In ‘d' he invites many friends to his supper, and in the parallel he invites the needy, and in a threefold centre in ‘e' the point of the story is brought home, all those who were first invited made excuses.