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✠ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
Last Sunday we heard about a Rich Man who had lavish meals every day, but the beggar Lazarus was left to starve in plain view of the Rich Man’s table. This week it’s exactly the other way around: the rich man is generous beyond measure, but the people actually refuse to come to his banquet table.
If you’ve ever hosted a large meal, like a wedding reception, you know how much planning and preparation is involved: sending invitations, making sure you have enough food and drink for everyone, lining up the music and the servers. In the same way, when it comes to the banquet of salvation and the wedding feast of the Lamb, our Lord has planned and prepared and accomplished everything perfectly. But what happens in the story Jesus tells is that when the big day arrives, everyone who was invited rejects the invitation to the meal.
It is written, “They all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ ” Excuses, excuses.
Notice how each invited guest is occupied with something else dearer and more important to him. So when the master, who represents God the Father, learns that all those invited to his banquet have rejected it, he orders that the outcasts be brought in: the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. Remember how Lazarus the beggar was not invited to Rich Man’s table? Well, the table of this rich man, the Lord’s table, is surrounded by beggars. And here is the key point for us: the Lord’s table is precisely and only for beggars, and so if we want to be at that table, we must learn to see ourselves as spiritual beggars.
The three excuses made by the people who were originally invited show that they don’t regard themselves as beggars at all. Instead, they are wrapped up in the things of this world. The first man’s excuse is that he has bought land, and the idea here is of a large estate, a big farming operation, or ranch. He will have workers, men under him, and he will have dominion. This was the first sin in the beginning: man, who was given dominion of the earth by God, instead sought to grasp that dominion separately from God. This is the temptation of the devil still: the desire for you to exercise power independently from God, to become like God yourself.
The next man has bought five pairs of oxen. This would be rather expensive, and a typical family farm would only need one pair, not five. So we can see excess here. The number five is often used also of the senses, seeing, tasting, touching, hearing, smelling; and many of the senses come in pairs: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, two hands. Now what do oxen do on a farm? They turn up the earth; so we can see in this man a devotion to earthly things, a devotion to what his hands can touch and what his eyes can see. God who is spirit, and ordinarily beyond being apprehended by man’s senses, is disregarded and ignored.
The last man, pleading marriage, puts his family, his bride, before God, and even the desires of his flesh first. But Jesus said, “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
Now look in the mirror. Do you see yourself in any of these three people? Do you see pride and a desire to control in your actions? Do you have an inappropriate love of earthly things? Are you devoted more to your work or your family or your fleshly desires than you are to God? Do you rationalize not being here in church every week because other things are supposedly more important?
Repent. Give up your need to control others and get your way. Look beyond what your eyes can see and what your fingers can touch and what your work can get you and satisfying the lusts of your heart. Care less about what your family thinks or your boss thinks and more about what God thinks and what He gives.
Jesus told this parable to the Pharisees, but Luke recorded it for you and me. Through this Word the Holy Spirit wishes to turn us from our inverted priorities and to come to Him always as beggars. We do not deserve what the Lord offers, but He gives it to us freely anyway, without money and without price.
The Gospel cry rings out to you today, saying, “All things are now ready.” How foolish it would be to let the things of this world ever hinder you from coming to the feast and entering into Christ’s presence and His kingdom. It is well worth sacrificing everything in order to squeeze through and enter this kingdom by its narrow gates! Remember what Ecclesiastes says about the things of this world and this fallen life, “All is vanity, meaningless, and a chasing after the wind.” But not so with the things of Christ. What He gives endures and brings real peace and joy. This is not some drudgery you are called to but a festive banquet of salvation! Whoever dismisses the world and sets his heart on Christ discovers that God is a gracious and friendly Father who will not remember your sins in eternity, who sets you free from being fixated on the burdensome cares of this life, who daily and richly provides and refreshes you in body and soul. Whoever dismisses the world and sets his heart on Christ for the first time truly begins to live, truly experiences what it means to be at peace. In this kingdom there is freedom from the shackles of sin, and the light of God’s grace scatters all the darkness of our hearts.
So come to the feast; the Lord has done all things for you. Jesus offered up His body on the cross to be “roasted” in the fire of judgment. He literally suffered hell in your place at Calvary. Having rescued you from sin and Satan by His holy death, and being now raised from the dead, Jesus offers Himself to the whole world as heavenly food that you might receive His saving gifts and be nourished by them. Because of what Jesus has done, there is no one left to accuse you or condemn you, no one to keep you out, nothing to stop you from this joy given for free from on high. God Himself, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit loves you and invites you to come to the feast. He wants you to be with Him there.
And do not think yourself unworthy of this feast because you are spiritually poor, maimed, lame, or blind. You are precisely the ones Jesus has invited and that He wants. Your sins are gone. Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for I have carried the burden for you. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. In Me, you will find rest for your souls.” If you are weak, heartbroken or lonely, dealing with guilt and uncertainty, hear the words of the Lord: All things are ready; it is finished. This feast has been made ready for you. The greatest and the least, the outcasts and the popular, the cool and the losers–everyone is invited. Leave behind the love of temporary things. Dwell upon the eternal love of Christ who has loved you beyond all telling, whose mercy makes you new. Find your real life in Him.
Jesus said, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” And if Christ dwells in you, then the sin and death which trouble you ultimately cannot harm you. He will indeed bring you who believe through the grave to the resurrection of the body at the close of the age.
So hear again the Spirit’s call that goes out to you this day and heed it, “Come, for all things are now ready.” You are reconciled with God and righteous in Christ. The banquet table is laid before you, in the Word, in the Supper. Partake of this holy, life-giving food. Believe in Christ and be saved. Receive the foretaste of the feast to come. For blessed is He who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
(With thanks to Christopher Esget, David Petersen, and CFW Walther for some of the content herein.)