Amy C Walters

The Parable of the Great Banquet | Luke 14:15-24

Jesus goes to dinner at a Pharisees’ house on the Sabbath and begins to offend everyone there. He heals a man, he criticizes guests and the host. And when another guest tries to ease the tension, Jesus tells a parable that reveals where their true values lie.

This parable takes place in the middle of a larger context. To find what that context is, let’s look at the first 14 verses of Luke 14. The setting is the Sabbath, and a prominent Pharisee in a particular town invites Jesus to his house for dinner. Several things happen during that dinner. 

First of all, Jesus heals a man, challenging the Pharisee’s idea of what should and should not be done on the Sabbath. 

Then, when Jesus sees the other guests vying for the best places at the dinner table, the seats of honor, he criticizes them. Jesus says, “Those who exalt themselves will be humbled.” 

And then to add another scoop of ice cream on top of this fun Sunday, Jesus criticizes the host. 

He notices that the other guests at this dinner are friends and family of the Pharisees or other prominent people in that town. So Jesus tells the host, “When you throw a feast, invite people who can’t pay you back. Invite people who are poor and crippled and lame and blind. And then you will receive your reward in the kingdom of God.” 

So imagine that you were one of the guests at this dinner. Jesus has just “broken” long-held religious rules. He has insulted all of the guests, and he has insulted the host. What is the mood at that dinner party? Not great, right?! It’s very awkward. 

Into that awkward silence, another guest speaks (at the beginning of our story) and says, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” This guy is trying to ease the tension. He’s trying to say something that everyone can agree on. And it sounds very spiritual. 

But Jesus is not done with his criticism yet. He’s not particularly concerned that he’s making things awkward for everyone at the party. He’s trying to get at something in their hearts. 

Jesus tells a story of a man who’s preparing a great feast and has invited many guests. It’s going to be a huge celebration. All the best foods and tons of it. And lots of people have been invited–the guest list is long. 

So when the time comes that everything is ready, the host sends the servant out to call the guests to the party. You see, it was customary in those times for a great feast like this to have two invitations. The first invitation tells the guests to mark their calendar for the event. And at that time, they RSVP and say yes, I’m coming. 

The second invitation goes out on the day of the party to remind everyone to show up. 

So when the servant goes out to tell all of the invitees, “Come, everything is ready,” he goes to the people who have already said that they would be there. 

But in this story, one by one, each person who had promised to come to the party all back out. They all have excuses, but are those excuses any good? 

The first guest says, “I’ve bought a field, and I’m going to see it. Please excuse me.” Okay, so he bought a piece of property. That’s a big investment. Maybe that makes sense.

Except that if you’ve made this investment to buy the field, why are you going to look at it after you bought it? And it’s a field. It’s not going to go anywhere. If you’ve already bought it, you can go and look at it tomorrow. So this excuse doesn’t really hold up. 

What about the second one who says, “I’ve just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.” This man has bought 10 oxen, which are meant to work on the farm, plowing and doing lots of work. Why would he buy those oxen without first knowing that they could do the work? It would be foolish to spend that kind of money without first seeing them. So again, this excuse doesn’t really hold up. 

Now, both of these men are very polite in their turning down the second invitation. “Please excuse me.” But when you have already said, “yes, I’m going to be there,” and yet when it comes time and you don’t go, this is actually incredibly rude. What would this do to a relationship between a host and their guests if they’re all making these lousy excuses to avoid your party? That would be so hurtful. 

The third guy isn’t even trying to be polite in his rejection. He says, “I just got married, and I can’t come.” Now, again, it could seem valid. He’s married. Maybe he’s on his honeymoon. But he knew this day was coming, and he’s saying, “I can’t even spare a little bit of time to come to this feast. I value something else more.”

In fact, that’s what each of these guests is saying in their excuse: I value something else more. Your invitation to your feast is not important to me.

Remember that the context of this story is this discussion about the kingdom of God. Jesus has told his host, “If you invite people who can’t pay you back, you get your reward in the kingdom of God.” And the person who’s trying to cut the tension at this dinner party says, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” 

So this parable Jesus tells is about the kingdom of God. This feast is a little picture of heaven. God is preparing this incredible feast for all of the people whom he has invited. And one by one, people are saying, “Actually, I’m not interested.”

What an insult to God to say I’m not interested in your feast. But in essence, that’s what the other people at the Pharisees’ dinner party were doing. They paid lip service to the idea of being at that heavenly feast. And yet, each one of them were pulled in other directions. They valued something else. Their treasure was somewhere else. 

With some, it was their own plans and agendas. I’ve got my own things that I need to do.

With some, it was their possessions. I just bought these things, and I can’t let go of them. 

For some, maybe it’s their career. I have these five yoke of oxen. They’re for my work on my farm. I want to be super successful at it. So everything else will take second place. 

For some, it’s their relationships. I love this person. These people make me feel good, and so that’s where I’m going to wrap up all of my value and my time and my hopes and dreams. 

Just a few chapters before this, in Luke 12:34, Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The people who were at this dinner party of the Pharisee had their treasures in other places. They were paying lip service to the desire to be at that feast in the kingdom of God, but the reality was they did not value it. 

What about you? Where is your treasure? Is it your plans, your relationships, your possessions, your career? Are those things pulling your attention and keeping you grounded here on this earth instead of looking forward to heaven, to the kingdom of God and the perfect, perpetual feast that God is preparing there for you?

That feast is going to have all the best things and tons of it, and you can eat all you want and be satisfied, and not a single calorie will count against you there. It is perfection. Is your heart longing for that, or is it stuck focused on the things here on earth?

Our key truth for today is that we need to treasure heaven. 

I know that can be really hard because heaven is a place that we have not seen, we don’t know many details about. It seems so far away sometimes. 

I myself have struggled with longing for heaven. So let me tell you a few of the things that I’ve done to try to treasure heaven. 

For one thing, the longer I live, the more God develops that desire for heaven in me because I see the struggles in this world and I get worn down by them. I remind myself that those struggles are not going to last forever. In heaven, they won’t exist. In heaven, I won’t be worn out. In heaven, I won’t be stressed and worried. 

I also have deep friendships with people in all different parts of the world. I feel like I’ve left little pieces of my heart in those places with those friends. And so when I start to miss them and long for the times that we used to have together, I remember that in heaven I will have perfect fellowship with them. In heaven, we will have all the time together that we could ever want. We won’t be separated anymore. There will be no more goodbyes. That homesickness is a prompt to look forward to heaven. 

I like a clean and tidy house. But as we know, everything tends toward untidiness, chaos, and dust. So instead of getting frustrated with the perpetual dust, I remind myself that it’s all just moth and rust, that everything here on this earth tends toward that decay. But not so with treasures in heaven. The things of heaven are forever. 

My husband and I like to take walks, and sometimes we’ll go through nice neighborhoods where there are beautiful houses. We gawk at them as we walk by and talk about the things that we like about them and maybe even imagine what it’s like to live there. And in those moments, I am tempted to covet those houses.

But now I’ve started turning that coveting into a confession: “God, I really like that house. And as you’re preparing a place for me in heaven, could you make it look like that? Turn my longing for that house now into a longing for my heavenly home.” 

Today as you go, I want you to try to put some of these things into practice to develop in your heart a longing for heaven. Turn your attention to heaven so that is what you treasure.