Amy C Walters

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

The servant in this story knows and shares his master’s mission–to fill his house with guests for the feast. He anticipates his master’s requests and gathers in the poor, the cripple, the blind, and the lame. Then he goes out even further to the roads and the country lanes. The servant is Jesus. But he also calls his disciples to share the invitation to heaven’s feast.

The servant in this story is tasked with taking the host’s invitation to the invitees. When the feast is ready, the master sends him out to tell everyone, “Come, for everything is now ready.” 

So the servant has his mission. He goes out and delivers the message. He’s the one then, who gets the rejections from the people who had RSVPd yes but changed their minds. 

So the servant goes back to his master and reports all of this. And the master is angry–not with the servant but with those who reject his invitation. So he says, “Go out quickly into the streets and the alleys of the city and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.” 

And the servant has an interesting response. He says, “Sir, what you have ordered has already been done, and yet there is still room.” The servant has anticipated that the master would extend his invitation even to people whom you would not expect to be at a great feast like this. The servant somehow knows that the master would want that, and he’s already invited them and brought them in. 

The servant also says, “There’s still room.” He seems just as interested in filling up the master’s house as the master is. He knows what the master wants and he wants the same things. 

Notice too, that all the rejections from the invitees did not stop the servant from inviting even more people. He didn’t let the rejection keep him from continuing to share the invitation.

After the servant has done this, the master says, “Go out into the roads and the country lanes and compel them to come in so that my house will be full.” So the master is sending the servant out even further to another group of people.

The roads and country lanes signify Gentiles, people who are outside of the city. And the master says, bring them in too. In fact, he says, compel them to come in.

So we see in a couple of places, the master urging the servant to go out quickly and compel guests to come in. The invitation is not given apologetically or half-heartedly. It should be compelling and done with a sense of urgency. 

It’s kind of the how of the mission. Do it in a compelling way, go out with urgency. This party is worth dropping everything for. 

I believe that the servant in this story is Jesus. He knows the master’s heart. He’s got that same mission as well. He is sent out to people to deliver the invitation, just like Jesus was sent to live on earth and to preach the message of the kingdom of God to people. He extends the invitation to the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. And that’s the ministry that we have seen Jesus do throughout the book of Luke. He’s even extending the invitation to Gentiles as he responds to the centurion and heals the demon possessed man in the region of the Gerasenes. So the servant in this story is Jesus. 

But we also know that Jesus is passing his work down to his disciples. In John 20:21, Jesus tells his disciples, “As the father has sent me, so I am sending you.” So just as the master sent the servant out to deliver the invitation to the people, and just as God the Father sent Jesus the Son to earth, preaching the message of the kingdom, Jesus passes that mission on to us, his disciples, to share his invitation. 

Or there’s Matthew 28:18-20, the Great Commission, where Jesus says, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have told you.”

Or there’s Acts 1:8, where Jesus tells the disciples, “And the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.” This is not just poetic language. Revelation 7 tells us that there will be people from every tribe and language and people and nation in heaven. 

Just like the servant in the parable went far and wide to spread that message, we are called to go and spread that message, even to the very ends of the earth. Even to people who seem unlikely to accept the invitation. The master’s saying, “Go to them, share a compelling message of my invitation with them. And go with urgency.” 

Because, the master also says, “So that my house will be full.” This is a mission that’s going to work. There will be people from every tribe and language and people and nation in heaven. The people who respond may not be who the servants expect. And some will reject the invitation. But many will accept and come and fill God’s house and celebrate the feast together. 

Our key truth for today is that we must share this invitation. 

Jesus is the servant in this story, sharing the compelling invitation, going about his master’s business. And we now have the opportunity to continue it. We have the commission to continue that work. 

Who are you sharing the invitation with? Are you carrying it out far and wide? Are you taking it to people who are on the fringes of society? Are you continuing to share it even when there’s rejection?

Today as you go, share this invitation. Think of someone that you can share this story with and then tell them. They may reject you. But there will be others who will be excited to get this invitation and come to the feast. So we must share it.