Luke 14:12-24

Jesus would, I imagine, have been called 'religiously incorrect'. The religiously 'correct' were, of course, the religious leaders. It was they who took God's Word in the Scriptures, God's original commands to men, God's original intention for Israel and his people, and they had marked them out in a new and different way. They now knew (or thought they knew) how to win God's favour. They knew what it was to be 'religiously correct'
  Among the religious leaders at Jesus' time, the Pharisees were probably the most 'correct'. Along comes Jesus and starts giving 'religiously incorrect' teaching! He was of course simply going back to what God had originally taught, marking out God's intention for his people. Here we have a prime example of that teaching in the passage from Luke's gospel which we heard this evening. It's full of 'religious incorrectness'.
  Jesus was teaching what our priorities really should be; how we should treat those who are the outcasts of society. So he begins by teaching us who we should invite for dinner, but then he goes on to teach about the 'Great Banquet'.

In the Bible there's a rich vein of teaching about God's banquet, the heavenly banquet. True there's no direct reference to this being the heavenly banquet, but surely the way it fits together with all the other teaching, that it's difficult to think that Jesus is not here teaching about that heavenly feast.
  The idea of a heavenly banquet goes back right into the Old Testament. The Jews would have been thoroughly familiar with it; certainly the religious leaders would have been thoroughly familiar with it. They thought they were the ones who would be at God's banquet; they would surely be the ones with the privileged places.
  In Isaac chapter 25 and verse 6 we read this:
  On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples,
  a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines.
There's a parallel passage to Luke's in Matthew's gospel. There Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who prepared a wedding banquet for his son, then it goes on in a similar fashion to Luke's, except at the end where there's the bit about the man who is there without a wedding robe on, and he's thrown out into outer darkness.
  The theme of the banquet goes right through to the book of Revelation, where in chapter 19 verse 7 we read this:
  Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. The wedding of the Lamb has come and
  his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean is given her to wear.
This is the banquet to which all others in Scripture point forward; the banquet where Christ, who is betrothed to his church takes his bride at the wedding ceremony and feast.

What prompts the telling of the parable here is that Jesus is at a banquet by one who is described in the first verse of the chapter as a prominent Pharisee. Before he leads into the parable Jesus tells this Pharisee who he should invite to his banquets, his feasts. Don't invite your rich friends, your brothers, your relatives, friends and neighbours. If you do that you'll be invited back. But invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Then, says Jesus, at the resurrection of the godly, God will reward for inviting those who could not repay you. This is a theme which is going to be taken up into the parable.

If we are looking here at a wedding feast, as Revelation 19 and Matthew 33 suggest we are, then we have to take note of the wedding customs. It's not like today. "Mr and Mrs John Brown invite to the wedding of their daughter Mabel with Mr John White on August 1 2002, etc. RSVP" And you reply either "Thank you very much. We'll be there", or "Sorry, we cannot attend".
  This was quite different. When a man became betrothed, which was as legally binding as a marriage, then it was understood all the family and friends would be invited to the wedding feast when it happened. The first invitation had, if you will, gone out. The second invitation would be the announcement that the wedding feast was ready. That's the point where we pick up in this parable.
  Jesus tells this parable to these Pharisees because they are assuming that they are God's chosen people, they are the 'correct' people, they are the ones who are going to be rewarded by God by being at his banquet, and, of course, at the places of honour. So Jesus has to tell them, 'No', this isn't the case' When the servant came round to tell those invited that the wedding feast is now ready we're told they all begin to make excuses. Very lame excuses of course. The first said I have just bought a field and must go to see it, the second I've just bought five yoke of oxen and I'm on my way to try them out and the third just says, I've got married so I can't come.
  Jesus is saying that those who are religiously correct are those who are relying on their own correctness and goodness to be assured of their place in the banquet will actually not be there when the time comes. They won't be ready and they'll start making all sorts of lame excuses;lame excuses which in their eyes seem very valid because they've got so may other preoccupation's in mind which will be much more important than going to this wedding banquet. They may just be so busy that they invent excuses. One man says he's bought a field and must go and see it. Now who would make such purchases without first finding out what they were shelling out their cash on. No, these are lame excuses made by those who are too busy and preoccupied to take up their invitations.
  We're reminded here, perhaps, about another parable of Jesus'; the one of the Ten Virgins. Five of them have bought oil for their lamps and are ready when the call to the banquet comes, five haven't and aren't. The ones who are not ready are either too lazy or too preoccupied to be bothered, and when they try to get in find they are excluded.
  There's a warning here that if we turn God's invitation down then there's no second choice. If we decide to exclude ourselves, we can't turn round later and say "Sorry, I've changed my mind and I do want to come in." This was the warning that Jesus was giving to the Pharisees, to the religiously correct people.
  It's a warning for religiously correct people today; people for whom religion is a status symbol, it's something which makes them look good or at least feel good about themselves. It's to people who think they are right in God's eyes, and they're sure that, because of their goodness thye're OK and become too preoccupied with other things rather than really preparing themselves for when the message comes. The warning here is that if we're relying on our own goodness, our own 'religious correctness' then we'll find we get so preoccupied with other things that we won't want the things of God; we'll be making those lame excuses to God. We'll be preoccupied with the things of this world, is passing pleasures.
  So we come to the question at the heart of Jesus' teaching here. Who will be at the wedding banquet, who will be in God's Kingdom? Jesus is saying it's not the religiously correct; not the ones who say they're 'in'. As one Bible commentator says
 

   Jesus' parable of the Great Banquet suggests that those who enter the Kingdom and enjoy the  Great banquet may be more like those not usually invited to feasts

Then he goes on to compare the lists in verses 13 and 21 of Luke 14. Remember when I began I spoke about Jesus telling the Pharisee who he should be inviting to his dinners and lunches. Not his friends and relatives and those in high places knowing he'd be invited back but the poor and the lame and the crippled; the outcasts of society. For that to happen his whole attitude would have to change, it could never be something cosmetic. It would be something comparable to conversion of heart and will. He would then be inviting the outcasts, the poor, those generally considered beyond the pale. Jesus is saying, Invite them and you will be rewarded by God, not because you think you're right in his eyes, but because your heart is humble. William Temple said this:

  Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean
  having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself
  one way or the other at all. Humility being a great deal occupied about yourself, and
  saying you are of little worth is not Christian humility. It is one form of self-occupation
  and a very poor and futile one at that.

The ones we should be inviting are the ones who will sit down at the feast; the ones who will be 'in' at God's Kingdom. Note in the parable what the owner says to the servant when he comes back and says the guests aren't going to come. He says:
  Go our quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled
  the blind and the lame.
Those who haven't had the first invitation, those who assume they're God's chosen; his elect and rely on this fact to be 'in' regardless The ones in God's Kingdom will be the poor, the crippled,the lame. That really is God's heart. That is a leitmotiv through Scripture. It's there in Isaiah in words which Jesus took on to himself,as we read in Luke 4
  The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good
  news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom
  for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.
In Luke 6, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.
  When the Gospel began to be preached, this is just what happened. Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:
  Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise bu
  human standards, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth....no one may
  boast before him.
The Pharisees of course would have boasted of their own righteousness.

We're taught in Scripture, it's not what we boast of, but Christ's calling that matters.
Because the lame, crippled and poor haven't filled up the banquet hall, the master tells his servant, Go out into the roads and country lanes and make them come in , to that my house may be full.
There's teaching here which flies full in the face of the religiously correct. Again looking at the Bible Commentaries I find this:
  Here we have teaching on election that our place in the Kingdom has nothing to do with our      choosing at all but all to do with God's, that we have to be humble to accept God's calling
  and God's choosing It would seem that Luke's election theology has reached its clearest
  and most forceful expression, whereas earlier passages depicting Jesus' compassion for
  the poor, the sick, the needy and the sinner have suggested all along that the Kingdom
  of God is meant for these people as well as for those of more obvious and impressive
  qualifications, in this passage the Messianic invitation is to those who thought unqualified
  is made explicit.
There can be no mistaking Jesus' message now.

So, what is our position in all this?
Are we ready for the day when the summons to the wedding banquet will come? For that summons will come. And those whom God has called will be in there. Those who may think they are 'in', those who think they're the religiously correct, who have become preoccupied, because they haven't really been called, those preoccupied with worldly pleasures and pastimes will find themselves excluded, an once excluded there's no knocking on the door to be let in later
  The message is clear: Our place in God's Kingdom depends not on our religion, not upon our correctness, but upon humility and upon God's calling.