A Seat At the Table for Everyone
Luke 14 attempts to answer the question that all of the feasts in Scripture lead us towards: Who will be present at that great feast, the one in the coming kingdom where God and man are reunited together? Who will sit at that table?
Scripture: Luke 14:12-24
We’ve seen a growing trend these last few years, and I want to address it with all the pastoral authority I have. I fully know that it might even lead to some division.
Enough Christmas talk before Thanksgiving.
It’s too early for Christmas, y’all. Christmas needs to stay in its lane and stop disrespecting Thanksgiving. Each year, Christmas decorations are going up earlier, songs are being played earlier, Hallmark’s movies are coming on earlier.
Please, don’t get me wrong, I’m no Grinch. On the contrary, I love all these things about the Christmas season. When it’s time to make that turn, I go all in. But this isn’t an issue of how great Christmas is; it’s an issue of sleeping on how great Thanksgiving is.
Thanksgiving is a whole holiday that centers around eating exceptionally great food. Not to mention, the added components of the holiday are all great too: naps, football, shopping, and family. So why are we rushing to Christmas and skipping over this greatness? I realize I’m simplifying things, and it’s about thankfulness. But the Bible repeatedly instructs us to give thanks to the Lord for He is good, and I feel His goodness when the potatoes get passed my way.
Now, I have more to say than just declaring the importance of Thanksgiving. But I don’t want us to miss that there is something special about having a day where we give thanks, celebrate, rest, and enjoy company, all over a meal together.
More Than a Meal
Scripture is full of messages about the importance of God’s people eating and feasting together. The Old Testament is full of meals and feasts to remember God’s provision and love. When Scripture describes the coming kingdom where God and man are reunited, it is described as a feast and banquet. But, repeatedly, there is this idea that our meals are more than just eating and gathering. There is a spiritual significance where we realize that something had to die so that we could live.
It should be no surprise then that Jesus is constantly seen eating and dining with people. In his book A Meal with Jesus, Tim Chester makes the point that meals are a crucial aspect of Jesus’ ministry. He shares that the New Testament completes the sentence, “The Son of Man came…” three times:
Not to be served, but to serve, and give his life a ransom (Mark 10:45)
To seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10)
Eating and drinking (Luke 7:34)
Chester points out that the first two are statements of purpose, why Jesus came, and the third one is a statement of method, how Jesus came. He then shows how in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus uses meals to communicate grace, community, and hope. And today, we will look at one of those meals specifically.
“He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:12-14)
In this culture, as in ours, meals were highly important social gatherings. They were a place in which shame and honor were assigned, part of organizing society. But in Leviticus 21, we find that the Law prohibited those with disabilities from these forms of community. They were considered unclean and were kept in a spot of dishonor, outside of the city and away from feasts such as this.
“When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to Him, ‘Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!’” (Luke 14:15)
This guy probably meant well- either changing the subject from the uncomfortable idea of inviting people as Jesus mentioned in verse 12 to a banquet or expecting a generic positive affirmation like an “Amen!” back.
But Jesus has different plans, and He doesn’t respond to this man directly but through the teaching of a parable. So let’s take a look at the first part:
“But He said to him, ‘A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yokes of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’” (Luke 14:16-20)
Common to this period, one invitation announced the date far in advance, and then a secondary invite that let them know the feast was ready. It’s still the same today: there’s the pre-arranged, “We’re eating dinner at 5” that’s sent early, and then the “Come in here, it’s ready,” that rings throughout the house.
But what we see is that those who were invited, and presumably said they would be there, are now distracted by their possessions and families. They made excuses about not being able to come. While none of their excuses are bad things, they communicate that they have taken priority over this feast. They have let the joy that could be found from these other things overtake the joy of feasting at this banquet.
“So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’” (Luke 14:21-24)
Angered by these rejections and the message communicated in their shame & honor culture, the master resends the servant out. He goes first to the streets and lanes of the city for the poor, crippled, blind, and lame, and then outside the city to the highways and hedges to ensure that the banquet table is full.
This parable concludes in verse 24, and as they are stories with purpose, we see the purpose here. Look how the language shifts back from the third person story to the second person you, addressing those at the table, and by extension, us.
He says, “I tell you, none of those that are too busy to come to the feast will taste it, even if they believe that they would.” But the flip side of that is also true: those that respond and come, even those that you wouldn’t expect or seem unworthy, will taste it.
Who Will Be At The Feast?
What this parable is doing is attempting to answer the question that all of the feasts and meals in the Scripture are leading us towards- who will be present at that great feast, the one in the coming kingdom where God and man are reunited together and eat in peace, rest, and fulfillment? Who will sit at that table?
Jesus gives us a shocking answer. It isn’t those that assume that they will be there.
He’s saying that no one should take this invitation for granted based on being an Israelite, as the original audience would have understood it, or in our day, taking this invitation for granted based on making a decision at a young age or belonging to the right group, going to the proper church or school, even doing good religious things like charity. Those are the ones that miss it in this parable, treating an invitation to this meal as a box to check once and then spending their lives based on other things, like their own busyness, possessions, and families.
No, those present at this great feast will be those who receive the invitation, see how compelling it is, and respond in a way that completely reorders their lives around it. Their possessions, their families, and their work are no longer reasons to miss the banquet, but they are things to be stewarded well to ensure they do not.
Here’s the good news: This invite comes to everyone. It isn’t reserved for a specific ethnicity, nationality, social class, or gender. It isn’t reserved for those that are good, powerful, or successful. The seat at the table isn’t based on our merit, and it’s free…for us.
But it was not entirely free. On the cross, Jesus Christ, the great host of our banquet, provided the payment needed to cancel our sins and provide our seat at the table. His love for us made Him a dishonored outcast. He was killed as a criminal so that all who were outcasts would be welcomed in as honored family.
“God has joyfully and graciously invited you to His table.”
At that feast in eternity, we’re promised that every tribe, tongue, and language will be there. That men and women together will be there. That the poor, the outcast, and the lonely will be there.
We are invited too.
To all of us sinners who feel weak, and all of us struggling, weary, and exhausted. All of us that have a past that we think would make us unworthy of having a seat at the table, and all of us have counted on our goodness, efforts, and successes to try and earn a seat at the table. Hear the great truth from this parable: God has joyfully and graciously invited you to His table.
Because God invited us to His table, even in our unworthiness, we are then freed to imitate Christ in this parable as we joyfully and graciously feast with others, even in our shared unworthiness, at our table.
How can we approach meals?
1) We feast joyfully.
In its simplicity, this is a parable about feasting and throwing a party. The food is prepared, the house is ready, the invitations are sent, and people are brought into this joyful feast. Yet, the people miss it because they believe that they can find greater joy in the things of this world.
Meals are a place of joy throughout the gospels, whether in a parable like this one or the Parable of the Prodigal Son, or the actual meals that Jesus ate, like that of with Matthew the Tax Collector. They have spiritual significance because they reflect the reality of the gospel that we have already in Christ and a foretaste of the coming kingdom where God and man are reunited together and eat in peace, rest, and fulfillment.
This is how Isaiah 25 describes that meal:
“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.”
And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isiah 25:6-9)
Can you imagine the joy and gladness that will be at this meal? We will be reunited with each other and reunited with our savior; death will be swallowed up forever, tears will be wiped away, reproach will be taken away.
How can you bring joy to the tables you sit at? Perhaps you can outdo one another in showing honor by telling others what you are thankful for about them. Maybe it’s seeking out that area of conflict that appears each year, a stressful time for those cooking, a difficult family member, a chaotic plan, and entering into it with joyful service. Feast with this inward joy because you have been invited to God’s table.
2) We feast graciously.
We see this in the parable’s repeated invitations. After the first round is snubbed, we see the servant going out into the streets and beyond, indicating that the invitation would extend past the city into non-Jewish participants. Invitations are given out not based on merit but based on the gracious love of the host.
How can you bring grace to the tables you sit at? Eating with your family, or even just with a certain person in your family, is a place to communicate the graciousness of the gospel. How can you ensure that no one that joins your table feels unworthy or unwelcome but instead feels loved and that they belong? I’m not saying that you have to approve of everything this person is doing or has done, and you may need to sidestep a conversation with a quick, “Well, I think we might disagree on this; why don’t we discuss something different?” But you can do these things in ways that can graciously communicate warmth. (READ: How to Love in Disagreements)
“When you combine a passion for Jesus with shared meals, you create a potent gospel opportunity.”
Th idea that meals are gospel opportunities is something that Chester specifically opened my eyes towards in Meal with Jesus. Meals are missional because they create natural opportunities to share the gospel's message in the midst of the ordinary. Missions do not have to be an extraordinary endeavors. It can begin with the hospitality needed to welcome others to your table, where all of us come as equals in our shared hunger, where everyone can get a glimpse of the beauty of the gospel.
Cross-culturally, hospitality over meals remains an incredible way to show honor. Perhaps your next step is to both receive this and show this with internationals in your city that have been relocated through World Relief. At our tables, we can graciously ensure that no one is left alone and that those that feel unwelcomed by society are welcomed into our world.
Feast with this outward grace because you have been invited to God’s table. God has joyfully and graciously invited you to His table. Our great host has prepared the meal and gotten the house ready. Even in all our unworthiness, we still receive an invite to this joyful feast.
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About Christ Church Memphis
Christ Church Memphis is church in East Memphis, Tennessee. For more than 65 years, Christ Church has served the Memphis community. Every weekend, there are multiple worship opportunities including traditional, contemporary and blended services.
