Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus tells a parable in which a certain man prepares a rich supper and invites many people to enjoy it. But those whom he had invited don’t attend. They excuse themselves. One has just bought a piece of land and needs to go out to see it. He values his possessions more than the supper. Another excuses himself so that he can go test out five new yoke of oxen he has purchased. He values his work more than the supper. Another excuses himself, saying that he is recently married and therefore cannot attend. He values his bride more than the supper. There is nothing wrong with property and possessions. They are gifts from God protected the Seventh Commandment. There is nothing sinful with work and enjoying the good of labor. Work itself was instituted by God before the fall into sin. Moses tells us in Genesis 2:15 that “the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3:13 that “Every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor — it is the gift of God.” Likewise, there is certainly nothing sinful with marriage, either. Like work, it was instituted by God in paradise before the fall into sin. God unites men and women together in holy matrimony to become one flesh and build a life together. All these things are blessings and gifts from the generous hand of God the Father Almighty. But like the pagans of old who worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25), those who declined the invitation to the great supper cared more for those gifts that belong to this life than the gift that belongs to both this life and the life of the world to come.
The great supper is that gift. It is the gospel. It is the good new that God, for Jesus’ sake, freely forgives all sins to those who repent their sins and believe on His Son. God had prepared this feast from the foundation of the world. He first announced it to Adam and Eve after their sin, telling the devil, “I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel” (Gen 3:15). God the Father send Moses and the prophets who foretold the coming of the Christ, His atoning death, and the peace and joy of conscience His gospel would bring. They invite Israel and all who hear to come to the feast being prepared. God the Father prepared the great supper by sending His only-begotten Son in human flesh, who then Himself invited all men, women, and children to the great supper of the gospel, so that they might feast on Him by faith and taste and see that the LORD is good (Ps 34:8) to those who place their trust in Him.
But those invited would not come. The Jews made excuses. They preferred the things of this life to the blessings Jesus offered in the great supper of the gospel. They preferred the land of Canaan and would rather have a Messiah who would reestablish the former boundaries and glory of the earthly kingdom of Israel. They preferred their work, not so much the work of their own hands as the self-chosen religious works by which they sought to please God and bring about His kingdom. They preferred the commandments of men to the doctrine of God because the doctrine of God touches the heart and not merely the hands, and the external is much easier than the internal. Others preferred their brides, not their actually brides, but carnal pleasures. After all, those who rejected the invitation of Jesus were the same people who had asked Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” (Matt 19:3). So many of the Jews of Jesus day heard Jesus’ invitation and thought themselves above it. They preferred other things over the great supper of the gospel and so they excused themselves from it.
In the parable, when the master of the house heard the excuses of those he had invited, he became angry and said, “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.” This is what Jesus did. He preached to the poor in spirit, those who understood they had no work good enough to offer God, but that all their righteousnesses are like filthy rags (Is 64:6). He preached to those maimed by their sins, with spiritual legs hobbled so that struggled to walk in the ways of the Lord. He invited the blind to see, not just with eyes of flesh but eyes of faith. He invited not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble (1 Cor. 1:26), but fishermen and tax collectors, those whom the world looks down upon and despises.
In the parable, the servant tells his master that He has done this and there is still room at the great supper. So the master of the house tells the servant, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” This is the call of the gentiles. Christ wasn’t satisfied to invite the children of Abraham only. He wanted to His Father’s house to be filled. Christ then sent His apostles to the gentiles, telling them, “Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20). When Paul and Barnabas are rejected by the Jews, they say, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46). The invitation went out through all the world and continues to go out into all the world, so that nearly two thousand years later, we in this place—and those watching from wherever they are watching this recording—hear Christ’s invitation to the great supper of the gospel once again. It continues to go forth and will go forth until the last day for Christ Himself said in Matthew 24:14, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
But what is Jesus’ parable to us who are already sitting here, attending to the great supper of the gospel? What is it to us who have heeded Christ’s call and accepted His invitation by the faith God the Holy Ghost has worked in us? It is encouragement to keep esteeming the gospel highly, so highly that you do not despise preaching and God’s word but gladly hear and learn it as often as you have opportunity. It’s encouragement because it reminds each of us what this gospel is. It is a great supper. It is how our Lord feeds and nourishes us to everlasting life. Jesus tells the crowd in John 6:53, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” He is speaking about the spiritual eating of His flesh and blood, which is faith in Christ’s word, that we apply it to ourselves, rely firmly and with perfect confidence and assurance upon this consolation that we have a gracious God and eternal life for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, and support ourselves by it in every time of need and in all temptations (SD VII.62). Christ compares the gospel—Himself, really—to a great supper to remind us that we must be feasting on Him by faith daily. If we eat several meals each day to nourish our body and physical life, how much more should we be applying God’s word to ourselves and supporting ourselves by it in every trial and temptation? Jesus’ word to Satan in the desert, which was also His word to Israel in the wilderness, applies to us in the wilderness of this life: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4).
Just as if we stop eating physical food, so if we neglect Christ’s invitation, our faith with weaken and die. So the parable serves as a warning as well. There are many and manifold things in this life that vie for our attention. The sinful flesh in which we all live wants, like the Jews in the parable, to value the things of this life—both sinful things and the good gifts of God—more highly than hearing God’s word and applying it to ourselves. These things grapple with us, inviting us to trust in them for our spiritual nourishment and sustenance. All of them want us to value them as our highest good rather than the great supper of Christ and His gospel. If we choose the things and esteem them more highly than God’s word, then the final words of the Lord in the parable should call us to repentance: “I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.” He compels us, not by force or coercion, but by showing us our sins so that He might drive us to Him as our Savior. He warns us with this condemnation and woos us with this invitation. With the warning we curb our flesh’s desire to think of other things, and ourselves, more highly than we ought. But with the invitation—“Come, for all things are now ready,” we rejoice that that though we were among the the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind, God has called us to Christ’s supper so that we may feast on His forgiveness and fare sumptuously on our Savior, and by such eating, be nourished for new life here and unto life everlasting in eternity. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
