Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

There is a lot of eating in the Bible. Some of the most memorable scenes take place around the dinner table. Mary and Martha bicker over doing the work to prepare a dinner for Jesus. Two travelers in Emmaus recognize the risen Christ only after he broke bread with them. Jesus began the sacrament of Holy Communion at the dinner table in the Upper Room on the night he was betrayed. And there are a number of scenes of kings or great hosts throwing a big party or banquet. What if you gave a dinner and nobody came? Jesus told a story about a host who was snubbed, and what he did about it.

Luke 14:16-24
16 Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many.
17 At the time for the dinner he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’
18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’
19 Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’
20 Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’
21 So the servant returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’
22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’
23 Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.
24 For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’ ”

Believe it or not, a story much like the one in today’s passage really happened in Boston awhile ago. It was reported in the Boston Globe newspaper. There was a woman, Sally, who had worked her way off welfare, gone to school and gotten a degree. She met a man and they got engaged. She arranged for a lavish wedding reception at a swank hotel. Because Sally was employed with a good income, she decided to pay for her reception herself, rather than ask her parents to do it.

Not long before the wedding, the groom broke off the engagement. Sally told all her invited guests the wedding was off. She called the hotel to cancel the reception. The hotel was sympathetic but pointed out that at such a late date, Sally would still be liable for seventy-five percent of the bill.

So Sally had an idea. She paid the entire amount of the bill for the reception and contacted the managers of the mission shelter where she had once lived. On the day she was to have been married, buses pulled outside the hotel and off came dozens of poor, homeless men, women and children. They entered the ballroom and were served fine food and drinks by tuxedo-wearing waiters and were entertained by a chamber quartet.

Sally’s party wasn’t exactly like the great dinner Jesus told about in Luke’s gospel. Sally’s original guests all said they would come, but she uninvited them and then invited the poor. Nonetheless, there was a big banquet to which the original guests didn’t come and poor people did. So it’s pretty close.

In Jesus’ story the host actually sent two invitations to each guest. The first was to invite them to come and the second was a courtesy reminder on the day of the dinner. There is a repeated invitation: not just come, but come now. Everything is ready!
So this dinner was no surprise to those invited. Obviously, the host was a man of means because his friends are buying land and cattle. This is a blue-blood dinner and only the best people will be there.

Or will they? The guests all give excuses why they cannot come after all. The first fellow said he had to inspect a piece of land he had just bought. The second said he had to try out some oxen he had just bought. These excuses are clearly absurd. The guests certainly wouldn’t buy land and cattle sight unseen. Their replies remind me of Mark Twain’s observation that when you don’t want to do something any excuse will do. Kind of like the girls in college whom I asked out. I don’t really think they were washing their hair on Friday night and drying it Saturday night. Likewise, the first two guests just gave social excuses.

Even so, they explain they have their affairs to manage. As we shall see, this dinner doesn’t seem to be a business dinner. There are no deals to be closed and no financially useful contacts to be made. So why go?

It seems that these first two excuse-makers are too tied down by material management just to let their hair down and have fun. They cannot see that fellowship and community are justified on their own merits. Just to enjoy the company of the host and the other guests isn’t a good reason for them to decide to go.

The third man doesn’t really offer an excuse. He says he has just been married and cannot come. At least the other two said they had something else to do while the party was in progress. Maybe the newlywed had something else to do, also, but it’s not very clear why his recent marriage prevented him from coming to the party.

This fellow thinks his family obligations prevent him from responding to the invitation. We are reminded of the man whom Jesus called to follow him and who responded, “I must first bury my father.” The father wasn’t even dead yet, but the man felt his family obligations prevented him from answering Jesus’ call.

We can easily get tied up in business or other human systems that bind us to immediate concerns. We fail to see we are invited to a new kind of community and we turn down the chance to join the party.

The host’s servants report that all the guests have refused to come and have given silly excuses for their refusal. The host is unhappy—angry, actually. He tells the servants to go into the streets and back alleys of the city and bring back the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Socially, it’s a big step down for the host. He could have just given the banquet for his servants, who were a better class of people than the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. At least, the servants would have known which fork to use first and which wine went with which course. But the outcasts the servants bring to the banquet know none of the social graces that would make them fit in at the dinner table. They’ll show up and take a seat without believing they have a rightful place at the table.

And they’ll be right. These poor and marginalized people have done nothing at all to earn a place at the host’s banquet. It’s not possible that they could earn it. The host invited them because, well, because that’s what he wants to do. Just as he issued a double invitation to his well-off friends, he sends his servants out twice to bring back the poor. Not only the city poor will be there, but the country poor as well. That pretty much includes them all.

In fact, the host tells his servants to compel the poor to come. The host is determined to fill his house with guests. He will nourish those who cannot nourish themselves. But he is quite clear on one point: none of those originally invited will get a morsel. Not a crumb, not a taste. They had their chance and they turned it down.

Well, that’s the story. What it means depends on where you see yourself in it. If the host stands in for God in this story, then who are the original guests who stayed away? Maybe they are all persons of wealth, prestige and status. If so, then this parable is a diatribe against anyone of above average net worth. It’s true that Jesus had rough words about selfish wealth, but I don’t think that’s the context here. Jesus told this story while he was having dinner at the house of a prominent Pharisee. He had just observed the other guests jockeying for the places of honor next to the Pharisee.

So the original guests in the parable could stand for anyone who thinks he or she has a right to the honor of a banquet with God. These excuse makers thought their standing with the host was secure enough for them to snub him most rudely. Did they think they would be invited again, at another time when it suited them to go? Maybe. But at the end, the host was determined to keep them out. They got dropped off the A-list and were kicked off the social register.

So if you identify with one of the original invitees, the parable calls you to swallow your pride and join the banquet of God. You’ve been invited, not just once, but over and over. The only way to starve is to make excuses. The excuses we make to stay away from God’s banquet must seem to God to be awfully like the excuses these fellows made. I would join your party, God, but I’m just too busy right now. My business demands are greater than ever and the kids sports season is in full swing. My elderly parents need my care and I have to look after my family. God’s heard them all.

Choices have to be made. We can go in to the banquet hall or not, by our own choosing. But the party will be held anyway, if not with us, then with others. God doesn’t call off his banquet just because some people stay away. So accept the invitation now and join the party!

Maybe you identify with the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. If so, then the parable calls you to thankfulness for God’s mercy and generosity. We are all beggars for grace. We would settle for the leftovers of such a banquet but instead we get all seven courses, served by tuxedo-wearing waiters while a chamber quartet plays in the background.

In the entire story, we hear the voice of every character except the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. The host has several things to say, his servants announce the invitations and tell the host there is still room for more people. The original invitees speak to make excuses. But the poor are voiceless and silent. Perhaps Jesus left their voices out to help us understand that the poor are usually without voice in the world. Or maybe they are so overcome by the magnificence of the grace they are given that they have no words to express it.

A congregation might identify itself collectively as the servants. The servants have an important role in the parable, but it’s in the background. The servants seek the ones to come to the banquet. They invite everyone, but make no decision on their own who gets in and who doesn’t. Clearly, people decide for themselves whether to come. The servants’ role is always to carry forth the host’s invitation. Everything is ready! Come now!

The servants need no invitation to the banquet because they are already in the host’s household. They ask for no reward, but seek only to do the will of the host. The servants’ most important act was to tell the host, “We have brought in everyone you said, but there is still room for more.”

If we congregationally identify with the servants, the parable calls us to faithful service. We cannot jockey for position at the table, because we are to serve the people whom God invites. We announce the grace of God to all people in all places. And when we have brought people into Christian fellowship, we see there is still room for more.

It’s surprising to discover that the Bible often compares the Kingdom of God to a big party. We are not invited to somber, sour Christianity, but to a gala affair of joy and noisy celebration. If you listen, you can hear the host laughing merrily with everyone who accepted his invitation. Don’t stand out in the dark and cold. You’ve been invited! Go in! The host’s servants will find you a place. They party will go on, and before long, you too will be welcoming others in, and serving them in joy and gladness.