Summer Stories - Week 4: The Great Banquet (Luke 14)
Chris Cooke · Summer Stories 2025
13 July 2025
https://media.glenabbey.church/talks/summer-stories-week-4-the-great-banquet-luke-14

[0:02] In Luke chapter 4, Jesus stands up in the synagogue in Nazareth, and he announces the reason why he has come.
[0:11] He announces his mission.
[0:13] Here's what he says, quoting from Isaiah 61.
[0:16] The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
[0:23] He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
[0:36] The son, Jesus, has been sent by the father to proclaim the good news of his salvation, the good news of his eternal kingdom, and to extend the invitation into that kingdom, into that eternal life with God by believing in him and following him, the son.
[0:57] And throughout Luke's gospel, we see him eating and drinking with and giving dignity to sinners and to outsiders, prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers.
[1:12] And his teaching and the company that he has been keeping has been causing a serious stir among the Jewish religious leaders.
[1:21] He is becoming known as a drunkard, a glutton, and a friend of sinners.
[1:28] the first two of those are false accusations the third is absolutely true and where we pick up the story here in Luke 14 this morning Jesus is making his way up to Jerusalem to the cross where he will pay the price so that all who trust and follow him might be welcomed into the kingdom that's what we've just sung about in the last song and one of those religious leaders a prominent Pharisee has invited Jesus to a Sabbath meal.
[1:56] That's where this chapter begins, not with the intention of learning from his teaching, but with the intention of, it says here, almost in a murderous way, watching him closely, looking to catch him out.
[2:09] And we don't have time to read it this morning, the first few verses of this chapter, but this gathering starts out with Jesus healing a very ill man with a condition called dropsy.
[2:20] Angering the gathered guests, both with his healing on the Sabbath, but also with his brilliant questions, which leave them with no adequate response.
[2:31] And so they remain silent in the face of him.
[2:34] And so immediately, and I'm giving you that little bit of context to set the scene, even before the meal begins, we've got to understand here where we come into it, the tension is already palpable.
[2:49] And that's where we pick up the narrative in Luke 14, 7.
[2:53] Of not just one, actually, as we've described it, here's the parable of the great banquet, but these three meal-based, eternal kingdom of God-focused parables.
[3:04] And we're just going to make our way step by step, bit by bit, through the narrative, and let's see what happens.
[3:12] This prominent Pharisee and his guests have invited Jesus along to watch him.
[3:18] But you'll see that he actually turns the tables.
[3:21] He becomes the watcher.
[3:22] He becomes the assessor.
[3:24] He becomes the commentator on what is going on.
[3:27] Here's where it begins.
[3:28] When he noticed how the guests picked their places of honor at the table, he told them this parable.
[3:35] When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited.
[3:42] If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, Give this person your seat.
[3:48] Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place.
[3:54] But when you're invited, take the lowest place.
[3:57] So that when the host comes, he will say to you, friend, move up to a better place.
[4:03] Then you will be honored in the presence of all of the other guests.
[4:07] For, and here's a principle of the kingdom, all those who exalt themselves will be humbled.
[4:13] And those who humble themselves will be exalted.
[4:15] it.
[4:17] Now I was at an officiating at a wonderful wedding on Thursday past.
[4:22] I am really looking forward to officiating at Matthew and Chloe's wedding this Wednesday.
[4:28] And our culture, when it comes to a wedding feast, is very different to what Jesus describes here.
[4:37] After the ceremony and ahead of the meal, there is a board.
[4:40] Here's an example of one here.
[4:42] And on that board is a table plan with every guest's name on it and where they have been chosen to sit ahead of time.
[4:50] If you have been a couple, you will know the logistical nightmare this is as you try and work this out with your families.
[4:58] But what I always love to do when I'm at a wedding, and I'm at quite a lot of weddings, is it's good fun to watch people's engagement with this board.
[5:08] Nobody wants to look at it too early.
[5:10] Nobody wants to look at it too soon.
[5:12] That would be rude.
[5:13] But you see a lot of people sort of walking past it as if they're chatting to somebody else and they try and give it the side eye to see where it is.
[5:20] Or I've even seen some people walking past with a phone in hand and trying to snap a photograph.
[5:26] Now that's hard to do without the photograph being blurred.
[5:29] But that's because not so much the table that we're sitting at, but who it is that we're going to have to sit and talk to for the next three hours.
[5:36] And so that's our culture.
[5:40] Now, of course, I would never tell you that on Thursday past, there were 12 tables at the reception and I was at table 12.
[5:46] I would never, ever tell you that.
[5:50] I presume that that's because they knew I was speaking on this today.
[5:53] They wanted to allow me to be humble.
[5:56] But of course, I'm joking.
[5:59] And of course, the lovely thing about this table plan is all guests do feel equally welcomed at the meal.
[6:05] But in Jesus' time, in the setting that Luke is talking about here, things were very different.
[6:12] There were no place names.
[6:13] You had to choose where you thought you deserved to sit.
[6:18] Can you imagine the stress on that?
[6:20] How important you were in the social and economic and religious hierarchy.
[6:25] How close you think you could get yourself to the host without somebody coming along and saying, hang on a minute, you're far too far up.
[6:35] You need to come back down to the bottom of the table.
[6:38] So Jesus observes what's going on around this table.
[6:45] This competition masquerading as hospitality, and he calls them out on it.
[6:49] And as he does so, he highlights to them a principle of the kingdom of God that is not on display at this table.
[6:57] For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
[7:04] The pattern in God's kingdom is set by the king, the one sitting at their table who would go on to humble himself even to death on a cross, and then be exalted to the highest place.
[7:23] The eternal kingdom of God, Jesus is saying, It's not for the self-righteous.
[7:27] It's not for the self-exalting.
[7:29] It's for the humble.
[7:30] It's for the ones who are prepared to admit their lack of worthiness, even to have a seat at the table at all.
[7:39] And people looking forward to the glory of that kingdom to come will be content, he is saying, with the lowest place at earthly tables, not jostling for position at the top because they know what's coming.
[7:56] So we've had the Sabbath healing.
[7:59] We've had this first parable.
[8:01] I don't think Jesus is going to win any awards for dinner guest of the year in this village.
[8:06] Step by step, he is ratcheting up the tension around this table.
[8:11] And the host may be sitting there feeling okay, actually, because he's escaped everything so far.
[8:16] He had his place at the table.
[8:18] He hadn't chosen his.
[8:20] But now Jesus has him in his crosshairs as he tells this short second parable.
[8:26] Here's what he goes on to say.
[8:27] Then Jesus said to his host, when you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives or your rich neighbors.
[8:35] If you do, they may invite you back and you will be repaid.
[8:40] But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.
[8:46] although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous or the resurrection of the just.
[8:56] Jesus looks around the table and he sees that apart from him who has been invited under these false pretenses, every other invite the host has sent out has been motivated by selfishness and by self-promotion.
[9:13] This is all about quid pro quo and helping each other climb the greasy pole of recognition.
[9:18] That's how things work very much in this culture, even more so than in ours.
[9:22] You've invited this person, you're saying, because then they'll have to invite you back, and you know that that will raise your social standing.
[9:29] It'll raise your social currency.
[9:31] Or this one is an invite back because they had you around last month.
[9:37] It's an I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine type arrangement.
[9:41] If all these people around the table have phones, they would be taking selfies with one another and tagging one another, hashtag blessed to be beside this other person.
[9:51] And again, Jesus is highlighting just how far removed this meal is from what God's eternal kingdom is all about and will look like, and just how short-sighted this host actually is.
[10:08] Now we've got to be careful here in what Jesus says because he's not prohibiting inviting family and friends around for dinner.
[10:16] I don't want anyone going away today and using the excuse that Chris told me that we couldn't have you around for dinner anymore because that's not sowing into God's kingdom.
[10:28] All right?
[10:28] You can't avoid certain family members because of that.
[10:31] This is a Semitic idiom.
[10:34] It's hyperbole.
[10:35] It's exaggeration for effect.
[10:38] But what Jesus is saying is that if all you're doing is inviting those who can pay you back, well, again, your own table doesn't point to or doesn't take into consideration God's eternal kingdom.
[10:57] To point to his kingdom involves offering generous hospitality to the stranger.
[11:02] That's actually what hospitality is.
[11:04] It involves strangers.
[11:06] To the outsider who can't return the favor, who isn't an easy guest, who isn't in a position to give you a social or commercial leg up.
[11:17] In this culture, it was the poor, it was the crippled, it was the lame, it was the blind, It was the very sick man that these people had planted at the house to catch Jesus out, but who wasn't actually invited to the meal.
[11:32] In our culture, we can fill in the blanks in terms of who might be the equitable type of people.
[11:42] This table, Jesus is saying to the host, communicates your interest in you building your kingdom.
[11:51] Your kingdom.
[11:54] not the kingdom of God.
[11:56] And you're not saying that those costly invites around your table into your home, they are the investments in the kingdom of God for which you will be blessed at the resurrection of the righteous.
[12:11] By not extending those invitations, the person missing out in God's economy is actually you.
[12:24] so Jesus has successfully managed now to insult everyone around the table and imagine the heaviness of the atmosphere and excruciating awkward silence a little bit of tumbleweed drifting along but there's always one person isn't there whenever the excruciating silence comes that can't cope and can't help themselves.
[12:49] There's always somebody that has to blurt something out.
[12:51] And so that happens here in this story as well.
[12:53] And one of the people around the table blurts out, blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.
[13:03] Breaks the silence with this phrase.
[13:07] In other words, blessed are all of us.
[13:10] This table of God-fearing, law-keeping Jews, because we are the chosen ones who have been given the sea of the date to this feast of God.
[13:22] And perhaps a few amens would have been muttered around the table in response to what he said, but one of the people who doesn't is Jesus.
[13:30] He is still not done.
[13:33] And he calls out the conceit.
[13:35] He calls out the arrogance.
[13:36] He calls out the presumptuousness of this man's statement through this third parable.
[13:42] And here's what he says.
[13:43] Jesus replied, a certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.
[13:49] At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, come for everything is now ready.
[13:59] Now if we stop there for a little minute, let's just make it clear that everyone around the table that Jesus is sitting at would have immediately known who the man in this parable was and what banquet this was that Jesus was talking about here.
[14:14] This was the feast of rich food prophesied in Isaiah 25 that the Lord Almighty will prepare.
[14:21] It's this picture of the fulfillment of God's eternal kingdom where the best of meats and the finest of wines will be served, where death will be swallowed up forever, where God will wipe away all tears from people's eyes.
[14:36] This is an inspiration for Revelation 21, where the sovereign Lord's feast will finally bring everything together under his rule and reign.
[14:48] And it's characterized as this feast.
[14:53] Who would not be ready to attend such a banquet?
[15:00] But the story doesn't go according to plan.
[15:05] as you'll see.
[15:06] But they all alike, Jesus goes on, began to make excuses.
[15:10] The first said, I've just bought a field and I must go and see it.
[15:13] Please excuse me.
[15:16] What a lame excuse.
[15:20] An excuse that would have been shocking to Jesus' listeners.
[15:22] No one would buy a field unseen.
[15:25] This is a complete insult to the host.
[15:27] Then the next one, another said, I've just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out.
[15:32] Please excuse me.
[15:33] Again, another embarrassing, lame excuse.
[15:37] Oxen would never be bought without prior testing.
[15:40] This was far too much of an investment risk that would never actually happen.
[15:47] And then still another, I just got married, so I can't come.
[15:52] Another embarrassingly feeble excuse to go with the other two.
[16:00] Excuses which lay bare their disinterest in the host, their disinterest in his banquet, in comparison to the good life that they are enjoying right now.
[16:10] All of these things that are set up as excuses
[16:15] are excuses that could only come from wealthy people.
[16:20] They are enjoying the good life right now.
[16:24] And their excuses lay bare what is most important to me, My things, my life, my kingdom.
[16:32] Maybe another time, they say.
[16:37] But as Jeff made clear in his parable last week, this invitation is patient, but it's not open-ended.
[16:46] And so Jesus continues the parable.
[16:49] The servant came back and reported this to his master.
[16:52] Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered the servant.
[16:57] I wonder what we would do in that situation.
[17:02] But look at what he does.
[17:03] Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.
[17:11] The host has been slighted.
[17:15] He's been shamed.
[17:17] He's every right to be angry.
[17:19] In fact, given the circumstances and the excuses, he's every right to seek vengeance on those who have rejected his invitation.
[17:29] but he doesn't do that.
[17:32] He leaves those who have rejected him with their decision and with the consequences of that decision
[17:43] and he reprocesses his anger into expansive grace
[17:51] into a wider welcome opening up that invitation to the social outcast, the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame, the least in society.
[18:02] This is a picture of the kingdom of God.
[18:05] It's not a matter of limited spaces at the table.
[18:09] There is more than enough room.
[18:14] The reality is that the only people who will miss out are the ones who arrogantly reject the invitation,
[18:22] the ones who choose to exclude themselves.
[18:29] And I love this next bit.
[18:32] Sir, the servant said, what you ordered has been done, but there's still more room.
[18:38] There's almost this sense of excitement and anticipation on the part of the servant.
[18:43] I've done what you've asked, but there's still more room.
[18:45] Can I go out again and get more people?
[18:50] And then the master told his servant, absolutely.
[18:54] Go out to the roads, go out to the country lanes, which is further than the last time, and compel them to come in so that my house will be filled.
[19:02] Go out wider, go out further, go out to the deeper to find the outsiders of the outsiders and compel them to come in.
[19:13] And that doesn't mean force them.
[19:16] It doesn't mean twist their arm up their back and push them in to this.
[19:20] It means help them to see that the invitation is free.
[19:24] Help them to see that there are no strings attached.
[19:27] There's no expectation of payback.
[19:29] It is all at the cost of the host.
[19:32] And they are wanted.
[19:35] They are welcome.
[19:38] However poor and however broken and however shame-filled they feel and however undeserving, unworthy they think they are, they are welcome.
[19:51] the host desires your presence at his feast.
[19:59] And then Jesus concludes.
[20:04] And it's almost as if the parable, the story in the parable and their gathering around their table are merging together here as Jesus.
[20:14] And in some sense is the servant sent by God to say to these leaders, come, everything is now ready.
[20:20] The kingdom is here.
[20:22] I've come to proclaim the good news.
[20:25] It's almost as if it all comes together as he is rejected by these religious leaders.
[20:31] But of course, Jesus is the son of God.
[20:34] So in a sense, he is the host as well.
[20:36] And he's telling them this.
[20:40] To reject me is to reject the invitation.
[20:47] as he says elsewhere I'm the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through me no one gains entry into the feast
[20:59] unless they are a friend of mine
[21:03] and your problem he says to them is you're so concerned you're so concerned with your religious status you're so concerned with your power you're so concerned with your wealth and your possessions with the life that you have right now, that that's exactly what you're doing.
[21:19] You're rejecting my invitation to my feast.
[21:26] So, three parables told by Jesus around this table at the Sabbath meal that leave lots for us to ponder.
[21:37] So let me, just in the time that we have left, just draw your attention to a couple of things that have really struck me as I spent time in these parables over the last number of weeks.
[21:48] First of all, we could rush to application.
[21:51] I know I do that too quickly sometimes.
[21:54] But by doing that, we might miss something absolutely crucial, and that is this, this image of God's eternal kingdom as a great feast.
[22:03] Before we get to application, we need to allow God's word to work on our imagination.
[22:13] And I was struck by something Gilbert said in a different context, not in a talk on a Sunday, in a more private context recently, about how in Scripture God gives us little windows to peer through to see something of the eternal life, the eternal kingdom that he has invited us into in Christ.
[22:34] And here we have a window.
[22:37] it's this picture he gives us of the new heaven of the new earth life that he's invited us into and it is not believe it or not an everlasting church service it is not an eternal bible study praise God
[22:52] however much I love to study the bible it is not even an everlasting sitting around on clouds playing harps together right that's not what it is look at the picture look at the window he gives us a feast.
[23:07] It is a party.
[23:09] It is the best food and the best wine and the best company.
[23:13] It is joy and it's laughter and it's celebration and it's satisfaction.
[23:20] Think of the best dinner party that you have ever been at where you come away with your belly sore from laughing
[23:32] and your heart full to overflowing with love and joy and deep connection.
[23:39] And then multiply that sense in your mind exponentially and you still will not get close to how this feast is gonna be for you that you've been invited into.
[23:52] I love how David Gooding puts it.
[23:54] He says this, the metaphor of feasting.
[23:58] As distinct from merely eating a meal, it assures us that no true potential appetite, desire, or longing given to us by God will prove to have been a deception, but will all be granted their richest and most sublime fulfillment.
[24:22] That's what we are invited into.
[24:24] And in the last battle, and I know it was here a few weeks ago as well, But C.S.
[24:28] Lewis, someone who was very good at letting scripture fire up his imagination, captures something of what Gooding is saying here as Peter and Edmund and Lucy and Eustace and the others find themselves in Aslan's country.
[24:45] And this picture of the heavenly kingdom, the new Narnia.
[24:48] And here's what it says in chapter 15.
[24:53] The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that.
[24:58] the new one was a deeper country.
[25:01] Every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more.
[25:06] We could add in every item of food and drink and company and connection and sense of satisfaction.
[25:13] And here's what he says, I can't describe it any better than that.
[25:16] If ever you get there, you will know what I mean.
[25:19] And it was the unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling.
[25:22] He stamped his right forehoof on the ground and neighed and then cried, I have come home at last.
[25:28] This is my real country.
[25:30] I belong here.
[25:32] This is the land I've been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.
[25:39] The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.
[25:48] Come farther up.
[25:51] Come farther in.
[25:53] Because the further up and the further in you go, the more you discover, the bigger it gets, the greater it gets.
[25:59] This is not a static joy that will be happening.
[26:02] This will be an expanding, expansive, everlasting joy.
[26:10] So let's allow God's word and those little windows he provides us to stir and fuel our imagination so that we don't lose our grip on what it is we have been invited into
[26:26] and put everything else ahead of it.
[26:31] And let me say this to you if you're here this morning and you don't yet know Jesus as Lord and Savior.
[26:37] This invitation is for you.
[26:40] You might not have heard it described this way before.
[26:46] But take this picture and let it fire your imagination, You're invited to the feast of all feasts.
[26:51] You're invited to an eternity with God that will grow and deepen in joy and satisfaction and fulfillment.
[26:58] The invitation has been made possible through the humbling and the death and the resurrection of Jesus, his son.
[27:05] And it is held out to you by him.
[27:07] And he says, join me at my feast.
[27:13] Come into relationship with me today.
[27:15] actually the kingdom rule of God in your heart can begin today.
[27:20] That's the beginning of the journey.
[27:21] It will be fulfilled in that new heaven and that new earth.
[27:25] But it starts now.
[27:26] I will give you my Holy Spirit to dwell in your heart.
[27:31] Come, he says,
[27:34] for everything is now ready.
[27:38] Don't let the good things of this life get in the way of accepting my invitation into eternal life.
[27:44] The only people, as we've said, who will not have a seat at the table are those who have chosen not to take their seat at the table.
[27:56] And what about then, those of us who already have accepted the invitation, what do we maybe need to ponder in light of these parables?
[28:07] Well, surely, we've got to think about our own tables, don't we?
[28:13] We've got to think about our own homes and what they tell us about our hearts.
[28:18] How congruent, how in line are they with the feast that we are supposedly looking forward to?
[28:25] Are they little icons pointing to this feast to come welcoming and refreshing the stranger and the outsider, the one who could never return the favor?
[28:35] Or are they only tables of self-interest and easy people?
[28:43] Do they illustrate our eager expectation of the kingdom feast to come, the blessing and the reward that is on offer, that is promised?
[28:54] Or are they just like everybody else's tables, tables for the here and the now, pleasure and satisfaction for our own personal kingdoms?
[29:02] Are we in danger too sometimes then
[29:08] of the good things in this life
[29:12] Being twisted into idols that draw us away from enjoying relationship with Jesus right now.
[29:19] And getting ourselves ready for the feast to come.
[29:26] And then one last one from me.
[29:31] And it's this picture of the servant.
[29:34] Are we like the excited servant in this story?
[29:38] full of eagerness and determination to fill the places at the table, going out into the streets and the alleys, the roads and the country lanes, full of spark and zeal, pumped up, saying, God is throwing a party.
[29:52] Will you come?
[29:56] Your life's a mess.
[29:58] Absolutely you're welcome.
[30:01] You're poor.
[30:02] You're broken.
[30:02] You've nothing to offer the host in return.
[30:04] Absolutely you are welcome.
[30:07] He has made it all possible.
[30:08] He has paid for every seat.
[30:11] All you have to do is swallow your pride enough to say yes and accept the invitation and come and experience the eternal life that he wants to give you.
[30:24] Are we these eager servants saying there's still more room, let me go out again?
[30:33] Or would people think in the way that we convey things that sometimes it feels like we're inviting them to a funeral and not a feast?
[30:43] Or that we give the impression through our own judgmentalism and pride that they'd need to clean themselves up before they'd be acceptable to us.
[30:51] So that must mean they'd need to clean themselves up before they'd be acceptable to Jesus.
[30:58] Getting in the way of his expansive grace.
[31:01] let's not be servants who add our own criteria to the invitation.
[31:07] But excitedly and expansively join God in His grace and say come for everything is now ready.
[31:19] Let's pray together as the band come back up.
[31:28] Father, thank you for your word.
[31:32] Thank you for these windows that you give us into what your eternal heavenly kingdom under your rule and reign will be like.
[31:45] Thank you for your incredible, expansive, open-armed grace that extends your invitation to the least, to the poorest, into the darkest corners and the most broken of lives.
[32:03] May we be people who never take this invitation, the cost of this invitation that we have received for granted,
[32:14] but live lives with hearts and minds and imaginations on fire by your word,
[32:23] in the power of your spirit,
[32:27] that display our eagerness for the feast and that deep desire to extend your invitation to others as we welcome them around our tables, into our homes, into our lives.
[32:42] We ask that you empower us to do that by your spirit for your sake and your glory.
[32:50] In his name, amen.
[32:51] Amen.