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From Luke’s Journal June 2024  |  Vol.29 No.2  |  Christian Hospitality

As a junior doctor in a new state, I’ve been the ‘guest’ a lot this past year.
A guest at church.
A guest at dinners.
A guest at birthday parties, unsure if invited freely or out of pity.
A guest in spare rooms (10 in one year!).

A guest on one family’s sofa bed, when I was between houses and needed a place to sleep between night shifts… or when they hosted me AND a friend who’d been planning to stay when our power was cut unexpectedly.

The generosity is overwhelming. The hospitality is humbling. To be honest, sometimes it makes me uncomfortable. I’d rather cook a meal and wash the sheets myself, than receive people’s generosity and feel unsure if I am an obligation or a joy. I’d rather feel certain that I’m being useful, than just be… well… loved.

But isn’t that what being in the Kingdom of God is like?

In Luke Chapter 14, Jesus is eating at the house of a prominent Pharisee. The Pharisees and others are all scrutinising Jesus’ every move. One of them tries to invoke Jesus’ opinion on the coming of God’s Kingdom, saying “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 14:15 NIV).

Jesus replied:

 “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’ ”
Luke 14:16-24 NIV

Perhaps the Pharisees are expecting Jesus to reply with something about keeping the law, or what it takes to be worthy enough to sit at the heavenly banquet. Instead, Jesus responds with a story where the following things happen:

1. The ‘worthy’ are invited to a banquet, but
2. They rudely reject the house
3. The master becomes angry, but
4. The master turns his anger into grace
5. The ‘unworthy’ are invited – and still there is more room, so
6. Even more of the ‘unworthy’ are invited, until the banquet hall is full! Full of guests so unlikely that the servant must convince them to come:“Yes, he really means it! He wants you at His table!”
7. Judgement is pronounced on those initially invited
8. We get a new picture of what this ‘heavenly banquet’ is going to look like.

What do you notice when you read this parable?

I am tempted to focus on the guests’ lame excuses, the Master’s anger, and the judgment pronounced at the end, “Not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.” And these things are true. Many people reject the Messiah. God is rightfully angry at those who reject Him. God will judge us all in the end. Those who have rejected God will be shut out of the heavenly banquet forever.

However, as New Testament lecturer Kenneth Bailey points out in his book, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes, the heart of the parable is actually the Master’s reaction, and his character is reflected by how He responds to rejection (Bailey, 2008). Bailey writes,

“The servant knows, and the master quickly discovers, that the guests’ intent is to humiliate the host and prevent the banquet from taking place. On hearing the servant’s report, the master becomes angry! The question of the hour is: What will he do with this anger? The master’s response is truly ‘amazing grace’.” (Bailey, p. 316)

Do you feel unworthy?
You are invited because of grace.

Do you feel like you have nothing to offer?
You are His guest at the heavenly banquet.

God lavishes His generosity upon us, giving us salvation and every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1:3), not because we are worthy, but because He is glorious. As it is written in the Scripture:

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.

In that day they will say,

“Surely this is our God;
    we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
    let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
Isaiah 25:6, 9 NIV

When I am humbled by a family’s hospitality, I remember that God has extended His hospitality to me. When I feel like an undeserving guest at the table, I am reminded that God invites me to the heavenly banquet, not because of what I contribute, but because He is a God of grace. But we’re still left with a question: how is this “energy of insult [reprocessed] into grace“? (Bailey, p. 317). The answer is found at the cross of Christ:

• “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8 NIV
• “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Cor 5:21 NIV
• “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” 2 Cor 8:9 NIV

At the cross, Jesus was cast out of His Father’s presence, so that we could be forever seated at the heavenly banquet. It is an invitation so surprising, that He explicitly compels us to come in: “He wants you at His table!” And even though we can never repay Him, Jesus invites us to the heavenly banquet, and calls us to repent and put our faith in Him.

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