Trinity 2
Lk
14:15-24
6/14/15
About two years ago a video appeared
on the internet that made me laugh out loud in my office. In fact, I laughed so hard that I was glad no
one else was in the building.
The video was part of an advertising
campaign for the drink Pepsi Max and it featured the NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon. Gordon is a four time Sprint Cup champion,
and in the mid-1990’s the “rainbow warrior” dominated stock car racing.
In the video clip Gordan wears a
disguise and goes to a car dealership.
He pretends to be a very timid individual who knows nothing whatsoever
about cars as he wear a hidden camera.
The accommodating car salesman encourages him to take a test drive in a
sporty car.
However, once they get in the car
and the test drive begins, the car sales man has his world rocked as Gordon
drives the car in an apparently reckless fashion as they go flying through the
area. And the thing that had me almost
falling of my seat is the reaction by the salesman as he hangs on for dear life
and begs Gordon to slow down. Where a
few moments ago he was encouraging and instructive, now he is scared to death
at the hands of this driver as he becomes more upset by the moment.
Normally, test drives are not meant
to scare the car salesman in a prank.
Instead, we go on test drives because an automobile is a very large
purchase, and we want to make sure that we are getting something we like. We try it out to see what we think. This is simply what we do. We would find it very odd if someone said
that they had purchased a car sight unseen without ever even driving that kind
of car. In fact, we might have trouble
believing the claim.
In the Gospel lesson today Jesus
tells a parable about man who gave a great banquet and when it was ready he
sent out his servant to tell those invited to come. However people refuse to come, and they all
have an excuse. One man says that he has
purchased five yoke of oxen and that he is now going to examine them. Yet Jesus’ listeners would have known that no
one made a very large investment like this without seeing the animals first and
checking out how they worked. It would
be like buying a car without ever seeing and driving it. It is rather obviously a lie – or at least a
great exaggeration that is being used as an excuse not to come to the banquet.
The first verse of this chapter
provides us with the setting in which Jesus tells this parable. We hear, “One Sabbath, when he went to dine
at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully.” Now by this point in Luke’s Gospel we
understand that when Jesus and the Pharisees get together for a meal on the
Sabbath, there is going to be tension. And in fact there is as Jesus heals a
man in their midst – something that contradicts the Pharisees’ ideas about
working on the Sabbath. Then Jesus instructs those who are present to take
lowest and least honored seat rather than the highest – the opposite of what
they are doing. Next he tells the host that
he shouldn’t invite people who are of equal standing and will be able to
reciprocate. Instead, Jesus says, “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.”
This reference by Jesus to the Last
Day prompts a response that is the first verse in our text. We learn, “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!’”
The assumption of this individual was that he – and those eating with
him – were all going to be in this group.
It was a statement of self-assurance about his spiritual
standing.
And so Jesus tells the parable. The basic story is clear enough. A man makes a great feast and when it is
ready he sends out his servant to call those invited to come to the feast. However, things don’t go as planned. Each
person has an excuse. One person says that he just bought a field and he must
go look at it. Another says he has just
bought five yoke of oxen and now he needs to go examine them. Another says that he has married a wife and
so he cannot come.
What all of these excuses have in
common is that they are obviously just excuses – they are lies or half
truths meant to get the person out of coming to the banquet. Naturally this is a bad thing in itself. But it becomes even worse when we consider
the practice of the first century Palestinian world. Here, a person holding a banquet extended
invitations to people. The number of
people who accepted helped the individual know how much food to prepare. The
point is that all of these people had already committed to come to the
banquet. What we hear about in our text is actually the second
invitation – it was the expected announcement that the banquet was ready
and that it was now time to go to the person’s house.
The master of the house was angered
buy this – of course he was! Everyone had RSVP’ed and then no one showed. So he said to the servant, “Go out quickly to
the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind
and lame.’ So 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.’”
The master sent the servant out into
the city and had him bring in the undesirables – the people who normally didn’t
get invited to these kinds of meals. And then when there was still room, he
sent the servant out into the countryside – into the “sticks” – to invite those
who were less desirable still.
This morning’s text is a warning and
an invitation. It threatens and it
encourages. In the parable, the people
who refused to come are the Pharisees with whom Jesus is dining. They think they have things all figured
out. They are secure and unconcerned
about their spiritual status. They are
going to do things their way – and therefore they are rejecting Jesus,
the One in whom the saving reign of God has arrived.
It’s not hard to be like the
Pharisees. In fact people do it all the
time. It’s easy to believe that because
I am a member of a Lutheran church everything is taken care of. Notice that I only said “a member” – a name
on a church roster. I didn’t say anything about actually coming to church
to receive the Means of Grace. I didn’t say
anything about actually coming to Bible class so that God’s called servant can
teach me more about Christ’s Word. I
didn’t say anything about actually seeking to struggle against sin and to live
a life of love outside these walls. That’s the temptation – to define the
Christian life on your own terms. And
if that’s what you want to do, the world will be right there cheering you
on. It will join you in railing against
“rigid” and “judgmental” churches and pastors.
Yet we need to be clear what this
text is saying. The banquet here clearly
stands for the feast of salvation. It
turns out that doing things your own way actually rejects God’s salvation. It leaves you on the outside with all of the
terrible consequences this entails.
Yet if that is the threat of this
text – the Law – there is also a tremendous invitation. There is a remarkable
statement of Gospel. The master sends
the servant to bring in the “the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” He brings in the unworthy to the
banquet. And I haven’t even mentioned
you yet! For you see in the parable
these are the Jews of Jesus day that were rejected by the Pharisees as
spiritually unworthy. You are the people
in the sticks – the people who were lower than unworthy. The master’s statement about those in the “the
highways and hedges” describes the Gentiles.
It describes those not originally included in God’s covenant. It describes you.
Jesus Christ speaks the parable as
the One in whom God’s saving reign entered into the world. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus tells this parable
during his final journey to Jerusalem.
He speaks it as he is on his way to be crucified – to be numbered with
transgressors in your place. Anointed by
the Spirit at his baptism, this is the mission that he has come to accomplish.
On Good Friday he did. And then his
saving work continued as he rose from the dead and defeated death. He began the resurrection which will be yours
on the Last Day. He carried out this
saving work for you – for you the spiritually poor and crippled and
blind and lame. He did it for you, the ones who were far off and not God’s
people.
Yet by the work of the Sprit in
water and the word he has made you worthy. He has given you his worthiness – his
righteousness. He has given you a new
status as God’s people – the Israel of God – that is Jew and Gentile. He has given you forgiveness and promised
that salvation is yours.
And to sustain you in this faith –
to assure you that you will share in the feast of salvation that has no end –
he invites you to come to his Sacrament.
He invites you to come to his table to receive his true body and blood
by which he gives you forgiveness and keeps you worthy of eternal life with
God. It is not something you
deserve. It is not something you can
earn. It is not something that you can
take for granted. Instead it is
something that is received each Lord’s Day as we continue to await eagerly for the
Last Day.
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