Introduction The text of Luke 14:16-21 tells the parable of the great banquet. The host of the banquet tells his servant to invite the guests—but the guests have various excuses for why they cannot come. The host becomes angry and commands his servant to “go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame,” and they shall be the guests at the banquet. The meaning of this text is simple: it alludes to the question regarding why Jesus would “eat with sinners” (Lk 15:2) instead of rejecting them the way the Pharisees did. Jesus came to the Jews and it was the Jews who rejected Him because He did not fit their idea of what a Savior should be. They expected an Earthly or worldly savior—one who would lift them out of their subservient position beneath the Roman State and give them a Kingdom on Earth. Christ preached His kingdom in Heaven, obtained through humility and service to the will of God—proclaimed through one’s love of God and through one’s love of neighbor (Mk 12:30-31). This paper will provide an exegetical outline of the message to be prepared when delivering a sermon on this text.

Exegesis

The context in which the parable of the great banquet is situated is that of Christ’s back-and-forth with the Pharisees—the Jewish leaders who set themselves in opposition to Christ’s teaching of mercy and to the good works that Christ was doing in healing the sick and forgiving sinners. The Pharisees routinely tried to trap and ensnare Christ and get Him to invalidate His cause. They pointed out that He kept company with sinners and went to their houses whereas they, who were “righteous,” would never do such a thing. As Luke shows in 14:11, leading up to the parable of the great banquet, Christ insists on humility—not pride—for there is no way by which a proud man may get to Heaven. Pride is for people on Earth who seek to set themselves up over others and be thought of as great and to be admired by all. The Pharisees were filled with such pride and it contrasted sharply with Our Lord’s humility.

Christ did not set out to oppose the Pharisees. He set out to be the Redeemer of the Chosen People—the Jews. But upon extending the invitation to His great banquet in Heaven, they refused Him and gave various excuses—just like the invited guests in the parable. Thus, Our Lord, like the host in the parable, turned to others because it was the will of God that Heaven be filled. If the Jews would not come in the manner that God desired them, then God would invite others who would.

This parable carries a special weight because it is told by Luke. It exists in the Gospel genre and is in the sub-group Parable, but Luke serves as a significant message giver in that he was a Gentile himself—i.e., a non-Jew. His background was said to be in medicine and for that reason there is a special quality of love and mercy in his character, as one who practices medicine is one who desires to heal others and save the sick. Luke is thus a fitting representative of the particular message being communicated in this parable. But greater context can be obtained by analyzing the greater text in which it occurs.

The parable of the great banquet is actually told in the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees. This shows that Christ was not avoiding the Pharisees or seeking to deny them their invitation—their part in the “good news” of salvation. The leader invited him to eat on the Sabbath in his house, and Christ accepted the invitation. He wanted the Pharisees to accept His invitation to them to adopt humility rather than pride and seek the Kingdom of God in Heaven.

This is the reason that Christ stops on the way to the Pharisee’s house to heal a man with dropsy (Lk 14:1-6). Christ asks the Pharisees if it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath and they do not know what to say because they do not want to validate Our Lord’s message. So they say nothing. Christ does not disparage them, but heals the sick man, then continues on to the house of the leader of the Pharisees. When he arrives there he notices how the guests are...

Christ tells them there and then that rather than inviting others of one’s own stature, one should invite the poor, the sick and the crippled—because then one is truly showing the kind of love and mercy that God wants His children to show to one another. This serves as the backdrop for the parable, which is actually one of many that Christ gives on that occasion.
Why is Christ giving so many parables on this occasion at this dinner party at the house of the Pharisee? The answer is simple: He has taught often directly to those following Him. He has given instruction. He has spoken plainly. But for those who are hard of hearing they are like words that fall on deaf ears. Thus, Christ tries a different approach. He tries to reach them by way of stories. Stories have a special character that draws one in. It is the plot: one gets interested in the action of the story and in the characters involved that they cannot help but listen. The meaning of the story is not always plain or on the surface and once it is heard the story can stay within one longer and germinate. It is another trick that Christ uses to heal the sick—and indeed it does work. Nicodemus, who is described in John 3:1-21 as a Pharisee, is converted by Christ’s stories and teachings (John 19:39). His words find fertile soil in this particular Pharisee who then seeks more enlightenment from Christ and receives it. So Christ knows what He is doing by using this approach of story-telling in order to convey a deeper message about His mission and the will of God. He wants to touch the hearts and minds of the prideful Pharisees and this is an approach that bears fruit for those who may be hard of hearing but are not hard of heart. As always, Christ is received by men of good will and shunned by those who do not have such a will.

Christ knows that the Pharisees are proud of their own steadfastness and observance of the Law—but there is more to God and His Law than simple observance, or rather a legalistic mindset. God is for the spirit of the law—which gives life—rather than the letter, which kills (2 Cor 3:6). The Pharisees consider themselves to be righteous but this consideration on their part is superficial because it stops at a mere surface reading of God’s commandments. It does not plunge inward to see that God’s Law is based on love not on harshness or pride. Thus, Christ recognizes their desire to be righteous and validates it—but He tells them that the way to be righteous is not through putting on airs and observing only the letter and not the spirit of the law. He states: “And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Lk 14:14) just before telling the parable of the great banquet and just after telling them that they themselves should be inviting the poor and the sick to eat at their tables—because this is in conformity with the true spirit of God and His Law.

Preaching

Fabarez (2002) notes that Jesus serves as the ultimate guide as to how preaching should be conducted. He is the original preacher and, of course, the greatest. Fabarez (2002) states that since “Jesus taught theological truths expecting His audience to sort out how to apply them, then we should also” (p. 142). However, Jesus also taught using parables, and Luke 14:16-21 is one such example. The parable is a story that reveals in a deeper and experiential way the divine truth that Our Lord wants us to think about. As a preacher, it is not my job to tell you individually how to apply these truths to your own life. That is your job: my job is simply to communicate the truths that are contained within these parables so they might be made more evident to you.

At the same time, Lloyd-Jones (2011) points out to preachers that “the Spirit is using you, and dealing with you, as you are preaching, quite as much as He was at the time of preparation” (p. 204). This means that just as Christ…