When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’” (14:15–24)

The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah describes Jesus Christ, the Servant of the Lord and Messiah, as “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (v. 3). The New Testament account of His life bears that out. While Jesus wept (Luke 19:41; John 11:35) and was grieved (Matt. 26:37–38; Mark 3:5), there is no indication in Scripture that He ever laughed. He told many somber, sobering stories, and even used sarcasm, but there is no record that He said anything to elicit laughter.

And yet the story He told in this text would surely have seemed like a joke to those who heard it. They would have seen it as laughable, ludicrous, ridiculous, impossible, inconceivable; a joke without a punch line; an impossible scenario. A great feast like the one of which the Lord spoke, given by a wealthy, prominent man, would have been the social event of the year. For some, it might have been the highlight of their lives. No one invited to such a banquet would have dreamed of refusing the invitation. Nor would such an important person invite the dregs of society to fill his banquet hall.

Jesus was still at the Sabbath-day meal at the home of a Pharisee described in the previous chapter of this volume. He had been invited in an attempt by the hostile Pharisees to trap Him into violating their man-made Sabbath restrictions by performing a healing (vv. 1–2). But He turned the tables on them and exposed their hypocrisy, shaming them into silence (vv. 3–6). Having silenced them, He then took the offensive and told a parable illustrating their duplicity, conceit, and hypocrisy (vv. 7–14).

The Lord had concluded His illustration with a reference to the resurrection and reward of the righteous. The scribes and Pharisees understood that He was referring to eternal life, and challenging them to humble themselves to receive it. Earning that resurrection was their supreme hope. They believed that by enduring the minute prescriptions, deprivation, self-sacrifice, and rituals of their religious system they would gain eternal life in God’s kingdom. In all false religions the promise of a good life in the future after death motivates people to put up with the restrictions and burdens imposed on them in this life.

Jesus was speaking in familiar terms because the Old Testament pictured the resurrection of the righteous as a magnificent banquet in the presence of God:

The Lord’s reference to the resurrection of the righteous as a banquet was not lost on the guests, who thought of that great future heavenly gathering. That connection prompted one of those who were reclining at the table with Him to say in response, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” This was a beatitude; a toast directed at himself and his fellow Pharisees, affirming that they will be among the blessed at the heavenly banquet in the kingdom of God. It was not only a pronouncement of blessing on themselves, but also a scornful rebuke of the Lord’s declaration that they were too proud to enter God’s kingdom (cf. 14:11). His words bounced off their confidence that their Abrahamic ancestry (cf. John 8:33–59) and adherence to the traditions, regulations, and rituals would secure a place for them at God’s banquet. Not only did they fully expect to be at that heavenly feast, but also to be in the seats of honor.

Jesus always sought to shatter unwarranted religious hope, and never encouraged anyone’s false sense of security, so that arrogant, misguided assumption called for immediate and unmistakable correction. Following His example is essential to all true evangelism. Those with an unfounded assumption that they are headed for heaven need to know that they are fatally deceived. To expect heaven while rejecting Jesus Christ and His gospel is the most deadly and serious of all false hopes (cf. Heb. 10:26–31).

Jesus’ illustration and its application was a direct assault on the delusional self-confidence of the Jewish people, in particular the scribes and Pharisees. It may be divided into four points: the invitation, the excuses, the inclusion, and the exclusion.

THE INVITATION

But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ (14:16–17)

In His reply to the guest’s smug and erroneous assumption that he and his fellow Pharisees would be in the kingdom, the Lord addressed the issue of who really will enter the kingdom. His reply was in the form of another parable, relating the responses of guests invited to a banquet. The words that describe that banquet are big and many, indicating a huge, grand, gala event, like the wedding feast in another of the Lord’s parables given by a king to honor his son (Matt. 22:1–14). The host of this imaginary feast would be extremely wealthy, to afford an event of this magnitude.

The personal, formal invitations to the dinner would have come in two stages to the invited guests. The first, like invitations today, would have informed the recipient that they were invited to the event. Unlike modern invitations, however, the exact date and time would not have been specified due to the complexities of preparing the feast. When all was ready, a second invitation would notify the pre-invited guests that the banquet was about to begin. Thus in this story, when the dinner hour arrived, the host sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ The eagerly anticipated and long awaited dinner was about to begin.

THE EXCUSES

But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ (14:18–20)

The food was ready, the invited guests had been notified, and the banquet was ready to start. But then the unthinkable happened. Shockingly, unbelievably the guests—not merely a few, but all of them—began to make excuses for not attending. This was completely contrary to expected behavior. No one invited to an extravagant dinner by a wealthy host would have refused to come, let alone everyone. It was so absurd as to be incomprehensible to the status-seeking scribes and Pharisees, who must have stared at the Lord in disbelief.

Jesus gave three sample excuses that heightened the absurdity of the situation by making it obvious that the guests had no rational reasons for refusing to attend. The first one protested, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ This excuse makes no sense. After all, the piece of land would still be there after the banquet. And no one would buy property sight unseen, so he obviously had already gone out to look at it. Surely seeing a field was not more compelling than the honor and joy that would come from attending the banquet.

The second excuse was nonsense: ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, another man said, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ Once again, trying out the newly-purchased oxen was not urgent, and could have waited until after the banquet. And would he not have already tried out the oxen before he bought them? Further, that this man was able to afford five yoke of oxen suggests that he was a reasonably wealthy man himself; surely one of his servants could have tested the oxen for him. Why not attend the banquet and have both the oxen and the host’s favor?

Another one offered a third absurdity: ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ Given their low view of women, the Pharisees would have found this excuse the most laughable of all. In first-century Jewish society, women did not dictate to their husbands what they could do. Nor could the Old Testament exemption from military service and other duties for newly married men (Deut. 24:5; cf. 20:7) be construed as a valid excuse for not attending a banquet. This excuse, like the first two our Lord created, was transparently ridiculous.

THE INCLUSION

And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. (14:21–23)

When the slave came back and reported these and many other similar excuses to his master … the head of the household understandably became angry. For the invited guests to meet his generosity and kindness with frivolous indifference and disdain was an outrageous act that insulted him personally and embarrassed him publicly. It was an egregious breach of social etiquette; unforgivable conduct made even worse by the lame and illegitimate excuses offered by the guests.

The head of the household decided that too much time, effort, and expense had gone into preparing the banquet to cancel it. The celebration would go on, but with a different and utterly unlikely set of guests. He said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ In reality such people would have to be strongly persuaded, if not brought in, because they would be reluctant to come on their own, since they understood that social protocol would have obligated them to reciprocate. That they did not have the means to do. The notion that a wealthy, prominent man would invite poor, despised outcasts to such a banquet was as preposterous as imagining that the original guests would turn down his invitation en masse. There was not the slightest chance that either would have happened, much less both.

In the story the slave did as his master commanded, but after bringing people in off the city streets there was still room in the banquet hall. ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, the head of the household commanded, so that my house may be filled.’ This latter group consisted of people even further down the social ladder than those brought in off the city streets. They were people with no home of their own; shady characters who lived outside of town in the brothels, seedy inns, and roadhouses along the highways, and even in the trees and bushes along the hedges. Because they were widely scattered, it would be more difficult and time consuming to round them up. And it would be even harder to compel them to come in, since they would be even more reluctant than the poor in town.

THE EXCLUSION

For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’” (14:24)

The despised outcasts would come and enjoy his banquet, but the head of the household vowed that none of those men who were originally invited would taste of his dinner. If not approving of bringing in the poor, the Pharisees would have understood and approved of that action; those foolish enough to turn down his invitation deservedly forfeited their privilege for good.

But at this point the parable ceased to be a hypothetical story, as the Lord drove the point directly at the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus used the phrase I tell you frequently in Luke’s gospel to signal the application of truth to His audience (e.g., 11:8, 51; 12:5, 51; 13:3, 5, 24, 27; 15:7, 10; 17:34; 18:8, 14; 19:26). The head of the household represents God, who issued the invitation; the banquet represents salvation in His eternal kingdom; the pre-invited guests are Israel (and Gentile proselytes); the first invitation was delivered by the Old Testament prophets (cf. Rom. 9:4–5). The guests initially said yes to God’s invitation; they accepted the Old Testament revelation that they were God’s chosen people, and would therefore enter the kingdom (even though they rejected and murdered the prophets; cf. Luke 13:34).

At the dinner hour, which Jesus called the “favorable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:19), the second invitation was delivered by John (Matt. 3:2) and Jesus (Matt. 4:17). Everything was ready. But like the fictional guests in Jesus’ illustration, those invited refused to attend. They had no interest in the banquet of God if Jesus Christ was the door to the banquet hall. They were not interested in Him, or His message. When He presented the true gospel of salvation, they sought to kill Him (Matt. 26:59; Mark 14:1; John 11:53). And like the guests in the illustration, they offered foolish excuses. Two of those excuses had involved material possessions, the third a relationship. Both of those types of excuses have been offered throughout history by those who are more interested in the things of the world than God’s invitation to salvation. For that reason Jesus warned, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple … So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions” (Luke 14:26, 33; cf. the discussion of those verses in chapter 23 of this volume).

Like the guests in the illustration, Israel said yes to God’s original invitation, and no to the second invitation; they said yes to God’s promises, but no to His Son. Uninterested, indifferent, and self-satisfied, they clung tightly to the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of this world (8:14; cf. Matt. 13:22; Mark 4:18–19) and missed God’s heavenly banquet. As a result, God was angry with them and abandoned them to judgment, leaving their house to them desolate (Luke 13:35). Spiritual judgment comes on all unbelievers at death. Physical judgment fell on that generation in A.D. 70 when the Romans massacred tens of thousands of Jews and destroyed the temple. Judgment continues to fall on all who reject God’s invitation to salvation in Jesus and thus dishonor His Son. In John 3:36 John the Baptist warned, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Paul described God’s eternal wrath on unredeemed sinners when he wrote to the Thessalonians,

Instead of experiencing God as gracious host, those who reject His invitation to the heavenly banquet will one day face Him as sovereign judge and forever be shut out of His heaven (Rev. 20:10–15).

But the spiritually bankrupt, destitute, and humble, symbolized by the town (the believing Jewish remnant) and highway (believing Gentiles) dwellers, will be included in the banquet. These are repentant sinners, who acknowledge that they are unworthy to enter God’s kingdom. They picture those who have the attitude of the publican, who “was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’” (Luke 18:13). They are so acutely aware of their unworthiness that the gospel messengers will have to compel them to come; that is, to persuade strongly, urge, and constrain them to respond to God’s invitation to salvation. The verb translated “compel” in verse 23 is the same one used in Matthew 14:22 where Jesus made His disciples get into a boat, in Acts 26:11 of Paul’s attempts before his conversion to force Christians to blaspheme, in Acts 28:19 of his being forced to appeal to Caesar, and in Galatians 2:3 of Titus not being compelled to be circumcised.

The gospel invitation came “to the Jew first” (Rom. 1:16), and those who responded with repentant faith entered God’s eternal kingdom of salvation. With rare exceptions, however, the Pharisees, scribes, rabbis, priests, and most of the people of Israel through the years rejected God’s invitation to salvation. The tragic result of unbelief and rejection of Jesus the Messiah is the forfeiture of eternal life in the kingdom.

Not only the Jewish people, but also everyone else who refuses God’s invitation to salvation will be excluded from the kingdom. Like the foolish virgins, they will be left outside in the dark when night falls on the day of opportunity and the door to the kingdom is shut (Matt. 25:1–12). All those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ will be shut out of the blessings God has prepared in heaven for those who love His Son: “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9).