Life: Hospitality: How ordinary people can live on mission

• The Bible Studies for Life lesson for Aug. 30 focuses on Luke 14:12-24.

I love cooking big meals for my family during the holidays. My husband and I have a blended family of five children and five grandchildren, so our meals can be quite large when everyone is there. Being able to feed my family good food and watching them enjoy it as they laugh and talk with each other is quite a blessing. 

Jesus compared the joy of being in God’s family to enjoying a wonderful meal at a sumptuous banquet. Although our earthly families may struggle with divorce, prodigal children and other challenges of imperfect human relationships, God’s banquet is characterized by graceful generosity with room for anyone who will accept the invitation. Moreover, an invitation to God’s feast cannot be earned by the ability to reciprocate.

Payback is impossible

Jesus once told his dinner host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14: 12-14).  The host’s only desire is that you accept his invitation and enjoy the party. Payback is impossible.

Jesus told a parable to explain further how God’s kingdom is like a banquet. He said a “certain man” prepared a feast and invited many people. When it was time to eat, God’s servant went out to tell the invited guests the meal was ready. People began making excuses for not attending the party. One man needed to check on his land. Another needed to take care of the oxen he recently purchased. A newlywed wanted to stay home. When the servant reported this, the host ordered the 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” (Luke 14:21). The host wanted no empty places at his table.

The people listening to Jesus share this parable would have understood that people hanging out in the streets and alleys were rarely if ever invited to banquets. Instead, hosts would seek to enhance their own reputations by inviting wealthy, influential people to attend their events.

Passing by the outcasts

Party-goers typically would pass by the poor and disabled, many of whom might be sitting on street corners begging for food, on their way to the banquet. These “outcasts” could only smell the food and peek at the party through the open windows. They were outsiders. In Jesus’ parable, therefore, the host shatters cultural traditions and gives prominence to people regarded with disdain by people who typically were coveted guests at parties—those wealthy enough to own land and purchase livestock. 

In Jesus’ parable, even after the “down and out” folks sat at the table, there still were empty places. The host ordered the servant to go out again, going beyond the walls of the city and out into the countryside. Wanderers on the road were “compelled” to attend the banquet. The host did everything possible to make this feast available to anyone who would accept his invitation.

Those who failed to accept the invitation, of course, did not partake of the feast. While it seems obvious someone cannot enjoy the food at a party he or she refuses to attend, Jesus seems to want to make sure the people listening to his story understood the implications of turning down the host’s invitation: “I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet” (Luke 14:24).  Only those who have responded to the host’s invitation, setting aside more trivial earthly concerns, enjoy the feast prepared for them. 

Followers of Christ have accepted his invitation to the feast. We live in the presence of the Lord of Hosts and enjoy every blessing he gives us. We can share this abundance by living lives characterized by generous hospitality, freely inviting people to God’s table. After all, we were among the outsiders whom the Holy Spirit compelled to join the banquet. In thankful response to God’s hospitality to us, we must scour the edges of life, where people are hurting, ignored or viewed with hostility. Through us, God invites them to his table, where there is plenty of room.