Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Service Guide

          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.”

          Here in the 14th Chapter of Luke, Jesus is dining at the home of a prominent leader of the pharisees.  There is, of course, tension between Jesus and the pharisees.  A great gulf divides them at this point in Jesus’ ministry - particularly over the matter of how it is that an Israelite might be able to receive God’s favor at the end times -- in the resurrection of the righteous.  Will the Israelite make it to Paradise on account of faithfulness to the Law of Moses, or will it be on the part of the faithfulness of a God who is merciful to penitent, miserable sinners?  Jesus uses the occasion of this meal to explain to his host and the other attending dinner guests some important realities about life in the Kingdom of God.  These important realities can be seen from various vantage points that come into view when we see ourselves involved in special or significant occasions of dining.  On this occasion, Jesus provides his dinner companions and host with three illustrations, the third of which is our Gospel reading for this day of the parable of the Great Feast.

          Since Jesus tells the parable in the context of self-attested works-worthy dinner guests, the cutting edge of this parable invites them especially to consider the lot of those who are invited, but have other priorities and, missing the importance of the Great Feast, they don’t show up.  From His previous advice about attending and giving parties, Jesus has already indicated that humility can go a long way, in getting into the proper frame of mind to understand how it is that entry and fellowship in the Kingdom of God can be obtained. When attending a party, let humility guard against humiliation by taking the lowest place at the table, so the host can perhaps invite you to a higher place of honor. And, when throwing a party, do not invite the usual friends who are in a position to invite you back to similar great events, rather invite the poor and downtrodden, the ones who are in no position to provide a quid pro quo for your kindnesses. In both instances, he provides a perspective that is the central thrust of the Great Feast parable: the blessings of the Kingdom of God come people who do not deserve them. They are received not as the honor we are due, nor are they a return in kind for what we do for others. Rather, they are the reception of a great celebration that comes to us by pure undeserved Grace alone.

          We are invited this morning to consider what this means for us . . . not how we should view throwing parties and going to them, but how we should view feasting with our Lord, both now and at the Great Feast to come.  If we see the parable as a story that illustrates attitudes about both celebrations that the Lord provides us, it is plain to see that the ones who are invited in the story but are too busy with other cares and concerns to show up. These people are difficult to address in sermons like this as they are not here to hear. They are busy living lives attending to other concerns and interests that far outweigh communing with the Lord and feasting on His grace. For them, the good life is what you pursue, not what you simply receive. So they are not here, but we are. How does Jesus want to address you this morning by this parable? Those who fill the hall in the parable are the poor, the downtrodden, and the handicapped - the ones who are in no position to live life with anything except what can be provided and given to them by others. They are the beggars and takers who have little sense that what they are receiving in life comes to them on the basis of what they have achieved and have coming to them as just compensation. Are you one of them? Have you come here to feast or to snack? Have you come to get all you can, or all you deserve?

          This was the crux of the issue between Jesus and the pharisees back then and on the most profound level - it is the crux of the issue in every age including today between the place of the Law and the Gospel in the Kingdom of God.  Is the Kingdom to be ours by merit . . . or by mercy?  Is it ours by rights from the give-and-take of Law, or is it only the inheritance of those who would receive it as a gift of undeserved graciousness?  Is it compensation or your just desserts you seek? Does standing in the Kingdom of God rest on the virtue of the guests or on the virtue of the Host?  Does the Host honor out of mercy those who are present, or is He simply paying back what He himself has received . . . as you get, so you give?  Will our Lord honor you at his table because of what you are and have done or in spite of it?  Who has the righteousness?  Is it the One who receives the honor, or the one who bestows it?  Jesus wants us to understand that the matter of merit on the part of both those who make it to the feast and those who do not, is never the deciding factor in explaining either.  The difference between those who come to the feast and those who do not, is that some understand the need to live by grace and party by nothing but donated dignity and honor, and others who will not. They want all things to come to them the old-fashioned way -- they want to earn it.  This was the heart of the pharisees’ perspective.

          But here you are this morning. You have also received an invitation to the Great Feast to come and you hear about it anew this morning. Are you ready to partake of the foretaste of that Great Feast?  As you see your life and interests are you ready for a great feast of grace, or just a great snack?  Spiritually speaking, the Kingdom of God is not for the haves, or those who need just a little help . . . it is for the have-nots . . . those who have nothing and need it all.  Indeed, even the meal of the Kingdom which we come to partake of this morning -- a foretaste of the great Feast to come -- is a meal for the hungry have-nots, the spiritually impoverished and impaired.  Indeed, blessed is everyone of us who would eat bread in the Kingdom of God.  The bread that we are given is the very bread of life -- the very body and blood of our Lord that He gives to nourish poor sinners and spiritual cripples to keep them alive and ready for the Great Feast to come.  For the Kingdom in this world and the Kingdom to come are both ruled by honor, fellowship, and standing that flow from a merciful God to those who can never repay.  It is never a matter of merit.  So, as has been exhorted in the parable.  Come to the banquet!  Come, for all things are now prepared. Come with your poverty and your hunger. There is plenty of food and drink to fill your soul and make you free and full of his Grace and Mercy, yes even with leftovers. Don’t just snack . . . come and feast!

          In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A-men!