Thursday, June 27, 2024

Accept, Reject, Equivocate

 Rev. Stephen E. Stults

St. Paul’s Anglican Church

Second Sunday after Trinity, 2024

 

Luke 14:16 Then He said to him, "A certain man gave a great supper and invited many.”

According to the Gospels, Our Lord did not have “a certain dwelling place.”  We know that He was itinerate; that is, He moved from place to place and called no one destination “home.”  Perhaps one could regard his parents’ house in Nazareth “home”, but the scriptures never tell us He went there, specifically. Why do we care? For this reason. Jesus truly embraced holy poverty.  Although we know he had mastered a trade, carpentry, we never see him working at it in any of the Gospels. This differs from St. Paul, who very clearly labored at his trade, tentmaking, to provide for his needs. Christ did not.  Instead, he depended on the hospitality of friends and strangers, maybe even adversaries, to eat and to lodge.  How different from the preachers and pastors of our day! Jesus had no multi-room mansion or manor home.  He didn’t have a private jet or limo to carry Him about. No. He and his disciples walked, slept outdoors and probably were hungry a lot of the time. One must recall the scene from the cable TV series The Chosen, where the disciples return to their homes after a missionary trip.  They are questioned furiously by their wives and mothers about their diet, which seems to be very lacking.

 

Thus, our Gospel scene is typical:  Our Lord is invited to hospitality at one of the Pharisees’ houses for the Sabbath meal.  As usual in these situations, the Pharisees “watched Him closely”, not out of admiration, but that they might entangle him in His talk.

 

This particular dinner, however, doesn’t seem that hostile.  Christ relates several parables, whereupon one of the guests proclaims, "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!"[i]  St. Augustine thought that this exclamation was both worthy and unworthy.  First, it was worthy for it was expressed in the context of Christ’s excellent teaching, as we read in the Bible.  Imagine what it must have been like in person!  Thus, it was a worthy point to be made.  Yet, almost in the same instant, Christ recognized it as being unworthy, for the motive behind it was the very topic of his next parable.

 

Christ did not respond to the man’s exclamation directly.  Instead he tells the party assembled that a “certain man” gave a supper and invited many. Luke tells us: "and (he) sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for all things are now ready.' But they all with one accord began to make excuses.”

 

Several commentators have noted how grievous it was to decline such an invitation in those days.  When a sheik or an emir made an invitation, the expectation for one to attend was great. These invitees, however, began to demur. The one had bought oxen; the other had just acquired a farm.  These two, notes Matthew Henry, could have done their testing and their inspection on another day.  As for the newlywed, this man evidently put more emphasis on pleasing his wife than on the invitation.  His excuse, at least on the surface, is the strongest of all.

 

Again Henry notes: “The cold entertainment which the grace of the gospel meets with. The invited guests declined coming. They did not say flatly and plainly that they would not come, but they all with one consent began to make excuse, v. 18. One would have expected that they should all with one consent have come to a good supper, when they were so kindly invited to it: who would have refused such an invitation? Yet, on the contrary, they all found out some pretence or other to shift off their attendance.”

 

The reaction of the ‘great man’ is both typical and atypical.  First, when told of his guests’ excuses, he becomes angry.  This is most understandable, especially when one of great importance does something for someone and the offer is spurned.  St. Augustine tells us that unrequited mercy stirs great wrath.  True enough.  For example, on a much, much smaller scale, how do we feel when we have kindly let another person in front of us in traffic, only to have that person fail to acknowledge our action, even with a wave of the hand?  Thus, the great man’s reaction is typical: anger.

 

His other reaction is atypical.  Instead of merely sulking and perhaps dining in solitude, he commands his servants to go out into the poorest parts of the city and bring in the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, in short, the most disadvantaged of society.  The rich and the favored were first invited, but they chose to decline the gracious invitation.

 

This being done, the lord is informed that his palace still has room.  Now, he commands his servants to go out into the highways and hedges and “compel them to come”, that his house may be full. The parable ends with a ominous note as the great man says, ”For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.” It is significant when one considers the audience of the parable. Of course, Christ is talking against the Pharisees and the other Jewish religious leaders. They are sitting with their long-awaited Messiah but fail to see it.  They have been invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb but have chosen to disregard the invitation. In a perfect fulfillment of Isaiah as quoted by St. Luke: that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.[ii]

 

This is evidence of further hardness of heart that began soon after the Exodus from Egypt.  The Lord told Moses before his death: “Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me…”[iii]  Thus, the ominous tone of the great man’s statement: “That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.”  Disobedience and separation go hand-in-hand.

 

Yet, the Jews did not see it that way. Having trusted in Abraham and Moses for their righteousness and thinking that scrupulous keeping the Law would ensure their favor in God’s eyes, they were bold, proud and impudent.  They were the Chosen People of God, a group set apart and wholly dedicated to God.  Yet, rather than spread the Law and the knowledge of God to all lands, the Jews built walls and fences, both literally and figuratively, to avoid contagion from the World. How telling are St. Paul’s last words in Acts 28:28: “Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.”

 

St. Augustine saw the excuses as various forms of pride.  The first man’s excuse, that of having bought five yoke of oxen, is an examples of pride in great possessions, for why the emphasis on five yoke of oxen?  He is simply bragging.  The next man has bought a farm and thinks that he must see it now.  Again, this is the sin of concupiscence as he must inform the messenger of his new possession.  The last man has married a wife, thus providing for the needs of the flesh over the needs of the spirit.  The point is not that he could not attend, but that he would not. Our Lord is very clear; when called to the Supper, we should hastily attend.

Let’s bring this back to us.  With the depiction of the Jews in the Scriptures, it is too easy  to cluck our tongues disapprovingly. Yet, here’s the reality of it: we all act that way.  The Jews are God’s Chosen People, meant to be an example to all mankind.  While they were to exhibit righteousness and be a beacon to all mankind to follow God’s Law, so often in the Scriptures they do the exact opposite of righteousness; thus they are examples of our human-ness, merely reminding all of us of our common human nature.  God uses the His People as the great object lesson for all mankind, both positively and negatively.

 

When we see those in this parable, rejecting God’s gracious invitation, or following their own way rather than the Will of God, or rejecting Christ in general, we need to ask ourselves, “How often have we done the same?”  How often have we ridden roughshod over the Spirit’s gracious invitations to be Lord over our lives?

How often have followed our own sinful inclinations, usually to our detriment?  In short, have we spurned God’s grace, thinking that we have a better way? 

 

The answer to this is rhetorical.  We must answer this in our most meditative and introspective moments. These moments can yield the most spiritual progress. For it is in these times that God speaks most clearly to us, if we will just be still and listen.  Listen to that small, still voice calling you to Him. Listen for those quiet, peaceful suggestions that lead you to greater knowledge of God and, at the same time, smooth the path before you. Seek to quiet the unruly condition of your souls by putting the bridle of the Holy Spirit upon them.

 

Then, be still and know that God is God. Amen.

 

 

 



[i] Luke 14:15

[ii] Luke 8:10

[iii] Numbers 32:11-12

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