The Great Banquet

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  Today I wanna talk about the paradox of grace paradox.

I believe life is more crushing and confusing when you refuse to embrace. Paradox. Uh, the wisdom of the lit of the Old Testament literature, uh, constantly reminds us that what appears contradictory is often actually complimentary. I imagine you’ve seen this at play in your life. I’ve certainly seen it at play in mine.

A couple of paradoxes that are hard to fathom, but really are true. As you must fail more, in order to succeed more, you move faster. Once you actually slow down, you find freedom. When you surrender control, life feels hard when you expect it to be easy, but life gets easier when you expect it to be harder.

Tim Elmore, he has this wonderful book on the paradox of leadership. He argues the best leaders throughout history are always full of paradox. They’re humble and they’re confident, they’re stubborn, and they’re open-minded. They’re timely. And they’re timeless, and I think this is why Jesus’s favorite teaching method again, pastor Caleb has mentioned over one third of Jesus’s teachings are parables.

I think that’s why his favorite teaching method was telling stories, because usually our brains, especially here in the modern age, it’s so black and white. We can’t really fathom things other than either or. And so it’s hard for us to understand complexity. But if you tell a story. Suddenly we can hold two opposing truths together at the same time.

That’s why I don’t know if you’re like me, but that’s why in a movie, I can find myself halfway through the movie telling my wife, why am I rooting for a bank robber to get away? What is happening here? Oh, it’s because the story makes me feel his humanity. I’m more compassionate because I understand his tragic backstory.

It’s this paradox I’m able to hold together in a movie. Yes, he’s deserving of punishment, and yes, he’s deserving of compassion, and that’s what Jesus does here in Luke 14. Not that he wants you to root for a bank robber, but. Come on. That’s funnier than it should. Come on, man. I’m rusty. The only time people laugh is when I tell them they should have laughed.

Praise the Lord. Okay, so I still appreciate the laugh. I’ll take it whenever I can get it. But what he does, as he tells stories, he gets you to hold these truths in tension. So what I want us to do is spend some time today studying the paradoxes of this parable. In particular, you may have heard this as the parable of the Great.

Banquet Now, before we dive back into line by line of the parable itself, I think we need to see the overall context of Luke 14. Luke 14 all happens in one setting, as we can tell, and we see that Jesus is at a prominent Pharisees house on the Sabbath, and so the beginning of Luke 14, Jesus is confronting their understanding of the Sabbath, but then these guests, these other Pharisees and noble ones, they’re fighting for the best seat in the house.

Jesus just sits back and notices everyone is exhausting themselves because they’re trying to exalt themselves in this culture. The closer you were to the host at the head of the table, the more worthy of honor you were. And so people were rushing there to get early, trying to vie for the best spot, and Jesus calls them out.

I saw this scene really play out in my own life. A few years back, I got invited to a prominent YouTuber event, uh, where it was in New York City. I got like Samsung to pay for my hotel. It was really cool, and it’s not ’cause I was important. It’s ’cause I knew someone who was important and they said, can you come with me?

I said, absolutely. So I had a great time, but I really do remember this. It’s not, this isn’t a lie. I know pastors like to lie sometimes to make a point. Truly, that morning before I went to this event in New York City, I read Luke 14 and in Luke 14 before what we read in this parable, Jesus says, Hey, everybody’s vying for the the seat.

Go sit at the worst seat. Go to the very end of the table because what if that host honors you and says, Hey, you way down there, come sit by me. But also, how, how humbling would it be if you go, Hey, you’re not supposed to sit here. You’re not that important. Go down there. So I remember me and my buddy, we went to the very end.

I mean this was, uh, you know, like 60 seats, uh, at a table here in like the special venue in New York City. So we go down to the very end and I say, guy, trust me, like Jesus said to do this. So we go down to the end of the table, well this is 60 seats. Well, only like 20 of the YouTubers showed up for lunch because they were all sleeping in, I would suppose.

And so it was so awkward. Everybody came in, they sat at the head of the table and we were just way in the back. No one talked to us. I made like no connections. And I said, Jesus, this is what I get for obeying you. You know? So that has a kind of something to do with the context, but it was just this vying this anxiety of getting for the best spot.

And so Jesus is like me standing there in the back. There it is. So standing there in the back of the room, recognizing the arrogance in the anxiety of this feast. And he introduces this paradox in verse 11. He says, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be ex exhaust exalted.

Yet another paradox. And so now the tension in this room is thick. Okay. Jesus isn’t here to play games. He’s not worried about popularity. And so I just imagine as I read verse 15, there’s this guy in the room and he doesn’t like the tension and he, so he tries to break it with some pleasantries, and he tries to just introduce in this awkward silence, the following line, when one of those who reclined at the table with him and heard these things, he said to him, blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

So now he’s thinking, good, I broke the tension. Everything’s back to normal. Let’s go back to our pleasantries and just all act fake together. But Jesus is here on a mission, and he uses that as a segue to telling one of the most surprising and subversive stories we see in all of the Gospel of Luke. And let’s read, uh, line by line again, just kind of understanding what Jesus is saying here in verse 16.

So then he told him, and thus the rest of the crowd. A man was giving a large banquet and invited many at the time of the banquet. He sent his servant to tell those who were invited, come because everything is now ready in this culture. You would receive what would be called a double invitation to an event.

So the first invite would say, Hey, there’s this thing, I have this party, this wedding, this whatever, and it’s a few months away. I need you to RSVP to me right now and let me know so I can get the proper arrangements settled. And so they would say yes or no. Now we got the guest list. The second invite, they come again and say, Hey, you already said yes, but since we don’t have I Cal notifications yet, I’m here to remind you you did RSVP and it’s today.

So come with me. We’re about to have this party, so this was all normal in the culture. They would’ve understood this. I feel like in our culture we send out like 18 notifications to remind you, right? But now the story takes a turn. Look at verse 18, but without exception, they all began to make excuses.

The first one said to him, I have bought a field and I must go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me. Another said, I bought five yoke of oxen and I’m going to try them out. I ask you to excuse me. And another said, I just got married and therefore I’m unable to come. When Jordan and I, uh, first got married, we were only 21 years old and I totally recommend it.

It was such a great decision, and we were trying to find other married people, friends, which. Most 21 year olds are not getting married. So they acted like we had the plague. So we had to like hang out with older people who did not yet have kids. We’re just trying to find, I just remember that stage of life so vividly.

So we finally found a couple from church, not our church. Praise God. Anyways, you’ll see where this is going. So we double date at this fancy restaurant and we all agree to get there by 6:00 PM I’m a van camp. That means I’m gonna get there at like five 40 at the latest because that’s what I do. I’m early for everything.

The day comes, I like to be a leader. So I send a reminder text, Hey, so excited to see you guys tonight. They said, we are too wonderful. We get there 15 minutes early. I text them, Hey, we’re here early for anybody else. Feel that like pressure, like I wanna let them know. ’cause I don’t know if they’re sitting in the parking lot waiting for me.

So I say, Hey, I’m early. But then they go, well I’m late and now it’s awkward. But anyways, I always do this. I’m here early, no rush, but I’m gonna put our name in. And he replied, and I’ll never forget this. And to verify, I asked my wife this week, she remembers this, even though this was 12 years ago.

Literally the text said, Hey, the wife and I don’t feel like hanging out with you tonight. Maybe next time, but I’m not sure we will be up for it. And I remember thinking I text you earlier that day, you said you were excited then I remember thinking, I thought about replying, saying, honestly, bro, lie to me.

Tell me you’re throwing up. Tell me you have diarrhea that you’ve never seen before in your life. Tell me you got your car broken. Like, I don’t care. I actually think it’s a holy thing for you to lie to me right now because I am destroyed. You don’t, you just don’t feel like hanging out with us. So we sat at this really fancy table for four with just us two, and we had the best night ever.

Now, when we read the bible. We typically read it so seriously and that’s probably a good thing, but this here is supposed to feel the same way. You’re supposed to be shocked. You’re supposed to realize these excuses are beyond silly. They are outrageous. Think about it. You don’t buy a field and then go see if you like it.

That’s what he is saying. Oh, I bought it. Not even on site, don’t even have Zillow yet, but I bought it and I want to go see if it’s a good property. No one does that. You don’t buy five yoke of oxen and then go, well, let’s see if these oxen know how to walk. You don’t do that. You also don’t RVP to an event and forget that you had a wedding the same day.

So everyone assumes actually, he’d just been married like a year ago. He’s just still milking that excuse. Anybody else, right? I remember when our kids were little, little, we milked that excuse for all that we can get. Sorry, kids can’t go to that thing. Can’t I wanna be invited? I just don’t want to go.

Right? Anybody else? I wanna feel important. I just don’t wanna go to the important thing. Okay? So anyways, this is the context here, and to quote my football coach in high school, excuses are like armpits. Everyone has them and they always stink, right? This is what’s happening here. These are three excuses that are honestly the most common reasons you and I avoid life with God.

It’s scary because we can’t really live with these things, or sorry, we can’t live without ’em. But oftentimes we can’t live with them. The first one, the first excuse is all about money and possessions. I bought a field and so I need to inspect it. I can’t go to this party. Of course, Jesus is hoping for us to make these biblical spiritual connections.

God, I can’t go to your feast. I can’t go to your stuff ’cause I’m so consumed in money and possessions. The second excuse is all about work and achievement. No, I can’t go because I bought these oxen that will help multiply my efforts and my career, and I gotta go work today. I gotta go try this out. The third one, of course, is about family and relationships.

I got married so I can’t do anything anymore. Now let me be clear. I think it’s nearly impossible. To live without possessions, work and family. It’s actually fascinating when you study the, the history of monks. It’s actually what they were trying to do. They were saying, well, if this is really the biggest temptations to life without God, maybe we’ll just say no to having family and saying no to having money and wealth.

Now, of course, not all of us can live in a monastery, and we can’t be monks. I think we’re called to be in the world, just not of it. And so I want to be clear here, money, work, family, they’re not bad. In fact, they’re good. But if they become ultimate, if they become the highest priority by which you say no to the things of God, that is now an idol and it will destroy your life.

Which leads us to the first paradox of this parable 📍 Paradox number one is the greatest blessings in life from God can become the greatest, greatest barriers to life with. That’s a paradox that’s hard to grasp without a story. So let me quickly give you another one. Think about Abraham and Isaac. If you know the story in Genesis chapter 12, God Promises Abraham a Son.

The hard part of this story is we just flip a few chapters and see that it happened, but decades between the promise and the child, there is so much time. And so Abraham is doubting. He’s wondering, will I ever have this promise child? In fact, they take matters into their own hands, and he sleeps with a concubine to try to just get a child of his own.

But then finally, in their old age where it seems impossible, God gave them the child of promise. He gave them Isaac, and now you would assume, as you’re reading Genesis Isaac’s untouchable. This is the biggest blessing from God. This has been a promise for decades in the making. And so this is from God alone.

And so Abraham needs to treat and honor and love and protect. Nothing messes with this greatest gift, but the greatest blessings can become the greatest barriers. So what does God do? He asks Abraham to sacrifice his son. So Abraham takes, Isaac goes up, Mount Mariah prepares him for the sacrifice. But those who know the story, God provides a ram with a crown of thorns and spares.

Isaac. Little gospel Truth. By the way, God the father doesn’t spare his son. But this story reminds us what Abraham knew. And this might be hard for us to grasp, but I’d rather lose my son than lose my God. If God is the one telling me to sacrifice, I have to trust him ’cause he’s God and I’m I. No, I can’t lose him.

I don’t wanna disobey him. Dallas Willard, you may have never heard of him before. My favorite author, professor Theologian, he summarizes this passage, this parable by saying 📍 one of the main things this parable is saying is that it’s the small but good things that defeat us guys. What small but good things are choking you out of the kingdom of God?

To be fair, we can get really too legalistic here. Even this weekend, I have a fun story to share. I had to battle with excuses. My family was gifted kind of last minute, earlier this week. Uh, tickets to the Diamondbacks game last night. And um, but we also last night had Founder’s Day. Uh, we had a booth, uh, so that we were able to kind of share the gospel to people.

I’m so proud of our church, our team who were there last night. And so I was in a dilemma. Do I go to this gifted, uh, you, I’ve been talking about how I would love family time. We were talking about how we’d love to go to a game one time, uh, but or do I go to this church thing and most usually 98% of the time I say, well, forget the gift.

We’ll just go to this church thing. But I’ve been convicted. We’re kind of in a new growth season where like, I need to shift into empowering our people to do more. I reached out to Whitney Whitney’s like, no, that’s kind of the point. We’re trying to empower our people to do the witnessing. And so I was wrestling honestly, though.

God, with God, thank God. I’m talking about making excuses and my excuses. But I have a Diamondback game, you know? And so I can’t go share the gospel. So I wrestle with this tension. I say that to say like, I really do, in my heart of hearts, believe I made the right decision. We had a great time with family last night.

It was just a good way to kind of break from everything and we won. So I might be the good luck charm, whatever. Um, but, but our team did a great job. I heard about some incredible conversations and I keep thinking I probably, if I was there, a lot of people would’ve said, well just go talk to the pastor.

And it’s like, no, it was a great opportunity for people to actually practice witness anyways, you can tell I’m still a little bit guilty, so I’m like, trying to prove to you what I did was right. Anyways, I mention all that as an example to say we can get too legalistic and like sometimes guys, you need to like prioritize your family, you know, and there’s things that let, I can’t go to every event.

I can’t do everything. But also be careful at some point we make so many excuses. How many times have we actually sacrificed those things for the kingdom of God? That’s what we all have to wrestle with in our own way. The story continues in verse 21. So the servant came back and reported these things to his master.

Then in anger, the master of the house told a servant, go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city and bring in here the poor maimed, blind and lame master. The servant said, what you ordered has been done and there’s still room. Then the master told the servant, go out into the highways and hedges and make them come in so that my house may be filled.

Notice the how big heaven is, verse 24. For I tell you, not one of those people who were invited will enjoy my banquet. Scholars agree. There’s many multiple applications to this parable. That’s the beauty of storytelling. But one of them we cannot ignore is this, uh, this theological concept of the Gentile inclusion.

Just to speed you up real quick, the story of the Bible in the Old Testament was primarily that to the Israelites, to the Jewish people. And then though Jesus is now introducing Isaiah Prophesies, this Genesis 12 prophesies this, but it’s eventually for the sake of the whole world coming into the kingdom.

And so now this story is saying all of these Pharisees who grew up with the Bible, who were given this invite time and time again, they’re not actually in the kingdom, but those far off people, those people who are pagans, these Gentiles, they’re going to be brought in the Pharisees can’t imagine. That these gentiles are invited, that these outsiders are now insiders, that these rejected ones are now the received ones.

And that’s the beauty of the gospel for us. We don’t struggle with gentile inclusion. Most of us are gentiles in this room. If you don’t know what that is, if you’re not of Jewish ethnicity, then you are a Gentile. But aren’t there still people we can’t imagine God allowing in? We still have categories of poor who have nothing to offer our church, nothing to offer the kingdom.

Why would God allow them in the maimed? Those who have been cast aside, you’re of no benefit to our society. You, there’s nothing you smell. You know, I just don’t want you the blinds. We have arrogant and ignorant blind people who make so many stupid statements, and God forgives those people and brings them in.

This parable is supposed to confront all of us. With paradox number two, 📍 the gospel of Jesus is radically exclusive and radically inclusive at the very same time. It’s exclusive because friends, there’s only one way to the Father, and that’s through his son. To be more clear, there’s only one way into the kingdom of God, and that’s through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

It’s not through your good works. It’s not through worshiping any other idol or savior. It’s Christ alone, but it’s so inclusive at the very same time. ’cause anybody, no matter your past, your background, what you’ve done or not done, all of your baggage, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

But what hits me as I wrestled with this passage this week is verse 24. ’cause Jesus is excluding those who ignore the invitation. He says, they’re not gonna enjoy my banquet. Our doors are shut to them. Friends. What this means is that Jesus, Jesus’ grace is real. So is his judgment. Klein Snodgrass one of the most amazing names of all time.

He has a incredible commentary on the parables. He puts it this way. 📍 Grace is only grace if the outcome should have been otherwise. We may not like judgment, but it is a central and necessary message of both Testaments and especially of Jesus’s teaching. Can I just be honest? There will be a time when it’s too late to say yes to His grace.

I think possibly more than any culture in history, I’m pretty confident of this. We struggle accepting finality. We even create conspiracies outta nowhere to escape reality. Sadly, just this week I saw people do just that, convinced that Charlie Kirk was somehow still alive. I think it’s what’s been so hard is you see videos of him and then you hear that he’s dead and it’s so hard to compute a 31-year-old man.

No way. See, we are so used to avoiding pain and certainly avoiding death. We don’t know what to do with it when it just stares at us right in the face. So please hear me. When death comes, there’s no longer a second chance. And if what we’ve learned the last few weeks is none of us know when we will die, and it’s probably sooner than most of us think, and according to this parable.

How you respond to this invitation of Jesus will be sealed for eternity. That’s why there’s urgency in the master’s voice. There’s still more room. Go out, get more. You gotta go to the highways and hedges and the alleys. He’s saying, have you thought about all the nooks and crannies? There’s a sense of urgency.

Friends, there’s a fourth quarter sense of urgency. We don’t have much time left. This party’s about to start. Let’s compel them to come in. Let’s persuade them. Let’s be bold. Let’s be courageous, because here’s the truth, and it doesn’t matter if you wanna believe it or not, it’s still the truth. Once that door is shut, it’s shut.

But there’s a truth hidden in this parable that the first guests ignored. But I don’t want you and I to overlook it. Look at 📍 paradox number three, to come and dine with Jesus. Is to come and die with Jesus. The first guests were like, yeah, I’ll go to that party in a few months. I’ll feast with you. But the moment he comes back and says, okay, now’s the time to die, now is the time to actually sacrifice and forsake all of your other agendas.

It’s about this. No, I don’t want to go see. The gospel is about dying to any other competing allegiance, and here’s what’s crazy. Even if it’s family, even if it’s money or career, and I will say pastoring this church for a decade, it breaks my heart to see the people who seem to have so much devotion, but a family member persuaded them or more money changed their schedule, or they pursued a career and they never came back into the kingdom how they were before.

I’m not here to declare their eternal state, but it still breaks me. And that’s why Jesus goes on to say in 📍 📍 Luke 14, verse 26, if you wanna be my disciple, you must, and I love this line in the NLT, by comparison, hate everyone else. So it’s a misunderstanding. Following the gospel means you just hate your mom and dad.

That’s not what he’s saying, but he’s talking about loyalty and allegiance. It should be so much love for Jesus. It almost looks like hate because you only follow him and him alone, your own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.

And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. It’s not even a morality statement. He’s saying, it’s just reality. It’s not, you should not be my disciple or it’s gonna be harder to be my disciple. You just can’t. So to be clear again, I actually think following Jesus transforms your love and you love your family to an even deeper and greater degree, but your ultimate devotion to Christ alone.

Causes you, even if your family says, stop doing this. No, I, I follow Jesus. I know you’re telling me not to go to church as much, or not to share the gospel or not to be as bold. I follow him. I can’t. And to follow Jesus is not that you said yes to an invitation once. It’s that you have died to your old life in ways.

It’s surrendering all at the feet of Jesus. Nothing’s off the table like Abraham, even your own son. I’m willing to die to my will, to my comforts, my dreams, even my own family. And that’s what’s so hard for our cultural moment. Are you ready for the last paradox? This one’s pro. Probably the hardest for us to understand.

📍 Grace is free and it’ll cost you everything.

Brothers and sisters. Grace is free. We have no right to enter into the banquet of heaven. We ruined that. When we grabbed the fruit in the garden, we broke the feast.

Friends, you and I we’re poor. We can’t repay the host. We can’t return the favor of our own party. Later on, guys, we’re crippled and lame. We, we have to be carried in by Christ himself. It’s not our own strength that gets us there. Guys. We’re blind, left to our own devices. We make bad things worse. But Jesus, in his grace, he, he brought us into the light.

He gives a sight. But church grace will cost you everything day by day, saying no to the passions that wage war within you. Yes, he will be forgiven when you fall off, of course, but. Let us not forget. Grace will cost you everything it means to say no to greed. It means to say no to prestige and popularity.

It means you will lose family and friends who call you narrow or outdated. That’s part of it. You’ll probably miss out on promotions in the workplace because of your integrity or refusal to stab people in the back. You will lose near me hours of freedom every weekend because you serve a portable church.

This is what happens, friends. Grace costs you everything. That’s why Jesus goes on in Luke 14 and he says, before you sign up, I want you to count the cost. And yet, and here’s the part that I love Dallas Willard for. He reminds us when we count the cost, we will find it was no cost at all. He puts it this way.

📍 We can never measure the cost of discipleship unless we have measured the higher cost of non discipleship. Which includes the likelihood of spending the rest of our lives being dominated by hatred, resentment, and other afflictions. Discipleship to Jesus allows us to to live lives full of love, joy, hope, peace, and confidence in God.

Instead, brothers, I have counted the cost and it is so worth it when Christ comes back. The scriptures say in Revelation 19, we will be hu ushered into an actual banquet. And I promise you, you won’t regret any of the sacrifices you made while you’re here on earth. I believe at that table, we won’t be nursing our wounds, we will be lifting our hands.

We won’t be counting our losses. We will be rejoicing in our inheritance. We will lay everything down at the feet of Jesus in complete adoration. We will praise God that we were given a seat at his table. And again, don’t hear me wrong. I’m not saying you earn your way to the table. No, no, no, no, no. It’s free.

But you really know that you’ve received this free grace if it begins to cost you everything else. And so I wanna honor this parable by meditating and reflecting on this together. So I invite you right now to stand with me as we respond. I have four reflection questions, and I just want us to be honest with God and be able to say, maybe this is none.

Maybe none of these questions hit you, but maybe it will. Holy Spirit come. As we reflect with these four questions, show us who we are and what we need to do next.   📍 The first question I want you to wrestle with. 📍 📍 Is have I said yes to come and dine with Jesus, but no, to come and die with Jesus?

Maybe to help with your attention. If you need to close your eyes, just honestly wrestle with God. Am I the type of person who said yes to that initial invitation? But when push comes to shove, I say, no.

Let me encourage you. Today is the day of salvation. Today. You can put your whole yes on the table. This isn’t a question meant to condemn you, it’s just to wake us up to reality. 📍 Second question, though, have blessings from God turned into barriers with God?

If something came to mind, I just ask you to lay it at his feet. Sometimes it means you walk away from whatever this blessing was. Other times though, it’s just a heart of surrender that he needs and you’re able to receive it back, but in a different perspective. And a, you’re leaning on him, not on this blessing.

Holy Spirit teach us the difference. 📍 The third reflective question, am I called to be the servant who goes out to the least of these?

Our church has been on a journey of practicing witness friends. I would say the answer should be yes. We are called to go to the least of these, to those you’d think would always say no to God. No. We’re called to go in boldness and share with courage about this good news of grace.

📍 The last question’s hard. Am I too proud to admit that I am the poor, maimed, blind and lame? Who needs the invitation to God’s feast?

Friends, there’s no shame. If your answer is yes, we’re in a room full of people who’ve said yes before, and we still without Christ, we are poor, maimed, lame, and blind. But with him. We be given life and life in abundance

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