Luke 14:12–24

Bible Studies for Life
Adjunct Professor of Biblical Perspectives, Samford University

Hospitality

Luke 14:12–24

A friend of mine has been quietly ministering to a man with Asperger’s Syndrome for the past several years. He frequents her workplace, always alone. He comes and sits there because his house is empty and watching people mill about helps him feel less alone. Many good, undoubtedly kind Christian people see this man every day yet my friend is the only person who has reached out to this man. She has helped him organize his house. She walks with him so he can get exercise. And every Thanksgiving for the past several years he comes to her house. I once told her that it takes a special kind of person to show that kind of love. Her response was humble: “Any kindness I have shown him is from God. And I honestly believe that I am called to help this man.”

Invite others to your feasts. (12–14)

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus told a parable about a great feast and as is typical of Luke’s Gospel the emphasis is on the poor, the downcast, those nobody seems to care about. Luke’s is an ethic of hospitality and Jesus tells stories centered on wealth and poverty in the book (e.g. Luke 16:19–31). Even in Luke’s version of the Beatitudes he amends Matthew’s statements, “blessed are the poor in spirit” and “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt. 5:3, 6), to “blessed are the poor” (Luke 6:20–21) and “blessed are you who are hungry now.” Luke’s concern seems to be that the kingdom of heaven should be not only ethereal but rather something that transforms social situations now, “on earth as it is in heaven.” When Jesus tells the parable about a great feast, He does so within the context not only of the coming kingdom of heaven and those who will turn away but also within the everyday here-and-now realities of individuals who are in need. The social and theological ethic of Jesus is both eschatological — looking to the end — and also enmeshed in the physical, earthly “stuff” of the here and now. Those individuals who are poor and downcast are to be included, invited in, now.

Invite others to the King’s feast. (15–24)

When reading the parable of the great feast in Luke, I can’t help but ponder the social and religious ethic found in the epistle of James: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27). For James, religion is not abstract. A person’s religion, faith or relationship with God is expressed in the concrete realities of life here on earth. James goes on to admonish his readers not to show partiality between rich and poor, the socially connected or the down-on-their-luck (James 2:1–9).

Sometimes by inviting others into our homes and our lives, we invite them to God’s feast. Loving God and loving neighbor, after all, are virtually interchangeable. When we show grace to others in the name of God we are demonstrating our love for God.

Jesus’ parable also is a warning to those of us who are already invited to the feast not to forgo the invitation. Like the Church at Laodicea we cannot think we are already too rich. We must open the door to Jesus knocking or calling us to the feast in order for Him to come and eat with us (Rev. 3:17–22). We are called like my friend to invite others to join but we also are called to accept our invitation in humility and gratitude.