WELCOME THEM - SO THAT MY HOUSE MAY BE FULL

Who is welcomed into your home especially if they are unexpected, unannounced and unknown? As Jesus travelled around Israel He often told a story which His disciples would have repeatedly heard. It was the story of a nobleman who was hosting a great banquet in his large home and had invited other nobles (his countrymen) to be his guests. But one after another each made a weak excuse for not attending. The nobleman then told his servant to go and invite the outcasts to be his guests instead.

But He said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.
And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited,
‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses.
The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it.
Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen,
and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’  And another said,
‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’
So the servant came and reported these things to his master.
Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant,
‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’
And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
Luke 14:16-23

I wonder if this nobleman hosting this banquet had a family? If so, how might they have felt seeing the homeless, the unwashed, the less-abled, and the uncouth come to this banquet in their large and pristine family home? How would they have felt seeing their father heartily greeting and embracing these strangers as they came into their home? This parable reveals something shocking about who Jesus is. While many of Christ’s parables are clearly about Him – is this parable? If Christ is in this parable, which of the characters portrays Him? The noble? The servant? The formally invited? The outcasts who actually and gladly came to the banquet? Perhaps this parable is about Christ’s church – His followers? Let’s consider these options and who Jesus was addressing this parable to.

 

WHO IS WHO?

The Nobleman?

Could the nobleman represent Christ? In this parable the nobleman is wealthy and enjoying the trappings of wealth. We see that he was generous, and hospitable. Certainly these are qualities of Christ. We also see that the nobleman was rejected. Christ was also rejected. “He came to His own” John tells us, “and His own did not receive Him!” (Jn. 1:11). We discover that the nobleman is deeply compassionate man who cared for the despised. This too was trait of Christ (Mark 6:34).

The Servant?

If the nobleman was Christ, then it might follow that the servant was His Church (comprised of His followers). After all, the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) certainly resembles the charge that the nobleman gave to his servant. But could it be that the nobleman in Christ’s parable is actually the Father? In which case, this would make the Servant Christ Himself. The Old Testament prophets certain foresaw the coming messiah as the Servant of the Lord (Isa. 52:13; 53:11). 

The Invited Countrymen?

The guests originally invited to the banquet were very familiar with the nobleman. Perhaps they were too familiar. Their familiarity failed to recognise what they were being invited to and who it was who was inviting them. Their pathetic excuses bear this out. It may have been that Jesus was sounding a warning to Israel – especially its nobles (Priests, Pharisees, Sadducees) not to too quickly dismiss His invitation to come to the Father’s banquet. Despite being very religious, these member of the Jewish ruling council (the Sanhedrin) did not know God!

The Outcasts?

The outcasts of society – the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame – gladly accepted the offer of the nobleman. Coincidentally, these are ones whom Jesus frequently ministered to (Matt. 11:5). 

 

WHO ARE WE?

We are not the nobleman in this story. We could be the servant though. We could be the nobleman’s countrymen who each refused his banquet invitation (but I hope none of us will be). We certainly could also be the outcasts, if not physically, we should all come to realise that at least without Christ, we are all spiritually blind, deaf, crippled and lame. And if we do realise our parlour spiritual condition without Christ, we would surely be eternally grateful for GOD’s banquet hall invitation. But there are two other characters in this parable. Both are silent but both are integral to the parable. We are already told that the nobleman had a servant who served as his messenger. It is improbable that he didn’t have other attendants who would have waited on the surprised dinner guests. I hope that this group represents us. But there is one more “character” in this parable which features prominently in this story, albeit silently, the one identified by the nobleman as: “my house.”

We are the living house of the Lord (1Peter 2:5). More than any other character or character’s action in this story, it is the house of the house of the nobleman which reveals the heart of God. The house in this parable reveals who God is. It is spacious. It is not merely about having a people over for dinner, it is about hosting and even accommodating the homeless so that it becomes their home as well. C.S. Lewis captures this house in his third book in the Ransom Trilogy and calls it, St. Anne’s. It is a mansion where an odd collection of guests take up residence and working together they save the world. This is a beautiful picture of the church. It’s host, Dr. Edwin Ransom, is himself crippled, and welcomes old and young, the religious and the irreligious, the refined and even the most bearly refined – “Mr. Bultitude”. This representation of the church as a holy building comprised of redeemed people, is re-used in the story of the Good Samaritan where the Inn and its keeper is a place of acceptance, rest, and healing for the wounded and rejected. In First Corinthians, the apostle Paul calls the ragtag, motley crew, of slaves and free, males and females, Jews and gentiles, whom Christ has called into His Church, a “temple” (1Cor. 3:16-17). The apostle Peter further uses the picture of a house to describe Christ’s Church when he uses the motif of the rejected Christ who has an ever enlarging house to welcome, entertain, and accommodate the formally spiritually destitute, distraught, and delinquent — yet redeemed followers of Christ. This is the local church!

 

“So that My House may be full!”

This Sunday, which of the characters in Christ’s parable of the nobleman’s banquet will you emulate? Because whichever one you choose it will determine how you will welcome and serve the hurting, broken, lost, and lonely whom the LORD is sending into His house so that “My House may be full!”.

Your Pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.