As we listen to Jesus tell us about the response of the master that had planned the great banquet, let us be sure that the kingdom of God and the messianic feast are pressing themselves upon our thoughts. This is what both Jesus and Luke would expect. At the same time, we concern ourselves with our ultimate objective, which is determining an answer concerning the situation in the church at Laodicea and the various moving parts to the words on offer to that church, that we might come to an understanding of the specific issue that is being addressed (putting aside ambiguous, vague, and subjectively unhelpful notions of spiritual temperature) in a way that affects our practices in the area of making manifest God’s kingdom on earth.
So upon being informed that there were these individuals that were rescinding their previous agreement to attend his banquet, we find that “the master of the household was furious” (14:21b). This is to be expected, for there are many dynamics at work here in this honor and shame society. What would the man do? Those listening to Jesus would expect to hear about the master acting in a retributive manner---taking some type of actions against those who are attempting to shame him and rob him of his honor. The master would undoubtedly be confused at the situation at hand. Why would these people not want to confirm their invitations by attending his banquet? Had he done something to deserve this? Had they learned something about the banquet that made them not want to attend?
It is here that we need to widen the circle and bring in the theological aspects of what is taking place. If the ultimate master of the banquet is the God of Israel, and the banquet is the messianic feast, then what can be surmised based on what we know from the narrative that Luke has been providing? As we consider the charges of hypocrisy that have been leveled against the Pharisees and the experts in the law, as we consider the woes that Jesus has spoken towards them, and as we consider their presence at the banquet (hosted in the house of a leader of the Pharisees), do not the excuses being offered for the spurning of the master’s invitation begin to sound like “He eats with tax collectors and sinners,” and “if this man were a prophet, He would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner” (7:39b)---statements connected with Jesus’ presence at meals. We must remember that Jesus has already been reported to have said that those who should be invited to banquets are “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” (14:13b), and we can imagine that this is not the first time that Jesus has said such things when at a meal, and while presenting Himself within the context of the expectations concerning the messiah.
Jesus is not speaking in a vacuum, and the Gospel authors, including Luke, are always sure to inform us that Jesus is well aware of the things that are being thought and then said about Him, with relatively common statements such as “When Jesus perceived their hostile thoughts, He said to them, ‘Why are you raising objections within yourselves?’” (5:22) Based upon the Jesus that we know from the Gospels, it would be foolish to think that Jesus speaks this parable without excellent reasons for doing so.
It would probably be wise for us to think that He speaks with a purpose, offering a construct to deal with the thoughts and words that He is generating within the community of the people of God, and that Luke purposely inserts this parable here within his offering of Jesus’ life. Luke does this having made clear the importance of the goings-on and the teachings that surrounded Jesus’ table practices as Jesus is in the midst of a culture in which the expectations of messiah and the messianic banquet are paramount, and doing so within the early church that would have also, based on what would have been understood about the life of Jesus, been rightly concerned with table practices and the picture of the kingdom of God that such practices offered to the surrounding community, and with what those practices said about the One being claimed as Lord.
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