Letter To Laodicea (part 52)

Going even further, these individuals of humble estate have now been exalted, whereas those that rejected the call to the meal, though they had previously confirmed their participation (struck a covenant if you will), are excoriated by the master.  The exalted are here humbled, as he says “not one of those individuals will taste my banquet” (14:24b).  Participation in the banquet would have confirmed their status in the community.  As it now stands, they have rejected the exaltation that was on offer.  Those that now participate in the meal, because the meal communicates the exaltation, are the exalted ones.  Effectively, the master has now brought about the physical embodiment of Jesus’ vision of the kingdom of God and the accompanying messianic feast.  Yes, in all of this, we never for a second lose sight of the vision of the messianic banquet, nor do we lose sight of the importance of banqueting and of what it communicated to the world around them, within the early church community.  Thus, we are also able to continue connecting this parable, as it fits within our examination of Jesus’ meal-events, with the words spoken to the church at Laodicea. 

We can only imagine the reactions of the surprised guests that are dining with Jesus, especially as they, in turn, imagine the universal surprise being felt by those to whom the dinner invitations have been extended.  As the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame went about their daily affairs, the last thing they expected to be doing on that day (while remembering that this is a parable and probably not a report of an actual event, but simply carrying through with the analogy it provides) would be joining in such a feast.  However, it does not stop there.  We go on to find out that “the slave said, ‘Sir, what you instructed has been done, and there is still room.’  So the master said to his slave, ‘Go out to the highways and the country roads and urge people to come in, so that my house will be filled.’” (14:22-23) 

Prior to this, the people hearing Jesus would probably have restricted their imaginations concerning the directive to gather in a new set of guests to those within or around the walls of the city or the gates of the community.  Now, with the servant having noticed the still empty chairs (Exactly how many people reneged on their promised attendance anyway?  How large was this banquet supposed to be?  Is there an endless amount of space?), and having communicated this to his master, he is sent outside the city walls in order to fill up the banqueting table.  The master instructs his slave to “urge” or “compel” people to come to the banquet. 

Why would he have to compel people to come?  The need for compulsion would stem from the un-believability of it all.  We can guess at the responses of the surprised subjects of the newly extended invitation: “An invitation to a meal?  I’m supposed to come to the house of an esteemed man within the community?  Why?  This can’t be right.  There must be some mistake.”  These people would represent those on the fringes of the sphere of social interaction, and here they are being launched into a place within the social hierarchy.  More unexpected exaltation is taking place.  Indeed, the master is reaching out to those that are already in the lowest place and saying “Friend, move up here to a better place” (14:10b). 

Though we have already looked at the twenty-fourth verse in the context of humiliation and exaltation, it presents itself again.  By way of repetition, we again hear the master saying, “For I tell you, not one of those individuals who were invited will taste my banquet” (14:24).  This statement actually functions on multiple levels.  This would have been obvious to Jesus’ hearers and to Luke’s original audience, but is obscured by the English translation.  The “you” in the statement of “For I tell you,” has actually become a plural in the Greek text.  We are able to hear it as “you all.”  So while we can hear it on the lips of the master, imagining that he is speaking to more than one slave, and perhaps even to all of the guests that have already been assembled at the banqueting table, we can also hear it on the lips of Jesus, as He here references Himself as the Messiah, thereby making the messianic banquet and kingdom implications extraordinarily clear to His assembled hearers.  Throughout the parable, if God is the master, then we are correct in presuming that Jesus (or the messiah) was the one occupying the position of the servant, doing so as the agent of the master’s invitation, from start to finish.  By the end of the parable, however, the banquet has become Jesus’ own banquet, thus enabling us to examine the previously referenced Christological implications that are here to be found.