With later instruction concerning their accommodations, Jesus adds “Stay in that same house, eating and drinking what they give you” (10:7a), and “Whenever you enter a town and the people welcome you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in that town and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come upon you!’” (10:8-9), the missional and messianic banquet aspect take center-stage. Looking a few lines ahead, we hear Jesus saying “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!” (10:23b), which neatly brings in the Abrahamic covenant component, tying together the concepts of mission, messianic banquet through meal practice, and covenant together, as we should come to expect.
Now, because those that look to Jesus as Lord are those that now occupy nearly the same position as Jesus’ disciples, the parable of the great banquet informs the church of its role, especially as Jesus is understood to be the master that is sending out servants (while the understanding of Jesus as servant still stands and informs the notion of Jesus working through His disciples by the Spirit), and when it is placed within the context of His kingdom mission which is nicely highlighted by the way in which He sends out His disciples to prepare the places that He intends to visit. The underlying sense of preparation, whether to prepare for the arrival of the king, or to prepare to heed the invitation to the banquet, is palpable and unavoidable.
For us, and for the church for all time (including the early church that included the Laodiceans), this means that we now find ourselves in the role of the servant carrying out the kingdom and banquet (two ways of communicating about the same thing) invitations to those that might be looked upon as the socially ostracized. Here, we note that those that are socially ostracized can run the gamut from rich to poor, and from wealth to poverty, as afflictions like leprosy did not recognize social boundaries (think of the story of Namaan and Elisha), the shame of having no children (or perhaps simply no sons) could be applied to rich and poor alike, and it is not even entirely inconceivable that one who was legally designated as a slave might still be able to build wealth for himself and could live a relatively decent life, though he was not free. Of course, this begs the question as to who is truly free, though this is not the time or the place for such considerations.
In the parable of the banquet, which seems to be performing a yeoman’s duty in its service of crystallizing our thinking as it enables us to rightly divide the issues at hand in Laodicea, we cannot help but notice that it is the servant who, on multiple occasions, identifies and points out the fact that there are empty chairs. Though it may not be worth muddying the waters, we shall do so anyway, as we can quickly point out an aspect of “sonship here,”, observing that the then-existent “son of God,” that being Israel, was not performing its duties of filling the chairs for the messianic banquet. Therefore, the Son (Son of God, Son of Man, Son of David, etc…) makes the scene of history so as to perform this task. This is done, whether by the servant or the Son, because it is known that the master desires a full house for his great banquet. This then, as we receive the message from Jesus through Luke as did the early church community, should be a supreme characteristic of those that are following Jesus. If we are not constantly cognizant of the available spaces that are still open and available within God’s kingdom and at His banquet, then we are failing in our duties.
Does this mean that we are to be aware that the gathering places of our congregations have empty seats that need to be filled so that all and sundry are able to hear the message that Jesus is Lord? Of course we are, but to limit ourselves to that awareness would be selling the Gospel of Jesus and the kingdom of God immensely short. More importantly, it means that we are to be a community of people with arms held wide in embodiment of the cross, willing to enter into pain and shame on behalf of all that have been made in the image of God, in recognition of the redeeming, renewing, restoring plan of our God that is being exercised through His son, the church. We are to be a community of people with hands outstretched, with those hands ready to be grasped in solidarity with the lowest of the low---with those whom the world counts as nothing. We are to be willing to suffer alongside those that suffer, recognizing that suffering is not limited to those who are obviously suffering, and that we are to be available to those occupying each and every stratum of society. By this the kingdom of God is demonstrated, the Abrahamic covenant is extended, the table is set, and Jesus is constantly enthroned. With all of this a primary concern of Jesus, who sought to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth, as was expected by Israel and its prophets, one has to wonder if this was a primary concern of the church at Laodicea.
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