Parable of the Great Banquet Parable (Luke 14:7-24)

Thank you for joining me today for Wednesday in the Word with Krisan Marotta. What the Bible means and how we know. For more talks and study materials, visit wednesdayintheword.com. Today we're going to be looking at the Great Banquet Parable in Luke chapter 14, verses 7 through 24. If you're driving, jogging, or on a treadmill, you don't need to take notes to remember the details. I have lecture notes on my website, which you can find at the link below the podcast, or you can go to wednesdayintheword.com slash great banquet parable. Thanks for listening. In Luke 14, Jesus gives a series of parables in rapid succession, and all of them are set at a great banquet. The parables aren't as famous as some of the other ones that Jesus tells. They're relatively straightforward, so they tend to get overshadowed by other parables like the prodigal son, but I think they're very profound. We're going to start with Luke fourteen verses seven through eleven. Luke writes speaking of Jesus. Now he told a parable to those who are invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him. And he who invited you both will come and say to you, give your place to this person, and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, Friend, move up higher, then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at a table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. On the surface it looks like Jesus is giving us advice on how to avoid public humiliation. But Luke tells us this is a parable, and that clues us in that something else is going on. This is more than a simple story or straightforward advice. Because it's a parable, there's an analogy being made. There's a comparison between the situation in the story and something in real life, and that's the dynamic we want to figure out. Something in the dynamic of the story is like something in real life. So let's look at the setting. Let's go back to Luke fourteen, seven, and let's figure out the pronouns. Now he, that's Jesus, told a parable to those who were invited to this banquet they're at, when he, Jesus, noticed how they, the guests who were invited, chose the places of honor, saying to them. Now that's all the detail that Luke gives us. Jesus is at a banquet and he's speaking to the guests. Digging into the cultural background reveals that when a traveling rabbi passed through a village, the religious leaders would invite him to a meal during which they would question him on his theological and political views. So it's likely that's what's going on here. The elite, the religious leaders, the property owners, those of high social standing would be invited to this meal to honor the rabbi who has come to town. So Jesus is traveling through, and the religious and social leaders have invited him to a meal. Now in the Old Testament, the presence of a table at a meal seems to assume wealth or rank, and I think the same is true in the New Testament. So while Luke doesn't tell us, I suspect Jesus is addressing the Pharisees, the rich and the elite because of this practice of honoring a traveling rabbi with the meal, the mention of the table suggesting there's some wealth or rank involved, and the fact that he watches them come in and they're all seeking this place of honor. So Luke implies that Jesus is looking around at the guests, sees what's happening as they take their seats, and then tells this parable. Now we also need to know that at this time they didn't sit at chairs and they didn't use utensils. The peasants would recline on the floor, and the rich would recline on cushions or low couches. And they propped themselves up on one arm, and with the other hand they would dip a piece of bread into a common bowl, and each guest had their own loaf of bread, usually a flat bread, what we would think of as pita bread or something like that. They would tear a piece off and use that to dip into the bowl and then they put the whole thing in their mouth. Now one of the places at the table was considered the place of honor, and at a big banquet there would be several of these tables scattered around, and at each table there was one place that was considered the place of honor. And probably some tables held more honor than others because they were closer to the host, kind of like we have at wedding banquets today. So I suspect Jesus has been watching the Pharisees and the elite as they come into this banquet and noticing how they all kind of jockey for that place of honor. The dynamic of the story is fairly straightforward. He tells them when you go to a wedding feast or any kind of a feast, don't seek out the place of the highest honor. If someone comes along after you and the host says, Oh no no, you need to move down, that would be very embarrassing. Rather, take one of the lower places and allow the host to come along and notice that you're in a low place rather than a high place. Then you can let the host announce in front of everyone you need to be moved up higher. That way you'll not only be in a higher place, everyone will know that the host himself thinks you should be in that higher place. At first glance, this looks like advice on how to maximize your social status and avoid public humiliation. But notice how Jesus concludes this is Luke fourteen eleven, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. In the story, the one who exalted himself, the one who took the highest place of honor, was humbled because he was asked to move down to a lower place. On the other hand, the one who took the lower place was exalted because the host asked him to move up. I think the analogous reality to the parable is that the disciples of Jesus will seek the honor of others rather than seeking their own honor. So like the guests who take the lower seat, followers of Jesus will seek to honor others rather than seeking honor for themselves and they will wait for God to exalt them. Now Paul makes this point really clear in Philippians. Paul has been exhorting the Philippians to unity and encouraging them to flee from selfishness, and then he says this, this is in Philippians chapter two, I'm going to read four through eight. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count a quality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So Paul says in two four, look out for the interest of others, and then in two five he says you should have the same attitude that Jesus had when he did this certain thing. So Paul juxtaposes those two statements for a reason look out for the interest of others and have this same attitude that Jesus had. So what was the attitude that Jesus had? Well as a man, he was the visible representation of the invisible God. Did that make him puffed up or arrogant? No. Or to take the language of the parable, did he claim the seat of honor for himself? No. Now think about that. If any man on earth could claim superiority and excellence and put himself first, it would be the man Jesus, because he was the visible representation of the invisible God. He had the right to claim authority and power and the right to call the shots. He had the right to speak for God and to be Lord and Master and to expect us to serve him. Yet, quite to the contrary, he served us. He didn't consider himself the equal of God, though of course in a sense he was, but he didn't use that equality for his own personal gain, rather he humbled himself to the point of death on a cross. So what attitude is Paul telling us to emulate the humble attitude of the man Jesus who had every right to claim the position of Lord and Master, but instead chose to serve and to sacrifice for others. Now Jesus concludes the parable for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted, and I think we need to take him very seriously here. This is more than good advice. I think he's talking about eternity in the kingdom of God. The exaltation, the analogous exaltation to the parable is the reward of eternal life, and the humbling will be the destruction of judgment. If we don't humble ourselves, we will not have a place in the kingdom of God. If we think we're good enough on our own to earn our salvation and to merit a place in the kingdom of God like the Pharisees, then we're foolish. Ultimately, those who humble themselves before God, who realize they need a savior and the mercy of God are going to find eternal life, and anyone else who exalts himself, who thinks he's righteous enough, who thinks he's good enough on his own, is going to be humbled. But I think the parable makes an additional point. If we let the parable impact us, we have to ask the question, well, how could I possibly do that? What would make it possible for me to have the freedom and the ability to take this attitude of humility and place myself in a lower seat? The given is I want to be glorified. If I'm honest at all about myself, I have to realize that I'm normally selfish. I want that place of honor. I want other people to notice how good I am. So on what possible basis could I take the place of humility knowing that, well, deep down inside, I really want to be exalted? Well, the answer is we have to trust the host. The only way we could follow Jesus' advice in this parable is if we trust that the host is going to exalt us. That's the only possible way. And I think that's the real point of the analogy. On what basis can we followers of Jesus go through our lives seeking to give glory and honor to others rather than trying to grab it for ourselves? Well, we can only do that if we trust the host of heaven, so to speak. We can only take that humble attitude if we trust God is looking out for us, God is in control, and God has a plan. If we don't trust Him and we don't trust the promises of the gospel, then of course we're going to look out for ourselves. So if I don't believe or understand that, then of course I'm going to rush in and try to take the highest place of honor and probably knock over anyone who gets in my way. But if we trust that God has our back, that as the host he will exalt us at the proper time, then we don't have to protect ourselves. But if we don't trust him, then the only way we can secure glory is by grabbing it for ourselves. And that's the difference between the believer and the unbeliever. Believers trust that God has every intention of fulfilling his promises and blessing us. We trust the promises of the gospel and like the story, we can take the lower place and wait for the host to act. We trust that one day God will make us holy and righteous and worthy of praise and honor. So if I trust the promises of God, then I don't need to spend my time grabbing glory and honor in this life. I don't need it. I'm looking forward to the fulfillment of a better promise. Then Jesus tells another parable. This is in Luke 14, we're going to pick up in twelve through fourteen. He also said to the man who had invited him, When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Again, at first reading this looks like practical advice on how to give a party and how to win friends and influence people. So what's Jesus trying to tell us? The dynamic of the story is when you throw a party, invite the social outcasts, invite the folks who are marginalized and considered losers, the ones who have absolutely no social standing to offer you. And we all know the kind of thing he's talking about because we all want to make friends with folks who can help us out. We want to know the people who can lift us up the social ladder. We want to be friends with the cool kids because being friends with them makes us cool too. We want to run with the in-crowd, we want to network with the people who can further our careers, and we want to be seen with the beautiful people of the world because that means we are the beautiful people of the world. Now, most of us don't find self-sacrifice easy. Genuinely giving without expecting something in return is not something that comes naturally to us. When we're kind and compassionate to others, we usually want something in return. We want others to be kind and compassionate back, and even if we don't expect return consideration, at least we want them to notice and appreciate how kind and compassionate we've been. So at the very least we want their admiration, their appreciation, and their praise for how well we're treating them. We at least want that much payback. And Jesus is saying, go out of your way to love and serve those people who have absolutely nothing to offer you in this world. Befriend them. Invite the ones who can't give you any social status, who can't give money to your cause, who won't be able to add to your political power. Befriend those people who the only possible reason you have for befriending them is that you might love and serve them. His advice is in this parable is basically don't love other people for the payback, love the people who can't possibly pay you back. Now remember this is a parable. He's saying, like the compassionate host in the parable, the followers of Jesus will love those who don't love them back. The followers of Jesus will serve those who have nothing to offer them and who can't serve them back. In other words, they will love their neighbors as themselves and even love their enemy. Now like the last parable, we have to ask, how can we possibly follow this advice? None of us are the kind of people who naturally love our enemies. What would have to be true for me to be the kind of person who could do this? Well, the only person who could follow this advice is the one who is content with the reward that has already been promised him or her in the gospel. If I'm content and counting on the promises of the gospel, if I value the things of God more than the things of this world, if I've set my heart on the kingdom of heaven, then I'm free to let go of the rewards and the payback in this life. I can give and serve with abandon because I know what's in my future and I've set my hope on the promises of the gospel. If I trust that God in his mercy is going to grant me the blessing of eternal life, why do I need social standing or power or prestige now? The only thing that's truly important has already been promised me. Why would I be interested in this lesser kind of payback now? I have the promise of eternal life guaranteed by the blood of Christ. So I already have the thing that is truly going to fulfill me and the only thing truly worth having. That gives us as followers of Jesus the ability to love and to serve others without the expectation of payback. If we trust the promises of the gospel, we don't need what these other people have to offer because we know what we have in our inheritance that has been promised to us. Now, that's an incredibly high standard of love which none of us carry out apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And remember, this is a parable. This is not a test to see if you are worthy. None of us are worthy. We've already failed that test. This parable in part forces us to confront the reality that we're really not that kind of person. And so my plan A of showing God how worthy I am has failed, and I better start looking for plan B and realize I need a Savior. Then he tells another parable, and we're going to spend most of our time on this one. This one starts in Luke 14, 15. When one of those who reclined at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. So when one of the guests who was reclining at the table with Jesus heard him tell these two parables, this man says, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. To eat bread is an idiom for sharing a meal, and blessed means really, really fortunate, or we might say lucky today. To be blessed is to have an incredible advantage. It's an incredible advantage to be this way. So the listener is saying how fortunate it is for everyone who will dine in the kingdom of God. And he probably assumes he's going to be one of those folks at the divine table. So he's probably thinking, Blessed is everyone like me who's going to partake of this feast. Now remember this setting. The religious leaders of the village have invited Jesus, the traveling rabbi to dinner, and they want to question him on his political and his theological views. He's a teacher, they want to know what he thinks. So the other guest makes this opening statement to give Jesus a chance to share his views on the topic of the Messianic banquet. They understood the final fulfillment of the kingdom at the end of history to include this great banquet with the Messiah, which was known as the Messianic Banquet, and one of the places we find this idea is in Isaiah twenty five, six through nine. Let me read that for us. The Lord of Hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain, a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces of marrow and refined aged wine, and on this mountain he will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and he will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken, and it will be said in that day, Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited, let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. Here the prophet Isaiah announces that salvation is coming to the people of God, and when it comes, God's people are going to rejoice greatly and say, We have been waiting a long time for this, and that salvation involves the Lord removing and destroying the veil that stretches over all the nations and swallowing up death. He's not saying Israel will be rescued from her enemies and escape death and destruction that her enemies bring. He's saying God will remove the veil that covers all the nations and swallow up death for all time. He's going to remove the sin and guilt or the reproach of his people from all the earth and sin and death will be gone. And this salvation is described in terms of a great banquet which is for all peoples and nations. Notice the word all is repeated five times in three verses. And the veil is not just removed, it's destroyed, it's swallowed up. Ordinarily guests would bring gifts to the host, but here the guests bring nothing. The banquet is a gift of pure grace. Now between Isaiah's time and the time of Jesus, the idea that all the Gentiles or all the nations would be included in this Messianic banquet got lost. If you trace the idea of the Messianic banquet through the Jewish writings between the intertestamental period up to the time of Jesus, first the inclusion of the Gentiles gets dropped, and eventually it turns into a picture of only those who are worthy and without blemish are invited to attend this bank. So assuming this guest sitting here with Jesus reflects the understanding of the day, he's saying something like May we be among the righteous and be counted without blemish so that we are worthy to sit at the table on that great day when the kingdom of God comes. And he probably expects Jesus to answer in kind about how worthy we are who keep the law. So his outburst is an invitation for Jesus to say something like, Oh that we might precisely keep the law so that when that great day comes we will be counted as worthy to sit with the Messiah and all the true Jews at his banquet. Well instead, Jesus tells this parable as a rebuke or a warning that not everyone who's been invited is actually going to eat at that banquet. Let me read through the parable and then we'll go back and look at the details. I'm going to start in verse sixteen. But he said to him, that is Jesus to the guest, a man once gave a great banquet and invited many, and at the time for the banquet he sent his servants to say to those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready. But they all alike begin to make excuses. The first one 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 the crippled and the blind and lame. And the servant said, Sir, what you have commanded has been done, and there is still room. And the master said to the servant, Go out to the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled, for I tell you, none of those men who are invited shall taste my banquet. Again, this story is fairly straightforward. The host, this great man is having a banquet. He sends his servant to gather those who've already received an invitation, but they all make excuses and decline to attend. So let's go back and look at the details. Going back to verse sixteen. 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. So a great banquet is naturally hosted by a great man. The guests would be his peers and associates, and accepting his invitation was considered a firm commitment to attend. So the host would send out invitations and he would receive back acceptances, and then he would decide on what he's going to serve. So if only two to four guests were coming, he might butcher a chicken. But if five or eight were coming, he might butcher a goose. Or if there were ten to fifteen, maybe a lamb or a sheep for fifteen to thirty five, and maybe a calf for over thirty five. So the decision on what to serve is based on the number of acceptances. Once the countdown is started, it can't be stopped. So the appropriate animal is killed and prepared and must be eaten that night. The guests who accepted are duty bound to appear. So he sends his servant out with the news, come everything is ready. And we still see this double invitation today. So first the invitations are sent out by phone or by mail. On the day of the party, the guests would be gathered in the living room until that magical moment when the host appears and announces the food is on the table, please come into the dining room. So imagine a scene today in which the guests arrive and they're seated in the living room, and then the host invites them to take their places at the dining room table, and the first one says, Oh, sorry, I have to mow the lawn, and he leaves. And the second one says, I have to feed the cat and leaves. And finally the third one says, Oh, sorry, I have to wash my hair, and they all walk out the door. That's the situation in this parable. These excuses are ridiculous, and they are highly offensive, and they are rude. And Jesus is making the point that it is not a matter that the guests cannot come. It's a matter that the guests don't want to come. They don't want to be at the dinner, and the excuses are ridiculous. So let's look at those. fourteen eighteen, but they all alike begin 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. Well no one buys a field without first walking over every square inch of it. They would know every hill and every valley, every spring and every well and every tree and blade of grass. And all of that would be noted in the contract before it was signed. This is the equivalent of saying, you know, I just bought this house by text message and I need to go see what kind of neighborhood it's in and whether or not the roof leaks. No one does that. You inspect it first. Look at the next one. And another has said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine them. Please have me excused. Well teams of oxen were sold in one of two ways. Either the oxen would be taken to the marketplace, and there was a small field next to the marketplace where they could demonstrate the ability of the oxen to pull together and how strong they were, and buyers could try them out. Or the farmer would announce his team was for sale, and on the designated day, buyers would come to his field, and the oxen would be there and they could try them out to see how strong they were and whether they could pull together and so forth. Either method used, all of this was done before you even started negotiating a price. So this is the equivalent of saying, you know what, I just bought five used cars off Craigslist and I'm on my way over to see what kind of make and model they are and if they'll even start. No one does that. This is a ridiculous excuse. And then the last one and another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. Now this excuse is really offensive. First, the man cannot be that recently married. He couldn't have just gotten married this day because no village would schedule two feasts on the same day. If there was a wedding scheduled for today, then the banquet would be on a different day. So he has to have been married a while. But even if the wedding was in the past week, this man's speech is crude. The ancient Middle East had strict rules about talking about women in a dignified and respectful manner, and in a formal setting, a Middle Eastern man just did not talk about his wife this way. To say I can't come because I'm busy with my wife enjoying marital bliss is highly rude and offensive and inappropriate. You just don't talk about such things in polite company. So the host's anger is reasonable and justified. He has been publicly insulted and he's been publicly offended. And this looks like a conspiracy among the guests to humiliate him. These coordinated, lame excuses are designed not only to offend the host, but to make him cancel the banquet after all the preparations have been made. So the question hanging in the air is what's this host going to do with his anger? What's he going to do in response? He has every right to retaliate with verbal insults at least, or to threaten some action that will punish his guests who have attacked his personal honor in public. If he seeks to shame and discredit them, the village would see that as perfectly justified. But that's not what happens. Look at verse twenty one. So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to the servant, Go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame. The host responds with grace, not vengeance. He turns to the outcasts of the village, the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame from the city. The original guests, the worthy, are confident that this banquet cannot proceed without them, but not so the unworthy are invited. The host is not indebted to the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. They can offer him nothing in return, no payback, no social standing. His offer to them is an unexpected, visible demonstration of love that expects nothing in return. So what we have here is Jerusalem's children have rejected his invitation, so the offer goes to the outcasts of Israel in a demonstration of grace. The story goes on, and the servant said, Sir, what you have commanded has been done, and still there is room. And the master said to the servant, Go out to the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled, for I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. The host now seeks guests beyond his community. The second round of guests to be invited were the unworthy from the city. Now, however, the host sends his servant to the highways and the hedges. He is to invite people from beyond the town. The highways are the well traveled roads, and the hedges are the narrow, less traveled footpaths, usually by stone walls. The comparisons then become obvious. He's making a comparison between the original guests and the response of the Jews, especially the elite of his day to Jesus. Here is Jesus standing before the religious leaders of his day. He's teaching and healing in their midst. He's telling them the kingdom of God is at hand, come and join the feast. Now's the time, and what is their response? No, we don't want to do that. We're not interested in your kingdom. So he invites another round of guests, the unworthy, and these are analogous, I think, to the non Pharisees, the non leaders. These would be all the poor, lowly folk who just didn't uphold the law as scrupulously as the Pharisees, and they were just plain sinners. These are the sinners and tax gatherers that Jesus is often found associating with, much to the disdain of the Pharisees. And then even worse, when there's still space left over, the master goes out to the highways and byways and brings in non Jews. Essentially that's the analogy there. Go out and bring the Gentiles in. And he concludes in fourteen twenty four, for I tell you, none of those men who are invited shall taste my banquet. Now there's some debate about who is speaking here. Is this the host in the parable speaking to his servant or has the parable ended and this is Jesus speaking to his listeners? You'll recall that there is no punctuation in the Greek text, so there are no quote marks, and the text is ambiguous. It could be read either way. I think the parable has ended, and this is Jesus speaking to his listeners. And the reason for me is that in the parable the master speaks to the servant using the second person singular you, you and you alone, you singular. But this phrase, for I tell you, is the second person plural, I tell all of you. And that makes me think Jesus is speaking to his listeners because he's switched to the plural. Now if that's true, notice the other pronoun shift. None of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. This great messianic banquet is hosted by Jesus, and the religious leaders listening to him are welcome to attend, but if they refuse, the banquet's going to proceed without them. It's going to proceed with the outcasts and the sinners and even extended to the Gentiles. So Jesus is telling the Pharisees, You were invited and you don't want to come, so you're not going to be there. Those who by their own choice reject the invitation of the host, shut themselves off from fellowship with the host, and eating at his table. You won't get to eat at this dinner you think is so blessed to attend. The people who will actually be blessed to eat at this banquet are the sinners and the Gentiles. And you aren't going to be there because you rejected the invitation. The sinners and the Gentiles will be feasting in your place. And by rejecting Jesus, the Pharisees are not able to stop his banquet, it's going to proceed without them. So to summarize, let's review these three parables. In the first parable, Jesus makes the point that his disciples will seek the honor of others rather than to honor themselves. So like the guest who takes the lower seat, the followers of Jesus will seek to honor others rather than seeking glory for themselves, and they will wait for the host to exalt them. So the exaltation will be the reward of eternal life, and the humbling will be the destruction of judgment. And the analogy is if we don't humble ourselves, we won't have a place in the kingdom of God. If we think we're good enough to earn and merit our salvation, and that God is required to give us a place in his kingdom because we're just such great people and we keep the laws so well like the Pharisees think, then we're foolish. And the only way we could follow Jesus' advice here is if we trust that God is going to exalt us. We have to trust that God has every intention of keeping the promises he has made in the gospel. He has every intention of blessing us, and like the guest in the story, we can wait for him to act and fulfill those promises. Then in the second parable, like the compassionate host in the parable who invited people to his banquet who couldn't pay him back, those who follow Jesus will love and serve those who don't love and serve them back. They will love their neighbors as themselves and even love their enemies. And the only way we could follow this advice is if we trust in what has been promised to us in the gospel. We have to be content with the reward and the inheritance promised in the gospel such that we're willing to forgo and let go of these lesser rewards of the prestige, power, payback, that kind of thing in this world. And then finally, the warning of the third parable, if you want to taste salvation, you have to accept the invitation to the feast. Those who reject the invitation, regardless of how worthy they consider themselves to be, will not ultimately eat at the messianic table. Their excuses are unacceptable and offensive to the host, but God in his grace extends the invitation to his feast of salvation to those who are who know they are unworthy, those who cannot pay him back and are not necessarily even physical descendants of Abraham. This banquet is a visible act of pure grace as the host invites those who aren't worthy and can't pay him back. And I think Jesus is telling them, look, God's Messiah is here. He's right here eating in your midst. He's inviting you to the Messianic banquet on that great day of salvation. The banquet is ready now, don't refuse, for if you do, with your silly and offensive excuses, others will take your place from among those that you consider outcasts and unworthy. The banquet is going to proceed with or without you. It will not be canceled or postponed. So accept the invitation now while you still can. You've been listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. My goal is to explain not only what a passage means, but how we figure it out. If you haven't visited my website, I encourage you to stop by wednesdayintheword.com. Rather than being covered with advertisements, my website contains a wealth of Bible study materials designed to help you improve your study skills and understanding. And it's all free. I don't take any advertising and I don't accept donations. If you want to thank me, join the mailing list and subscribe to the podcast. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates. You can find more of his music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I hope you'll join me again at Wednesday in the Word. What the Bible means and how we know. Visit wednesdayintheword.com.