Welcome Table (Luke 14)
Journey with Jesus to the Cross -- Thursday, March 31
Read Luke 14
After this, someone says, “Blessed is everyone who eats bread in the kingdom of God," whereupon Jesus tells another parable about a banquet (12-24).
Why is it that food, especially festive food, plays such a big part in Luke’s gospel? After all, in addition to its outsized role in today’s reading, it is a common theme throughout the book.
For example, it began with Levi’s scandalous dinner party in chapter five, and continues up through the evening when Jesus celebrated the sacramental meal with his disciple on the night he was betrayed.
But it doesn't end there, for food figures prominently in Jesus’ resurrection appearances on Easter Day. In the first instance, two disciples recognize Jesus when “he took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them.” And later that evening, when Jesus appeared to his startled disciples, he asked them the almost comical question, “Have you anything here to eat?” (“They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he ate before them.”)
Clearly, the family meal is an important feature in Luke’s telling of the Jesus story. No doubt, he intends it to be a foretaste of the final festal meal, when we join together in the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7-9).
All these surrounding stories give important context to the parables of the Wedding Feast and the Great Banquet found in today’s text.
“Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” a guest had said (14:15). Surely. But the table, Jesus’ stories indicate, may not be quite so respectable as you imagine. For the party that God is throwing (i.e., the kingdom of God) will be filled with the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame (v 21).
What are we to make of this? Well, by now we should be used to it. Jesus has thrown open the doors of the kingdom to all who will receive it. The Welcome Table is open to everyone. There is no pecking order – everyone comes purely by the Father’s gracious welcome. This is a threat to the proud, who want to think they’ve earned their place at the table; but it is a blessing to the humble, who know they don’t belong, but are grateful to be invited (v 11).
Which leaves us with the rather haunting question: Have I taken my place at the table?
“Lord, thank you for inviting me to your welcome table. Help me to welcome others with the same grace with which you have welcomed me.”
Clearly, the family meal is an important feature in Luke’s telling of the Jesus story. No doubt, he intends it to be a foretaste of the final festal meal, when we join together in the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7-9).
All these surrounding stories give important context to the parables of the Wedding Feast and the Great Banquet found in today’s text.
“Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” a guest had said (14:15). Surely. But the table, Jesus’ stories indicate, may not be quite so respectable as you imagine. For the party that God is throwing (i.e., the kingdom of God) will be filled with the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame (v 21).
What are we to make of this? Well, by now we should be used to it. Jesus has thrown open the doors of the kingdom to all who will receive it. The Welcome Table is open to everyone. There is no pecking order – everyone comes purely by the Father’s gracious welcome. This is a threat to the proud, who want to think they’ve earned their place at the table; but it is a blessing to the humble, who know they don’t belong, but are grateful to be invited (v 11).
Which leaves us with the rather haunting question: Have I taken my place at the table?
“Lord, thank you for inviting me to your welcome table. Help me to welcome others with the same grace with which you have welcomed me.”