Luke 14:15–24

The Lord had said, "You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just", and that promise apparently caused the man to speak as he did.

A perfectly right statement, suggesting that something of the blessedness of the Lord's words had been brought home to him.

I believe a gracious stirring had come over the heart of one of the guests when he said, "Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" He was drawn to the Lord, I have no doubt.

This man was religious and nothing more. He wanted to pay the Lord a compliment, like those today who are content with the outward form of religion. They have never been broken down before God. They have never eaten this bread, and have never entered into what Jesus is. If I really believe it is blessed to eat bread in the kingdom of God, I will leave no stone unturned until I am sure I have eaten it.

He had the future glory of the kingdom in mind. But he did not realize that the kingdom also had a present form, living and moral, which the Jews did not value. The invitations to that great supper were going out at that very moment, for the true King was there in lowly grace. Yet many were making excuses.

The grace of the Lord was plainly divine, and it worked on the spirit of one of the men lying at table with Him. What he heard suited heaven far more than anything yet carried out on earth. So he said, "Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" Our Lord then proves this to be a great mistake, as far as man's readiness to answer the grace of God goes.

The resurrection of the just is closely connected with the kingdom of God set up in power and display, but it comes before that kingdom, because all who are raised then will reign with the Lord for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4). True indeed. But who will share in that is the important question, and in such a matter it will not do to rest in generalities. Nor would God let anyone rest satisfied with that. So the Lord at once spoke a parable to warn the company against shutting themselves out from blessing. For if they were shut out, it would be by their own act.

See how the Lord answered the man who could only imagine blessing from God beyond the grave. He set before him the parable of the great Supper, and announced the invitation to it: "Come, for everything is NOW ready." I must stress the word "now," and I am sure the Lord did too. What a word it is! It surely means that God will not keep men waiting for happiness until they are dead; He offers to make them happy now.

True indeed. But the important question is who will share in it. On a matter like this, general answers will not do. God would not leave anyone satisfied with them. So the Lord at once spoke a parable. It warned the company against shutting themselves out from blessing. For, if excluded, it would be by their own act.

The Lord then says, in effect, to this man, "I will test you. You say, 'Blessed is he who shall eat bread' and so on. I will see whether you are in earnest. 'A certain man made a great supper and invited many.'" The "certain man" is God. Notice the word great. It is not just a supper, but "a great supper." It is great because of what the supper includes. It is great because of the One who spreads it. It is great because of the wonderful grace that spread it for those who, sadly, would only slight and despise it.

This beautiful parable of the great supper shows us that God is not demanding from man, on the principle of law. He is giving, providing, in free grace. "A certain man made a great supper." So He provided everything; the guests brought nothing. What a new truth this was about God and salvation! These men lived under the law, which did not give but demanded. This supper was great because it cost the greatest price in the universe: the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The agony, the atoning suffering of the cross, forsaken by God — that was the price of the supper.

If I think of what it cost the blessed God to spread this feast, who can say how vast it was?... Unasked, unsought, He Himself would spread the feast. And so that He might do it in a way worthy of Himself, He gives up His only begotten Son. His Son came down here to taste death and judgment, the whole righteous indignation of God against sin, so that God might have His way of love.

Why is it a supper? No doubt the Lord meant here the blessed gospel. That love of God is travelling out now to sinners, pressing on them what He gives — eternal life through the Saviour's precious name. It is striking that the meal is supper — not breakfast, not dinner, but supper. Which meal is that? The last meal in the day. So I understand this to be the last dealing of God in grace towards man.

The inclusion of the word "many" (verse 16) gives us a wonderful disclosure of the grace of the heart of God. It no doubt refers to the preaching of the good news recorded in Acts chapter 2 — where the whole nation hears a call to repent. We have three separate invitations in the parable, verses 17, 21 and 23.

"A certain man made a great supper and invited many." The cost and the labour were his; the benefit would go to many. Those first invited were people who already had something — a piece of ground, oxen, a wife. These represent the Jews with their religious leaders in the land, who first heard the message. As a whole they refused the invitation. The religious privileges they already had blinded them to the value of the gospel offer.

Each presentation fits its own gospel. "A king" suits the Messianic gospel. "A certain man" suits the way Luke presents Christ, where we see the movements of God displayed in a blessed Man.

Notice how plain the words are — a man made a great supper and invited many. He prepared the supper before he sent out the invitation... It is quite true that before Christ came, faith had to do with the promise. But now Christ has come. He has died; He is risen; He is in glory. All is finished. All things are ready. The promise is fulfilled. It is no longer the promise of salvation, but salvation itself.

We have three separate invitations in the parable: verses 17, 21 and 23. The first would link with the Acts of the Apostles from chapter 2 to the stoning of Stephen in chapter 7, where the testimony is to the Jews. They were the ones invited first in verse 17.

They already had an invitation. Now they are urged to come, because it was "supper time" and everything was ready. But sadly, "they all alike began to make excuses." None of them said in plain terms, "I will not come," but they were full of excuses. How like the reception that the full, free, hearty invitations of grace still meet with from many!

Matthew 22:3-4 differs. Luke has "His servant," not "servants." In Matthew, people carry the gospel. In Luke the stress falls on the one "servant," who is a picture of the Holy Spirit of God. His great work is to bear witness to Christ as the fulfilment of the promise of God — Christ who has completed redemption perfectly, as the words "everything is now ready" beautifully show.

If you had anything to do, you might delay. But when all is "finished," and all is "ready," only one thing is left for you: come and take in faith what love provides for your present and eternal blessing.

God in the gospel meets you in your need and guilt and danger. He asks nothing, He gives all things; and they are now ready. He provides a great supper; He invites freely. Oh, do not begin once more to excuse yourself.

I must stress the word "now," for I am sure the Lord did, and what a word it is! It surely means that God will not keep men waiting for happiness until they are dead. He offers to make them happy now... It means that in turning to God, men do not turn their backs on true satisfaction. He invites them to a feast, not a fast.

There was no harm in buying land, in acquiring oxen, or in marrying a wife. The evil lay in pleading these things, or anything else, to set aside the call of God. The fault lies in the heart. It makes present interests, or even duties, a reason for putting God off and neglecting so great a salvation.

In Luke 14:18, apo mias is idiomatic; it is said to be a phrase with "one point of view left out as understood"; if so, it is simple. Their minds started from one point and reached the same conclusion.

It does not say that their sins shut them out from the supper, for God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. He was not counting their trespasses against them. The piece of ground, the oxen and the wife were not evil in themselves. In these men they became evil, because they set their minds on them while they slighted the supper. And is it not just the same now? What harm is there in these things, do you say? If they have taken up your heart and made you slight God, that is the harm.

No doubt these were the Jews — the people who had been invited. This is not a person too drunk to come, or one living in misery because of his coarse life, like the prodigal son. These might be decent, respectable men. They were absorbed in their own affairs, and had no time for the supper of grace... Is this not a true picture of the condition of man — yes, of the man who has the Bible, of the Christian world just as much as of Judea?

These men were doing exactly what Adam did; Adam hid behind the trees, which were God's mercies to him. Here we have God's mercies again. Those invited to the supper used the very mercies God had given them to hide away from Him. The same thing is sadly true today. Men use the very mercies God Himself has given them as an excuse for refusing the gospel.

There is, moreover, glaring absurdity in the excuses given. The men who had bought property and oxen had already closed their deals. They could well have waited until the next day to see and test what they had bought. If their hearts had wanted to be there, nothing in their circumstances would have kept them from the supper.

Where was the "must"? Only this: that he preferred his own gratification to accepting the Lord's invitation. It was just the same with Adam. His excuse was, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." The very excuse he brings is the very ground on which God condemns him... So God judged him out of his own mouth!

They were not rude about it. Someone once offered a man a gospel tract on a Scottish express train. I heard him answer, "I call that a bit of rudeness; why can't people keep their religion to themselves?" No, these guests were not like that. They rejected the invitation with the greatest possible politeness. But they rejected it all the same, deliberately and finally.

So the servant comes and reports to his lord. The lord is angry, and says, "Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame." And the servant said, "Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room." So grace keeps reaching out, despite this just displeasure. That is a distinctive and beautiful feature of this Gospel.

One man sitting at the meal with Him said, "Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" In reply the Lord at once assured him that the supper was ready. Grace had provided and prepared everything, and he had a free invitation to come and eat that heavenly bread… But sadly, "they all alike began to make excuses." None of them said in plain terms, "I will not come," but they were full of excuses. Many still treat the full, free, and hearty invitations of grace in just this way!

There was no harm in buying land, in acquiring oxen, or in marrying a wife. The evil lay in pleading these things, or anything else, to set aside the call of God. The heart is at fault, which makes present interests or even duties a reason for putting God off and neglecting so great salvation.

Wrong judgement is tied to wrong affection. The man in the parable said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused." That was as much as to say: I prefer oxen to the supper. If a person says, I cannot see, then his eye is not single: he cannot justify himself before God.

Not that these things were in themselves wrong; they are the ordinary duties of men. This is not a person too drunk to come. It is not someone living in misery brought on by his own coarse sins, like the prodigal son. These might be decent, respectable men. Their own affairs filled their minds, and they had no time for the supper of grace. God invited them and had prepared everything for them. But each of them was so taken up that none had heart or care for God's invitation.

The piece of ground, the oxen, and the wife were not evil in themselves. In their case they became evil, because their minds were set on them and so they slighted the Supper. And is it not just the same now? What harm is there in these things, do you say? If they have occupied your heart, and made you slight God, that is the harm… This is also a test to our souls all through the day. It is not a question of whether a thing is right or wrong, but what taste our souls have for the things of Christ in it.

The king at last solemnly declares of all such, "none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet." They were not condemned, notice, for having these things or for attending to them. They were condemned because they were satisfied with them, cared nothing for the provisions of grace, and so refused the invitation to the "great supper." But grace flows on to others, even when people like this disregard it.

"Another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." He did not even say, "I pray you hold me excused." His wife was an excellent reason in his eyes for refusing God's invitation. It was a question of a family in this world, not of God hereafter. The real root of all unbelief is clear: people have no sense of sin, and they give God no glory. There is no sense of what God is, either in His claims or in His grace.

A man may be engrossed in what is perfectly lawful, and so become spiritually blind. One man's excuse was, "I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." Was he to ignore this relationship, which God had clearly formed for man's blessing? No. But Christ has come to bring us into heavenly blessings. Earthly blessings must not rob the soul of them, and we must not put them first. That was, and still is, what they tend to do. So the Lord says in the same chapter: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."

Another says, "I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." Was that a good excuse for refusing God's supper? A right-minded man, with a sense of the grace of the one who invited him, would have gone himself and taken his wife with him. But he makes her the excuse. How easily the Lord reads the secrets of our hearts in this way! How easily the devil finds an excuse in the things of life to hinder us!

Here we see the value of "I must." It means this: I prefer everything to God. I prefer my own inclination, and everything I am the centre of, to what He is the centre of.

You will not get a happy home life by putting natural things first and saying, I have married a wife and cannot come. The same is true of the piece of land and the five yoke of oxen. They belong, so to speak, to the twilight of God's ways with man. Adam got a wife, the patriarchs got flocks, and Israel got the piece of land. Now the blessed God sets out, through the work of His Son, what always lay near His heart... He does not leave us in the twilight. He would have us in full sunshine, enjoying the feast He has provided in a risen Christ.

A piece of ground, five yoke of oxen, domestic duties, meant more to them than the rich provisions of grace. These things were right and lawful in themselves. But they so filled their hearts that they slighted and neglected heavenly things, and this proved their eternal ruin... Notice that they were not condemned for having these things, or for attending to them. They were condemned because they were satisfied with them. They cared nothing for the provisions of grace, and so refused the invitation to the "great supper." Yet grace, though such men disregard it, flows on to others.

The master's anger did mean that none of those who despised his invitation would taste his supper, as verse 24 says. But it did not close off his kindness. Instead, the servant was told to go out quickly and gather in the poor and needy — the very people a man would count least qualified.

The solemn thing in this parable is that the one who is angry is the one who provided the supper, not the servant who carried the invitations. Yet the anger did not hold up the feast. God does not close the door.

The poor cannot pay, the crippled cannot work, the lame must be carried, and the blind are helpless without a guide. Not one of them is self-sufficient, they are dependent people. Every man and woman on earth belongs in this group. Some have not discovered it. Others are too proud to admit it.

The poor here does not mean exactly those the world calls poor. It means the poor in spirit — those who know they are poor before God, whatever their position or circumstances. Most of them, it is true, are found among the people we call poor. But thanks be to God, whose grace is sovereign, such people are found in every rank and walk of life.

This is the urgent message of grace. The proud refuse, and God presses it on the most despised. We are still in the streets and lanes of the city. I believe the Lord still had Jerusalem in view, though He did not say so openly... The great and busy had brushed the invitation aside. The lawyers and scribes, the teachers and Pharisees, were uninterested if not hostile. From now on it was a question of tax collectors and sinners, or anyone willing to come, however miserable his state.

Blessed be God, even from Jerusalem, the city that killed the Holy One of God. From the lanes of that city the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind were brought to the great supper — three thousand in one day!

We accept the usual interpretation: the first invitation goes to the Jewish nation, the second to the faithful remnant among them after His own people rejected Christ, and the third to the nations outside Israel. From this we learn that the wickedness of man only made the heart of God more active. Men treated His grace with contempt. You might have expected God to withdraw from man altogether and keep His blessedness to Himself. But He did not. His heart longed to bless the people He had planned in love to redeem.

It is not enough to open a hall in a district and announce that there will be preaching. If grace is at work, it will do far more, because it knows the soul's deep needs. Go through the neighbourhood. Search the streets and the lanes. Find the people who are destitute before God, and beg them to come.

The servant shows the energy of one who has caught his Master's spirit. He can come back from his preaching mission and say, "Lord, it is done as you commanded, and yet there is room." Blessed is the servant who can give an account like that and still be as fresh for the work as ever. "Yet there is room," as if he had said, May I go out again and find some more to fill up that room? What a happy state of things it is, in any sphere of worthy service, when the servant enters into the Master's spirit.

In verse 21 the Lord turns to "the poor of the flock," those who have no yoke of oxen and are glad of the feast. The priests and chiefs of the Jews had the first invitation. They rejected it. So the Master of the house sends out into the streets and lanes of the city, to bring in the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind of the people. Still the house is not filled. Then He sends outside the city, into the highways and hedges, and compels them to come in, so that the house may be filled. These are the Gentiles.

The search covered the streets and the lanes of the city, and it gathered in all the despised of men: "the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind." This did not exhaust divine grace. "The servant said, Lord, it is done as you commanded, and yet there is room." So the search moved out to the highways and hedges, to bring in the wanderers and outcasts to share as well. Here we come in. We were highway and hedge folk. Do we object? As Gentiles we were completely outside.

The supper is ready, and the invited guests are called. Instead of coming gladly to the feast, they begin to make excuses. Then the servants are sent out again, to bring in the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. After they have been brought in we hear, "yet there is room." Luke 2 tells us there was no room for God's Son — the Saviour — in this world's inn. The Lord Jesus, grown up now and in His public ministry, tells sinners that there is room in God's house for them. If there is no room for God's Son in this world, and no room for Jesus in your heart, there is room in God's heart and God's house for you.

His heart longed to bless the people He had purposed in love to redeem. So at Pentecost in Jerusalem, by the power of the Spirit through the preaching of the gospel, He "brought in" the poor of the flock. Even this did not satisfy the full extent of His desires. From that day to this, and from this day until the coming of the Lord, He has been working and will work "to compel" poor sinners to come in. He will not rest until His house is filled — until there is not an empty place left. Many of us might do well to ask a question. Are we under the power of this compelling urgency of grace when we deal with those who are not saved?

This gradation in the nature of the message — "come," "bring in," and "compel them to come in" — is most instructive.

The first two invitations went to those who stood in a privileged position... but the gospel has now gone beyond them. They refused it, and it has gone out to a people who were "strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12)... "And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy" (Rom. 15:8-9); not for His promises but for His mercy. That is the bearing of the expression "compel them to come in."

There is room for the Gentile — those outside the city, and even outside its lanes and streets, out in the highways and hedges, outside the ordered system altogether. From Acts 13 to the end of that book we see God's good news presented to such people.

God uses people as His servants to gather sinners to the gospel feast and to His house. But no one except the Holy Spirit Himself could fill the place of the servant in this parable. Notice that the parable speaks of only one Servant. It also explains the "compel them to come in." He compels them by making the "poor and crippled and blind and lame" feel their need and misery so strongly that they must seek relief and find it. No one can do this. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts people of sin (John 16:7-11). So the once rebellious sinner is "compelled" to seek and find the Saviour-God.

A man said to me once, "Do you mean to say that God takes men by the coat collar and forces them to come against their wills?" "No," I replied. "He compels them to come by persuasion. He makes them hungry by His Spirit. It is an easy thing to make a hungry man sit down before a well-spread table."

The man who spread the feast said, "that my house may be filled." Generous grace! But the house in the parable is not a parish church. It is the banquet hall above, and God wants that place filled.

At the end of Luke 13 the Lord has to say of that privileged nation, "Your house is left to you desolate." How wonderful it is to read in Luke 14 the beautiful words "That My house may be filled."

The usual interpretation, which we fully agree with, is this: the first invitation goes to the Jewish nation as such, the second to the remnant, after His own people rejected Christ, and the third to the Gentiles. From this we learn that the wickedness of man only intensified the activity of the heart of God... From that day to this, and from this day until the coming of the Lord, He has been working and will work "to compel" poor sinners to come in. He will not rest until His house is filled — until there is not an empty place left. Many of us might ask ourselves a useful question: are we under the power of this compelling urgency of grace when we deal with those who are not saved? We should never forget that every believer is meant to be the expression of the heart of God to the world.

A piece of ground, five yoke of oxen, domestic duties, were more to them than the rich provisions of grace. These things were right and lawful in themselves. But they so filled their hearts that they slighted and neglected heavenly things, and this proved their eternal ruin. In the end the king solemnly declares of all such, "None of those men who were invited shall taste of my supper." Notice: they were not condemned for having these things, or for attending to them. They were condemned because they were satisfied with them, cared nothing for the provisions of grace, and so refused the invitation to the "great supper."

"For I say to you, that not one of those men who were invited" (none of those who had the promises, but trifled with them when they were accomplished) "shall taste of my supper."

The parable announces the character of what was going forward: a free invitation on God's part to share in everlasting blessing. The feast is not viewed as coming to an end. At the same time it sets out in plain language the danger of trifling with and neglecting the grace of God: "I say to you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of My supper" (v. 24). Grace excludes none. Those finally shut out only reap the fruit of their own ways. We seem to pass here from the lord of the feast to the Lord Himself. These words are addressed, it would appear, not to the servant but to the company.

The rejection of the gospel. "Not one of those invited shall taste of my supper." God can least bear any contempt cast upon His grace. They would not come when the supper was on the table. So the table was cleared, and they go to bed without supper, and die in their sins. Christ you will not have, therefore Christ you shall not have. None sink so deep in hell as those who fall into it by stumbling at Christ.

In verse 21 the Lord turns to "the poor of the flock," those who have no yoke of oxen and are glad of the feast... Still the house is not filled. Then He sends outside the city, into the highways and hedges, and compels them to come in, so that the house may be filled. These are the Gentiles... Then notice the lowliness of the servant and the patient grace of the Master; it goes right on to the end. He cannot rest till He gets His house filled with guests.

The last words speak of God's rejection of those who were rejecting His grace in Israel, and of their place given to the Gentiles. Yet in principle they remain true for all who reject: they shall not taste of God's supper. The invitation is now world-wide, and wherever it goes it carries the responsibility attached to it.

There was no harm in buying land, in acquiring oxen, or in marrying a wife. The evil lay in pleading these things, or anything else, to set aside the call of God. The heart is at fault, which makes present interests or even duties a reason for putting God off and neglecting so great salvation. Have you, my reader, no object or pursuit that stands between you and the knowledge of God and His Son, which is life eternal?