Luke 14,15-24. 2. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Luke 14,15-24 3215

2. Trinitatis  047

Elisha, Prophet, 840 B.C. 

14. Juni 2015 

1. O Good and Eternal God, You are Righteous, Friendly and the Fullness of life. We thank You for Your good gifts: the summer time with its longer day light, all the blessings of Your creation and the gift of sumptuous food and fine drink. To You we pray and proclaim: Kyrie eleison (VELKD, Prayer for 2. Trinitatis § 1).  Amen. 

2. »When one of those who reclined at table with Jesus heard these things, he said to Him: „Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the reign of God!“ 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: ‘Draw near, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began 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.’ 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 crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said: ‘Lord, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant: ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’“ 

3. This parable was told at a banquet that Jesus had attended. During the course of the meal, »Jesus 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 rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous“ (Luke 14,12-14). Then a certain man, quite probably a Pharisee, rightly said to Jesus: „Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the reign of God!“ How true that Pharisee’s statement is, but who will be the ones who are blessed? 

4. While the man rightly acknowledges the blessedness of the reign of God, Jesus immediately teaches in His parable that there are many who will not enjoy this blessed banquet.  Who in their right mind would ignore the invitation to the Lord’s heavenly banquet? Quite a few, unfortunately. The invitation first went out to well-respected Jews such as the Pharisees, scribes and other prominent people in Judaism. Surely Yahweh’s banquet merits some priority in their lives? Jesus tells those around him, that no, it does not. First John the Baptizer and then Jesus invited them, but these upstanding Jews rejected their invitation to the Lord’s banquet. They had excuses. Who is this John who looks like a wild-man living out in the wilderness? Who is this Jesus who cavorts with sinners and tax collectors? They were offended by John and Jesus, and so they rejected the invitation these men of God extended to them. The Pharisees had been invited by John the Baptizer and Jesus to the Heavenly Father’s great banquet of salvation, but these very Pharisees and other proud Jews not only rejected both John and Jesus but they actively thwarted the preaching of both great men because their preaching did not meet their Pharisaic interpretations of Holy Scripture. 

5. Yahweh is rightly angry at their response, but He is not deterred: He proceeds to invite others to His heavenly banquet. The call goes out to the outcasts in Jewish society and then to the Gentiles. Many in these two despised groups gladly receive the invitation. Our Heavenly Father’s banquet hall will be filled to capacity, and its guests will be those who were wicked sinners, the sick, the poor and the very nations of this earth. The Holy Scriptures proclaim that all the nations will draw unto Yahweh’s presence and worship Him (Micah 4,2). Jesus and the Apostles invited and gathered in those few wealthy and respected Jews who were not offended by Jesus, those Jews who were sick, sinful outcasts and the Gentile nations who were pagans. Such people are those who will inherit the reign of God; they are blessed while many of the self-righteous Pharisees and other respectable Jewish invitees are barred.  

6. The scribes and the Pharisees aren’t the only ones who can reject Jesus’ invitation. Even you can reject the Lord’s invitation to eternal life. „One should never despise the servant and his Lord’s invitation, but rather heed the word spoken by the Lord’s prophets: ‘Today, if you will hear His Voice, then do not harden your hearts!’“ (Löhe 368 § 8). The Lord Jesus Christ Himself has invited you to the great banquet of eternal life in His everlasting presence. Each Sunday He calls you to enjoy the appetizers of this banquet by offering you His preached Word and the Holy Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Christ Jesus is loving and gracious; He freely gives you the holy absolution in His Word and the Sacrament.  

7. May the Almighty and Merciful God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, keep us receptive of His merciful invitation. You have been invited by Christ Jesus Himself to His Heavenly Father’s glorious banquet of eternal life. Our Divine Service (Gottesdienst) of the Word and the Sacraments of Holy Baptism, Absolution and the Lord’s Supper are a foretaste of the heavenly feast to come. Do not excuse yourself from Christ’s invitation, but continue to receive His invitation with joy and thanksgiving for He has established and instituted His Church for your blessing and salvation.  Amen. 

8. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, our Strength and our Rock, defend and deliver us from all that would tempt us to reject Your heavenly invitation so that we may praise You as the Lord of lords at the banquet on the last day.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.  

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Evangelien-Postille für die Sonn- und Festage des Kirchenjahres. Copyright © 1859 Samuel Gottlieb Liesching. A sermon preached on Luke 14,16-24 for The 2. Sunday after Trinity. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2011. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.