Giving Up Seats While Enjoying the Feast

Well, if someone was to ask you to describe what it's like being a Christian, what it's like being saved by God, even as John just prayed before, how would you describe it to that person? Perhaps you'd say that we are all like passengers on a sinking ship. All of us have sort of abandoned ship, we are all floating in these very deep waters, about to drown. But Jesus is our life raft. He is the one that rescues us from those deep waters.

Perhaps you'd say we are like people standing on the side of a massive wide chasm, a grand canyon, and we are needing to get to the other side for water or for life. But we are separated from that other side, and so Jesus becomes the bridge that allows us to get there. But do you know what Jesus likened salvation to be like? Jesus said that it is like being at a grand party. God is the host and we are his party guests.

And so we're going to look at an instance where Jesus spoke about that exactly in Luke 14, where Jesus gives us two parables about what it's like to be in the kingdom of God, what it is like to be part of Jesus' people. And we see him in the house of a Pharisee, also at a dinner party when he says these things. Luke 14, starting from verse one. One Sabbath, when he, who is Jesus, went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.

And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they remained silent. Then Jesus took him, the man, and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out? And they could not reply to these things.

Now he told a parable to those who were invited when he noticed how they chose the places of honour, saying to them, when you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honour, 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 in the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher. Then you will be honoured in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Jesus said also 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 neighbours, 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 just. When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to Jesus, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. But Jesus said to him, 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 began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a field, and I must go 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, 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 hedges and compel people to come in that they may, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. So far, our reading. Well, there's a few things we see in this passage. The first is a very good guest.

Our first point, verses one through to six. Fundamentally, the heart of what Jesus is talking about here, we know, is the nature of His kingdom, the nature of God's kingdom. That it is first and foremostly a joyful place. I mean, who doesn't love a good feast? We had a great feast here at the wedding yesterday.

Really yummy food. Who doesn't enjoy that? And Jesus is saying, being in the kingdom is being joyful like that. But secondly, Jesus is also highlighting here that there is a thing about being invited into that moment. There is something about being a guest that is relevant and important for us to know.

And so these passages that Jesus is talking about, or these parables rather, not only explain the nature of the kingdom, but they're also explaining the mission of the kingdom, the way that people enter. And Jesus concludes that somehow we, who call ourselves His disciples, are involved in fulfilling that mission. And so if we read this, we actually see that there is some significant themes of outreach, or evangelism, or mission that is involved in these passages. The story, the context starts with a man who has a crippled hand. This is happening in reality as Jesus is invited to have dinner with these people.

The Bible says it is dropsy, which is an old English word that means it's some sort of swelling in the hand. It's very painful. And it is so painful, it is so debilitating that it causes this hand to be crippled. Although the passage doesn't say it explicitly, it seems that this man has been brought in by one of these Pharisees into the banquet or the feast in order to see what Jesus will do. In other words, this man is some sort of prop, some sort of test.

What is Jesus going to do with this man? Verse one gives us a hint to that because it says that these Pharisees are watching Jesus carefully. Carefully, they watch Jesus. And then verse two, there in front of Jesus was a man suffering from dropsy. Could it have been some sort of trap?

And whether it was intentional or not, the Pharisees are watching Jesus very carefully to see what he does. Will he heal this man? Will he do it on the Sabbath day, a day according to the Pharisees' interpretation of the Bible, which meant that no one could do anything characterised broadly as work? Is healing considered work? And if Jesus doesn't heal the man, can they then accuse him of being hard and unloving, even as he sort of professed to be loving?

So they have Jesus in a catch-22. If he heals, he's doing work and is sinful. If he doesn't heal, he's unloving and he is sinful. What does Jesus do? Well, he reveals his perceptive insight into the Pharisees' test.

And Jesus puts the question back on them. He asked them, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? And they remain silent. They don't budge, because now they are caught in the catch-22. If they can't condone whichever Jesus is going to do.

If Jesus heals him, they will get ridiculed for making Jesus work on the Sabbath. If Jesus doesn't heal him, if they make Jesus not to heal them, then they are portrayed as the hard and unloving ones. So they're in this predicament, they can't say anything. But Jesus, who does know better, who understands the meaning of the Sabbath, who is supremely loving, takes hold of the man and heals him. And then verse four says he sends this man away.

This is another reason why commentators think that he may have been brought here by the Pharisees. He's not a party guest. He's able to be excused to go home. He's been humiliated by these Pharisees as some sort of guinea pig, some sort of test. But Jesus heals him, and then makes sure that he has a bit of dignity and gets sent home again.

It's the grace of Jesus on display, even in that moment. But this recording of this historical event is now couching what Jesus goes into in His parable. This sort of leads into what Jesus teaches, and he teaches about a feast as well. Seeing how Jesus sits at the head of this dinner table, he becomes a visual tangible expression of the parables that he's about to tell. And the first parable, the first teaching he gives is how we are to give up our seats, verses seven through to ten.

Jesus tells a parable of someone who's been invited to a wedding banquet. They arrive early, this individual, and they have therefore the pick of the seats, and obviously they choose the one that is closest to their mate who's invited them, the host. But they make that foolish mistake, Jesus says, of choosing that most honourable seat, the most desired seat, because within, especially in that day and age, there was a strong pecking order in where you could sit in relation to other people. Someone else more distinguished than him turns up, Jesus says. And the host, seeing this very distinguished guest, asks this fellow to please move out of his seat and give him that seat.

And of course, everyone else has now already filled up the spaces, so he has to go and sit way at the back. And again, in that culture of honour and shame, this man is so ashamed that he has to move and go and sit way back there. The point that Jesus is making is that the kingdom of God, His kingdom, well, that there is nothing wrong with the desire firstly to want to sit closest to the King. It's perfectly understandable to want the Lord Jesus more and more, because he is the light of our life. But Jesus says there is honour that comes from the humility of seeking to bring others close to Him as well.

And some of this is what drives the missional heart of the church. Our corporate times like this, like today, our worship services, but even our meals are visual representations of what is going on in our hearts. If our hearts are concerned with self-promotion, or even self-gratification, like I can hog Jesus to myself, then what is reflected in how we do mission tells people what our hearts are really like. Jesus' teaching is a challenge to how we view our personal and our corporate outreach. Ask yourself the question, who do you invite to church?

Do you invite others to church in the first place? If not, why not? How we answer these questions may reveal the prioritising of what Jesus is highlighting here. The person who gave up their seat so that someone else could sit closer to the host was forgoing the immediate gratification of having that host close to them. But Jesus says ultimately there is great honour for those who have given up their seat.

But think about it, it becomes a win-win situation. Because that person that has been given your seat is closer to the host. They are thankful. They are happy. And yet, you who have given up your seat, you're regarded as honourable.

You're celebrated. You are seen as noble. Now of course, in practice, we don't actually give up our seats, like we don't go, well, the church is full, you can have my seat, I'll just stay home and watch the livestream. Some of us have actually done that, I think. But that's not really what Jesus is practically getting at.

The main point is that we are to be mindful of others who also must come close to Jesus. Jesus is telling us that we must look out for those who need to come near to the host. But the dinner party continues, not only after this parable, it keeps going, and the conversation takes another turn. We see in verses 12 to 24, another parable where Jesus tells us that we are to invite outsiders into the feast. Specifically, verses 16 through to 24, Jesus is telling a parable where someone invites their closest mates to attend another lavish banquet.

The problem is no one turns up. They make all sorts of lame excuses. The one guy says, I've just bought some oxen and I need to go and inspect them. Like, that is so lame. It's not even like I need to do anything, I just need to go and look at them.

So I'm not coming. There's another lame excuse, I've just gotten married, so I can't come. So we can say to Brian, why aren't you in church? On his way to his honeymoon. I'm sure he won't appreciate that sort of comment.

But no one turns up, and so the host throws open his invites to strangers. He says, people in the streets are invited to come. The poor, the blind, the lame, and they accept the invitation. So picture this, Jesus is sitting at a feast. He's telling two parables about feasting.

But in this particular story, the emphasis is on inviting outsiders into the meal. But remember who Jesus is eating with. He's sitting with the Pharisees. He's been invited to the ruler of a Pharisee, of the Pharisees. So he's sitting with a bunch of well-educated academics, pastors, theologians. And then Jesus tells this parable in response to one of these Pharisees, who has said to Jesus in verse 15, after Jesus has given an initial teaching on the kingdom, he says, blessed are those who eat bread in the kingdom.

But Jesus tells them to be generous with who they invite into their homes. Says, practically, he's telling these Pharisees, give up your high and lofty positions, side with the poor and the lame and the blind. And again, this, I mean, this man's response that says, blessed are those who are able to eat bread in the kingdom, it's a classic pharisaical comment. It's like Jesus tells them, simply do this, be more generous, and then they spiritualise it. And they sort of try and shift it, and they say, well, let's talk about the, let's talk about the kingdom instead.

But that's why Jesus starts telling them that the kingdom might actually not belong to many of them sitting there. And instead, it is going out to the outsiders who are willing to listen, willing to receive the invitation to come. And so initially, Jesus introduces a simple ethic of grace, rather than this reciprocal thing like, we are all very important people. I invite you to my lavish banquet, and the next time you invite me to your lavish banquet. One of the Pharisees listening to this wants to direct that teaching, because it is outrageous and uncomfortable for these people. Why?

Because the behaviour Jesus puts forward collapses the distance between the rich and the poor, and it sort of makes them all equal, and they don't like that. It makes, it blends the insiders and the outsiders. And that is a hard thing for the Pharisees to accept, because they see themselves as the insiders. But Jesus is stressing that it's exactly this kind of radical grace that not only marks this kingdom, this great banquet, but it drives the mission of those who are involved in it. Friends, I want to suggest that what made it difficult for the Pharisees to hear is also what makes mission, being involved in that kingdom, reaching out to others in that kingdom, hard for the church to do as well. Because naturally, we've all become insiders.

Eventually, we do. Whether you are a Christian for a long time now, or whether you've just become a Christian, eventually we become insiders. And yet, if you read about Jesus enough, we are told regularly by Him that we have a duty to the outsider. But this is really difficult. Think about church ministries in general.

Think about how many kinds of reciprocal services we offer. We have this unspoken law that we will offer you Sunday school for your kids, we will build a creche for your babies, we will have a youth group for your young ones, and you make sure that you attend this church and that you support this church financially. Now, of course, there's always a biblical mandate. There will be a biblical mandate to tend the sheep. That will be the job of pastors and elders and each other, to shepherd the sheep.

But the challenge of Jesus' words here questions how inwardly focused we might naturally become. Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God is surprisingly geared towards the outsider, surprisingly geared towards the outsider. Those messengers that deliver the host's invitation, in other words, the disciples of Jesus who is the host, they are commanded to deliver an invitation to men and to women who are considered second-class party guests, the ones that you wouldn't normally invite. Jesus says the kingdom of Jesus belongs to such as these. But even as Jesus is commanding the church, He is giving them an example to follow.

What Jesus is teaching, He is also doing. He shows Himself to be the friend of the outsider. Remember, He heals the man with a crippled hand who has just been brought in as a prop, as a test. And Jesus spares him after healing him from further humiliation. And then Jesus says in His parables, the kingdom of God belongs to that man.

You should give up your seat, he says. You should go out and get those people into the kingdom. So often when we think of mission, so often when we think of evangelism or outreach, we think persuasive arguments, or we think philosophical debate. But so much of Jesus' example was simply of Him spending time with people, eating with people like He's doing here, touching people, sitting with them. And sure, these moments of spending time with them was punctuated by teaching, but if you look closely, you'll see the significant aspect of Jesus just spending time with them.

So for us, how do we keep a healthy balance of being outsider-oriented, even as we live very grateful lives, very joyful lives as insiders in the kingdom? There's nothing wrong with loving the host. I think it becomes as simple as inviting people into our homes. Jesus is giving an example of how to do it here. People who may not inherently offer much back to you in a reciprocal manner are blessed by Jesus.

And for us, we have those people in our lives, people that may not offer much back in terms of friendship, people who may not offer much in terms of common interests, or even shared morality. But it can simply begin this mission, this outreach, as sharing your home. A place for people to rest. Have you ever considered the dynamic of sharing a meal with someone? Why is it so significant?

Why is it that the kingdom of God is likened to that? Well, in sharing a meal, you become equals. You sit down at the same level with each other, and in that moment, you communicate to the other person that they are worth your time. It's a message that communicates something profoundly deep without many words at all. And so where we, as established Christians, or where churches can so easily get stuck is when we see people as projects.

And I'll put up my hand as a person that has done this. As a goal-oriented person, I tend to see results rather than people. But people don't like being projects. I don't like being a project. We don't want to feel like we are being worked on, but offer a bit of community, offer a bit of time, and you gain their ears and their hearts.

I don't know if you've noticed this on buses or trains, but there's a sign in them that gently reminds people to be willing to give up their seats to other people. It's a sign that is often saying something like, please be willing to give up your chair for an elderly person with a cane. Usually there's a picture of a cane, or a person with a disability, or a pregnant lady. Now, I remember an older person bemoaned the fact that people have now to be instructed in something that thirty years ago was just a common courtesy. They believed in their time, people naturally would be willing to give up their seats. But that's the thing about this sort of instruction, isn't it?

That little sign is a suggestion, it is not a command. And people interpret what that means for them and how much they respond to that based on their situations. They can say, oh, I've actually got a bit of a sore leg, so I'll remain seated. Or, oh, I've just had a really hard day today coming back home, I'm not going to give up my chair. It's just asking for people to be courteous, and you can opt in or not.

What we are seeing here in Jesus is Jesus asking us to give up our seats. Jesus, are called Christians are called to be message bearers to the highways and to the byways for outsiders to be drawn into the feast of Christ's kingdom. But even as He is encouraging us to do this, He's not telling us how we are to do it, how often we are to do it, who to do it to. Jesus is simply showing that He is gracious, and He is telling us that we have benefited from that grace. So please be courteous.

Be mindful. I recently read an excerpt from a book called God's Next Door, Spirituality and Mission in the Neighbourhood. It's written by a man called Simon Kerry Holt, who's an Aussie Baptist pastor in Melbourne. And before he became a pastor, he was a qualified chef. And he writes, therefore, in his book about how integral hospitality is in the mission of the church.

Hospitality in the mission of the church. This is what he writes. He says, it's good to be reminded that the table is a very ordinary place. A place so routine and every day, it is easily overlooked as a place of ministry. And this business of hospitality that lies at the heart of Christian mission is a very ordinary thing.

It's not rocket science, nor is it terribly glamorous. Yes, yet it is this very ordinariness of the table and of the ministry we exercise there that renders these elements of Christian life so important to the mission of the church. He says, setting a table, cooking a meal, washing the dishes is the ministry of facilitation, providing a context in which people feel loved and welcomed, and then where God's Spirit can work in their lives. Hospitality is a very ordinary business, he says, but in its ordinariness is its real worth. As we head into Christmas, as we head into those end-of-year feasts, why don't we consider the outsider?

Because they're the ones that Jesus loves. And may we do this remembering so clearly that we were once those outsiders ourselves. Because He loves us, we love them. And we have the joy that because He loves us, we can sit very close to Him. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for these words and simple encouragement, Lord, for our eyes to be up and out, to be looking at those around us, to see them for who they are, precious, worthwhile, eternal souls just like us. Help us, Lord, to love them as you love them. Give us opportunities, Lord. Give us just the humility, Lord, of a humble kitchen table in all the busyness and the mess of our lives. It just becomes a space of being equals.

Lord, we thank you that you have thrown open your invitation to all those who are willing to hear, that there is no prerequisite, no requirement for how holy or good we have to be, how well put together we need to be to enter your kingdom. We thank you, Lord, that you portray it as a massive feast, a joyful celebration where there is just happiness and satisfaction. Our Lord, I pray also that those of us who may be here, who know, who don't know the satisfaction and the joy of your kingdom, that today the hunger for that feast may be recognised. That they will desire that now. And that, Lord, today or perhaps another time, that they will receive this good news that Jesus Christ invites them into His rest, invites them to come to His side.

And then, Lord, give us all the satisfaction and the gratitude, Lord, to see what you are asking of us, the great joy that it was for us, Lord, and the desire for all people to experience that as well. And so we just pray and we commit ourselves, our church, to you in that area. In Jesus' name. Amen.