The Price Of Admission
St Luke 14:15-24
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Luke 14:23-24 And the servant said, “Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room. Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… Today’s Gospel tells of a great supper to which many were invited. Jesus told that parable while He Himself was having supper, sitting at a table in a Pharisee’s house, surrounded by a bunch of other Pharisees who were watching Him carefully. And those Pharisees were critiquing Jesus, perhaps even hoping to catch Him in a violation of the Law. Jesus was a novelty to them, but He was also a threat.
The thing the Pharisees were very good at was to do such a good job at keeping the Law of God that they could earn a place for themselves in the kingdom of God. And they were teaching others to do the same, to be like them, so that all those who were good enough and righteous enough could work their way into the Great Supper in the kingdom of God, together with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But Jesus was a threat to these guys. He got in the way of all their false belief and false teaching. Jesus taught a different way into God’s kingdom – and it was the very way to which the Old Testament Law itself pointed. Jesus kept insisting that the Pharisees stop pretending that they were more worthy than other people of God’s favor.
He told them another parable right before the one we heard in the Gospel. In that parable Jesus urged them to stop picking the highest place for themselves at these banquets. More importantly, Jesus told them to humble themselves before God and before men, trusting in God to raise them up out of His own goodness and generosity, without any merit or worthiness on their part.
But humility was not a virtue that the Pharisees esteemed, much less embodied or even demonstrated. One of them sitting at the table with Jesus piped up and preached his own little sermon after Jesus told that parable: “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!” The parable of the great supper that we heard today was Jesus’ response to the Pharisees. He was pointing out the fact that God’s dining room was already filling up with people, while the Pharisees sat outside, refusing to enter, waiting for some other feast that was never going to happen.
So, let’s look at the parable. “A certain man gave a great supper.” The man represents God, and the supper stands for the benefit of coming into God’s grace. The Great Supper indicates God’s house, the Holy Church, the kingdom of heaven, which is open for all nations, for all men to enter through faith in Christ and Holy Baptism.
The man invited many to his great supper. The “many” are the Old Testament people of Israel. Ever since the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God had been telling the people of Israel about the coming of His Son to be their Redeemer and Savior. Through the holy prophets, God had been inviting the Israelites to wait expectantly for this Savior to come and crush the devil’s head. “Be ready when Christ comes! Be looking for Him! Listen to Him when He comes, and put your faith in Him!”
“He sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’” This is John the Baptist, and Christ Himself, and the Apostles after Him, all of whom announced the arrival of the kingdom of God in the coming of Christ. Now God had taken on human flesh in order to redeem fallen mankind from sin. Now the Son of Man will lay down His life for sinners. Now all men are called to repent of their sins and believe in Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.
“But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’”
We often hear of the many people who followed Jesus at various points in His earthly ministry. But there were tens of thousands in Israel, maybe even hundreds of thousands, who never listened to Him, who never followed Him, who wanted nothing at all to do with Him. Among those were the majority of the Pharisees, including the ones who were sitting at the table with Jesus as He told this parable. They all had their reasons; they all had their earthly excuses: too busy, too much to do, family matters to attend to.
In the end, it was simply unbelief that kept them away. The Pharisees didn’t believe they needed a Savior from sin. Many sinners in Israel were happy enough to go on sinning and not worry about the consequences that might follow in the afterlife. The rich were too busy enjoying their riches. And even most of those who followed Jesus for a while stopped following Him when they realized that, to be a disciple of Jesus meant being ready to leave everything else – even their own life – behind.
As Jesus said in the verses right after our Gospel: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26-27) Few people in Israel thought that Jesus was worth that much. Few people in Israel wanted to attend the Great Supper, because it meant they had to suffer earthly loss. The price was just too high.
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“So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry… Notice the man’s reaction; it is basically God’s reaction to Israel’s indifference toward Jesus, which is, of course, indifference toward God. Sometimes Jesus pictures God weeping over Israel’s unbelief. That is also a valid picture. God is angered when men – especially His chosen people of Israel – reject His Son, their Savior. So what did He do?
“He said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’” These are the tax collectors and public sinners in Israel, and the simple folk, fishermen, women, children. The high and mighty in Israel had turned down the invitation to the Supper. But many of these people were glad to learn that Jesus had come to save them; many were glad to follow Him and quick to believe in Him.
“And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”
This refers to Christ’s command to His apostles to go and teach all nations, to preach the Gospel to every creature, Jews and Gentiles, down through the ages, you and me, anyone and everyone. All are invited, and this is done through the preaching ministry, calling people to repent of their sins and to believe in Jesus, inviting people to be baptized in His name and to gather in His house, the Holy Church, where He feeds us with His Word, with His body, and with His blood. This is the Holy Christian Church where, Martin Luther says, we “daily obtain nothing but the forgiveness of sins through the Word and signs” (Large Catechism).
“For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’ ” Dear friends, it is most certainly true that God wants all men to be saved. But He wants them to be saved through faith in Christ Jesus, and in no other way, for there is no other way. If men refuse that gift, then God’s will is for them to be locked out of His grace and His kingdom forever. There is no such thing as salvation apart from faith in Christ. There is no such thing as worshiping God without worshiping Christ. There is no such thing as praying to God without praying in Jesus’ name. These words from Jesus’ parable are just another way of saying that, outside of the Christian Church (or the Church catholic, if you will) there is no salvation.
This parable of Jesus highlights some very important things for us. Above all, it shows us what, for mankind, is the price of admission into God’s kingdom. It is free, of course, for us. And the invitation is universal; it is for all. The invitation to the Great Supper went out to rich and poor, to good and bad, to healthy and sick. No one had to do anything or pay anything to earn the invitation or to earn a place at the Supper. The invitation went out then and continues to go out now by God’s grace alone, and a person enters by faith alone in Christ Jesus.
In other words, the price of admission into God’s kingdom is Jesus. No one enters God’s kingdom without trusting in God’s grace for the sake of Christ. No one enters by trusting in his own works. No one enters by refusing to repent of his sins. No one enters by trying to bypass Jesus. It has to be through Him that you enter. You’ve heard the phrase, “Over my dead body”? Well, Jesus says, in effect, “You get into My Father’s kingdom over My dead – and resurrected – body.”
God has given you a great twofold gift – the greatest gift – both in sending His Son to die for your sins and in calling you to faith and Holy Baptism, where you now taste and see that the Lord is good! Don’t deliberately and carelessly absent yourselves from God’s gifts ever!
In our text, many excuses were gives for not attending the Great Supper. In essence, those things got in the way of church. Well, here’s the turnaround: Church should be the excuse to miss all those other things! And if that sounds a little heavy-handed, too bad, for there is nothing more important than being in God’s House and receiving His gifts of Word and Sacrament. It’s one thing not to be able to get here; it’s something else altogether to make a conscious decision to stay away. Repent of that, and repent of everything else that you allow to come before the Divine Service. There is nothing more important than spiritual health and well-being.
Dear fellow redeemed, Jesus suffered for you; He was beaten, scourged, and nailed to the cross for you. Jesus died for you, taking your sins upon Himself on that cross. Jesus rose from the dead for you, defeating death for you, to give you the certainty of your own resurrection on the Last Day. He did all those things in your place so that you would never face the eternal punishment for your sins – ever!
By God’s grace and through God-given faith in Christ, you have answered His invitation to the Great Supper. And you will be there, in heaven with Him, to enjoy that Great Feast when He calls you Home.
In the meantime, you have the foretaste of that eternal feast right here every Lord’s Day, where Christ feeds you with His true body and blood through which He delivers forgiveness, life, and salvation to you.
Come to the Supper. And as you do, you join with all those who have gone before us in the faith who are celebrating this same Feast in heaven right now.
The whole Divine Service is Jesus for you. And on this side of the grave, it doesn’t get any better than that.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
