The great supper.
The feast of which Christ, was partaking had been carefully prepared, and was an event of some consequence in the town. This may be inferred not only from the tone of the Lord's remarks, but also from the intimations of the evangelists. Thus from Luke 14:12 it appears that the Pharisee had gathered together the elite of the place, along with his more intimate friends and his kinsmen. From Luke 14:7 we learn that there had been an eager scramble on the part of the guests for the chief places, the precedencies, and dignities. It was the observation or' this which called forth the saying (Luke 14:11), "Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Notice, too, as proving the care which had been bestowed on the entertainment, that there was an understanding among the more prominent guests that the movements and words of the invited Prophet should be closely watched. In fact, the supper was a trap laid. To complete the scheme, a man was introduced (Luke 14:2) who laboured under a severe illness—dropsy; a man whose presence might be a temptation to the loving-hearted Healer to violate the sacredness of the sabbath. Jesus, we are told (Luke 14:3), "answering," i.e. knowing the intention of the lawyers and Pharisees, put a question to them which revealed the thoughts of the heart, whilst it so vindicated his work of mercy that it reduced his hypocritical friends to silence: "they could not answer him again to these things" (Luke 14:6). This great supper is the text of one of the most beautiful of our Lord's parables. The introduction of the parable is very simple. He had taught his host a lesson of charity (Luke 14:12-14), when one of the company, catching at the last clause, "recompensed at the resurrection of the just," and giving this the accepted Pharisee-meaning—a banquet at which the elect of the nation.would sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (presuming, of course, that he would have a place at that banquet)—exclaims, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God" (Luke 14:15). "Yes," virtually replies the Prophet, "only recollect that this kingdom of God is not the blessedness which you imagine; nay, since the call to it has been rejected by those who were bidden—i.e. the covenant-people—that call will be extended, in the fulness of its glory, to the publicans and sinners whom you reject—the people of the streets and lanes; it will be extended further still, even to the ignorant heathen—the people of the highways and hedges. For (representing in these words the giver of the festival) "None of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper" (Luke 14:24). Such was the primary application of the parable. In its details it is entirely within the circle of prophetic ideas. The supper is an Old Testament symbol of the day of Christ, the Messiah (see Isaiah 25:6). The "many bidden" were those who, having Moses and the prophets, were possessors both of the Word heard outwardly with the ear, and of the grace through which it is grafted inwardly in the heart. The servant at the supper-time denotes that preaching of the kingdom which began with John the Baptist, and was carried on by our Lord and those whom "he sent before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come." The excuses intimate the pleas on which the invited, with one consent, turned away from the call. And the further missions of the servant, first keeping within the city, to the streets and lanes, and, secondly, quitting the precincts of the city, to the highways and hedges, denote, as has been said, the inclusion of the excluded classes of the Jews, along with the Samaritans, and the bidding of the Gentiles to the light of the gospel. "I said," thus ancient prophecy expressed it (Isaiah 65:1), "Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my Name." Passing from the first relations of the parable to those which more directly concern us, every part of it is suggestive of some aspect of Christian truth or life. Notice three points—
I. THE HOSPITALITY OF GOD. God is the Presence shadowed forth in the "man who makes, the great supper." In the notion of such a supper we see the Divine hospitality. A supper carries with it the thought of an abundant provision, of satisfaction for all want, of an infinite and various fulness. And is not this associated in the Scriptures with the very name of God? Take, e.g., one of the most beautiful utterances of the Psalter, Psalms 36:5-9. Indeed, the manifold revelation of God in nature, providence, grace, in the firmament above us, the earth around us, the great and wide sea, our own consciousness, the Word who in the beginning was with God and was God—God himself in every form of his communication, is the exceeding joy of the pure in heart. His greatness is so hospitable. It makes room for all our littleness and weakness "in its lap to lie." As Faber, in verses of sweetest music, has sung
"Thus doth thy grandeur make us grand ourselves;
'Tis goodness makes us fear;
Thy greatness makes us brave, as children are
When those they love are near.
"Great God! our lowliness takes heart to play
Beneath the shadow of thy state;
The only comfort of our littleness
Is that thou art so great.
"Then on thy grandeur I will lay me down;
Already life is heaven for me;
No cradled child more softly lies than I:
'Come soon, Eternity.'"
It is this hospitality that is declared in the Son of the Eternal Love. Christ is the Great Supper. In him God has "abounded towards us in wisdom and prudence." St. Paul speaks of" the love of Christ which passeth knowledge," of Christ "the All in all;" and, more particularly defining the supper-making, he says, "Christ, of God made to us Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption." All that we need as men, all that is salvation for sinners, is ours in him. And how is it ours? "If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
II. THE CHURLISHNESS OF MEN. This is God, with the door thrown wide open, the table prepared, the life eternal given, the grand, ever-urgent "Come!" "Ho, every one that thirsteth and he that hath no money, come!" But what is the reception? Strange, wonderful, but still too true, "They all with one consent began to make excuse" (verse 18). Look at the excuses. They are pictures of states of mind, of attitudes of thought, as real now as at any time. Three such pictures are sketched. The first (verse 18), a mind which rejoices in a good realized. The man has the desire of his heart. He is the lord of broad acres. "Soul, take thine ease; what need for thee of the supper?" The second (verse 19), a mind still immersed in business, with its cares and anxieties. The man has just concluded an important purchase; before all else he must prove it. The third (verse 20), a mind absorbed in earthly delights and social relationships—he "cannot come." We can trace, in the three pictures, a climax like that of the parable reported in Matthew 22:1-46., which closely resembles this. There is an ascending scale in the rejection. The first is covetous to a degree; he would go with all his heart—only that little estate; he must needs "pray let me be excused." The second is polite, but more abrupt; there is a graceful wave of the hand, a gentlemanly "Pray let me be excused;" but there is no "I must needs." The third is rude and fiat in his denial; there is a quick "No, I cannot." Is it not the climax of worldliness in every period? And what is worldliness? The celebrated Robert Hall one day wrote the word "God" on a slip of paper. "You can read that?" he said, as he passed the slip to a friend. "Yes." He covered the name on the slip with a sovereign. "Can you read it now?" The sovereign was above, was nearer the gaze than God. That is worldliness. It is not the having, not the purchasing, of the ground or the oxen, It is the having the earthly thing in the first place, the setting of the "must needs" over against it. And it is the mind which does this, to which the heavenly kingdom is second to the earthly good, which is fruitful of excuses. Oh, how often it puts off! how often there comes even the rude "I cannot"! Has the Giver of the supper found such a mind in any of us?
III. THE COMMISSION OF THE SERVANT. It is to bear the Master's call, to declare that "all things are ready;" that salvation is full and is present; life now, life for ever, given with God's "yea" and "amen' to even the chief of sinners. The word of the reconciliation is "Come!" the ministry of reconciliation implies, "Go, ever out and out." The house of the Lord must be filled; he is bent on the winning of souls. A supper, and none to eat; a great supper, and only a few guests!
"Salvation! O salvation!
The joyful sound proclaim,
Till earth's remotest nation
Has learnt Messiah's Name."
"Compel them" is the voice of the Everlasting Love. Use, i.e., all means of moral suasion; circle around their wills; plead, beseech, entreat, persuade, "instant in season and out of season;" draw them, watch over them; establish such links between the messenger and them that they shall feel that they must come with you, since God is with you of a truth. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON