Then the master of the house, being angry, 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"

 

 Then He also said to him who invited Him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid.  But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.  And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, "Blessed is He who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!"  Then He said to him, "A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for all things are now ready.'  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.'  So that servant came and reported these things to his master.  Then the master of the house, being angry, 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.'  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.  For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.'"

 

- Luke 14:12-24 

 

On Saturday, we read that as Jesus went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, they watched Him closely.  And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy.  And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"  But they kept silent.  And He took him and healed him, and let him go.  Then He answered them, saying, "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?"  And they could not answer Him regarding these things.  So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them:  "When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place.  But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher.'  Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."  

 

 Then He also said to him who invited Him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid.  But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.  And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just."  My study bible tells us that this instruction by Jesus is based on the manner in which God treats us -- although not any of us could possibly repay God (see 6:30-36).  On Christ's words that "you shall be repaid," see 10:34-35, in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, "Blessed is He who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!"    This is the ultimate beatitude, according to my study bible, unwittingly declared by this man.   The truth in his words comes when we understand that the bread is eternal communion with God.  

Then He said to him, "A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for all things are now ready.'"   My study bible explains that the parable Jesus begins here operates on two levels, which illustrate both the first and the second coming of Christ.  He is the servant who is sent to gather many.   Supper indicates evening, which is the end of the age.  The people who are invited to this metaphorical great supper are first the Jews, then all mankind.  

"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.' "  My study bible comments that the patristic Fathers see the three excuses as having both a literal meaning and also spiritual meanings.  First of all, the literal meaning -- that many are too attached to worldly cares to accept the Kingdom of God can also be here in verse 26, and also 18:29.   As for spiritual meanings, St. Ambrose sees the three excuses of I cannot come as representing the Gentile, the Jew, and the heretic.  The Gentile's devotion to earthly wealth is represented by the piece of ground, the enslavement of the Jews to the five books of the Law in the five yoke of oxen, and the espousal of error by the heretic through the man refusing on account of his wife. 

"So that servant came and reported these things to his master.  Then the master of the house, being angry, 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.'  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.  For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.'"  The people in the streets and lanes can be seen symbolically as first, the Gentiles who accepted Christ after the faithless Jews reject Him, my study bible says.  And second, those outside the Church who will replace those within who reject their own baptism.

Jesus' parable assures us of two things, and seems to do so absolutely.  First, that regardless of how many fail to accept the invitation to the feast of communion in the kingdom of God, there will be more invitations sent out to yet more who were not previously reached with invitations in the past.  In addition, none among the "preferred" or elect group who originally received invitation will be admitted to this feast.   Moreover, those in the streets and lanes of the city, who are the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind, are those who are outsiders.  They are all those who are in some sense "less than."   Furthermore, the room available at this great feast or banquet can always accommodate more.  So  those in the highways and hedges, who may be compelled to come in, are even more on the outskirts of what has been understood as the acceptable limits of the Kingdom, those eligible by reason of closeness and previous or past association or kinship of any kind.  The highways in Christ's time connected the whole of the Roman Empire and beyond.  There is a sense to the parable of an ongoing outreach, a search, in which action is continually happening in both directions:  those who refuse the invitation will be barred, while invitations will continually go to outsiders, the "less than," even those who know nothing of the Kingdom beforehand and so are not previously familiar with the One who issues the invitations.  I am particularly intrigued by the naming of "the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind," because it indicates that those invited in are all those who are in need of healing in one way and another.  It might even suggest to us Christ's specific words regarding Himself as Physician:  "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (Luke 5:31).  He said these words when criticized for being at a dinner in the home of a tax collector, with other tax collectors and sinners present.  And he added another image:  "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.  But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'"  This image of the necessarily expanding new wineskins give us a parallel understanding of all those outsiders, including those in need of a Physician, who will be admitted into the Kingdom, for whom there is always "more room."  When things look bleak and impossible, let us keep in mind Jesus' saying about those poor, maimed, lame, and blind -- and all those who are way on the outskirts of what we think of as the insiders and the connected.  For they are all the children of God invited to this banquet by Christ.  It is those among them who accept this invitation as they are called into the Kingdom, and who will meet at the resurrection of the just.