Luke records a story (14:15-24) where Jesus is tacitly invited to speak about the invitation list for the "banquet in God's Kingdom." For our purposes here, the "banquet in God's kingdom" loosely refers to our eschatological views (e.g., the future, salvation, the "day of the Lord," rewards, punishment, and judgment).
He responds with a story, and this is my quick summary here, about a gracious person inviting a number of people to a lavish banquet, only to be rudely rebuffed and rejected. The banquet is still happening, so the host sends out a second group of invitations, but with a bit of a change, because it's obvious that the second group's social-economic status isn't as strong as those in the first group.
First, regarding the people not showing up, it seems reasonably discerning to say that it's not because the host is mad, angry, wrathful, uncaring, or out to punish people as much as it is… well, they're just not showing up! It is a type of judgment, but it's not a punitive judgment administered by an outside, angry deity looking to vent his wrath upon people; instead, it's a consequential judgment. The person is simply self-selecting out of the host's gracious invitation.
Said another way, we are punished more by our sins than for our sins.
(The preposition makes all the difference.) All those who refuse the invitation to lay down their scapegoating obsessions, their sacrificial views, their unwillingness to see others as a brother or sister will be cut off from the fellowship of the host. Not because the host isn't gracious (Good grief, he's invited everyone!) No, it's because they opted out.
Imagine showing up at a party that you had nothing to do with and then having the audacity to complain about who else has been invited to the party? Not only that but then to leave before the party even gets started?
I have been hearing a certain refrain, a type of catchy chorus that's been repeated by lots of religious people in my life for the last few years. It’s something like, “You need to talk more about sin. Call out sin. Remember, God is holy. He can't be around sin.” And, “When are we going to get back to calling sin, 'sin'“? The refrain repeats over and over in a variety of different iterations.
The air is so thick with irony that it's hard to gain the oxygen one needs to sing a different melody because, in all the religious person's obsession with naming, defining, calling out sin, they miss their own judgmental, exclusionary, arrogant disposition… which is a sin.
Sinners calling out sin is the most ridiculous thing any of us have ever heard, and yet that's the foundation of our religious system.
Second, regarding the people who responded positively to the invitation. We must understand that in Jesus’ day, the prevailing thought was that people in the second group, the lame, the crippled, the diseased, the beggars, the disabled… they were in a lower-status-crowd for a reason. What was the reason? In a word: sin. They had done something to deserve their lot in life. (It’s the prevailing thought in our day too!)
But this story, and others that Jesus told, unpack the ideas that…
a) Life cannot be reduced to such a simplistic view. It rains on the just and the unjust. You can't trace one's problems back to any one “good” or “bad” decision a person makes. Life is complex.
b) Even if you could reduce one person's life down to a mistake they made, the person is still being invited to The Great Banquet. What does that say about your particular religious system's criteria for being invited?
c) We're all undeserving of the invite. When I say undeserving, I'm not suggesting I believe that humans are worthless, broken, hopelessly faulted, and/or corrupted. Rather, simply, that we're all on the receiving end of this thing. None of us have earned our status. Life is a gift.
Ironically, JC is at a dinner party, being asked his opinion about THE Dinner Party. And yet, he's there… at that dinner party. Get it? He's already there. Ha, in other words, the kingdom of God had already begun. The story was playing out right in front of them. And as it turned out religious leaders at that dinner party were some of the very same people who refused to follow the way of Jesus. And the story was playing out right in front of the "second class" folks, too. The people being healed on the Sabbath (which in Matthew’s account, took place right before Jesus’ Great Banquet story) were some of the people who fell in love with the way of Jesus. (Yes, like Inception, a story within a story.)
Here's my simple interpretation: God is graciously throwing a party. The people showing up are not the people you imagine showing up. The people showing up are the castaways. Actually, wait, we’re all something like "castaways," so we should just respond with gratitude.
Revel in the magnanimous grace. Do the best you can. Rejoice. You’ve been accepted. Eat. Pray. Love. (Ha, yes, maybe so Elizabeth Gilbert.) The story is playing out right in front of you.
Enjoy the banquet.
The Great Banquet is reposted with permission from Jonathan Foster. It originally appeared on his blog, www.jonathanfosteronline.com/blog which we encourage readers to visit.
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