Sermon - Trinity II - Luke 14:15-24

“Come, for everything is now ready.” What more joyous words have ever been spoken than that simple invitation to the banquet feast? Christ declares today that His heavenly banquet feast is ready! A banquet has been planned, the tables professionally arranged, the food delicately and magnificently prepared, the seats have been set, the musicians have arrived and warmed up, and now everything is ready. You hear the servant’s call; it’s time to go and feast at the banquet. 

The man was right who sat near Jesus and said, “blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Trully, blessed is everyone who dines at the Lord’s table in His kingdom. What does this feast consist of? Well we read in Proverbs, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” The bread and wine that Proverbs describes is instruction in the Word of the Lord. “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

The banquet is ready, all has been prepared, and it has already begun. When Christ sat at table with the Pharisees, when He walked down the road with His apostles, when He taught the greats crowds on hill and sea, the words which He taught were the bread of life, and the people surrounding Him were already seated at His banquet. When we gather together today, hanging on every word of Christ, we are here for a great banquet wherein we feast on Christ’s Word. Blessed are we who here eat bread in the kingdom of God!

Thus how sad it is when so many reject the invitation to come and dine at Christ’s table! “They all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out 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 many make excuses and have made the good things of this world into idols.

How many today turn good gifts from God into idols which distract from feasting on God’s Word? Very easily today our fields, our livestock, our wives, our children and grandchildren, our hobbies, our entertainment, our education, our work, all of it comes before God’s Word. We would rather feast on the fleeting vanities of this world than dine on the true bread come down from heaven. So our sanctuaries are empty today here in America, where so many have wandered away into myths and vain pleasures, worldly pursuits and even godly vocations, but have kindly excused themselves from the banquet. 

But here we ourselves come off conceited and arrogant, assuming that since we are faithfully here every Sunday, we must most certainly not belong to those who have rejected the invitation. But look again at our text, look into the larger context of where Jesus is and who is speaking to, turn back in Luke 14 to the first verse, where is Jesus? Who is He talking to? “One Sabbath, when He went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees…” 

Jesus is talking to the religious elite! Jesus is addressing people like us who are faithfully in church every Sunday, who wear the right clothes, say the right things, and play the part of a Christian. But inwardly, what do our hearts look like? If all it took to get into heaven was to go to church once a week and say the right things and dress properly, then I guess we’d all be there along with the Pharisees. But this is a matter of the heart. “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

Today let us consider our hearts and examine whether or not we are like those who have rejected the invitation to Jesus’ banquet. Christ has called out to us and the invitation is extended, “Come, for everything is now ready.” This banquet has been thrown for our benefit, so that we might be blessed and feed upon the bread of life, the Word of God. 

But have we received this banquet invitation wholeheartedly? Have our jobs and our families come before God, if not with our hands then in our hearts? Have we made excuses to not pray or read the Bible or care for our neighbor? Have we been lovers of money or vainities of vainities? If so, then know that if we reject the feast, even and especially in our hearts, then Christ gives us a somber warning: “For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.” But for those who do receive the invitation with joy, blessed are you who eat bread in the kingdom of God!

If indeed you have sinned and at times rejected God’s invitation to the banquet, either in your heart or with your actions, then do know that “there is still room” at Christ’s banquet for you. Even if you’re a rather unsavory character, rough around the edges, this banquet is still for you! Look at it in v. 21 and following: “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 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 my house may be filled.”

Dear Christians, there is room at this banquet even for the undesirable people like us who’re crippled with sin. The Holy Spirit goes out and not only urges you to come to the banquet, but He brings you in and compels you to come into the Father’s house. My friends, let us repent of our slothfulness and lack of zeal, our idolatry of the vain pleasures of this life, and so enter into the banquet of our Lord. 

Tell you what, if you thought the only people who would be at this banquet would be the hoity toity upper echelons of society, you’d be wrong. The banquet you’ve been invited to is filled with other sinners. It’s filled with the poor, cripplied, blind, and lame. Some of us may be financially wealthy or broke, some may be physically fit or disabled, some may be able to see or not, some may not even be able to walk around. But among us all, we have one thing in common: The Holy Spirit has invited us into the banquet and even gone so far as to bring us into it. So now that you’re here, join your fellow banquet goers in repentance. 

Then feast! Feast upon this great banquet of the bread of heaven! Feast upon the forgiveness offered here for sinners such as us! Feast upon the Word of God and grow in wisdom and understanding! Feast upon Christ’s body and blood in the sacrament of the altar and be forgiven! Feast upon our Savior, Jesus the Christ, who became poor, crippled, blind, and lame in your place so that you would be made whole. Feast upon the Lamb of God who was sacrificed for you upon the cross, and from His blood atoned for your sins. 

Don’t doubt the Gospel! The banquet is now ready! The feast has been prepared! There’s plenty of room for you and many more, so heed the invitation, listen to Christ’s promise, don’t make any more excuses, just come to Jesus and be fed and forgiven. Don’t be slow, don’t wait, but hurry that Christ may save your soul! Jesus isn’t lying to you, oh sinner, no, “Come, for everything is now ready.”