2nd Sunday after Trinity + Luke 14:16-24
Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Lord prepares a feast for His people, says the prophet Isaiah, “A feast of choice pieces, a feast of wine on the lees, of faith things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees” (Isaiah 25:6). The lees is a layer of yeast and at the bottom of a wine barrel. When wine ages on the lees that yeast imparts a richer flavor to the wine. All this is to say that the feast which God prepares is a true feast with the best foods and finest wines. It’s reminiscent of the rich man in last week’s parable who “fared sumptuously every day” (Luke 16:19). Except the daily feasts of the rich man consisted of physical food. The feast which the prophet foretells is the food that is so often spoken of throughout Scripture, a spiritual food that far excels the feasts of this life. Jesus speaks of this food in Matthew 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” The feast the Isaiah foretells, the food which feeds Jesus in the wilderness, the feast of a certain man who prepared all things and send out His servants to those whom He had invited is the Gospel.
The Lord prepares this glorious feast for His guests. He prepares all things. He provides His only-begotten Son. He sends Him to us in human flesh, to be like us in every way excepting sin, so that He might live a perfectly righteous life in our stead. He becomes man so that He might suffer and die on the cross to atone for every sin every man, woman, and child has ever committed. God the Father raises Christ on the third day so that He might justify all who believe in Him, absolving sinners when they believe in Christ, and clothing them with the perfect righteousness He earned. He gives all this to sinners when they believe that for Christ’s sake they have a gracious and merciful God. There’s no work that you need to provide, for all things have been prepared. The Lord sends out His servants to call those who have been invited. So the Lord sent out the twelve Apostles to the Jews and St. Paul to the Gentiles. He continues to send out pastors to preach this message: “Come, for all things are now ready! The Lord God has provided atonement for your sins and earned forgiveness for you by the death of His Son. Come and feast on Christ by faith!”
“But they all with one accord began to make excuses.” The Lord prepared this feast of feasts, this spiritual food which would nourish sinners to eternal life. Yet they loved the things of this world more than the things of God. They offer excuses as to why they don’t come to the feast and trust in Christ. “I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.” This man loves his possessions and land more than the things of God. He is like the rich man in last week’s Gospel lesson, who heard the invitation to the feast through God’s servants Moses and the Prophets, but refused because He enjoyed fine foods rather than the spiritual food which would sustain his soul unto life everlasting. We see many people making this excuse today for not hearing the Gospel. Sunday used to be the Lord’s Day. Now its “family day,” as if family day shouldn’t be spend together in the Lord’s House. People would rather enjoy their day off in nice houses, spacious lots, and with their material possessions. They excuse themselves from hearing God’s Word with the excuse that they work hard throughout the week and need a day with their family. But all they’re doing is rejecting God’s feast for themselves and their families and deeming themselves unworthy of everlasting life.
Another says, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.” This man loves his work more than the feast of the Gospel. God put man in the garden of Eden to labor in it. He made us for work and the enjoyment of that work. But in His Word He tells us to take a day of rest for our bodies so that we find the rest for our souls that only comes through hearing God’s Word. As man cannot physically work without nourishment, so man cannot live his life without the spiritual nourishment of the Gospel. The man who lives without this spiritual nourishment is outwardly alive but inwardly dead in his trespasses and sins. Another says, “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.” Possessions, work, and now marriage. All three are honorable gifts from God, but this man uses his wife as an excuse to abandon the feast God has so graciously prepared. This is either lust or appeasement. Many reject hearing the Word of Christ because they treasure their sinful desires and don’t want to repent of them and fight their flesh. Others abandon the feast of the Gospel in order to please their spouse, loving their spouse more than the Lord who paid for their sins with His own blood.
This angers the Lord, but His house must be full. He sends His preachers out yet again, in every age, to preach the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins for all who repent and trust Christ for their salvation. Those whom He had originally invited are not worthy of tasting His feast because they love the things of this world and the lusts of the flesh more than the things of God. But look who is worthy of the supper: the poor, the maimed, and the blind. These are worthy to enter into the Feast. They are the poor in spirit, those who are spiritually poor and have nothing to contribute to this feast. They hear the cry, “Come, for all things are now ready!” and rejoice. They hear that God is merciful to all who flee to Christ Jesus and feast on Him in faith. They rejoice that God offers the forgiveness of sins without work and worthiness, but out of sheer grace and mercy, and rush into the feasting hall to enjoy the benefits of Christ. The maimed are those whom sin has maimed and left for dead. These are those whose sin has crippled them and disfigured them, outwardly perhaps, but spiritually for sure. They are those whom the world says does not deserve grace and clemency. But the Lord calls them just the same and compels them to come into his feasting hall. The blind are those who, blinded by sin, have walked in paths of sinful behavior and false ideas about God, who have groped for him in the dark but never found Him. These he calls, gathers, and enlightens with His Gospel so that they might feast on Christ and be saved.
Christ told this parable to the Jews who were rejecting Him. He came to call them to the Feast and to be their true spiritual nourishment. But they resisted and counted themselves unworthy of everlasting life. They loved the things of the life more than everlasting life. They loved their sins more than the forgiveness of sins. They loved their status as children of Abraham more than being called sons of God through faith in the only-begotten Son of God. With them the Lord was not pleased. Christ condemns the unbelieving world with this parable as well, who would rather enjoy their possessions and property, their work and its fruit, and the pleasures of this life than treasure the feast God provides in Christ Jesus. But to those who admit their spiritual poverty, that sin has maimed their hearts and nature, and their spiritual blindness, He brings them into His feast, so that by faith they have everything Christ earned on the cross: forgiveness of every sin, Christ’s perfect righteousness, and everlasting life. There are countless excuses not to partake of this feast. They’re all sinful and they lead to everlasting death. There is only one reason to partake of this feast: because you see your great need and the grace of God toward you in Christ, who provides for your great need by the death and resurrection of Christ, who says once again, “Come, for all things are now ready!” Come, feast on Christ by faith for your forgiveness and everlasting life. Amen.
May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.