Gospel [Luke 14:16-24 (§76)]

This morning we hear this beautiful parable about the calling of a Great Supper and we should all clearly identify that this supper is nothing other than the Lord’s invitation to each one of us to commune with Him supremely as we will do later this morning in the Sacred Mystery of the Eucharist, but also through prayer and ascetic practices where we also abide and commune in the Lord. Today’s parable draws attention to a fundamental paradox in our post-lapsarian, post-fallen, human nature: all of us naturally yearn, naturally desire this Communion, for we were created exactly for this. Yet at the same time, due to Ancestral Sin and our suffering the consequences of the Fall – through the deception of the demons, and our own weaknesses – we continually refuse God’s gracious invitation to abide in Him for a whole load of paltry and tawdry distractions. On this day when we recall our Holy Forefathers, and the faithfulness of the Patriarchs, who chose to abide in God despite and whatever the cost, let us turn to our holy father St Theophylact Bishop of Ochrid to understand the meaning of this parable.

Let us first turn to the context of this extraordinary parable. It comes in chapter 14 of St Luke’s Gospel. Our Lord had just been eating at the house of one of the chief Pharisees and there in front of them on the sabbath day itself had healed a man who had “dropsy” or was painfully swollen with excess oedema or fluid build up probably in his legs, ankles, arms and hands. After healing the man, much to the consternation of the Pharisees, he then proceeds to tell them how they should feast in the kingdom of God: first with humility, seeking the lower seats and then with a holy generosity and a heart full of compassion, inviting the poor, the sick and the unfortunate. It is then that our Lord preaches this powerful parable as the finale of this teaching episode which is prompted when one at the table with him exclaims: Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God.

The Lord, as St Theophylact says, teaches him at some length, what it means to feast with God, and tells this parable.

A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

So lets first identify the main characters and setting. The “certain man”, as St Theophylact says, is the Divine Person of the Father. In a beautiful passage the saints says –

Whenever Scripture alludes to God’s power to punish, He is called a panther,, a leopard or a bear. But whenever it alludes to God’s love for man, He is presented as a man, as is the case here.

How beautiful this is. When God wishes to heal us, to help us, to save us, he presents Himself in the most palatable way – as a man.

Next: who is the servant? This, St Theophylact reminds us, is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ who came in the “form of a servant”. What is the supper? And why a supper rather than a lunch? St Theophylact says that the supper is to use precise theological language, the Mystery of “the divine economy”, that is the Incarnation, the coming in the Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ. The reason for it being “supper time” rather than breakfast or lunch was that it was late, the latter times, towards the end of the Ages when God determined to be united with our human condition. As St Theophylact says –

There was no other time more opportune for our salvation than the reign on Caesar Augustus, when iniquity had reached its peak, and it was critical that it be cleansed. Just as physicians allow a festering and malignant boil to burst and release all its foul pus … so too it was necessary that sin first display all its forms, and then the Great Physician applied His medicine.

And who were those that were first called? These were of course God’s chosen people, with whom He had established His covenant – the Jewish people, the people of Israel. Yet no sooner has God arranged everything and made everything ready, then what do we hear but excuse, apology and at heart rejection. After thousands of years, at the end of the ages, as preached and predicted by the Prophets and the Patriarchs, God comes in the Flesh to His own People to save and redeem them from their sins, but He is then roundly rejected. As we hear St John the Theologian say in that short but profoundly poignant verse in the Prologue – He came unto his own, and his own received him not. Behind the excuses of the sudden need to see a newly bought piece of ground; to tend the five oxen and the newly married wife, St Theophylact sees a disordered intoxification with material things, the things of this world as well as the pleasures of the flesh. There is something so tragic about God coming to open the very Way to Paradise, that our ancestors closed, the Way to Heaven, and this poor deluded soul chooses the earth, the ground, a patch of mud rather than the incandescent Gates of Paradise.

But my brothers and sisters, before we start tutting at the poor choices of the People of Israel to the invitation to come to the Great Supper – let us have a long, hard look at ourselves and the priorities we manifest in the choices we make. Have we missed the opportunity of attending the Divine Liturgy or of coming to a church service when we had time, health and opportunity? Again other than in exceptional circumstances – absolutely necessary employment, caring responsibilities or sickness – are we not choosing patches of ground rather than paradise? And before we start congratulating ourselves for attending the Liturgy today, what about those Great Feasts that we missed, or if that was completely unavoidable, what about the Vigil services the night before? But in truth it is not only the Divine Services, what about all those times during the present Fast when I chose patches of ground, Oxen my wife or husband rather than simply accepting the humble invitation that the Lord extends to me each and every day. What about those morning or evening prayers that I missed, what about those days that I didn’t read Scripture, or take a moment to notice whose feast day it was and to ask their prayers. What about the poor, homeless and people in need that I neglected? When we start reflecting in this way we will see that all of us have shunned our Lord, have thrown His gracious invitation to dine with Him in His Face.

Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

There is something very moving about this. Our Lord doesn’t rescind the invitation altogether but through our Saviour Jesus Christ invites those who were considered the least in the world, the bottom of the pile, life’s losers and have-nots. The Scribes and Pharisees, the educated, cultivated and the spiritually pious amongst the children of Abraham – they were all proved too proud to turn up to this Supper. Instead our Lord found eager guests amongst the simple, the poor, the foolish of this world. Look at who declares faith and love in Him in the Gospel – fishermen, tax collectors, Publicans, adulterers, sinners, demoniacs, the blind, the deaf, the swollen, the paralysed, the widows, the lepers, the sick, the hungry and of course, right at the front, the little children. These all come to the Feast whilst the clever, rich and pious ones were all too busy.

And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

And then finally after the people of Israel, it was time for the Lord to go and bring in the other flock, the Gentiles. As St Theophylact notes, this isn’t the people in the city – in Jerusalem – but the Gentiles outside the city of God, the country-folk, the country bumkins – here in Mettingham, us. And this is what we must do, we must accept our Lord’s most Gracious offer to come and abide in Him and dine with Him in the Kingdom and not reject it for anything in this world and remember those stark final words –  

For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

And we all have a responsibility to bring yet more to the Lord and not to discourage or offend them by our poor example. For see “yet there is room”.

Dear Fathers, brothers and sisters: today we also commemorate the Holy Forefathers the Patriarchs and the Prophets and especially today the Prophet Haggai who prophesised the coming of Christ. All of these Prophets, Patriarchs and Righteous Ones of the House of Abraham earnestly yearned to come to the Mystical Supper that you and I will shortly partake of. As our Lord said –

Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Let us learn from the obedience, faithfulness and foresight of our Holy Forefathers and never, never ever take for granted our Holy Orthodox Faith, our Holy Orthodox Church of which we are members. Let us not choose a patch of earth, a set of Oxen or the pleasures of the Flesh over our Lord Jesus Christ Who became Incarnate for us; Who died for Us, Who Rose again for us; and gave and continues to give His Most Holy Body and Blood for us sinners, wretched and unworthy though we are. To Him be All Glory, Honour and Worship both now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

Amen.