Who will eat bread in the kingdom of God?

Part eight of nine

Luke 14:15–24

The story of a host and his banquet

One day Jesus hears someone say, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” He responds with a story. It’s a story about a man giving a banquet.

In typical first century fashion there are two “invitations.” People need time to decide whether to accept or decline. Accepting obligates them to reciprocate. Besides, they’re watching to see who else is coming. They only want to come if they’ll gain social status by associating with the other guests and the host.

After all the RSVPs are in, the host decides whether to kill a fatted calf (if many are coming), a goat or a lamb (if fewer are coming) or a chicken (if the whole thing falls flat).

When the food is ready, the second invitation is issued: “Come to the banquet!” It would be unthinkable at that point for guests to change their response and not come. But in Jesus’ story that is precisely what every guest does. And they offer shoddy excuses for their last-minute change of plan.

Not surprisingly, the host is furious. He sends out servants to invite the poor, crippled, blind and lame. He even compels people from the country lanes to fill up the empty spots. He wants a full banquet and vows that the first invited will never taste of it.

What does the story mean?

God as host

The traditional interpretation is clear. God is the host. First He invites the high status people (Pharisees, scribes, priests?). They refuse. Then He goes to the low status people (poor, crippled, blind and lame). They gladly come. Even those outside the city (lepers perhaps?) are welcome.

Some think this is about Jews declining the invitation and Gentiles responding. Others (more plausibly, I think) suggest Jesus is mirroring His own ministry to low status people in Israel.

So who are the blessed ones who will eat bread in the kingdom of God? They are those recruited to the banquet after others leave room through their shoddy excuses.

It all works – sort of – but then again, not really well. It sounds like Jesus accepted low status people only because the Pharisees and company declined the invitation. Or, if we think of Gentiles, as though we are invited because too many of Jesus’ own people refused His invitation. And it sounds like God gives people only one chance and if they decline, declares emphatically, “Not one of them will get a taste of my banquet.”

Another reading

Is there an alternative reading of the parable? There is, if we take seriously the context in Luke’s Gospel.

Jesus has just said, “When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (14:13,14).

He seems to be saying, “Don’t play the earthly status game. Don’t play up to important people. True status is a gift, God-given and passed on freely, not something fought for and earned.” Associating with those of little earthly standing may not enhance our reputation, but the heavenly banquet will more than repay us for our choice to follow Jesus’ way.

In this context one of Jesus’ hearers exclaims, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” I think that means, “How blessed will be the kind of host Jesus has described. He will be a participant in God’s heavenly feast.” And so Jesus tells His story.

Learning the Jesus way

It’s not a story about God’s heavenly feast. It’s the story of a person who learned to be the kind of host Jesus just described. He starts out as the typical worldly host Jesus challenged, inviting all the high status people who will later pay him back. But this time his would-be guests conspire to shame him, leaving him high and dry with a prepared banquet and no guests.

He learns that the status game is not only contrary to the Jesus way, it’s also a risky game that can easily backfire. He decides to listen to Jesus. He expresses his newfound commitment by doing precisely what Jesus had just said His followers should do. He invites the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.

What can he expect? Precisely the reward Jesus promised – repayment at the resurrection of the righteous (v.14), or, as a guest at the table re-worded it, the blessing of eating bread in the kingdom of God (v.15).

Luke 14:15–24 is really about an earthly host who learns that it pays to follow Jesus. It pays because it’s a sure way to gain the only kind of honour that really matters, the honour of being invited to God’s banquet.

Or, perhaps we can have it both ways. Perhaps Jesus told His story just ambiguously enough that we can apply it twice. First it pictures God’s way of offering heaven’s blessings: inviting and gladly opening the doors of the banquet to all who will come.

At the same time, at another level, it pictures an appropriate response to that generous God. We are challenged to invest ourselves in service and generosity to all God’s children, trusting God to make it worthwhile in this life, and especially in the next.

For reflection:

• What speaks for and against the traditional interpretation, where God is the host in the story? What speaks for and against the view that it describes an earthly host converted to Jesus’ way?
• What would it mean for me to be a host following Jesus’ way?

Tim Geddert teaches New Testament at MB Biblical Seminary, Fresno, Cal.

The series concludes in the next issue. The series began in the Sept. 24 issue.