Table Manners

Proverbs 9:1-10; Ephesians 2:13-22; Luke 14:15-24 (ESV)
2nd Sunday after Trinity A.D. 2021. Pr. Neal Blanke

In Jesus’ name.

Our Gospel Reading, the Parable of the Great Banquet, is in the middle of the 14th chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke. The beginning of chapter 14 gives us the context for this parable of Jesus. Jesus is at the end of His earthly ministry. He is traveling south to Jerusalem for the last time to suffer and to die, for our sins and for the sins of all the world. On the cross and on this journey Jesus addresses our sinfulness. On this journey to Jerusalem, on a Saturday, Jesus has been invited to dinner. Luke, chapter 14, beginning at verse 1,

“One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy.” (vv. 1-2)

Dropsy is the old-fashioned word for edema, that is, “swelling that is caused by fluid trapped in your body’s tissues. Edema happens most often in the feet, ankles, and legs…” and is caused by a variety of diseases, “such as congestive heart failure and lung, liver, kidney, and thyroid diseases.” (clevelandclinic.org) Edema or dropsy can be very painful. Jesus, surrounded by the scribes and Pharisees and presented with a man who had dropsy, on the Sabbath, seized the moment to teach this dinner party about their own sinfulness and the true meaning of the 3rd Commandment, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8a NIV) What does it mean to “remember the Sabbath Day.” What does it mean to keep Sabbath? What work is allowed to be done on the Sabbath day? Jesus responded to the Jewish leaders’ legalism and their misunderstanding of the Sabbath. Luke, chapter 14, beginning with verse 3:

And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”
But they remained silent. Then he took him [the man who had dropsy] and healed him and sent him away.
And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things. (vv. 3-6 ESV)

Thus Jesus taught that works of rescue and healing are appropriate on a Sabbath, but now that He has their attention, Jesus continues to teach this dinner party. Jesus’s 2nd lesson is a lesson on dining etiquette, a lesson which also points out the selfishness of the Jewish leaders. Verse 7:

Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (vv. 7-11 ESV)

This is a good lesson in table manners, but it is also a wonderful insight into how humility should dominate the entire Christian life. Also it is a parable which teaches us about our own selfishness and about how humility will be rewarded on Last Day.
Having given a lesson in table manners to all the guests, Jesus now turns to His host, the Pharisee, with a 2nd lesson about dining etiquette and selfishness. Verse 12:

He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (vv. 12-14 ESV)

In teaching table manners Jesus has certainly taken the focus off of temporal rewards and refocused our attention on eternal rewards. One of the men, who was dining with Jesus understood what Jesus said, and responded. His response is the beginning of our Gospel Reading. Verse 15,

“When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, ‘Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!'” (ESV)

Jesus’s response was the Parable of the Great Banquet. Verse 16:

But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But 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 the servant came and reported these things to his master. 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. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'” (vv. 16-24 ESV)

In the parable, the man who gave the great banquet is God. Those, who originally heard Jesus speak this parable, the scribes and Pharisees, were well read in the Hebrew Scriptures. They would probably have remembered that God, through the prophet Isaiah, had foretold His banquet of salvation, which would, quote, “swallow up death forever.” Isaiah, chapter 25, beginning at verse 6, “On this mountain,” that is Mount Moriah on which Jerusalem was built:

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the LORD has spoken.

It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the LORD; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (vv. 6-9 ESV)

Through the prophet Isaiah, God had foretold the banquet of salvation, which would come in Jesus Christ, and this banquet cost God dearly! Our Old Testament Reading reminds us of the expense of preparing for a banquet. In Proverbs, chapter 9, wisdom is personified as a woman who has prepared a banquet. Beginning with verse 1,

“Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table.” (vv. 1-2 ESV)

To prepare the banquet of our salvation, God the Father gave up His only begotten Son to suffer the torments of hell and to die in our place for our sins. The banquet of our salvation cost God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit dearly! It was our selfishness which required the infinite torments of hell. Christ went to the cross to endure that torment of hell fire for us. God loves us dearly and has sacrificed everything for us. In the Sacrament of the Altar God feeds us with the banquet of salvation, His own Body and Blood in our mouth, for the forgiveness of our sins.

Whom did God invite to His banquet of salvation? He invited every believer. He invited the entire Jewish nation, all the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Through His servants, the prophets, God has been inviting His people, ever since the Garden of Eden, to have their sins forgiven by the Seed of the Woman, but when the Messiah actually arrived, what was the response of the Jews? Jesus said in Luke 14, verse 18:

“…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.'” (Luke 14:18-20 ESV)

4000 years after the promise to Adam and Eve that the Seed of the Woman would crush the Serpent’s head, after the prophets repeatedly foretold of the coming Messiah, when the Messiah finally shows up, what was the response of the Jews?
They are too entangled in the affairs of this life to make time for God’s greatest gift,
and therein is the warning for us. We are to be good stewards of God’s earthly gifts, but woe to us, if ever make our work, our business or our family more important than God!

What was the response of the Master of the house to those who rejected His invitation? Verse 21:

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. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'” (vv. 21-24 ESV)

God was angry with the Jewish rejection and disregard of Jesus, and so He promised that those, who rejected the Christ, would never taste His banquet. God turned and offered His salvation to the Gentiles. That is what our Epistle Reading explains, how God could offer to the Gentiles, those outside of the covenant, His salvation. Saint Paul wrote to the Gentiles at Ephesus. Verse 13, “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing…” Actually that is too strong of a word. Instead of abolishing, read neutralizing, for Christ did not destroy the Law, but by fulfilling the Law, He has relieved us of its requirements. I restart at Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 14:

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by neutralizing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:14-22 ESV modified)

In Christ Jesus, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 (NKJV) In His Body on the cross, Jesus has paid for your sins and the sins for all the world. Your sins are forgiven! Your selfishness is forgiven, and Jew and Gentile are united into one people of God, the holy Christian Church, which is God’s temple on earth. Meditate on your forgiveness and the great love of God for you, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church – Yucaipa

Sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ

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