LUKE 14:16-24 Jesus had been invited to Sabbath dinner in the house of a prominent Pharisee. St.

Luke records: When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, Give this man your seat. Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, Friend, move up to a better place. Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Then Jesus said to his host, When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Later, in Jesus parable, we hear the host command his servant to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. So Jesus is teaching us that we must become like God. We must think the way God thinks. To do this, we would have to be as perfect as God is. And thats exactly what the Law demands. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Because of our sinful nature, we dont by nature think in harmony with God. Our sinful flesh doesnt do anything without the thought of getting a reward for it. Jesus says on the contrary, that when we do anything hoping to be repaid, we insult the holy God. The worst way to offend God is to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Our sinful pride is a stench in Gods holy nostrils. It disgusts him. Jesus tells us that before we will even be interested in the invitation to his banquet, we must change the way we think. The Bible word for changing the way we think is repentance. Jesus is calling on us to repent. Thats the problem of the people in Jesus parable. They insult the host. They each offer excuses as to why they cant accept his invitation to the lavish wedding feast he has prepared for them. Their excuses are all based on their love for the things of the world. They love their wealth, their work, and their pleasure more than they love the host, who has so generously invited them. The only response they will get from the generous host is anger. Not one of them will get a taste of his banquet. Before we will even be interested in Jesus invitation, we must acknowledge that we are poor, crippled, blind and lame. We have no righteousness to offer to the holy God. There is nothing of which we can be proud about ourselves. The poor cannot repay the host, or buy their dinner. The crippled cannot walk to the banquet hall. Someone must carry them. The blind cannot see their way to the banquet hall. Someone must guide them. The lame cannot walk to the banquet hall. Someone must give them the strength to come. So the Holy Spirit does his preparatory work with the Law. His Law is a mirror that shows us what we truly look like. It shows us our pride and drives us to take the lowest place, in shame for how we have offended our gracious and generous host. But the host (Jesus) doesnt want to keep us in that lowly place. He puts us in the lowest place just so he can come to us and exalt us. But there is no exaltation unless and until we humble ourselves. When the Law has smashed our self-righteous pride, then Jesus comes to us and exalts us to the place of honor. He did this for us in holy Baptism. In baptism, he placed the merits he purchased with his

blood at the cross on our record. He gives us the riches of his perfect righteousness: You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. He enlightens you so that you can see the glory of God in the face of Christ, removing your blindness. You did not choose him. He chose you. He takes you by the hand, though you are lame and crippled, and carries you to his banquet hall. He has brought me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love, writes King Solomon. Jesus spreads his cross-shaped banner of love over you. His right hand embraces you, and you recline on his breast. He brings you to the wedding banquet, because he is the bridegroom, and you are his bride, his spotless, radiant church, washed with water and the Word. At Jesus table, he feeds you with the banquet of his body and blood, once given and poured out on the cross for the forgiveness of all your sins. And then, amazingly, he uses you to invite others. The servant returns to his master with the report: Sir, what you ordered has been done, but there is still room. So the generous host sends his servant back out to the roads and country lanes. He instructs his servant, Make them come in, so that my house will be full. Jesus uses us to invite others to come and share this banquet. Thats the highest place to which Jesus has brought us: he has made us children of God, heirs of heaven, and servants of Christ to bring the soul-saving Gospel to others, who are still poor, and crippled, and blind and lame. As you come t him, the living Stone rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.