“BLESSED ARE YOU WHO EAT THE KING IN HIS KINGDOM”
Saint Luke 14: 16-24
2nd Sunday after Trinity: 30 June Anno Domini 2019
Father Jay Watson SSP
Christ’s parable is in response to a comment from a believer who is “at table” with Jesus. This is all good. To be at table with Jesus is to have everything. Thus, The Church’s Sacrament of The Altar—His Altar—is the pinnacle of His Kingdom of Grace.
“Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God” the man proclaimed. Jesus explains “what does this mean?”
You—your sinful self—like your father Adam, wants to be in charge, to be king, to be rich. Sin is like a spiritual Greta Garbo: “I want to be alone.” But God says it is not good for the man to be alone. God wants you to have family—companions. He desires you to dine together and to feast and banquet with brothers. The worst punishment is solitary confinement. How horrible to stay away from The Church of your Savior. How eternally horrible to be treading molten lava in the lake of fire—all by yourself.
A “certain man” made a great supper. There is only one man—one perfect Man—“behold The Man” Pilate correctly pronounced. While not Holy Communion this parable points to the 6th Chief Part to be sure. This mega meal is Salvation itself; eternal life with The King! The Lord, The God/Man in time, but the eternally-begotten Son in eternity, “made all things,” and, bade many (invited many). Not all will be saved. Scripture is true but man is untrue. God saves. Rejecting man damns—himself.
The Man sends his slave to invite many. But not just His slave, his “suffering servant,” but as the Greek indicates—one with and official representative capacity; an ambassador with durable “power-of-attorney.” The Father is in Me and I am in The Father—The words I speak are not My own but are the Words The Father has given Me.
One who rejects Jesus rejects God. One who rejects those whom Jesus sends rejects Jesus, and thus God. The rejecting and unbelieving ones do not wish to receive the gifts of the feast. “Come for all things are now ready” speaks The Man, The Servant, and the “soon-to-be-damned” reply: NO, I WILL NOT!
With one accord they all begin to make excuses. It’s unanimous. Adam makes his excuse. Eve makes her excuse. Fallen nature in all humans makes excuse after excuse. There is none that does good, no, not one! The sin of not speaking truth but of embracing the lie does apply to all. But in this parable The Lord is specifically going after the Jews of His day who do not receive Him. Don’t be like those Jews. Don’t become like those Jews.
“I have bought a field.” Note the emphasis of all damnation: “I.” MY works, MY mammon, MY efforts, have procured for ME a piece of ground. Ground? Earth? That is, dirt—ashes to ashes and dust to dust. To embrace fallen Adam is to put on decay, death, and damnation. Jesus takes you from looking down at the ground, looking down at your own gut, and lifts you up to His cross. He holds your head to gaze upon Him and His work. He purchases the piece of ground, the field, by being buried dead in it. He is the pearl of great price.
“I have bought a five yoke of oxen.” And that gets one where? I have the golden calf which delivered me from Egypt! I have Moses and the covenant. Moses, the five books of Torah—The Law—brings only death.
“I have married a wife.” Again, “oh really.” “I?” Are your unions your choice or God’s permanent plan for your unity? Who is the real Bride and the real Groom? One who marries the world end up a lonely old widow/widower.
These parabolic “representatives” of the Jews, and of all non-believers, do not know who they’re talking to/with. They are all about giving orders and not receiving gifts. They are presumptuous. “Have me excused, have me excused, have me excused.” That is the unholy trinity.
The Son reports to The Father. The Slave reports to The Man. Even pastors report, are held accountable, when they report to Jesus the sad tragic reality of all those who refuse to gather in church.
The Jews rejected the pastors—the prophets. The Jews had rejected the Slave—Jesus. The Jews rejected “The Man” Holy God and Father of Abraham (and Moses).
The parable now pivots even as St. Paul does so in his change of missionary direction. Those who rely on works and stuff and arrogant pride receive their well-deserved wages. Repent and turn and be not the Pharisee. The joy is now given in those to whom “the Man” and His “Slave” now turn to, to dispense all the gifts. The streets and the lanes of the city are wide and contain many. The world itself contains those cast out by the domineering controllers of manmade religion. The poor, crippled, lame, and blind are those “Jews” who have been cast out by the unbelieving elite as either “unclean” or second class. This would be Galilean fishermen, Zealots, tax-collectors, prostitutes, divorced women, lepers, and all the other undesirables. They are desired with and by The Passion of The Christ. They gladly receive the free Grace of the Supper. They can not eat and live from the dirt of the Law. Nourishment and life come only from The Feast of forgiveness and restoration.
“It is done.” As Christ reiterated a few months later at Calvary “It is finished.” The salvation is won and the salvation supper is waiting—both the weekly Mass and the forever feast in New Jerusalem.
“Yet there is room!” The final Advent has yet to occur, so there is room…for now. Still there is a place. Christ and His representatives, His fellow servants and slaves, go out into the roads and hedges. This is the complete ingathering of all the Gentiles, the non-Jews, who become the New Israel. You were found on one of these “roads” and place + on the real road: The Way (The Truth and The Life). This is not of yourself but rather The Holy Ghost has called you by The Gospel and enlightened you with His gifts. This is the compelling of Grace. His house will be full. You are full.
“The Lord was my stay: He brought me forth also into a large place.” The Royal Nuptial Hall may be small in appearance, like at Augsburg, as least at first glance. But the table of mercy is as big as Christ’s heart. Given and shed for you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
Email the webmaster.Contact Augsburg Lutheran Church: (913) 403-6194