I am sure we have all heard this parable of Jesus many
times in our lives. Indeed the Medical
Mission Sisters made it quite well known with their popular hit in the
1970’s. Regular, life-long churchgoers
have heard it many times proclaimed and many sermons preached on it. What then can we gain from hearing it one
more time? Is there anything that we
haven’t considered before in this lesson by Jesus, the great teacher?
The thing that struck me when I read it this time was
not the missed opportunity by those who were invited to the banquet. Here they have a chance to attend a wonderful
banquet. Of course we think of this as
the heavenly banquet which is offered to each of us by Jesus Christ. I’m not positive but that is probably often
the focus of sermons preached on this parable.
I want to propose another way of considering the
parable. Let us look at the ones who
received the invitation when the friends and neighbours excused themselves from
the opportunity to attend.
The host was not dismayed or swayed from his purpose
when everyone excused themselves. No, he
decided he would invite those not normally included in a great banquet by a
wealthy person in Jesus time; the poor, he maimed, the halt, and the
blind. Indeed it is no different in our
day—I cannot see
Donald Trump or one of Irving’s or McCain’s or anyone of their ilk inviting
people like that to one of their banquets.
Of course it is easy to point the finger at them but when was the last
time any of us did that? I can say that
I have never done it—not that I have banquets, but I don’t invite them to
dinner.
Lorna
and I have helped out at community dinners at our former parish in London but
never have we held a banquet or party for the local people on the edges of
society. We may give generously to charity but doing things arm’s length is not
the same as engaging the poor face to face.
This
certainly is one of the messages that Jesus has given us. He tells us that blessed are the poor for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. If we look at
the set up for this parable we see that Jesus is telling his host that these
are exactly who should be invited to a banquet.
He said also to the one who
had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your
friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may
invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But
when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the
blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you
will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’
There is a clear message of what we are
to do; of how we are to live. We are to
do all those things that don’t come naturally or easily to us. This is the counter-cultural Jesus
speaking. We are to turn the other
cheek; we are to go the second mile; we are to love our neighbours; we are to
love our enemies. This is the Jesus who
is asking us to live in a way that seem impossible and do the things that seem
impossible.
Jesus does not ask us to do the
impossible. So how are we to love our
enemies or even hold a banquet for the poor and the halt and the lame? I don’t believe that Jesus expects us to do
something which is impossible. We need
to learn to crawl before we can walk much less run. So how do we take the baby steps that will
get us to that seemingly impossible place of loving our enemies?
The principle that you can only change
yourself is that one that guides us.
Let’s look at those in the parable who are invited after the others
refuse; those less than acceptable in society.
What if we consider those people to be us? What does it mean if we are the ones who are
the blind and the halt and the poor and the lame?
When it comes to living the lives that
God intends for us that is truly who we are.
We are blind to many aspects of ourselves that God created us to
be. We want to avoid aspects of ourselves
that are inconvenient or downright unacceptable. We are halt and lame when it comes to living
the life that God want us to live. We may
try to take those halting steps and find that we are lame because we have not
used the muscles of charity and compassion that God has given us.
So what are we to do? How are we to follow Jesus and live the life
he calls us to live? The way to do it
is to take baby steps. You would not
expect a new born infant to walk or talk much less read or write. We need to take small steps as we begin to
live the lives that Jesus calls us to.
We must above all not expect to do those big things right away or even
in the near future. And most important
we must be able to truly forgive ourselves when we do not always succeed. Jesus is the God who forgives us our sins; he
forgives us our failures.
The message from the angels, the
messengers of God is, fear not. Do not
be afraid to try and to fail. All that
Jesus expects of us is to try and when we fail try again.
Fear not, the Kingdom of God is open to
us when we try.
Amen
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