And if you have a Bible, can I invite you to turn to that passage that we read earlier, Luke chapter 14.
!
It turns out that in this passage in Luke 14, Jesus Christ has a lot to say about parties and banquets, doesn't he?
Jesus Christ gets to the heart of a great function, of a great get-together, of brilliant hosting and of superb guest etiquette.
The Telegraph have done a list of do's and don'ts, things to not do at a party.
They say do bring a bottle, but don't spend less than a tenner.
Do send a postcard to say thank you to the host, don't send an email.
Do have a playlist, now this is my favourite, do have a playlist ready for early hours in the morning dancing in the kitchen,
but don't turf your neighbours out at midnight.
It's safe to say that I've failed on every single one of the Telegraph's do's and don'ts list.
But the question is not as trivial as it sounds.
What really is at the heart of a great party?
Does your answer match Jesus' answer?
This question matters because if you notice where this passage is heading, look at verse 24 of Luke 14.
Jesus breaks off from telling a parable here and he speaks to a group.
The U is plural here.
For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.
This whole section is teaching us something about Jesus Christ who is the host.
The host of a banquet.
An eternal banquet to be held at the end of time.
And so does your idea of a great banquet match with his idea of a great banquet?
You might be invited to his banquet.
But actually deep down you might not even want to be there.
What he has for us I think this morning is quite cutting.
He exposes our hearts when it comes to service and giving and sharing with one another in banquets.
Because there is a way of serving one another that lies in the darkness of the Pharisees' hearts.
Where serving and being served at a banquet for them has a distinctly unheavenly agenda.
And to do service like the Pharisees will mean never wanting to enjoy a banquet like Jesus enjoys it.
So he asks us in these three parables or stories some searching questions.
So the first thing, at the party, what makes a great party when you're a guest?
What makes a great party when you're a guest?
Now if you look at the beginning of chapter 14, we're told the setting, aren't we?
One Sabbath he went to dine, Jesus to dine at the house of the ruler of the Pharisees.
They were watching him carefully.
It's a banquet laid on by a Pharisee, one of the religious elite.
Now guests love different things about parties, don't they?
Conversation, some will love that, some will just hate that.
Loud music, some will hate that and some will absolutely love that.
And in the first parable, Jesus tells the group at this party in verse 7 to 11,
Jesus puts his finger on what the Pharisees love about being guests at their party, doesn't he?
What makes a great party for them?
Well it's not particularly the food, is it, or the conversation.
Really it's the status of it all.
The first parable describes the social conventions of the day,
where the banquet was an opportunity to climb the social ladder.
Guests finding the seats of honour,
the sort of thing you might see on Pride and Prejudice.
And the enjoyment of the banquet is purely in the pride of being in the highest seats of honour at the banquet.
Now what you'd have at these kind of first century banquets would be
ranked seats, couches with different status attached to them.
And where you sat would send a message about who you were.
Sitting in the high-ranked couches would say to people,
I'm important.
I matter.
I'm special.
Love me.
Honour me.
That's what they love about the banquet, isn't it?
Notice they won't wait, will they?
They won't wait for the host to give them honour.
Jesus says there is great honour from God for those who wait for it, in verse 11.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
but those who humble themselves will be exalted in the end.
But they assume that that honour is theirs already.
And they must sit themselves down in the places of honour now.
Or the feast really isn't up to much at all.
They won't wait for God to exalt them.
The enjoyment for them is in the pride of it.
Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher,
describes the heart of a man who cannot enjoy anything in life
unless he is esteemed in the enjoyment of it.
Blaise Pascal is maybe not the kind of guy you'd want to hang around with.
He's quite a cynical fella, really.
I don't know if you agree with what he's saying there.
He's saying, in other words, that the enjoyment of anything is in the pride of it.
And that pride runs so deeply in us
that some people can be joyful even with a hard life
provided that people talk about them.
Provided that they are distinguished for that suffering.
Paul warns the Colossians about Christians who do that.
who insist on something called asceticism.
A kind of brutal self-imposed lifestyle.
Denying the body pleasure.
Bringing suffering on yourselves.
Making yourself look miserable.
Living a hard life.
Purely for the admiration of others.
The enjoyment was the pride of it for them.
And it's what Jesus says lies at the heart of the scribes and the Pharisees, isn't it?
It's just not so subtle with them.
Later in Luke, he says that they love greetings in the marketplaces
and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at feasts.
They enjoy their religion because of the pride of it.
They enjoy their feasts because of the pride of it.
And perhaps we can feel Jesus speaking to us here
in the dark places in our own hearts.
Where the enjoyment of anything in life is just in the pride of it.
The enjoyment of good grades is in the pride of it.
The enjoyment of my car or my house is what other people think of me and say about me.
Everything is enjoyed with the proviso that we can get someone else to admire what we're enjoying.
I wonder where that's the whole selfie thing comes from.
I don't know.
The enjoyment of being at the party is in being admired
and we won't wait for God's exaltation at the end of time.
We need it now in this life to enjoy this life.
And dare we say it, the enjoyment of Christianity itself is in the pride of it too.
The church is a taste of that heavenly banquet that Jesus is preparing for his people, isn't it?
It's like the kind of warm-up do.
It's like the hors d'oeuvres, isn't it?
On earth before the eternal banquet in heaven.
So what makes this party good for you?
Does your enjoyment of church and of the Christian life depend on the pride you get from it?
Where my enjoyment of the Christian life is in some honour that I get from others.
When it brings me dishonour and when I have to sit in the lowest seat in society,
actually all the value of my faith is suddenly empty and lost.
It's not worth being at the party unless I can be honoured.
And our earthly expectations of banquets and things like this spill out into our heavenly expectations.
We will come to the gates of heaven in the same way that we come to the church.
Coming perhaps with a strange sense of entitlement that God owes me honour.
Where the enjoyment of being a Christian is in the pride of being a Presbyterian church.
You owe us honour for this, Lord.
We're a reformed church, doctrinally.
Give us the honour, Lord.
We're not like those other churches who don't have two services on a Sunday.
Let us sit in the high seats of honour, Lord.
We assume, Lord, that the honour is for us.
And the enjoyment of it all is simply in the pride of it.
The enjoyment maybe of even being elect, of being one of God's chosen people,
is actually in the feeling of being elite.
You wonder sometimes with some conservative Christians,
that the enjoyment of it is purely in being more conservative than everyone else.
The enjoyment is in the honour we get from others that we confer on ourselves,
sitting in the seats of honour.
The enjoyment is in winning the argument.
The enjoyment is in being more orthodox.
The enjoyment is in having the theological upper hand.
And the question is, if we didn't have any of that,
when people dishonour us,
would we enjoy this party less?
If the enjoyment of it is just in the pride of it.
Would we be willing, with Jesus,
in our Christianity, to do verse 10?
Just look there.
When you're invited, go and sit in the lowest place,
so that when your host comes, he may say to you,
friend, move up higher.
If the one condition of our Christianity,
of this party, was dishonour,
being hated by others,
sitting in the lowest places in society,
associating with the lowest people in society,
would we still enjoy the party?
If we had to gather up the crumbs under God's table,
would we enjoy it less?
To have to wait for God to say to me,
friend, move up higher.
A good guest, it turns out, as Jesus says in his banquet,
knows how to wait.
He knows how to wait for God to say,
friend, move up higher.
But can we wait for that in this life?
Or is the enjoyment of all of this,
just in the pride we get from it?
What makes a great party for the guests?
Second, what makes a great party for the host?
We've got a copy of Nigella Lawson's domestic goddess.
In fact, we've got a whole bookshelf of Nigella Lawson.
If you don't know who Nigella Lawson is,
she is like the, I don't know,
she's like the one who tells you
how to run your dinner parties in the best way.
And she writes this in her introduction.
As the host, we don't want to feel stressed and overstretched,
but like a domestic goddess,
trailing nutmeggy fumes of baking
in our longuous wake.
What does longuous even mean?
It's an idealistic vision, isn't it,
of the perfect host,
the domestic goddess,
or the domestic God.
But as Mary Berry said,
it's easier to impress someone
than to please someone.
That's so true.
Verses 12 to 14,
the second story,
the second section of Jesus' speaking,
he changes his audience, doesn't he?
Before he was speaking to the guests
who chose the places of honour,
but now he speaks to the host
who chooses the guests of honour.
It's the host's turn to answer that question,
what makes a great party for you?
And the clue to his enjoyment
is there in verses 12 and 13, isn't it?
You just flick over the page.
He said to the man who'd invited him,
when you give a dinner or a banquet,
do not invite your friends or your brothers
or your relatives or rich neighbours,
lest they also invite you in return
and you be repaid.
But when you give a feast,
invite the poor, the crippled,
the lame and the blind.
Now just realise how shocking
what Jesus is saying there at this party.
In Greco-Roman culture at this time,
banquets were not just the excuse
for a bit of fun.
They were a way of getting on in life.
The guest list was a sign
of your status in society.
It was a way of plugging you in
to society.
The position that you have
is to do with the people
that you have in your parties.
So to get on in this life,
to get on in this world,
to get on in this time,
you must choose your guests carefully
and you must serve selectively.
So to be known as the host
of a banquet full of blind people
or of people who are lower down
on the social scale,
it would just be suicide socially.
Jesus' command here
to invite the crippled,
the blind and the lame,
it's just a bad life choice,
the host is thinking.
Don't you know, Jesus,
that if you want to make it
in this life,
you need to know the good
and the great.
You need to be respected
and regarded.
But again,
notice the motivation
for this outlandish
hosting advice from Jesus.
Verse 14.
And you will be blessed
because they cannot repay you,
for you will be repaid
at the resurrection of the just.
Like the wise guest,
the wise host
also needs to learn
to wait.
To wait for the honour
that God will confer on him.
But when we choose
our guests carefully,
when we start doing
selective serving
of one another,
when we serve
the moneyed
or the smart
or the low maintenance
or the socially able,
that actually is a sign
that we cannot wait.
that we won't wait
for God's rewards.
But we are like this host.
When the honour
must be now.
Of that urge
to serve those
who we know
can love us back.
We need rewards
from others now
when we do that.
And when there is
no prospect
of rewards
and blessing
from God
in the future,
if that's just not
on our radar,
then things
become very tight
and stunted,
don't they,
in our service now.
We start to do
selective serving
and selective hosting.
And I think
this is why
many of us
refuse to accept
help from one another
and service
from one another.
Maybe some of us
need to learn
to just take
more responsibility
for ourselves.
ourselves.
But I suspect
many of us
are shamed
by having to
ask somebody,
I need you.
I can't cope.
Because we think
in the same mindset
of the host
and the guests
in these stories,
that if we ask
for that,
it puts us
in somebody else's
debt
and I will have
to repay them.
and our earthly
expectations
and our earthly
ways of doing
things expose
our heavenly
expectations
where we start
to think of the
Lord Jesus Christ
in the same way
too.
We're not
actually sure
whether God
is a giver
at all.
we see him
rather as a
taker.
Imagine the
story of a
little girl
who wakes up
on Christmas
Day
and it should
be a really
exciting day,
shouldn't it?
But she is
dreading it
because she
knows her
parents are
going to give
her at least
one present
for Christmas.
Christmas.
She goes
downstairs,
there's a
Christmas cake,
there are piles
of presents,
many of them
with her name
on them.
There are
decorations,
there's the
smell of
mulled wine
and turkey
in the oven
and her
family are
waiting in
the kitchen
with smoked
salmon,
scrambled eggs
and crispy
bacon.
She looks
sad though
and finally
she breaks
the awkward
silence.
Mum,
Dad,
thank you
for the
presents,
thank you
for the
breakfast,
thank you
for Christmas
Day,
so how
much do
I owe
you?
It's often
how we think
of God,
isn't it?
We think
of him
as the
taking God
and not
the giving
God.
We haven't
realised how
much he has
given to us
today and
we have not
learnt to
wait for all
that he will
give us.
in the end.
We ask
God,
how much
do I owe
you?
And when we
think God
runs his
church like
that,
we will
return the
favour to
him and to
each other.
When serving
Jesus is
done just
to be good
enough for
him,
and serving
one another
is about
impressing
one another.
Serving
Jesus is
about getting
something from
him.
And serving
one another
is about
putting people
in our
debt,
building up
favours for
ourselves.
When serving
Jesus is a
case of I'll
scratch your
back if you
scratch mine,
Lord.
And we
express that
in different
ways,
don't we?
We express
that hopefully,
Lord, I've
done so much
for you,
so surely
you are going
to give me
this thing
that I want.
We express
it fearfully,
I should have
done those
things for you,
Lord, and so
I'm expecting
an awful
time.
We express
that bitterly,
I did all
of those
things for you,
Lord, and you
have not done
this for me
that I wanted.
We think he
is like us,
don't we?
That he is a
host who serves
selectively,
a host who
chooses his
guests carefully
so that he
can climb up
some kind of
pride ladder,
associating only
with the great
and the good.
And we imagine
him like that.
And when we
imagine him
like that,
we become like
that too.
We become
tight, we
become selective
servers.
But the question
we've got to
ask is, is he
really like that?
Is that true
about him?
So thirdly
and lastly,
what makes a
great party
for Jesus
Christ?
What makes a
great party
for Jesus
Christ?
Jesus tells a
parable in
verses 15
to 24.
24.
And we're not
going to go
through it in
great detail
now.
But it's a
parable that
brings some
of the themes
of the first
two sections
together.
It's the story,
isn't it, of a
host who invites
some guests of
honour to his
party, but in
the end he has
to fill his
banquet hall to
invite the lowest
of society, the
poor, the
crippled, the
lame and the
blind.
And the key
thing to notice
about this
parable is that
those who
refuse the
invite, refuse
the invitation
simply because
they don't
want it.
It's just not
their idea of a
great party.
So they come up
with excuses,
don't they?
One, something
about property,
the other one,
oxen, the
other one's
sorting his
wedding out.
thanks but
no thanks,
Jesus.
They are
effectively saying
to the host,
aren't they,
that I've got
the invitation but
the party just
wouldn't be worth
my while.
I've got better
things to do.
On the social
calendar, the way
that we do
parties, Mr.
Host, is that
we need to get
something out of
it now.
And on the
social calendar,
this party is
not important to
me now.
And all three
of them vote
with their feet,
don't they?
It seems like
this host is no
longer socially
acceptable.
His seats of
honour are not
good enough for
them now.
They've got better
things to do
now.
Associating with
this host will
mean dishonour
rather than
honour now.
Because the
enjoyment of it
maybe is in the
pride of it and
nothing more.
And this is the
problem for so
many who get an
invitation to
Jesus' banquet
that our ideas
of a great party
don't match his.
They have decided
to receive Jesus'
gifts in this
life but think of
him as a bore.
They see him as
socially unacceptable,
as an oddball in
this world.
world.
He is no way to
climb the ladder
in this world
now.
He is no way to
find honour now.
And they won't
wait for honour
that is going to
come later.
And so life on
earth as they see
it, although it is
not perfect, is
enough.
Eternal life at
Jesus' banquet,
they know, without
even tasting it,
wouldn't please
them.
And this is the
whole point of the
three banquets, that
those who should be
at the banquet are
those who enter in
simply because they
want it.
They want to.
And this is how
Jesus runs his
banquet, with
guests who want
him and the
honour that he
will give to his
guests in the
end.
To sit in the
low seats now
is not a
problem.
With a host who
invites those who
have nothing to
give him in
return.
It's not an
I'll scratch you
back and I'll
scratch your back
and I'll scratch
my back, I'll
scratch your back
thing.
But a great party
for Jesus is
filled with people
who love it simply
because they're
there.
And they would be
happy to eat the
crumbs under the
table.
And he is a
great host.
And his parties
are so great
because he expects
no payment.
The story goes
of Captain
Jerry Lind and
navigator Major
David Maguire
who'd been on a
routine training
flight near a
base in
Oxfordshire.
As they came
back to base
though, their
plane suffered a
massive hydraulics
failure.
And they had
very little
control.
The operations
tower was telling
them over the
radio to eject.
But they knew
that ejecting
would mean
crashing the
plane into a
nearby village.
So Captain
Lind and Major
Maguire chose
to stay at the
controls to
steer the plane
clear of the
village.
They just
managed to
avoid it.
But by that
point it was
too late to
eject.
And they were
both killed in
the crash.
Now it wasn't
their fault that
the plane had
broken, was it?
And they
didn't owe
those people
anything.
They could have
ejected.
They paid
with their
lives without
expecting any
payment in
return.
And this is
what Jesus
loves about
hosting at
his banquet.
The joy he
gets from
serving the
lowest, from
serving sinners
who cannot
repay him, and
who wait for
God's reward.
Of being able
to invite the
worst of
sinners to
his banquet,
despite the
dishonour they
might bring to
him, and the
associations he
has with them,
and of being
willing to call
people like that
my brothers and
my sisters.
Because he
says, I can
wait for the
honour that is
due to me.
I can wait for
God's exaltation,
for God's
reward.
Now we're
almost finished,
but I just want
you to see that
this part of
Luke's gospel is
in a big middle
section where
Jesus journeys
towards Jerusalem.
And we call
this the travel
narrative section
of Luke's gospel.
And the journey
starts back in the
end of chapter
nine.
Please turn
there.
Chapter nine
verse 51.
And here's the
beginning of the
journey.
When the days
drew near for
him to be
taken up, he
set his face
to go to
Jerusalem.
So he's on
his way to
Jerusalem, isn't
he?
And this is the
journey to
Jerusalem.
But I've only
just seen this
until recently,
and I can't
believe I've
missed this
until now.
the journey
to Jerusalem,
Jerusalem is
actually only
a stop off.
It's kind of
like he's
visiting Jerusalem,
but that's not
the destination
that he's
heading for.
Look at that
verse again.
When the days
drew near for
him to be
taken up,
he set his
face to go
to Jerusalem.
He goes to
Jerusalem, and
yet his
journey is to
heaven, isn't
it, in his
ascension.
So he goes to
Jerusalem to be
killed by those
who should give
him honour,
because he
knows heaven is
coming.
He goes to
Jerusalem to
associate himself
with the lowest
in society,
upon a cross.
and he says,
I can wait
for heaven,
for my
exaltation
there.
He goes to
Jerusalem to
be spat on,
saying,
I can wait.
He goes to
Jerusalem to
be slapped,
saying,
I can wait.
He goes there
to face the
ultimate
dishonour
upon the
cross,
knowing that
he can wait.
He takes the
lowest seat,
and dies a
sinner's death,
looking to
heaven,
looking for
the reward
that the
father will
give him.
Saying all
along,
I can wait,
I can wait.
For any
true king,
if Jerusalem
was his
final destination,
his banquet
would have the
great and the
good there,
wouldn't it?
it would have
to be
sumptuous,
it would be
with the
elite of
society,
his last
meal,
something really
special,
maybe finish
it off with
a great
speech,
and as
much honour
as possible
in that
moment,
before he
died,
with a
lavish
funeral,
and accolades
from the
best in the
temple.
But he
wasn't looking
to Jerusalem,
he was
looking beyond
that,
wasn't he?
And he
could wait
for the
rewards and
the exaltation
that would
come.
And as we
come to
this humble
meal,
and as we
are at
this humble
party of
the church,
we need to
align our
expectations
and our
desires of
what a
great party
is,
with what
Jesus says
a great
party is.
to be
served by
a man
who was
rejected
and thought
of a
bore and
is still
hated today,
and to
eat with
him and
associate
with him
in the
lowest
places in
society.
But if
we will
come and
sit with
Jesus and
serve,
not selectively,
but serving
the lowest,
knowing that
we can wait
for the
exaltation
that we
will have
when Jesus
returns.
As we
eat this
meal this
morning,
we will
enjoy this
banquet and
we will
hear those
words,
Jesus saying
to us,
friend,
move up
higher.
As we
eat this
meal together
and as we
worship God
in the
church,
and as we
live the
Christian
life,
and as we
stand for
the truth
in our
workplaces,
in our
homes,
in our
families,
no one
will think
we are
honoured,
will they?
No one
will think
we are
special.
A little
piece of
bread and
some wine,
no one
will say
that's what
I call
a great
party.
But the
enjoyment of
this meal
is not in
the pride of
it now,
but in
simply being
here with
Jesus,
sitting with
him,
and waiting
for him
to say,
friend,
move up
higher in
the end.
And that
will be
hard,
won't it,
in our
lives,
in our
everyday
lives.
But taste
this meal
now and
know,
and hear
our host
saying,
it is
worth the
wait.
those who
exalt
themselves
will be
humbled,
but those
who humble
themselves
following
Christ
will be
exalted.
Let's
pray together.