In today’s appointed passage from Saint Luke the beloved Evangelist, the Master of the Household in today's passage is The Master—that is, “The King of Kings,” the One True God. The King's guests are the Jews, His Chosen People, His “First-born Son, Israel,” who have been called, and thus, wait faithfully in expectation of the Messiah's Coming and the Heavenly Banquet prepared in advance for those who are loyal and who are themselves prepared. The Banquet in question is likened to a wedding feast, the celebration of an exquisite, joyous, mystical union for eternity.

All pious Jews waited for their expected Messiah to come, for their God to break into history, deliver His People, and inaugurate a golden age of perpetual feasting and everlasting joy, reserved exclusively for His People, pious Jews, and to no one else. They would have all the bread they could eat for eternity in God's Kingdom without toil, pain, and sacrifice.

           In the culture of that time, it was a matter of great pride to honor your guests with great hospitality. The host would prepare a cornucopia of delights that would not only be delectable, but it would also be a wonder to behold. It was not just the amount and quality of food and drink offered; it was also the grand display. The host ensured that guests had much more than enough to eat, of the very best, and that they were unforgettably entertained, as well.

           Needless to say, therefore, the banquet was graciously offered at great expense and after long, exhausting preparation. The invitations would be sent to the guests many months in advance, and those who accepted, therefore, could have no excuse when the summons for the banquet--prepared exclusively for them--came. This was clearly understood. After accepting this generosity, to decline the invitation, or make excuses once the summons had come, would be considered unacceptable, egregious, and a grave insult to the host--in this case, the king who was a metaphor in this parable as the “King of Kings.”

           This was the cultural and religious milieu within which this man sitting at the table with Jesus was talking and thinking, before Jesus shared the parable. The man knew the banquet had an important social and more transcendent religious meaning. He knew and understood the sacrifice and preparation for the banquet; but moreover, in the back of his mind, in his subconscious, he was longing for the Messianic Banquet when the Jews would feast on the Sea Monster Leviathan and the Land Monster Behemoth and have all the seafood and meat they could possibly want, and of course, have all the bread they could want, for bread was the staple and promise of sustenance and fulfillment.

Furthermore, when he was thinking of the happiness of the guests at this great feast, he was only thinking of Jews, for the average orthodox Jew would never have considered that gentiles and sinners would be invited and take a place at the table of the great feast, share in the largesse, and break bread with God and His Chosen People. This was inconceivable.

           Well, Jesus, knowing the man's mindset, shatters this conventional, exclusive attitude with a story of The Man Who made a great banquet and invited many people to it. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to summon those who had been invited to come and rejoice in the feast prepared for them. Unfortunately, they all made excuses.

One let his business concerns take precedence over his commitment to come to the banquet. Another preferred to meet and try out his new purchase rather than meet his commitment to attend what was prepared for him. For the first two, something "better" in their minds had come up to trump their personal invitation and the handsomely paid for hospitality. However, the third invitee, unlike the others, had a technicality as a plausible excuse.

He was newly married, and the law provided an exemption that said no newly married man should be required to go out with the army or be charged with any business for a year in order to be happy with his wife. Even though the joy of the banquet was not to be construed as business, the law was used as an excuse, and the banquet was broadly enough defined to be interpreted as "business" with which he should not be charged. Thus, he felt justified not to go to the banquet.

           Insulted and outraged, the Master sent his servants to the streets and lanes, and eventually, to the roads and hedges, to compel them to come to his banquet. By now, the man was waking up from his spiritual slumber, and beginning to see what Jesus meant. The master was God. The guests that were originally invited were the Jews, he and his own people.

All throughout their long, tragic history of in-fighting, wars, defeats, slavery, occupation, subjugation, and humiliation, they had been looking and longing for God to come, and when He did, they sadly, and tragically, refused His invitation, even after all the centuries of arduous preparation and the infinite cost paid by His patriarchs, prophets, and chosen ones; and yet, His people declined, and lamentably, there was still so much room at the banquet, bought at an infinite price and prepared at an unquantifiable sacrifice. The empty banquet hall and empty seats at the table were an unimaginable shame and abysmal disgrace.

Rejected by His own, kings summoned for the shunned sinners and the abhorred tax collectors, and yes, the foreigners--that is, the gentiles. As nature abhors a vacuum and must be filled, so must His banquet be filled, and as Love is all embracing and all encompassing, He reached out and compelled those once marginalized, alienated, isolated, and excluded, to come partake in His Banquet. Rejected by His Chosen People near and dear, He was accepted by a New Chosen People, far and unknown.

           My brothers and sisters and Christ, as His New Chosen People, His New Israel, we must not make the same mistake as His Old Chosen People. God's invitation was sent out to us nearly two thousand years ago. He paid the Price for our entrance to this Banquet with the Infinite and Eternal Life of His Son. This is an invitation that none of us could possibly afford, an invitation we do not deserve, and an invitation we could never merit. This invitation is given, and all we need do is gladly accept it.

God invites us to His Banquet. He invites us not just for the infinite fish and meat, or earthly bread and sustenance. He invites us for Fellowship, for Communion, for Union with Him in The Triune Hospitality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in His Heavenly Kingdom. He offers us His Supernatural, “Above Essence,” (Υπερούσιον) Bread, His Body, for eternal sustenance and everlasting life in α perpetual, unimaginable, unfathomable joy. He invites us as His Chosen People, His community on earth, to be forever One with His Divine Community in Heaven.

The preparations have been made, the price has been paid, the invitation extended; so now, we need only heed His summons, and He summons us to experience an ineffable foretaste of this Heavenly Banquet at every one of His Divine Liturgies wherein He offers us His Body and Blood from His Holy Altar Table in the anticipation of receiving His Bread and Cup at His Heavenly Banquet Table.

           We have an open invitation from Him at every Divine Liturgy. Do we make the excuses that we have other "better" or more important things to do? Do claims of business, leisure, recreation, convenience, or any other of the infinite number of excuses that we can come up with, trump the claims of God?

The excuses of the time of Christ, are not much different than the excuses of today. Perhaps, and likely, we have many more. What is sad and tragic is that we, carelessly and irresponsibly, to our own eternal peril, facilely employ excuses to keep us from responding to His invitation to His Divine Liturgy.

The King summons. Accept His invitation. Come, see, taste, and be One with God and His People and receive the most sublime and inscrutable foretaste of the Heavenly Banquet.                                                            

Gratefully yours in Christ, our Incarnate Lord and God,     

†Father Jim