Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, “Come; for everything is ready now.” But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, “I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.” Another said, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.” Another said, “I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.” So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, “Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” And the slave said, “Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.” Then the master said to the slave, “Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.” (Luke 14:16-24)

The parable relates a crazy, scarcely imaginable tale: all those invited to a banquet send regrets, all of them without exception. That is grotesque, even eerie. But the host knows what to do: he brings in other guests. As off-putting as is the refusal of all those invited, the gathering of the substitute guests is just as bizarre: they are hauled in from every corner and cranny. Indeed, they have to be begged to come in, because obviously they are embarrassed at being totally unprepared.

Most interpreters of the parable consider the double gathering of substitute guests to be secondary. Here Luke is said to have been thinking of various phases of the later mission.⁶ The latter may well be true of Luke, but Jesus could have intended the doubling to emphasize the unusual character of the situation. The hall must really be full. If those invited do not want to come, then God invites others, and he brings them together from every direction.

For Jesus’ audience it was clear that he was speaking of God’s eschatological banquet. That is the indispensable presupposition behind the parable. It was also clear to them that this eternal banquet was laid for Israel. The parable presumes all that and it is from these presuppositions that it derives its shocking force: those invited and chosen by God will not come. Their places remain empty. But God can invite others. The banquet will take place in any event. But it becomes a judgment on Israel: none of those originally invited will taste of the meal.⁷

No one should ever have doubted that Jesus already (and not the evangelists later) had the Gentiles in view in this parable. Those first invited are not a particular group in Israel, but the whole people of God. That in the first place only the leaders of Israel or the righteous or wealthy within the people should be invited to the meal in the reign of God, and only after their refusal the poor and sinners, would contradict Jesus’ message and practice in every way. Therefore, those first invited can only be all Israel. But in that case those invited later are the Gentiles. That this is the case is evident from Jesus’ saying in Matthew 8:11-12 // Luke 13:28-29, which we have already discussed (chap. 4). It can be reconstructed as follows from the Sayings Source: “Many will come from the rising and the setting and recline at table in the reign of God—together with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But you will be cast out into the outermost darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Those who come from East and West, that is, from a great distance, can only be Gentiles. But those first invited, who are meant to recline at table with the ancestors of Israel, are cast out. Here the language is much more direct than in the parable. Therefore the provocation is likewise much greater. But the goal is the same: this is about the repentance, the turning back, of Israel.

Witnesses against Israel