Luke 14:15-24

THE MARRIAGE SUPPER

Luke 14:15-24. “ And a certain one of those sitting along with Him, hearing these things, said to Him, Happy is every one who eats bread in the kingdom of God!” Jesus and His disciples preached the kingdom of God all the time, in contradistinction to the law and the prophets of the old dispensation. While the precepts of the latter were extensively formal, ritualistic, and symbolic, the doctrines of the former were purely spiritual, appertaining to experimental salvation and practical godliness. This man at the table who thus responded to Jesus was evidently wrought upon by the Holy Spirit, and favorably disposed with reference to the preaching of Jesus, having come to the conclusion that it is very nice and desirable to enjoy a place in the kingdom of God.

“ And He said to him, A certain man made a great supper, and called many.” This is the gospel call given to all, from Abel down to the latest posterity, whether by the written Word or the Holy Ghost, who is practically the incarnate Word, being the Spirit of Jesus. “ And he sent his servant at the hour of the feast to say to those who had been called, Come, because all things are now ready.” This refers to the epoch of our Savior's coming into the world, when He sent John the Baptist to invite the people, who had been called by all the prophets of all ages, to come at once to the supper. O what a pity that the high priests and Pharisees did not lead the way! In that case all Israel would have followed, as a flock of sheep will follow their leaders. Hence the awful responsibility they incurred by rejecting the Savior. The prophets, patriarchs, martyrs, and saints, under the leadership of the Holy Ghost, in the good providence of God, had labored four thousand years to get everything ready. A strange influence at that time had settled down upon all nations, impressing them that the Christ of Jewish prophecy was at hand. The polytheistic idolatries had expended their forces, and were everywhere waning. The profound philosophy of Greece and Rome, the mythology of Egypt, and the deep, metaphysical lore of India, had all exhausted their resources, and signally failed to expound the important problems of man's origin and destination, and satisfy the longings of the immortal soul. The whole Gentile world was ripe for the Messianic advent. If the Jews had received their own Christ (as they certainly would have done if their preachers and ruling elders had led the way), turned evangelist under the Great Commission, and peregrinated the whole world, the nations would have fallen in line with paradoxical unanimity, inundated the world with the glory of God and actually have brought on the millennium in the early centuries of the Christian era.

“ They all, from one accord, began to make excuses. The first said to him [i. e., John the Baptist], I have purchased a farm, and I have need, having gone out, to see it; I entreat thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yokes of oxen, and I go to prove them; I entreat thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and on this account I am not able to go.” This catalogue of excuses belongs primarily to the high priests and Pharisees, who led the way in the rejection of Jesus; but secondarily to all the people in the world, in all ages, who hear the gospel and decline its overtures of mercy and grace. They all have their excuses. Examine these three. Does a man go to see a farm after he has bought it or before? Does he not test the oxen before he makes the purchase? And as to the man who had married a wife, why not take her along to the wedding supper, a place to which young brides are very fond of going? The solution of this matter is plain and simple. The very inconsistency of these answers shows falsehood on the front, as well as preposterous nonsense. Now, while these three excuses are ostensibly destitute of truth and sense, yet they are as good as any sinner can make for rejecting the kingdom of God and staying with the devil, under the liability of dropping into hell every moment. These excuses are a fair sample of the very best which the most intelligent sinner can make for staying away from God and rejecting salvation.

“ And the servant coming, proclaimed these things to his lord. Then the landlord, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and lead hither the poor, maimed, blind, and halt.” City here means Jerusalem, including all the cities of Israel and intervening territory. When the rulers rejected Christ, the proclamation was carried to the common people, and especially to the thousands of poor invalids which Jesus healed. O what a flood of converts to His ministry came by way of His physical philanthropy! In connection with the personal ministry of Jesus, the twelve apostles, the seventy evangelists, and many others whose names are in the book of life, and the three thousand converted in the morning of Pentecost and the five thousand in the afternoon, and the swelling tide of gospel grace and sanctifying fire which rolled in heavenly billows from the Pentecostal scene of Mount Zion in all directions, inundating the whole country, we find a wonderful influx into the kingdom, consisting almost exclusively of the poor and the unfortunate, as the leading clerk and popular rulers had already rejected Him, and actually put Him to death.

“ And the servant said, Lord, it is done as you commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said to the servant, Go out into the roads and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” This is the call of the Gentiles, when the apostles, pursuant to the Great Commission, divided up the whole world among them James the First, at an early day, being decapitated by Herod Agrippa in Jerusalem; James the Less suffering martyrdom in Jerusalem, at a later date, by precipitation from a pinnacle of the temple; Matthew, taking Ethiopia; Mark, Egypt; Matthias, Abyssinia; Thomas, India; Jude, Tartary; Andrew, Armenia; Philip, Syria; Paul, Asia Minor and Europe; Peter, Rome; John, Lydia; Simon Zelotes, the British Islands, all of these pushing the battle in their various fields, like cyclones of fire, till bloody death set them free, thus booming the whole world with a gospel earthquake, everywhere shaking down the time- honored temples of idolatry, and flooding the nations with heavenly light.

“ For I say unto you, that no one of these men who have been called shall taste of my supper.” This is the death-knell of the high priests, Pharisees, and leading officials, who received the first invitation and obstinately rejected it, even imputing the miracles of Jesus to the devil, thus grieving away the Holy Spirit, crossing the dead-line, wrapped in the black delusions of diabolical intrigue, and sealing their doom in endless woe. Beware how you reject the offers of gospel grace, lest you fall into this black catalogue of irretrievable reprobacy! You see, in the above quotation, we are commanded to go out and compel them to come in. The persecutors who have murdered God's saints by millions were always fond of quoting this, claiming that Jesus had sent them out to compel the heretics to come in, thus making it an apology for wholesale murder. It does not mean physical compulsion, as they construed it, from the simple fact that the gospel is not a physical transaction, but purely spiritual, simply involving the conclusion that we are to do everything in our power, by prayer, appeal, exhortation, argument, tears of sympathy, and deeds of mercy, to bring people to Jesus and get them saved. You also find in the above Scripture the statement, “ The Lord being angry.” N.B. It is impossible for God to be angry in the human sense, as He has no evil tempers nor passions to arouse. The anger of God is simply holy indignation against everything wrong. In this sense, Paul says (Ephesians 5:26), “Be ye angry, and sin not;” i.e., indulge freely the holy indignation which the Holy Spirit has given you against all evil, compromising with no sin, in thought, word, or deed, nor anything whatever out of harmony with God's sweet will.