Luke 14: The Kingdom's Invitation to an Open Table

Introduction

This message is the third week of the "40 Days of Hospitality" series at Streatham Baptist Church in London. The text is Luke 14, where Jesus is invited to eat at the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on a Sabbath day, and is "being watched closely."

The preacher starts from an observation: our culture is marked by loneliness, division and disorientation. He believes hospitality is the antidote, and that a church living out the truth of the gospel can offer a real answer. But the deeper reason is not practical: hospitality is at the heart of God and at the heart of Jesus' mission.

In this meal at the Pharisee's house, he notices three movements: the Kingdom upsets our tables, it widens the invitation, and it sends us beyond our own circles. He ends with a distinction our age struggles to hear: welcoming someone is not the same as approving.

Message Outline

1. A Culture That Is Lonely, Divided and Lost

We have never had so many ways to connect, and yet loneliness is deepening.
The culture wars are real, and they have reached even the churches. The preacher sees this as part of the problem: we are "more shaped by the algorithm than by the Word of God." Our news feeds reinforce our prejudices and widen the gap with those who see the world differently, even though we are called to be one in Christ.
We are living through a crisis of meaning, in an age with no shared story. Among those under thirty especially, there is a hunger for a place to belong, one that gives purpose and spiritual reality.
A reminder from the first two weeks: hospitality is at the heart of God's nature, since he makes room for us in creation, in salvation and in eternity. It is also at the heart of Jesus' mission. He came to seek and save the lost, and in Luke his main method was eating and drinking.
At Simon the Pharisee's house (Luke 7), the woman who washes Jesus' feet with her tears is not acting to earn his love: she has already received grace. Hospitality is not a way to obtain God's love, it is a response to his grace.

2. The Kingdom Upsets Our Tables

This meal is not a simple dinner among friends: Jesus is under watch. The preacher invites us to picture a host who checks that you are not emptying the fridge or stealing jewelry from the bedroom.
Jesus makes things worse by healing a man with dropsy on the Sabbath. At this table, self-righteous religion collides with the grace of the Kingdom.
Jesus notices that the guests are choosing the best seats. He is not aiming at the table of honor for the bride and groom and their family, but at a kind of hospitality where people invite for gain, status and approval.
There is a wisdom of boundaries: as a pastor, he has to protect the congregation from violent or dangerous people. But that must remain the exception, not the general practice.
Jesus' question for us: "Who naturally finds a place at my table, and who does not?" Our tables also include our friendships, our home groups and our WhatsApp groups. They reveal the boundaries we set without thinking about it.
In 2009, the preacher and his wife moved to South Africa to serve across the divisions left by colonialism and apartheid. They did not want to serve the margins during the week and retreat on weekends to a white middle-class enclave.
In the Capricorn neighborhood, a couple from the church were preparing for their wedding. The bride dreamed of marrying in a vineyard, but the ceremony would normally have been held in the church building, shipping containers assembled under a roof on a concrete slab.
Friends of the pastor had bought a large house at the foot of the mountain, in a historically white area of Cape Town. God had told them they could only have it on condition that they open it to hospitality. When asked, they said yes without hesitating: the ceremony took place in the garden, with tables set all around the house.
Some of the poorest guests walked into a place where they would usually only go to clean or to do the gardening. And the hosts served at the tables themselves. "A picture of the Kingdom": why should the rich have all the good things?

3. The Kingdom Widens the Invitation

Jesus could have thanked the Pharisee for the meal. Instead, as the preacher sums it up, he says: "Come here. Let's check your guest list."
"When you make a dinner or a supper, don’t call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors." This is an exaggeration typical of first-century Judaism, like the call to hate one's father and mother. Jesus is not saying never to invite your loved ones; he is saying not to lean only in that direction.
Inviting the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind shocks the listeners. Some of them would think of Leviticus 21, which bars any descendant of Aaron with a defect from serving at the altar.
These purity laws point to the fact that none of us can enter God's holy presence by our own works. The Pharisees concluded that such people would never enter the temple, and the Essenes taught that they would never take part in the Messiah's feast.
When Jesus cleanses the temple, he overturns the tables. Then the blind and the lame come to him in the temple, and he heals them. Jesus heals us and qualifies us to accept the invitation.
With Tim Chester (Meals with Jesus), the preacher reminds us that this text is not only about other people. We are all spiritually poor, maimed, blind and lame, unable to come to God by our own strength or merit.
If we have received so much grace and such undeserved favor, how could we put up needless barriers? "Who is in your life? Who is at your table? For whom do you have room?"

4. The Kingdom Sends Us Beyond Our Circles

In the parable of the great banquet, the master of the house is God the Father. His intention has always been the whole world, even if the invitation goes first through the descendants of Abraham.
The servant announces: "Come, for everything is ready now." Those who received the invitation first, through the law and the prophets, that is, the Jews, and here especially the Pharisees, are called to come to the Messiah's feast.
They make excuses: a field to see, five yoke of oxen to try out, a marriage. The preacher brings it up to date: "I've just bought a Ferrari, I have to try it out."
What excuses do we give? Later, too busy with career, with family, with the urge to acquire. "Now is the day of salvation." If you have never received Jesus Christ as your King, your Lord and the one who forgives you, do not wait.
The master then sends for those who know they are poor, blind and lost, the very people the Pharisees excluded. Then he sends out to the roads and along the hedges: the Messiah's feast is for non-Jews too. This is good news for most of the listeners, who have become spiritual descendants of Abraham through Jesus.

5. Accepting Is Not Approving

The invitation keeps getting wider; it is radically inclusive. But the welcome God's people offer is different from approval. Our culture says: "You must approve of my sin, or you do not accept me."
In 1995, Nelson Mandela, imprisoned for more than twenty years by the apartheid system, went to share a meal with the widow of the architect of that system, in the whites-only settlement of Orania. He offered acceptance without approving of the evil that had been done. The preacher understands that some of his friends of color in South Africa found this hard to accept, given what they had suffered.
That community never accepted him. The same is true of Jesus: he offers his table to everyone, but not everyone receives him. Yet through such gestures, millions of white South Africans sensed that they could take part in building a new nation.
Rosaria Butterfield, a far-left feminist academic in a relationship with a woman, was preparing research on Christian intolerance. A pastor neighbor invited her to a meal, and then invited her again. Each knew where the other stood. This hospitality did not depend on her changing.
Over the course of those meals, the Holy Spirit softened her heart and she gave her life to Jesus. Her worldview and her way of living changed, and she devoted her life to hospitality.
In her book The Gospel Comes with a House Key, she tells the story of a lonely, socially awkward neighbor whom her family ended up welcoming regularly at their table. One day, the police discovered that he was making methamphetamine at home. The neighborhood resented them for it.
"That is the risk of hospitality." When he was in prison, they kept visiting him: the neighbor had become a friend. They approved neither of his dealing nor of his way of life, but they did not give up loving him. "The acceptance of the Kingdom is not the approval of the Kingdom."

6. Two Wardrobes: The Invitation to Holiness

"The radical inclusion of the Kingdom of God is an invitation to radical holiness." The preacher repeats it so that no one moves on too quickly.
In Colossians 3, Paul describes two wardrobes. The first: sexual immorality, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. "For which things' sake the wrath of God comes." These are the rags of sin we used to walk in.
He turns to a man in the congregation whose story he knows: he used to wear the old wardrobe, and Jesus gave him a new one. "We are welcomed as we are, but we are not invited to stay as we are."
The second wardrobe: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another and forgiveness, "as the Lord forgave you." Above all, love, which is the bond of perfection, like a belt that holds everything together.
At our tables we welcome those who are still wearing the old wardrobe. We love them unconditionally, whether or not they come to Christ, because they bear the image of God.
The preacher says he received an impression that very morning: at least one person present has been coming to church for a long time, has heard hundreds of sermons, but has never put on Christ. They wrap their old wardrobe in a little Sunday religion, and nothing has changed.
Jesus says: "Come, there is a new wardrobe here." Imagine filthy, foul-smelling rags stained with blood, and someone offering you the most expensive suit in the world, tailor-made, that you could never afford. "The gospel changes people. Is it changing you?"

7. A Table Open to Everyone

The preacher rejoices to see the church widening its welcome: the CAP Life Skills course, the launch of Celebrate Recovery in November, a big community week in the summer whose table grew so large that meals spilled into the atrium from Friday.
"Whether you are Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, gay, straight, trans, you are welcome at the table. No one is excluded." Jesus' welcome is unconditional, but when you receive him, he always transforms.
The church sets no condition like "you can only stay if you change within three months." It prays for those who have been coming for years, that they would embrace freedom in Christ.
Jesus' arms stretched out at Calvary call ours to stretch out in turn. And the conclusion: "If you are in Christ today, radical inclusion is an invitation to radical holiness. And that is best lived out around a table."

Key Takeaways

Hospitality is not a way to earn God's love: it is a response to the grace we have received.
Our tables, our friendships and our groups reveal the boundaries we set. Jesus checks our guest list.
We are all spiritually poor, blind and lame. Those who have received such grace cannot put up needless barriers.
The invitation to the Messiah's feast is for today. The excuses of "later" rob us of it.
The acceptance of the Kingdom is not the approval of the Kingdom: unconditional welcome opens onto a call to holiness.

Personal Application

Who naturally finds a place at your table, and whom do you deliberately keep at a distance?
Which person who is different from you could you invite to share a meal in the coming weeks?
What excuse are you giving today to Jesus' invitation: work, family, "later"?
Do you know how to welcome someone without approving of everything they live, and without waiting for them to change before you love them?
Are you still wearing the old wardrobe under a veneer of religion, or are you putting on Christ every day?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Jesus criticize in those who choose the best seats in Luke 14?

Jesus does not criticize the bride and groom's family sitting at the table of honor. He is aiming at hospitality driven by gain, status and approval, where people invite in order to be honored. The preacher then asks: who naturally finds a place at my table, and who never has a place there?

Does Jesus really mean we should not invite our friends and family?

For the preacher, this is an exaggeration typical of first-century Judaism, like when Jesus speaks of hating one's father and mother. Jesus does not forbid inviting loved ones; he asks us not to limit ourselves to them and to make room for the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind.

Is welcoming someone the same as approving of how they live?

No. The preacher insists: the acceptance of the Kingdom is not the approval of the Kingdom. We welcome everyone to the table unconditionally, because they bear the image of God. But whoever comes to Christ receives a new wardrobe: the radical inclusion of the Kingdom is an invitation to radical holiness.