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We have all sent out and received invitations to events. Either we are host or guest. Many of you might enjoy hosting others, throwing a good party, showing hospitality, cooking good food. There is great joy in hosting a banquet. There is great joy in being an invited guest. An invitation in the mail is usually a delight to receive for all of us. On the other end of that is when someone we know, especially someone close to us — maybe a close friend or even a family member — is hosting an event, but we do not receive an invitation.
When I was a boy, my mother had to tell me what “RSVP” meant when I received an invitation in the mail to a friend's birthday party. It means the invited person calls back or talks to the host to inform them they will be attending or will not such as the case may be. Common courtesy was the gist of the lesson. The letters, “RSVP” come from the French phrase, “Répondez s'il vous plaît”, that translates to “reply, if you please.”
In recent years, as our society's moral fabric has steadily declined — which includes a decline in the teaching and instilling of common courtesy and manners — I have noted along with many others that not many “RSVP” anymore to an invitation. We forget. We are too busy. We make mistakes. The invitation is misplaced. But more often than not, we are just downright unable or unwilling or too lazy to show each other common courtesy anymore. So many just do not “RSVP” Most infamous these days are replies to wedding invitations — where we are supposed to mail back the reply cards with postage already paid — but people these days just do not reply. Maybe we will show up, or maybe we will not. Maybe we are afraid of making commitments! Especially to our neighbors, even to our own families sometimes.
In response, many now put the phrase, “Regrets Only” next to “RSVP” on invitations. It is an effort to make it easier on the invited person — please, at least only tell me, the host, if you cannot attend. If you can, great, just show up. This way, if you fail to “RSVP” one does not feel guilty in still attending anyway. Regrets only.
Jesus had responded positively to an invitation to eat a Sabbath cedar meal with a large group of Pharisees. These men were far from friendly hosts. They had invited Jesus because of His popularity and miracles, but not because they liked Him. Luke tells us that they “watched Jesus closely” to see what He would say and do, to see if they could catch Jesus in a mistake or trap him into an argument about the Law. (Luke 14:1)
What did Jesus do as He attended the feast? He healed a man suffering from dropsy, even though it was the Sabbath Day. Which of them, even on the Sabbath, Jesus asked everyone, would not go and save their own son or even a valuable farm animal that had fallen into a pit or well? None of them could say they would not. So Jesus had saved the man from the pit of suffering in his diseased body.
Jesus noted that the Pharisees kept competing with each other for the seats near the head of the table. They wanted to show their relative social status by where they were seated for the dinner. But Jesus teaches them to show humility — dare not go to the head of the table, lest you be asked to go to the rear. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
Jesus noted that the party was only for the rich and affluent, those exalted religious elite Pharisees. There were only people invited who would repay the host in kind with a similar invitation in the future. It was very much a strings–attached kind of love. But Jesus teaches them that true love is a selfless, no–strings–attached love that invites those who cannot repay in kind — people not in the elite — the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind. It is, after all, what God was in their midst doing: inviting to His feast of salvation the poor, the disabled, the lame, the blind, all of us Pharisees who have been distorted, maimed, disfigured, and ravaged in both mind and body by sin and the power of the devil.
The Pharisees do not react well to Jesus' initial dinner conversation. He is pointing out that life is to be lived in humble service to God and neighbor. Those values contradict the ideals of these men. They studied and worked only to be served and to exalt themselves. This speaks to all of us, for that matter. To be humble and gracious, to not walk straight to the front, to not want to show off just exactly whom we think we are. To love the neighbor unconditionally, without regard to their visible condition, and thus, in loving the least of these,we love as God has first loved us, loving us when we were destitute and helpless and could do nothing to deserve it.
No, the Pharisees at this banquet dinner are not happy to hear Jesus' teachings. Who wants to eat and share a feast with the poor, disabled, crippled, and blind? The Pharisees believed that if someone were poor, disabled, crippled, and blind, that person must have done something wrong in God's eyes to deserve it. That person had been cursed. Therefore, the person was not worthy of being in the same room or at the same table as the religiously pious and devout, the upper crust of society. Thus, the Pharisee who blurts out, “Blessed is he who eats bread in the kingdom of God!” Blessed is he who eats his bread, who earns his bread, and who lives the pious, God–pleasing life that the Law requires — like we do — in the kingdom of God. The banquet of the Pharisee (and of many modern Pharisees today) is only for people who are just like each other — only for everyone who toes the line correctly, who runs in the same social circles, who can invite us back in kind.
Jesus knows us Pharisees. His banquet, contrary to one we would throw, is always available. There is always an invitation to come, and it is not limited to any one group of special people. In the parable, Jesus is the “certain man” who is continually preparing His feast and making it ready. He is calling, inviting, the many nations to His feast. The invitation is not ever withdrawn. He sends out His servant (apostles) in each and every place to remind those who are always invited that the feast is already prepared — is ready to be received, no strings attached. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. No RSVP is necessary. Just come and receive what He has prepared, the very fruits of His blessed cross and empty Easter tomb.
But too many come up with only their “regrets”. It is as if our Lord has said, “Regrets Only, Please.” How ludicrous these ones who are called are. They reject His invitation, refuse to accept the gifts of the feast, avoid it, and refuse to pay attention to it.
“I bought a field, and I have a need to go out to see it.”
“I bought five yokes of oxen, and I am traveling out to document and approve of them.”
“I married a woman, and because of this I am not able to come.”
Sound silly, do they not? Who buys a piece of property sight unseen? Who buys a new car and, then, goes out to test drive it? Some might — but would they let these interfere with receiving a freely given feast? This is not so far–fetched. These excuses and many like them come up all the time. The called ministers of the Gospel sound out the Lord Jesus' invitation to His ongoing feast on a regular basis, and every excuse in the book comes back why they do not want to receive God's gifts.
“I have to work.” “I have to do chores around the house.” “I have to mow the lawn.” “I have to go out to the lake this weekend.” “I have to get some sleep.” “I am too upset with so and so.” “I am down in the dumps.” “I don't like the hymns we sing.” “I don't like the liturgy we follow.” “I don't want to just hear the Scriptures preached and receive a simple Meal; I want to hear someone tell me how to meet my felt needs.” “I am just shopping for a church home to see if someone can please me enough.”
Don't forget about the last excuse in the parable. One man in the parable has married a woman, and because of this, he is not able to come, according to his point of view. We might say that this man is married to someone who is not interested in the feast. So he fails to be the head of his household, show the leadership God calls him to show, and allows the wife to set his agenda. How many of our young people do not find a spouse who is compatible with them in the Christian faith? How many of our young people find a spouse for every reason but finding one who is compatible with them in the Christian faith? How many people today are drawn away from the right preaching of the Gospel and the blessings of the feast of forgiveness at this altar and at faithful altars like it because they have consented to marrying a spouse who is hard–hearted towards the banquet feast our Lord offers each week in His Divine Service? I know many of you even now struggle with this. I see it in my own family history. It hurts.
But our Lord knows us, and He knows our sinful condition, and He confronts us with this and all of our other excuses to avoid His feast in this parable. Regrets only. These are the excuses that the evil foe tempts us with to avoid the Holy Feast of God in the Divine Service and, if we are not careful, will cause us to be left out of the ultimate feast to come.
“For I say to you that not one of these men who have been and remain called will taste my banquet.” (Luke 14:24, my translation)
The invitation is not withdrawn. But these men reject it, time and again. Regrets only. Just like the Pharisees, just like the men in the parable, we worship the material possessions, the exalted status that we can show off to our neighbors, the religious piety of this world, the felt needs that we think are more important, including having the spouse that we want or desire at all costs. We are theologians of glory just as surely as they are, glorying in the things of man instead of the things of God.
Repent now and humble yourself before God for these excuses, for only giving our Lord our poor regrets, for attempting to avoid His feast now and in eternity. Humble yourself and realize that in our sins we are really the poor, the disabled, the crippled, and the blind, the ones who truly need the Feast of our Lord the most. Medicine is not for the healthy but for the sick.
Turn in faith to God and live. Life is not in the mansions of this world. Life is not in the social status of this world. Life is not to be found in the party circuit and the playgrounds of the rich and famous. Life is not in meeting our basest felt desires and wishes. Those are false banquets, false feasts. Please do issue your regrets to those invitations.
Life is found instead in the Gospel invitation to come and enjoy the feast that our Lord Jesus has prepared for you here in time and there in eternity. Life is found where it is least expected — as we bear our crosses out in the plazas and streets of our cities, and out in the highways and rural lanes of our countryside, where all of us, the poor, the disabled, the crippled, the blind live under the burden of sin, death, and the power of the devil. There, to those places, Jesus Christ sends His servants out to preach and teach His Gospel, to point towards His waiting Banquet, and the Holy Spirit gathers those who are dead to this world into the eternal banquet, where there are no regrets, there is only life, forgiveness, and salvation, unmerited and freely given with no strings attached.
Leave your regrets and excuses. Leave the glories of this world behind at the cross and empty tomb where our Lord Jesus defeated them and destroyed them once and for all. Bear your sins and burdens now to this great feast of life and salvation at this altar and rail, where you receive all that God has and is in this limitless, timeless, ongoing feast of our Lord's body and blood. And as you travel this week out in the plazas and streets, the highways and byways of this life, even when burdens and sins both old and new tempt and assail you, even when this life and this world makes you that much more poor, that much more disabled, that much more crippled, makes the eyesight that much more dim, take comfort and joy in the fact that your Lord will call and gather you back to Himself, where He will feed you His feast of Gospel preached and Supper fed, the feast of life and love, no strings attached.
Blessed are you who hear the Gospel call to the Feast and keep it. Jesus has made a place for you at His feast, and He desires His house to be filled. Just come and receive His eternal blessing won for you by His perfect and atoning life, death, and resurrection. No RSVP necessary, and no regrets, please.
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