The meaning of the parable told by Jesus about the called and the chosen is quite clear and needs no explanation. And yet, questions remain. And the most important of them is practical, concerning our own spiritual and life choices. If it is a matter of only disadvantaged people getting to the table, does this mean that...
The meaning of the parable told by Jesus about the called and the chosen is quite clear and needs no explanation. And yet, questions remain. And the most important of them is practical, concerning our own spiritual and life choices. If it is a matter of only disadvantaged people getting to the table, does this mean that for us too, unless we ourselves become like them, there will be no place at this table?
There is a traditional answer to this question: it is not about what we have and what we possess, but about how we relate to it. Formally, such an answer can be considered quite correct. But what does it essentially mean for us? And what, exactly, was the main problem of those quite prosperous people whom the master invited to his feast? In property? In material or life prosperity as such? Probably not, after all.
Each of the invited prosperous people refuses the caller not because he has something, and not even because he has just acquired something important. All of them refuse him because their acquisitions (whatever they may consist of) dictate to them a very specific logic of behavior, entirely conditioned by what has been acquired. It is this logic that forces them to refuse the invitation.
At first glance, it may seem that the issue in this case is simply a choice between two alternative variants of behavior, between the invitation and one's own interests — ultimately, between the world and the Kingdom. But if one thinks about the situation, it is not difficult to notice that the choice is actually between relationships and their absence. The master did not invite guests to himself for no reason; he was obviously bound to them by a long-standing and, seemingly, deep friendship. But it turned out that at the most joyful and important moment for their friend, each of the invited guests chose not their relationship with him, but their own world, their own life, with which they fenced themselves off from the person inviting them. The choice is, in essence, not between different ways of spiritual life, but between spiritual life and its absence, even if by the master one understands not the Messiah, but a very ordinary person: after all, spiritual life is precisely relationships, relationships with God, with Christ, with one's neighbors.
A refusal of relationships in favor of anything else actually means a refusal of spiritual life. Against this background, the appeal to those who have nothing becomes understandable: nothing prevents them from appreciating the importance of the relationships offered to them, since they have nothing that could obscure them. The option may not be the best one (after all, everyone would like to see their old friends at their place, and not people from the street, even those who are always ready to come), but in the current situation — the only one possible.
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14:16 Then said he - Continuing the allusion. A certain man made a great supper - As if he had said, All men are not sensible of this happiness. Many might have a part in it, and will not.
14:18 They all began to make excuse - One of them pleads only his own will, I go: another, a pretended necessity, I must needs go: the third, impossibility, I cannot come: all of them want the holy hatred mentioned Luk 14:26. All of them perish by things in themselves lawful. I must needs go - The most urgent worldly affairs frequently fall out just at the time when God makes the freest offers of salvation.
14:21 The servant came and showed his lord these things - So ministers ought to lay before the Lord in prayer the obedience or disobedience of their hearers.
14:23 Compel them to come in - With all the violence of love, and the force of God's word. Such compulsion, and such only, in matters of religion, was used by Christ and his apostles.
14:24 For refers to Go out, Luk 14:23.
14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father - Comparatively to Christ: yea, so as actually to renounce his field, oxen, wife, all things, and act as if he hated them, when they stand in competition with him. Mat 10:37.
14:28 And which of you intending to build a tower - That is, and whoever of you intends to follow me, let him first seriously weigh these things.
14:31 Another king - Does this mean, the prince of this world?Certainly he has greater numbers on his side. How numerous are his children and servants!
14:33 So - Like this man, who, being afraid to face his enemy, sends to make peace with him, every one who forsaketh not all that he hath -
14:34 Salt - Every Christian, but more eminently every minister. Mat 5:13; Mar 9:50.