Invited to the Feast

Transcript

Auto-generated from the audio. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

[0:00] get started, I want you to think to yourself, what kind of healing did you see in these two passages? What kind of healing does the world at large need? What kind of healing do you need? And what kind of healing did the people in these passages need? Let's just take a minute. You can write it, you can type into your phone, or you can just think in your mind. Just think about the healing in these passages.

[1:18] It is very easy to look at somebody and say, I want to heal somebody with abilities that differ from your own. Whether that's cognitive differences or physical differences or what we tend to look at as physical limitations and to say that person needs healing and to think you know exactly what kind of healing they need. If that person could only use their legs or if that person had sight or if that person could hear or if that person had the same cognitive abilities as me, that person would really be free. And I really hope that we are challenged in those beliefs in the next six to seven weeks, seven weeks counting today, that we understand healing in a different way. My very best friend, Kelly, is a medical psychologist. Right now she is in her음 Right now she is in her has cerebral palsy. She's able to walk but with great difficulty and she has never once asked for healing. People have asked for healing for her. People have told her she should ask for healing but she's never wanted it. Maybe there have been times when she's wondered what it would be like to walk with the same ease as everyone else. Maybe there have been times where she's had pain. She's had two hip surgeries already and she's the same age as me. She's 40 and while I feel like 40 is

[3:05] old sometimes, 40 is not old enough for two hip surgeries generally. And so there are times when she's in pain but for the most part she does not want to walk with the same ease as everyone else. She does not want freedom from cerebral palsy. And so for us to ask for freedom for her is prideful on our part. And for us to ask for healing for somebody who doesn't necessarily want it is prideful. And we need to look at healing a little differently. We need to recognize that we need healing spiritually, that the world needs healing spiritually, that everyone is in the same boat and needs the same kind of healing. But not everyone wants physical healing in the way that we think. And so as we're going about today's sermon, I want to challenge you to think about physical differences as just that, as differences, not necessarily as bad things or you know a lot of times in the Bible and a lot of times in in our culture and many cultures around the world we think of disabilities as things that were a result of someone's sin. The idea of Karma while not a Christian idea still influences us in certain ways where we think of it of disabilities as someone somewhere down the line sinned or or that person wouldn't be

[4:48] experiencing that, or we even think of disabilities as a result of the fall. But our challenge today is to realize that not only are disabilities something that makes someone different, but those differences really propel our society forward. And without good quality communion with people of all differing abilities, we are not whole. With that, I would like to go to Luke 14. We're not going to read straight through. We're going to read Luke 14 1 through 4, and then we're going to jump to verse 12. So here we go, and this is from the NLT today. Right. One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.

[5:48] There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they remained silent. So, taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way. Then Jesus said to his host, When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives or your rich neighbors. If you do, they may invite you back, and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame. The blind. And you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

[6:45] When one of those at the table heard this, he said to Jesus, Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God. Jesus replied, A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servants. He told his servants to tell those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, I have just bought a field, and I must go see it. Please excuse me. Another said, I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I am on my way to try them out. Please excuse me. Another said, I have just bought five, uh, sorry, still another said, I just got married, so I can't come. The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Sir, the servant said, What you have ordered has been done, but there is still room. Then the master told his servant, Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.

[8:15] Let's pray. God, we ask for your blessing on this word. We ask that you would give us ears to hear, that you would remind us of the presence of your Holy Spirit, and that your Spirit would help us to see and understand what you would have for us today. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

[8:43] So there was a time when I had TikTok, and this was before everyone realized that it was being used to spy on us and all of that. And one of the stories that I remember seeing, actually this was almost a theme of quite a few stories, one of the stories I remember seeing was a young man with Down's syndrome. And he had never been invited to a birthday party before, and he was already in the last year of middle school, which is like that time where all you want is to be included when you're in middle school. But he'd never gone to any of his friends' birthday parties, and he was very friendly with a lot of the people in his school, but they were not friendly with him. And so when he thought he had friends, they were mocking him behind his back, and they wouldn't invite him to parties, and they wouldn't come to his parties. So the year before this, he had tried to host a birthday party of his own. He was really excited, and his parents sent invitations to a bunch of the students from his school, but not a single one of them showed up, and he was crushed.

[10:02] And that year, an appeal was sent out on social media, and the kid ended up receiving birthday cards by the thousands. And people who lived near enough to his town even held a birthday party for him at a local sports field. People he didn't even know showed up just to simply let him know that he is loved, and he is cherished, and he is a child of God. And so his parents were very happy. His parents went on social media, and they thanked the crowds for showing up. But then they kept updating, and we learned that the boy kept in contact with some of these people, and formed genuine, really good relationships with some of these people, even meeting his best friend, a friend that he, as far as I know to this day, is attached at the hip with. They share everything together. The boy had the best day of his life that day, and made many new friends. The people who were at his birthday party were ultimately the people who deserved to be there.

[11:10] They were the people who could love him and celebrate him. And it really reminded me an awful lot of today's passage, that the people who were invited, in the first place, truly didn't deserve to be there if they couldn't show the host honor. Now there was no healing. There was no healing of this boy. Down syndrome does not magically get removed. Nor does it need to be.

[11:38] In all of our scripture today, that we read, that Pam read, and that I just read, Jesus healed. And it doesn't mean that people with disabilities are in need of physical healing. But instead that we all, no matter what our physical condition, stand in need of Jesus' spiritual healing. And wherever you look in scripture, wherever you find a passage of healing, that person being healed is a symbol and a representation of what needs to be healed in society. What you and I need to be healed from. And so we must be called to aid those with disabilities where necessary. But to say that they are in need of something more than we are, of some deeper spirituality than we are, is not true. Jesus never believed that. In fact, he believed that the kingdom of God is made up of all people, including those with many varying physical and cognitive abilities.

[12:45] Our understanding of healing for those with disabilities needs to drastically change. Now, there is the obvious, banquet similarity. Those the boy had invited did not show up. Those that you would expect to be closest to him, those he had known growing up, those he saw every day in school, those who had a chance to get to know him, you might say those who had the biggest chance of getting to know him, they snubbed him in a painful way. But those who were least expected, did show up. And you would expect that people who were complete strangers to the boy would be the unwanted guests. But they ended up being the most celebrated guests and beginning relationships with the host.

[13:41] Now, as we go through our passage today, there are a few concepts of meals happening. There is the most obvious, there's the fact that there's a banquet that is happening at the house of a prominent Pharisee. And so that is the main meal that we see. But then there's a separate fact that it's a Sabbath dinner. So that's a different concept of a meal in general. And we'll touch back on that in a little bit. And then there's another form of meal happening, and that's in the parable. And that's the idea of the kingdom feast. And so we start with the setting of this great banquet, at the house of the Pharisee. And it's being held inside of a personal home. It's not just any home, but a fancy home too. There was a man there with dropsy.

[14:36] Dropsy is a condition where the body retains fluids and swells. And nobody seemed to know this man. They seemed to kind of disregard him. But then again, it says that, Jesus was being carefully watched. It would be a very good assumption then to think that this man was there on purpose as a setup for Jesus. Because why else would he show up at a personal home? This was not the temple. This was not some busy public place. He was not a special guest. They had no intention of serving him at all. But they did invite him probably. And they invited him for the purpose of making a spectacle of him. And for the even greater purpose of trapping Jesus.

[15:35] And so here's where we get into the second type of meal, the Sabbath dinner. In Luke 13, a full chapter before this, we see a mirror of Luke 14. There is another Sabbath celebration and another healing on the Sabbath. And this woman that is healed in chapter 13 had been bent over and unable to straighten up for 18 years.

[16:06] And everyone said to her, hey, you should not be asking for healing on the Sabbath. In fact, the religious leaders said to the crowd at large, do not ask for healing on the Sabbath. They shamed them publicly.

[16:25] I always feel like that saying, go have your struggles somewhere else or keep quiet about them. And since this was the Lord's day, I imagine them thinking, don't bring your conditions in front of the Lord. I almost imagine them thinking, God is too good to deal with your imperfections on the Sabbath. And if he's too good to deal with your imperfections on the Sabbath day, then maybe he doesn't really want to deal with your imperfections any day.

[17:00] In both chapter 13 and today's chapter, Jesus asks them the same question. If your donkey or your ox or your son were in trouble on the Sabbath, would you wait to save them? In chapter 14, the Greek and Aramaic texts differ a little. The Greek says the word donkey, where the Aramaic says the word son, and both make a solid point. If you were to go with donkey, or to save your donkey on the Sabbath, then how much more should you save a human person? And so if you were to save a donkey on the Sabbath and not someone who is suffering, then you are saying that suffering person is less than a donkey. I would save my livestock before I would save this struggling person.

[17:54] And if you were to go with the son translation, then if you were to save your son on the Sabbath, why shouldn't you have compassion on another person? If your son is good enough, why is that other person less? They're both human, and yet you are judging one human to be not as good of a human as your child.

[18:19] In any case, the Pharisees rebuked the people in chapter 13, and here in chapter 14, there is almost, what is almost certainly a set up against Jesus with nearly the same situation, except that this time the word suffering is specifically used. In chapter 13, the woman who can't bend, or who can't straighten and is forced to be bent, Jesus talks of a woman who would be bound by Satan, harming her for 18 years, and why would she have to struggle under Satan's power for another day? But this time, he specifically uses the word suffering.

[19:02] This man does not just have a condition, but he's suffering from it. That probably means there's pain of some sort, probably physical pain, although certainly this has has seen him to be made an outcast as well. Any form of physical disability in the Bible times was enough to see someone made an outcast. Because again, a disability meant that there was sin somewhere, or it was assumed that there was sin somewhere. And so this person shouldn't receive what everyone else receives. A lot of times people with outcasts were made to say that they were unclean. A lot of times people who were outcasts were made to live away from the rest of the village. A lot of times people who were outcasts could not get honorable work. And so they suffered in many, many ways. Jesus will not sit back and watch humanity suffer when he can stop it, not even for one extra day. In Jesus's wisdom, healing is an act of compassion and not work. And compassion is not just allowed on any day of the week. Compassion is required, even demanded, every day of the week. So there was no limit on the compassion that Jesus poured out. No limit of days of the week, not even a physical limit, as he used his very own body to die in compassion for our plight of sin. And there should therefore

[20:42] be no limit to our compassion over others. I'm going to test you for a second. And we, I guess we're already running out of time. I'm talking too much. But we all have limits to our compassion. So instead of turning to your neighbor, I just want you to think to yourself for one minute, what are the limits to your personal compassion? And you might have to stretch yourself, but you might have to think to yourself. Think of scenarios that you wouldn't want to be in. What circumstances have you withheld compassion in the past? Or what circumstances do you think would cause you to falter in your compassion? So take just one minute to think through that.

[22:00] Right now, you've got the Right After Jesus challenges the Pharisees on this question of compassion, there's some discomfort. Jesus is breaking social norms by healing on the Sabbath, but he's also bringing up topics that weren't comfortable for dinnertime conversation. And so one Pharisee tries to play peacemaker and says, hey, everyone who will see the kingdom feast will be blessed. He's trying to kind of break this tension and pull things back to what's healthy Sabbath conversation.

[22:57] But Jesus presses on, and Jesus doesn't rebuke him, but he kind of dismisses what he says a little, because the assumption, that is being presented here is that these Pharisees are not going to see the kingdom celebration unless something deep changes.

[23:22] And so here we get to the meat of our point today. We're going to discuss the parable, but as we do, I want us to do it with this thought in mind. The kingdom of God is the rightful place of people with disabilities.

[23:48] Righteous people have access to the kingdom. Righteous people have access to the kingdom. Righteous people have access to the kingdom. Righteous people have access to the kingdom. Righteous people have access to the kingdom. Righteous people have access to the kingdom. Righteous people have access to the kingdom. Righteous people have access to the kingdom. Righteous people have access to the kingdom. Righteous people have access to the kingdom. Righteous people have access to the kingdom.

[24:04] Righteous people have access to the kingdom. Righteous people have access to the kingdom. of these outcasts that they assume aren't already not invited. So here they are thinking, the kingdom feast is for me. How blessed am I that I'll get to be there? But they're also thinking, but not that outcast. That outcast has earned God's disfavor. That outcast won't be at the kingdom feast. And how unfortunate is it that it's the other way around at this point? And here's where we might need a microphone. I want us to shout out some ideas and it might take us a second of quiet before we get the ideas flowing, and that's okay. Go ahead and take the time to gather your thoughts. But when you're ready, call out or grab the microphone some thoughts on what you think the Imago Dei means when it comes to the kingdom feast. What does it mean when it comes to people with disabilities? Common teaching in the church tells us that all things will be made new in the end times. What does that mean? If all things are going to be made completely to reflect the Imago Dei or the image of God in the end times, then what does this mean? What is the Imago Dei in terms of people with disabilities?

[25:39] Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. because I do it in the context of work, talking about their work. So I'm like, who we are, we are human because we're fully human when we're in relationship with God through Jesus. Yeah. So if we hit points where we fail at work or we can't work or we, you know, when when other things are taken away, we don't fail in our vocation because our first vocation is to be in relationship with God through Jesus. So I think every human being is in has that capacity to be in relationship with God.

[26:36] That's awesome. Yeah, I think Wendy wins, but any anyone want to add to that or or add any ideas? My mom was superintendent of special education for Modesto City Schools. So this whole topic of the vocation topic kind of resonates with me. And one of the things that occurred to me was and I think maybe we'll come across this in the book, and that is people who we label as disabled are a tremendous resource for us. They have had to learn life lessons that we able bodied people have not. And so they have something to teach us and we need to treat them as opportunities rather than as something to be tolerated. So that's my thought. There's there's wonderful things to be learned in relationship with people that we label as disabled.

[27:38] Still processing this, but one thing that occurred to me is we always think of Imago Dei as somebody being restored to the image of God, I guess themselves. And one thing it could mean just in the context of the sermon is it could be a restoration of our community response to that person, how we relate to them, how we view them, how we invite them into our community and how, you know, maybe to Brian's point, that impacts us. And so maybe it maybe it can be a community image of God rather than just an individual one. Yeah, absolutely.

[28:16] I immediately thought of Donna Yeager. I'm sorry, what was that? I immediately thought of Donna Yeager. Okay. And I thought if anybody fits this story, I think she does and how she overcame it in so many ways. Just wonderful, wonderful person.

[28:42] She was. I'm trying to see. Very highly connected with this church for so many years. And who's who were parents here? I don't remember, but she was born without arms and legs. She was born without arms and legs. And if ever anybody was disabled, she was. But yet she had just a wonderful, wonderful personality. So that your sermon certainly made me think. Right.

[29:30] Right. Right. Right. I guess for me, if I was in pain and suffering, I would like to think that I would be restored to not having that. So I don't know, I guess in my mind, this is gonna challenge me and push me because I've always thought that that means that someone would be restored to not having any disabilities, physical disabilities that is, in terms of being able to run and leap and your friend that has cerebral palsy, being able to see what it's like to actually walk without effort. So I don't know if that's the case or not, but I guess I've always in my mind, as a nurse, that's always all I've kind of thought of it is like what a joy to know that someday, even if they can't do that here on Earth, that someday they'll be able to do those things and we'll all not have those pains that we have here on Earth. But maybe that's not the thought I'm supposed to have.

[30:35] So, so far, it's only been talked about this physical disabilities and there is plenty of other disabilities, mental disabilities. You know, IQ or, you know, your brain disability. So let's not forget those people.

[31:01] And those are all things that people suffer with that we can't see sometimes. And sometimes they're visible. So we never know what someone's really going through. Mm-hmm. I think that's a good place to move on. Thank you, Eric.

[31:19] Yeah, I think those were all great responses. And these are the things we want to be thinking about as we move on with this book study. Now, as I said before, our question, the church is the rightful place of people with disabilities where they will be able to enjoy their intended relationship with God, their creator. The one in whose image they have been into, their desires, their desires, their desires are intimately and deliberately created. The concept of disability inclusion is very nice in all of that, but God mandates us to bring them into his house so it will be full.

[32:02] God having a full house is beyond the idea of simple inclusion. And we, we can't move forward with that idea that every person has been created in the image of God and what that means and what healing means for each individual person. So having facilities where people with disabilities can come and exist is a nice start, but God demands that we make a space for his house to be full. When we think of God's house being full, we think of people using their differing abilities to honor God with all that they are.

[32:56] God demands we make a space where people with any disability and any ability can be an active and thriving part of his kingdom. Just as God calls everyone else, here in this room and out in the world, to serve and be served, so he calls people with varying abilities to be served by his act of salvation first, and then to take their proper and rightful place in God's kingdom as those who are created in his image, and to also extend his service to others in extraordinary ways.

[33:39] So what it means to, be a church that loves people of all abilities, means that we empower every person to first be served by Christ by receiving his salvation, and then we empower them to serve others with whatever abilities God has given them to serve others with. Now with all that in mind, we finally get to the explanation of the kingdom feast parable.

[34:11] In the time and society of Jesus' culture, it would have been almost unthinkable to snub an invitation to a banquet. Hospitality was everyone's solemn obligation. The only people not included under this social system were the moral and social outcasts. Those included the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Upstanding people assumed that they were outcasts, for a reason, and being punished for the sins of their ancestors or themselves. And so according to the law, they were allowed to be included.

[34:51] We can read that as sub-par inclusion. We can imagine the things that we put people with disabilities through, and we call it inclusion. It would be the very, very basics. The very least you can do for someone. By the law, they were supposed to leave extra food in their fields for gleaning. They were supposed to give alms to the poor, but it was the very least they could do. They were not under obligation to invite them to banquets. In fact, to do so would bring dishonor on them. Oh, you invited those people to your banquet? Now I have a reason to snub your invitation.

[35:39] The duty to being hospitable was two ways. One, you invited people who were important to your banquets. And two, the people who were invited to your banquets accepted the invitation. At any cost. And so the excuses that were made in this parable, oh, I bought a field, so I can't come. Well, that's a very big excuse, but it's not enough of an excuse to snub an invitation to a big banquet. Oh, I have oxen and I need to inspect them. That's a great excuse for a number of social activities, but not for snubbing an invitation to a banquet. You can inspect them at any other time. Getting married. If the bride was not invited along with the bridegroom, because there was a certain amount of time where the bride and bridegroom were supposed to spend time together and only together, that would be an acceptable snub to a degree.

[36:47] But all of these were excuses, and they knew they were excuses. The only time where it would be okay to snub an invitation is if the person who was inviting you was an outcast themself or was an unsavory character. Maybe a tax collector. They have the money to throw a banquet, but you don't want their company, and you don't want people to know you've accepted their company. So we can assume that this host is Jesus, and he is snubbed. We know that. We know Jesus ends up being snubbed by the people you would expect not to, by the religious leaders, the people who had the biggest excuse to get to know God, because they could spend all their time reading scripture, studying the law, just being in prayer. They had all the time in the world to get to know God, and yet these are the people who are snubbing the invitation.

[37:51] And we see that Jesus then invites the poor, the lame, the blind, the outcasts, and it's almost that it's a second thought to him. But we see from the beginning of this passage that it's not a second thought. He says, first invite those. He says, invite these people, not the people you would normally invite.

[38:14] In Jesus's mind, this is not a second thought. In Jesus's mind, his house is not full until all of those people that we would normally ignore are invited to where they are meant to be. And they are not where they are meant to be until they are in God's kingdom, until they are enjoying the feast with God who created them in his image. They are not where they're meant to be. And that goes for all of us. Until we are at the feast with God who created us in his image, we're not where we're meant to be. And so we must invite others just as we would want to be invited to that feast.

[39:01] God did not exclude the religious people. The religious leaders, by the way. They excluded him. They were invited and still excluded him. All are invited to this feast. Jesus had compassion for all people. Jesus had compassion for the Pharisees. And Jesus had compassion for the outcasts, including the disabled people. In fact, he gives them special attention and promises them the sure hope of the resurrection and the transformation of their minds, of their bodies. Us too.

[39:44] And so we too should follow in this example. No matter how we understand the parable of the great banquet, Jesus' words are crystal clear. And they are for us when he says, but when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

[40:09] So may the Lord give us the grace of his Holy Spirit that we may share ourselves in everything we have with those in need. Then we will be ready for dining with Jesus when the time comes. Let's pray. God, thank you that your banquet is for all.

[40:32] God, help us to extend the invitation to every person that you also extend the invitation to. Help us not to just be inclusive, but to be mindful of every person created in your image. These things we pray in Jesus' name.