Lange Commentary - Luke 14:15 - 14:24

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Lange Commentary - Luke 14:15 - 14:24


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

2. The Parable of the Great Supper (Luk_14:15-24)

(Luk_14:16-24, Gospel for the 2d Sunday after Trinity)

15And when one of them that sat [reclined] at meat [at table] with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.16Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade [invited] many:17And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden [invited], Come;for all things are now ready. 18And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and seeit: I pray thee have me excused. 19And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen,and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20And another said, I havemarried a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 21So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and themaimed, and the halt, and the blind. 22And the servant said, Lord [or, Sir], it is doneas thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house maybe filled. 24For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden [invited] shall taste of my supper.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_14:15. One of them that reclined at table with Him.—Since, besides Jesus and His apostles, no poor had been invited, this was without doubt one of the rich friends of the Pharisaic host, whose remark gave the Saviour occasion for delivering the Parable of the Great Supper. “The peculiar exclamation, and the exact connection of the following Parable with it, and with all that precedes, speak for the originality of the whole representation in the most decided manner.” (Olshausen.) That the form of the exclamation in and of itself “does not allow an inference of Pharisaical and carnal confidence in reference to future participation in the kingdom of God” (Lange), must unquestionably be conceded. The exclamation is intelligible enough. Ἀñôïí öÜã . is, 2Sa_9:7-10, used of entertaining at a royal table. The various reading ἄñéóôïí for ἄñôïí is certainly spurious, see De Wette, ad loc., and öÜãåôáé is to be taken as Future. But the question is still difficult respecting the disposition in which, and the purpose for which, this remark was uttered on this occasion. If we had met this man in another circle, and if the Saviour had answered him in another way, we could then suppose that here the holy temper of Jesus had communicated itself to this guest, and, with Bengel, explain, “Audiens eoque tactus.” But in the way in which the remark appears in this connection, the exclamation seems to sound more pious than it really was, and not even to have an equal value with the enthusiasm of the Macarizing woman, Luk_11:27. We find therein a somewhat unlucky attempt, by an edifying turn, to make an end to a discourse which contained nothing flattering for the host, and might perhaps soon pass over to yet sharper rebuke of the guests. With worldly courteousness he seeks, therefore, to go to the help of the Pharisee who had invited him, and to draw off the threatening storm. The parable, however, shows that the Saviour did not by any means let Himself be brought off His course by an interjectional utterance; since He, in other words, answers him to this effect: “What advantage can it be that thou, with all thy seeming enthusiasm, praisest the happiness of them that sit at table in the kingdom of God, if thou, and those like thee, although you are invited, yet actually refuse to come!”

Luk_14:16. A certain man.—Upon the distinction in connection of this parable with that of the Royal Wedding, see Lange on Mat_22:2-14. On the comparison it appears that the latter, which is portrayed in much stronger colors, belongs to a later period of the public life of the Saviour, when the opposition between Him and His enemies had declared itself yet much more strongly.

A great supper.—The occasion for the representation of the kingdom of Heaven under this image, was given the Saviour spontaneously by the remark of His fellow-guest, and by the feast of the Pharisee. In other places also, e. g., Mat_8:11-12, He makes use of the same imagery. Great this äåῖðíïí may be named, as well on account of the abundance of the refreshing viands, as on account of its being intended to be celebrated by many. The first invitation here designated was that through the prophets of the Old Testament generally; while by the ðïëëïß we can understand no others than the Jewish nation in general. Although the Saviour does not expressly add this, yet it results from the nature of the case that we have to understand this first preliminary invitation as unconditionally accepted by those invited.

Luk_14:17. And sent his servant.— Äïῦëïò stands here by no means collectively for all the servants (Heubner), but has reference very definitely to one servant, the vocator (Grotius), who, according to Oriental usage, repeats the invitation so soon as the feast is prepared, not in order to inquire again whether the guests will come, but in order to make known to them when they should appear. The here-indicated time coincides with the fulness of time, Gal_4:4, while the servant can be no other than the Messiah, the òָáֶã éְäåָֹä of Isaiah. He makes known to Israel that the blessings of the kingdom of Heaven, from this instant on, are attainable for them, and that in such wise, that they have nothing else to do than to come, to take, and to eat.

Luk_14:18. Ἀðὸ ìéᾶò , some supply ãíþìçò , others, ὥñáò , öùíῆò , øõ÷ῆò , áἰôßáò . The first, doubtless, deserves the preference, although in any case what is meant is self-evident. The motives which they adduce are indeed different; but in this they all agree, that they take back again the word that they have given.—Make excuse.—Beg off, deprecari. Those invited acknowledge themselves the necessity of an excuse in some manner plausible, and thereby indirectly establish the fact that they were under obligation to appear.

Bought a piece of ground.—Whoever finds it unreasonable that the yet unviewed field was already bought, need not hesitate to conceive the matter thus: that the purchase was not yet unconditionally concluded, and that at this very moment it depended on the viewing whether he should become definitive possessor of it.—Must needs.—In courteous-wise the invited guest will give the servant to understand that to his great sorrow it is entirely impossible for him to do otherwise. He begs that he may be held excused, that is, “That he may stand to him in the relation of a person released from his promise.”

Luk_14:19. Five yoke of oxen.—To this invited guest, as to the first, earthly possession stands in the way of becoming a participant of the saving benefits of the kingdom of Heaven. We regard it as somewhat forced to view in this invited guest the love of dominion as intimated, typified in the swinging of the whip over his team of oxen. No, the first and second are so far in line with one another as this, that with both, earthly possession, as with the third sensual pleasure, becomes the stone of stumbling. But if there yet exists a distinction between the first and second, it is probably this, that the man with the field is yet seeking to acquire the earthly good, while the man with the oxen is thinking of still increasing that which is already gained. The first is the man of business, whose only concern is to bring what he has just bought into good order; the other is the independent man, who will see himself hindered by nobody; who says to one, “Go, and he goeth,” and to the other, “Come, and he cometh,” into whom something of the refractory nature of his oxen has passed over, and who has no mind to be incommoded by anybody. His tone is less urbane than that of the first; he does not beg permission to go, is not merely minded to do this, but is already at that moment actually going. ÉÉïñåýïìáé —“I am going even now.” So says he, already on the point to start, and has only just time to add: “I beg thee,” while he already desires to be with his oxen.

Luk_14:20. I have married a wife.—The third excuse appears to be the most legitimate, on which account, therefore, it is delivered in the tone of self-confidence which does not even account an excuse as necessary. According to the Mosaic Law, Deu_24:5, the newly-married man was free for a year from military service, and it therefore appeared that it could not be demanded from this man that he should leave his young wife. If, however, one would believe on this ground that his excuse was valid, then holds good the cutting remark, than which nothing can be better: “Very often do exegetical pedants weary themselves to make reasonable that which in the Gospels is designated as foolish.” (Lange.) At all events the invitation to the feast had been already accepted before the celebration of the marriage, and so the marriage set him free, it is true, from the burden of military service, but not from the enjoyment of social intercourse. In case of need he might have brought his young wife also with him; and if she did not wish this, then here, also, the saying, Mat_10:37, held good. Very rightly says Stier: “Of hindering by the state of marriage generally (I have married!) there is no mention, but of the first heated wedding delight, as the type of all carnal pleasure.” No wonder that the vocator accuses to his Lord this self-excuser no less than the two others.

Luk_14:21. Into the streets and lanes.—The second class of the invited must still be sought out within the city. From this appears, that we have here to understand Jews, not proselytes from among the heathen (Lisco). The Saviour has the publicans and sinners in His mind, comp. Luk_7:29; Mat_21:32, the poorest part of the nation, the same whom the Pharisee, Luk_14:12-14, should have invited to his festal board. From this it becomes at the same time evident that by the first invited, Luk_14:17, who begin to excuse themselves ἀðὸ ìéᾶò , not the people of Israel, but the representatives of the Theocracy, the Pharisees and scribes, the Ἰïõäáῖïé of John were spoken of, to whom, by Divine order, and of right, the invitation had been officially given, and who for their very office’ sake were under obligation to take due notice thereof. From these who were now invited in their place, no excuses, as from the first, were to be feared; the blind had no field to view, the lame could not go along behind his oxen, the maimed had no wife who would have hindered him from coming; only the feeling of poverty could have held them back; but this feeling also vanishes, since they must be in a friendly way led in by the servant.

Luk_14:22. Sir, it is done.—We must agree with Meyer when he draws attention to the fact that the servant had by no means, according to the ordinary explanations, again gone subsequently to the second command, and now had again returned. “No, the servant, rejected by the former invited guests, has, of himself, done what the lord here bids him, so that he can at once reply to this command: ‘It is done,’ &c. Strikingly does this also apply to Jesus, who, before His return to the Father, has already fulfilled this counsel of God known to Him.” According to this explanation the parable is then also the faithful reflection of the reality, and says in other words the same which Luk_7:29-30 expresses. Very delicate is the trait that not the lord the servant, but on the other hand the servant brings the lord to take note of the room yet remaining. So great was the feast that, although many had excused themselves, and not a few had been brought in, there was still abundant room for others. Even so in striking manner a strong impulse of delivering love for the salvation of publicans and sinners is brought to manifestation in the “Go out quickly,” which ôá÷Ýùò is omitted with the following command, Luk_14:23, because the labor of grace among the ÷ùëïß , &c., of Israel was limited to a very brief time; while on the other hand the vocation of the Gentiles was to extend itself over many centuries.

Luk_14:23. Into the highways and hedges.—Here indeed the longers for salvation and the wretched among the heathen, are indicated; Mat_22:9; Eph_2:12. “Sœpes mendicorum parietes.” Bengel.

Compel them to come in.—The use is well known which has been made of this expression, to justify the compulsion of heretics. There is scarcely however any need of remark that none other than the moral compulsion of love is justified. So did Jesus also compel His disciples to go into the ship, Mat_14:22; Mar_6:45, certainly not with physical force; Peter also compelled the Gentiles, Gal_2:14, to ἰïõäáß ̈ æåéí , exclusively by the power of his example. Not the way and method in which Saul was zealous for Judaism, but that in which Paul was zealous for Christianity, must be the type for the servant of God who will accomplish the “compelle intrare” in His spirit. The house must be filled, with such as are not dragged or carried in, but such as are by the power of love moved voluntarily to enter in.

Luk_14:24. For I say unto you.—It is a question whether we have hereto understand the words of the lord of the servant (Bengel, Grotius, Olshausen, De Wette, Meyer), or whether we have before us the words of the Lord Jesus Himself (Kuinoel, Paulus, Stier, &c). For the first view this speaks, that Jesus in the parable is not represented as Lord, but as servant, Luk_14:17, and that the äåῖðíüí ìïõ in His mouth sounds somewhat hard; but in favor of the other there are, the solemn tone of the assurance and the ὑìῖí , since in the parable itself there is not found the slightest intimation of the presence of several servants, to whom this word could be addressed. We, for our part, choose the latter; and, far from regarding the form of the parable as having in the slightest degree lost anything by this transition from the image to that which it denotes, since the parable undoubtedly can without difficulty be regarded as concluded in Luk_14:23, this change of the speaker is to us a beauty the more. Suddenly, we might almost say involuntarily, the Saviour betrays His design, and expresses without concealment His self-consciousness, as it lay at the bottom of the parable. In view of the calling of the Gentiles, there opens before His spirit the noblest prospect; so much the more painfully, on the other hand, does Israel’s reprobacy touch Him, so that He suddenly lets fall the veil which hitherto concealed the truth in the words of the parable. “Unfaithful ones,” will He say, “My supper it is whereto ye are invited; I, who invited you, was at the same time He in honor of whom it has been given; but ye will through your own folly receive no place thereat!” It is as though the truth had become to the Saviour too mighty for Him to conceal it longer in figurative speech. Thus at the same time is the whole discourse at the table concluded in worthy-wise, with a self-testimony of Jesus; and in view of the slight echo which this must have found in a circle like this, it may not surprise us if we meet Him immediately after again on His journey.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The comparison of the Kingdom of God with a äåῖðíïí is very especially fitted to set forth the peculiar nature of this kingdom, on its most attractive side. It is a kingdom of the most perfect satisfaction, of the most blessed joy, of the most noble society. So much more unpardonable and senseless, therefore, the behavior of the first invited.

2. In a striking way there is depicted to us, in the image of the householder, the reciprocal relation which exists between the Divine wrath and the Divine love. The freer, more unrestricted and more urgent the invitation was, to so much the more vehement anger is the love from which it sprung moved; but this anger leads again to new and yet more intensified revelation of love, which at any price will see its glorious goal attained. “He has therefore so made provision that He must have people that eat, drink, and are merry, though He should make them out of stones.” Luther.

3. The representation of the Saviour as a servant who invites to the feast of the kingdom of Heaven, is at the same time, considered in the light of the Old Testament, one of the most beautiful testimonies of Jesus to Himself, comp. Pro_9:1-5; Isa_55:1-2.

4. The vocation to the Kingdom of God appears here as one meant in earnest; the anger of the householder would otherwise be incomprehensible: as an urgent one; no means must be left untried that the house may be filled: but for that reason, at the same time, as one, the inexcusable rejection of which prepares for the stubborn refusers unutterable misery. It remains a decretum irrevocabile, that such shall not taste of the Supper.

5. This parable contains an important instruction for all messengers of the Gospel. They have, with all the urgency of love, to invite, without excluding a single one who does not exclude himself. They have to prepare themselves for manifold opposition; but also in all to direct themselves after the commandment of their Lord. If they are repelled, they can with confidence complain of it to Him, and never are they to give themselves over to the thought that there is for any one no more room; and if they are only conscious that in the urgency of their love they avail themselves of no impure means, they have little occasion to fear going too far in this, comp. Luk_24:29; Act_16:5; 2Ti_4:2.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

To declare blessed and to be blessed are two very different things.—One can scarcely utter a great truth, without himself being of the truth.—Happy is he that eats bread in the Kingdom of God; he finds, 1. Full satisfaction; 2. joy; 3. society.—The great feast in the kingdom of Heaven: 1. Hospitably prepared; 2. urgently offered; 3. unthankfully rejected; 4. now as ever standing open.—Many are called but few are chosen.—The course of the history of the Kingdom of God, 1. Before; 2. during; 3. after, the appearance of Jesus.—Many that are first shall be last, and many that are last shall be first.—The vocation to the Kingdom of Heaven: 1. A comprehensive; 2. an actual; 3. an urgent; 4. a strongly-binding, vocation.—The sweet message of the New Covenant: 1. Already all things are prepared; 2. already all things are prepared; 3. all things are now prepared; 4. already all things are prepared for him that will only come.—The art of excusing one’s self: 1. An old art, Gen_3:7-13; Genesis 2. a universal art; 3. a good-for-nothing art.—The excuses: 1. Their outward differences; 2. their inward agreement.—The excuses: 1. Abundant in number; 2. nothing in value; 3. pernicious in results.—The more or less courteous form, in which we withdraw ourselves from the fulfilment of our vocation, changes nothing whatever in the essence of the matter.—“I cannot,” an euphemism for, “To tell the truth, I will not.”—The anger of love, love in anger, comp. Rev_6:16.—Yet there is room! This saying: 1. A judgment upon those who should have come but would not come; 2. an attractive voice for those who indeed long, but do not venture, to come; 3. a rousing voice for the servants never to give up their invitation, but rather to extend it as widely as possible.—Yet there is room: 1. In the visible church; 2. in the invisible fellowship of the saints in the many mansions of the Father, Joh_14:2.—The prerogative of the servant who can ever say: “Lord, it is done as Thou hast commanded.”—The vengeance of the householder who sees his first invitation rejected: 1. The guests whom he calls; 2. the entertainment which he offers; 3. the number which he will see brought together.—The mournful consequences of not accepting the joyful message: 1. One robs himself of the most glorious privilege; 2. draws on himself the anger of the Lord; 3. sees others go in his place.—The command of the householder, the ground of all domestic and foreign missions.—Whoever has once stubbornly shut himself out, remains shut out.—Compelle intrare; use and abuse of this word, degree and limit of the constraint of love.

Starke:—Hedinger:—Wishing and commanding accomplish nothing in religion; doing and fulfilling is the will of God, Mat_7:21.—Canstein:—The vocation of God is so general, that as well the reprobate as the elect are included therein.—God’s Supper has its fixed hour; at that hour must those invited come.—Quesnel:—Too much leisure and too much business are both dangerous to the attainment of salvation.—The holy bond of marriage, which should be a help to salvation, is often a hindrance to the same.—Servants of God and Jesus always go on in their office with God for a counsellor.—What is despised, foolish, and vulgar before men, on that God confers the greatest honor.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—From the apostasy of the Jews, life has come to the Gentiles, Romans 11.—Canstein:—God will finally in His turn despise those that have despised Him.

Heubner:—The immeasurable love of God, and the scornful ingratitude of the world.—The loss of the time of grace brings everlasting loss.—Man has no one to accuse but himself, if he is not saved.—The Divine call to salvation.—The truth: God earnestly wills our salvation.—Lisco:—Love of the world a hindrance to salvation for many that are called to the kingdom of God.—Arndt:—Earthlymindedness: 1. As to its nature; 2. as to its relation to the kingdom of God; 3. as to its blindness; 4. as to its punishment.—Zimmermann:—Christianity, the religion of the poor, for: 1. It makes the poor rich; 2. the spiritually sick well; 3. the spiritually blind to see.—Dræseke:—Yet there is room. This is a summons, a. to the poor that they take comfort; b. to the faithful that they gather themselves together; c. to the sinners, that they be converted; d. to the good, that they distinguish themselves (!!!); e. to the despised, that they rise up; f. for the late born, that they believe themselves not neglected.—Ahlfeld:—The Great Supper of the Lord: 1. Wherein it consists; 2. how the Lord invites thereto; 3. the excuses; 4. the bitter fruit of the excuses.—Burk:—The straightforward behavior of a faithful and honest servant of God, who invites to the kingdom of heaven.—Fuchs:—Come, for all things are ready! 1. The entertainment; 2. the entertainer; 3. the entertained.—Petri:—What should move us to come when God calls: 1. The greatness of His grace; 2. the earnestness of His invitation.—Uhle:—The cheerful and the stern side of Christianity.—Krummacher:—Why not to Christ? (Sabb. Glocke, V. 2.)

This Pericope is exceedingly well adapted also for preparation for the celebration of the Holy Communion, in particular,—also for ordination and installation sermons of Ministers of the Gospel.—Finally also for missionary occasions.

Footnotes:

[Dr. Van Oosterzee has added this English phrase to the German original; and as our language affords the best term for this character, it would seem that our race is most exposed to the temptation here described.—C. C. S.]