The Savior for All: Compel Them to Come In
Luke 14 is the Savior at table.
He is invited to dine in the house of a ruler of the Pharisees on a Sabbath. They are watching Him carefully. He heals a man with dropsy. He tells the guests to take the lowest seat. He tells the host to invite the poor and the crippled and the blind. Then He tells the parable of the great banquet — where the original invitees make excuses, and the master sends his servant out to compel the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame to come in.
Then the chapter pivots from table to road, and Jesus teaches the cost of being His disciple.
The Savior for All has set a great table. Many are too busy. He sends to the hedges and highways. He says: compel them to come in.
Healing on the Sabbath
One Sabbath, when He goes to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they are watching Him carefully. A man with dropsy is in front of Him.
Jesus asks the lawyers and Pharisees:
"Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?"
They are silent.
He takes the man, heals him, and sends him away. Then He says:
"Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?"
They cannot reply to these things.
The Savior for All will not let religion bind compassion. The Sabbath was made to free people, not to hold them in their suffering.
Take the lowest seat
He notices how the guests choose the places of honor. He tells them a parable:
"When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him… But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you."
"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
The way up in the Kingdom is always the way down.
Invite the poor
He turns to the host:
"When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
The Savior for All redefines hospitality. The world's hospitality is a transaction — you invite people who can invite you back. The Kingdom's hospitality is a gift — you invite people who cannot pay you back, and the Father will repay at the resurrection.
The great banquet
One of those at table with Him, hearing these things, says: "Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!"
Jesus answers with a parable.
A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited: Come, for everything is now ready.
But they all alike began to make excuses.
The first said: I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.
Another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.
Another said: I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
The servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said:
"Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame."
When the servant said it was done and there was still room, the master said:
"Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled."
"For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet."
The Savior for All has set the table. The expected guests refuse — too busy with land, business, and family. So the master sends to the streets, the lanes, the highways, the hedges. The Kingdom is filled with the people the world overlooked.
Compel them to come in. Not by force, but by persuasion that will not take no for an answer. The Father wants His house full.
The cost of discipleship
Great crowds are following Him. He turns and says to them — perhaps to thin the crowd of those who were following for the wrong reasons:
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."
He does not mean active hostility. He means He must be loved so supremely that every other love looks like hate by comparison.
"Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."
Counting the cost
He gives two parables of counting the cost.
Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him.
Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
"So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."
The Savior for All does not hide the cost of following Him. He does not soft-sell the gospel. He tells the truth: it will cost you everything. And only those who count the cost will not turn back when the cost becomes real.
This is not opposite to the open invitation. The same Christ who says compel them to come in says count the cost. The door is open to all — but the journey is hard, and the only way to walk it is to know what you have been called to.
Salt that has lost its taste
"Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile."
A disciple who has lost what makes him a disciple is useful for nothing. Followers of the Savior must keep their distinctive character.
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Closing prayer
Father, thank You for the great banquet You have prepared in Your Son. Forgive us when we make excuses about fields and oxen and family. Send Your servants to the highways and hedges, and let Your house be filled. Make us count the cost, take up the cross, and follow Christ above every other love. And let us never lose the salt that makes us Yours. In Jesus' name, amen.
