Thursday, June 28, 2018
Party nice
Luke 14:23
Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
After the story about the guests at the wedding, Jesus told another story about a man who was having a big feast at his house. This particularly is very difficult for me to wrap my mind around. I am from Guyana and here in Guyana and the Caribbean, that story could never be understood.
According to Jesus, a man was having a party and his invited guests all made excuses and didn’t show. So, with the food and drinks, and maybe the music all set the disappointed host had to start looking for guests. Well, that would not have happened in the Caribbean.
In the Caribbean, we would turn up even if we weren’t invited. The Calypso King, the Mighty Sparrow, has an old Calypso about people always showing up where there is free food and free rum. However, I cannot seem to find that piece right now. But Grenadian-Trinidadian storyteller, Paul Keens-Douglas tells a very good Caribbean party tale in his piece Party Nice.
In Party Nice, Keens-Douglas tells of how he was forced by Thelma to have a party to celebrate his birthday with had fallen in the middle of the week. Under pressure he agreed to have a “little thing” however as activities moved forward, his house was overwhelmed by the community who all invited themselves. Those who were unaware of the party showed up as soon as they heard the music. One person who showed up told the host that they knew that if he had seen them he would have invited them. And one of his friends was walking around telling everybody, “party nice.”
Clearly, Jesus, not dealing with Caribbean people at the time, told this story about the host sending out his servants to invite guests. Again, remarkably, it took two rounds out on the streets to get enough people to fill the house. He needed a motley collection of the likes of Thelma, Slim, Tall Boy, Coleen and Tanti Merle and his party would have been set. In the Caribbean tale, what was supposed to be a “little thing” turned into a block party. In Jesus’s tale what was supposed to be a big event almost bombed.
In Matthew 22:2-14 a different version of this story is recorded, there it is a wedding feast being given by a king for his son. Still, in the Caribbean, we show up at a wedding just because we know that it is happening. Back when I was on radio doing the morning show I got a call from a friend to let me know that his best friend was getting married later in the day, he gave me the details and asked me to send congratulation greetings on the air. I did. That evening the hall was overrun with people who heard and showed up. The last thing I know about that event was that my friends were buying fried chicken by the bucket from a local fast-food outlet that had its own brand of Kentucky Fried Chicken at the time. I was nervous about revenge because my own wedding was a few weeks later. I escaped.
Of course, cultural differences aside, Jesus was telling his story at a particular place and time as he confronted the Jewish religious establishment. Jesus’ party story was triggered by someone who, having heard the story about the wedding guests reacted. “Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”” Luke 14:15.
That man was referring to the great Messianic Banquet to come as they looked for a Messiah to come and establish the Kingdom once again. Jesus used the man’s question to segue into the story of the great banquet and establish that not everyone invited would be able to enter the kingdom of God because of the choices that they were making.
Culturally, people were usually invited to an event in advance so that they could plan to come, however, when the event was set the servants would then make another announcement. The invitees in Jesus’ story were faltering at the time of the second announcement. Jesus was making a fundamental point to the Jews, that they were the initially invited guests who in the end rejected the invitation when it was announced that the feast was ready. Their action opened up the way for those we were not initially invited to participate.
That is how we got in. Here is the apostle Paul summing up the situation differently in his letter to the Ephesians. “Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:11-13.
Jesus told the parable against the Jews but it seems that today, many are rejecting the glorious opportunity that we all have to gather at the marriage supper of the lamb at the end of the age. We should do well to take heed. Be like Caribbean people and show up. With Jesus in the end that would be “party nice.”
““Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’”” Revelation 19:9
And that would be like a great Caribbean wedding. We like to sing from early in that chapter of revelation. “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” Revelation 19:6,7.
Think on these things:
- If you are not from the Caribbean think of how party invitations and responses are handled in your culture or community?
- What parallel illustration would you use to make the same point to others?
- How active are you as a servant of God to call others to His invitation?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb and be active in inviting those who are not yet attending.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex