Hospitality is a fading art. Of course, we still host and enjoy meals at one another's homes. But now they are often lavish with hours of preparation, putting out the china for the boss or for friends. It's hard to imagine what was normal not that long ago: making an extra bowl of stew in case someone dropped in for dinner, or checking in on the elderly neighbor a few houses down, inviting a new employee we met at work to enjoy a meal or a movie, or taking a meal to a family with a new baby. Many of us recall Sunday dinners when you never knew exactly who would be coming over after church’or how many. In the ancient world’which lacked hotels, restaurants, and electric lights for evening travel’hospitality included strangers. It may not have been a lavish feast, but there was always something in case someone dropped in unexpectedly.
Where the habits of modern life have not yet become dominant, hospitality to strangers remains a significant feature of traditional cultures’in the East and West. Addressing his report to Greek patron Theophilus, Luke’a physician and an intimate of Peter and Paul’set out to compose "an orderly account" of Jesus' life, ministry, and teachings by interviewing eyewitnesses. His complete work, Luke's Gospel and Acts, documents the expansion of the kingdom from Jerusalem to "the ends of the earth," concluding with Paul's preaching in Rome. A new family is being created out of Adam's fallen race, a true Israel out of the fallen nation. In short, the host of the banquet has arrived and is welcoming his guests to the feast that never ends.
In the central section of Luke's Gospel, we are told, "When the days drew near for him to be taken up, [Jesus] set his face to go to Jerusalem" (9:51). And yet what follows’for ten chapters’is a miscellany of apparently unrelated sayings, controversies, and parables. Whatever happened to the journey to Jerusalem? Yet everything in this central section is like a parenthesis in the journey, as Jesus reveals himself as the Master of the House who is sending out his emissaries to gather guests for his feast. In other words, everything here indicates precisely what Jesus is going to do when he reaches Jerusalem.
As we see in Acts, hospitality was at the heart of Christian community. Yet it was grounded ultimately not in social custom but in the hospitality that God shows to his enemies as he brings sinners, outcasts, even Gentile strangers to the covenant. As we'll see below, Jesus upbraided the Pharisees for their highly selective "hospitality"’that is, separating the respectable from the outcast and demanding the best seat at the table. The gospel reveals a hospitality that is most fully and lavishly exhibited in the Father's gift of his Son and the Spirit who unites us to him as coheirs of the everlasting estate. In what follows, I want to look at Luke's Gospel, particularly the integrating motif of "eating and drinking in the presence of the Lord" that displays obvious and intentional echoes of Deuteronomy.
The Journeying Guest in Deuteronomy
In order to see what Luke is up to, it is important to explore the Old Testament backdrop. The theme of eating and drinking in the presence of God is prominent from Genesis to Revelation. Instead of waiting for their host to give them the fruit from the Tree of Life, Adam and Eve wanted their Happy Meal and ordered from their own menu.
After the golden calf incident, when God renewed his covenant with Israel, God called Moses, Aaron and his sons (Nadab and Abihu), and seventy elders to ascend the mountain into the cloud of his presence. There the Lord ratified the covenant as his guests "beheld God, and ate and drank" (Exod. 24:11). Moses then received the tablets of the Ten Commandments and remained on the mountain, in the cloud with God, for forty days and forty nights (v. 18).
For their continued unbelief, however, most of the desert generation were barred (along with Moses) from entering the Promised Land. Instead of enduring the trial and entering the land "flowing with milk and honey," that generation died just short of the Jordan River. Significantly, God commanded the Bread of the Presence to be placed in the Holy of Holies as a perpetual confirmation of his provision for his people (Exod. 25:30).
This theme of journeying to the feast where there is "eating and drinking in the presence of the Lord" is evident especially in Deuteronomy. That is the great goal of the Promised Land, "flowing with milk and honey," we are repeatedly told. In fact, God tells them that immediately on entering Canaan they are to "sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God" (Deut. 27:7). It will be a place where only the best wine will be produced. In the wilderness, God says that apart from the miraculous provision, "You did not eat bread, you did not drink wine or strong drink" (Deut. 29:6). Yet the ultimate goal was feasting with God, rejoicing together with the saints in his fulfillment of his covenant promises (Deut. 14:23, for example).
Avoiding the Feast
Like Adam, the unbelieving generation in the wilderness "demanded the food they craved" instead of trusting God to host his own banquet with them in Canaan (Ps. 78:18). Already in Deuteronomy 1, the people delivered in the exodus are found questioning God's promise instead of entering his rest. Moses asks for permission simply to pass through the territory of pagan kings, but they offer no hospitality and instead declare war. Yet even after handing these kings over to Israel, God tells Moses that he will be barred from leading his people into Canaan because of his conduct in the wilderness (3:26).
At Sinai, Moses passionately exhorts Israel to keep God's covenant and so become his holy nation, "a light to the Gentiles" (4:6). He calls them to remember that Yahweh fed them miraculously in the wilderness despite their rebellious hearts, but they must follow God's word rather than their stomachs (8:1-10). Yet even while Moses receives the law on the mountain, the people are committing idolatry around the golden calf (9:13-16). The Lord was ready to destroy them, but Moses interceded for the people and God relented (9:17-29).
Everything else in the historical books and the prophets moves toward Jerusalem’Mount Zion, the place where God will dwell. Mount Sinai is a desert weigh station between Egypt and Canaan. No longer merely leading the journeying people, pitching his tent outside the camp, God will make his permanent dwelling "in their midst"’Immanuel, "God with us."
Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. (Zeph. 1:7)
The Master of the House Prepares His Feast
The theme of "eating and drinking in the presence of the Lord" is carried forward in the New Testament, beginning with Jesus' trial in the desert’for forty days and forty nights, recapitulating Israel's trial (and echoing Moses' mediation on the mountain with God for forty days and forty nights). This time, however, Jesus rebuffed the serpent's enticement for "glory now." Instead of demanding the food he craved, Jesus replied with the words of Moses in Deuteronomy: "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God'" (Matt. 4:4).
Jesus is "the prophet like Moses" (Deut. 18:15-19). In Deuteronomy 12-26, the central theme is "eating and drinking before the Lord" in the place that he has appointed. There is also the appointed time with the major feasts: Passover (the "Feast of Unleavened Bread" and the "cup of salvation") and Pentecost (also known as Tabernacles or Booths) celebrating the final harvest in which the households are told to "rejoice in the feast" (6:13-15; cf. 31:10-13).
Luke's Gospel particularly emphasizes the theme of Jesus as the journeying guest who is not received, even by his own (9:52-19:44). In fact, he is rejected in Jerusalem (Luke 19:45-23:49). "Eating and drinking in the presence of the Lord" (Luke 13:25) explicitly invokes the covenantal meals of the Old Testament. Only now, it is the "insiders" who refuse the invitation and are cast out, and the "outsiders" who are seated at the kingdom feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
It soon becomes obvious, however, that Jesus is not just a distinguished guest of the great feast. Moses, Elijah, and John the Baptist were servants and messengers, but Jesus is the Master of the House. Rejected by his own, just as he was when the spies returned with their firstfruits of the good land, he nevertheless sends his messenger "into the highways and byways" to gather guests for his banquet. Jesus moves toward Jerusalem, teaching the disciples to invite to the banquet those who cannot repay them (Luke 14:14). After all, isn't that what God does with us?
The central section of Luke then puts the spotlight on Jesus as the one greater than Moses, leading his coheirs to a greater feast. It is a "new exodus." In the transfiguration, we read that Moses and Elijah were engaged in conversation with Jesus, "speaking about his exodus [exodos] which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem" (9:31).
Luke's point is that it is the new Moses who speaks from the mountain. Even the grumbling of the Pharisees is meant to echo the grumbling Israelites at Sinai and in the wilderness. With the disciples, we too are provoked to ask, "Who are the true leaders’the true stewards’of Israel?" As each episode unfolds, it becomes clear that it is not the religious leaders. They are offended at this rabbi who "eats and drinks with sinners." But Jesus turns their inhospitality back on them: they are the ones who killed even their own prophets. Now the Son himself has arrived and they want to kill him too, unfolding between Luke 9:52 and 19:44.
Although Jesus is refused hospitality in a Samaritan village, he rebukes his own disciples for wanting to call down "fire from heaven." It is not yet the final judgment (9:52-56). It is Christ's hospitality, not the Samaritans' lack of it, that is in view. Recall in Deuteronomy that Moses sent out messengers but was denied permission from the pagan kings to pass through their territory on their way to Canaan. Jesus also sends out messengers for the same purpose in 9:52-10:1 but is denied hospitality. A few join him on his journey to the feast, but generally he is rejected. But it is the Jewish leaders who reject the Master of the House who are more culpable.
Even Jesus' sayings about riches in 12:13-48 focus specifically on the urgency of this journey to Jerusalem. As in the first exodus, those who turn their face to Jerusalem must dress for the road. The fool will be distracted by daily cares, but Jesus warns, "Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks." It is the religious leaders, as false servants, who exploit the master's delay by raiding his wine cellar and meat locker for their own party (12:45-46).
Counting the cost, good stewardship, and being watchful for the master's arrival aren't generic proverbs of piety, but they are part of this overarching theme of the master who is not only refused hospitality as a guest on the road but must face a stand-off for his own house when he arrives in Jerusalem.
Before we rush to draw legitimate applications, it is crucial to recognize the uniqueness of this journey. When Jesus and the disciples arrive in Jerusalem, he becomes increasingly isolated. He does there what only he can do’suffer for our sins while his disciples scatter, disillusioned that the Master of the House has been murdered by unrighteous servants.
"I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." (Luke 12:49-55)
The house will be divided, and the wicked will treat the disciples as they have treated the Master, but they will be cast out of the house into outer darkness forever, barred from the feast. But this is still the time of gathering guests for the feast, not the final judgment. At dinner with a ruler of the Pharisees, Jesus focused directly on the wedding feast (Luke 14). Unlike the Pharisees, Jesus' disciples show hospitality at the wedding feast, being willing to take "the lowest seat" to make room for others (vv. 7-11). Don't invite those who can repay you, Jesus says, but rather "the crippled, the lame, the blind" (v. 12). "When one of those [Pharisees] who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, 'Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" (v. 15). This pious exclamation, however, sets this reality off in the distance, something that doesn't really impose any obligation on us now.
But Jesus continues with the parable of the wedding banquet. The great feast promised in the prophets is a great idea in principle, but when invitations are actually sent out, everyone seems to have an excuse. The original guest list dwindles, so the master sends his servants out to the alleys to "compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited shall taste my banquet" (Luke 14:23-24). The promised feasting in God's kingdom is no longer a pious hope, but a present reality. The Master of the House is dining with them, but as their judge whom they reject.
All of the other parables are different ways of making the same point. In Luke 15 the real master of the house is a Good Shepherd who finds even the one sheep who has strayed (vv. 1-7), the woman who sweeps the whole house just to find one lost coin(vv. 8-10), and the father whose exuberance over the return of his prodigal son provokes a lavish feast in celebration that fills the older brother with jealous rage (vv. 11-32).
The Guest as the Host: The Servant as the Master of the House
As Jesus nears Jerusalem, he foretells his death, but his disciples do "not grasp what was said" (Luke 18:31-34). He heals a blind beggar and invites himself to dinner at the house of Zacchaeus, a tax collector’"for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost"’while the Pharisees murmur again that he eats and drinks with sinners (19:1-10).
With the triumphal entry, Jesus finally arrives at his destination. His actions during Holy Week are the culmination of this theme of the Master returning to his house amid the wicked tenants who kill the prophets sent, even the Son himself (20:9-18). He speaks of the temple as his house and drives out the money changers, but also foretells the destruction of the temple (21:5-9) and subsequent wars and persecution before the return of the Son of Man in judgment (vv. 10-28). Yahweh has installed his king on his holy hill, inviting all peoples to his feast.
At Passover, Jesus eats and drinks with his disciples in the upper room. Moses saw the Lord's arm in the first exodus, but the one standing before them is the Exodus Lord. Moses and the elders ate and drank with God as guests on the mountain, but Jesus takes over this meal as the host. Here is a king who, instead of gorging himself, feeds others, just as he had fed the five thousand. Here is a king who, instead of demanding their blood to enrich his estate, gives his blood to deliver his estate to his enemies and outcasts. It is the cup of salvation and the bread of life that he gives them, "the new covenant in my blood" (22:20). In this Supper, he makes himself the sacrificial meal, replacing Passover, promising to share the meal with us only when he comes in his kingdom (v. 18).
Finally, in Luke 24’the day of the resurrection’ Jesus meets two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Even though it is the day of the greater exodus, they are confused by the events and reports of the empty tomb. After proclaiming himself from the Law and the prophets, he accepts their invitation to dinner. Jesus knows the rules of hospitality, and rather than lording it over them as he could have (revealing himself as the Risen King all at once), he lets himself be a stranger, invited to dinner simply because "it is toward evening and the day is now far spent" (v. 29). Even after the resurrection, Jesus displays his humility, serving us in descending mercy.
Reversing the proper roles of hospitality, Jesus becomes the host (vv. 33-35). Just as the disciples had entered the upper room for one meal (Passover), only to receive a new meal (the Lord's Supper), now Jesus takes over and transforms an ordinary meal into the first post-resurrection Eucharist. As he does, their sorrow is turned to joy and their unbelief is turned to recognition. The formula here, reminiscent of the words of the upper room in Luke 22, is unmistakable: "took…broke…gave." As Calvin points out, not only in the action but in the form of words that Jesus repeated, the disciples recognize the one who instituted this Supper. "And their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight" (v. 31). The preaching of the Word gave the content, but through the action of Jesus as the host of this meal they recognize him as the Lord of the Banquet. At last the "breaking of the bread" in the upper room makes sense as the breaking of Christ's body for the life of his people. The good news begins with the nucleus of this first band of Christians and then works itself out to "Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth."
Our Eucharistic table is not the heavenly wedding banquet; it is the sacrificial meal in which Christ is the food and drink. Through this, we proclaim Christ's death until he returns and we participate in the renewing powers of the age to come. We taste the morsels of that wedding banquet when the meal of Christ's sacrifice will become the feast of unending delight. On that day, Christ will be the host rather than the meal, and we will eat and drink with him in an everlasting exchange of gifts.
