The people in God's kingdom won't be the people you expect

theological

Luke 14:12-24 wrote:

He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, 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.”

When one of those 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!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for 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 to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please excuse me.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine them. Please excuse me.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘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.’”

To set some context. In this section of Luke from chapter 13 Jesus has been addressing the question of who is going to be saved in the Kingdom of God.

He journeys towards Jerusalem and someone asks him. "Lord, will those who are saved be few?". Jesus answers "Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many I tell you will seek to enter and will not be able" (13:24).

Setting the scene further. Jesus is at the house of one of the Pharisees. He had just been speaking about them taking the greatest table at the feast and closes saying "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted". (14:11)

A few questions about the passage above:
How should this passage change our view about hospitality?

Why do those who make excuses not come to the feast? Is that similar to how we treat Jesus and the gospel often?

Jesus invites the poor and crippled and blind and lame to His feast. Why is this surprising? Is that different to what we might have expected?

What picture does this feast give us of what the Kingdom of God may be like?

Do you find it easy to humble yourself? Why or why not?

antiskeptic

Do you find it easy to humble yourself? Why or why not?

A sinner finding it easy to humble themselves?

Aren't sin and humility mortal enemies?

"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted".

This is another in the various ways the root problem is pointed to - the key issue that needs addressing in order that salvation can be applied:

exalt self / humble self. To exalt self is to be self-directed, there isn't a reliance on another or submission to another. To exalt oneself is to position oneself on the throne.

rich self / poor self. To be rich is to be self-directed. There is no reliance on another to fill your needs, for you can fill your needs from your own resources. Rich in money, talent, relationships, status, cunning, smarts .. whatever floats your self-sustaining boat.

keep his life / loose his life. Keep the self-directed life vs loose or surrender the self directed life.

Self-sufficiency: the original sin of the species. Constantly pointed to as the problem.