Luke 14:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Those invited to the spiritual banquet did not offer similar excuses: one purchased oxen for work, another acquired a plot of land, and another entered into marriage, yet their lack of attendance led to their punishment. While earthly tasks are indeed essential, they should not serve as justifications when God calls, for everything we require is subordinate to divine will. We must honor God first, before attending to other matters. What servant, I ask, would prioritize his own household before fulfilling the duties owed to his master? It is indeed peculiar to grant such respect and obedience to earthly masters, who hold mere titles, while failing to show the same regard to the true Lord, who reigns over us and all higher authorities.

Those who enter into marriage tend to focus on earthly matters rather than on divine concerns; this is not a critique of marriage itself, but rather a recognition that those who embrace virginity are called to the highest honor, as the unmarried and the widow care for the things of the Lord to be holy in both body and spirit, whereas the married concern themselves with worldly affairs, especially in pleasing their husbands (1 Corinthians 7:34).

To reconcile the married with the widowed, we acknowledge the belief held by many that three groups are barred from the great feast: Gentiles, Jews, and heretics. Therefore, the apostle warns against covetousness, stating that it must be avoided, or else we cannot enter the kingdom of Christ, being hindered as Gentiles by unrighteousness, deceit, shamelessness, and greed (Romans 1:29). Every covetous or impure individual, who is an idolater, will have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Ephesians 5:5).

The Jews, through their physical adherence to the law, bind themselves to a yoke; thus, in accordance with the prophet's words, let us break their bonds and cast off their chains (Psalm 2:3). We have received Christ, who has bestowed upon us the gentle yoke of His meekness (Matthew 11:30). The five pairs of oxen symbolize the Ten Commandments or the Pentateuch, of which it might be remembered that the Lord said to the Samaritan woman, "You have had five husbands" (John 4:18).

As for heresy, it resembles Eve in that it undermines the steadfastness of faith with deceptive charm and ultimately leads to ruin through temptations that allure with false beauty, disregarding the unblemished beauty of truth. Guests decline the invitation to the feast, and although the kingdom remains open to all, our own wills can hinder us; the Lord graciously extends His invitation, yet we are often obstructed by our apathy or sin.

Strangers to the kingdom, along with those who acquire property—remember that those who sold and bought in Noah's time were engulfed by the flood (Luke 17:27; Genesis 6:1-7, 24). He who chooses the burden of the law over the gift of grace, and he who makes excuses through marriage—of whom it is said, "If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife ... he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26). If the Lord willingly sets aside His Mother for you and asks, "Who are My mother and My brothers?" (Matthew 12:48), why would you choose to elevate anyone above your Lord? Yet the Lord does not call us to forsake nature but rather to honor it, acknowledging its Creator and avoiding abandonment of God in favor of parental love.

In the parable of the wedding feast, He recounted how the king prepared a banquet for his son and sent out his servants to invite those who had been called, only to find that they could not attend due to their attachments to worldly affairs. With sadness, He stated: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). This teaching illustrates that anyone desiring to enter His kingdom must first relinquish all that tugs their heart towards the world.

The Lord also admonished against relying solely on faith without accompanying action, demonstrating this when He spoke of the king who, upon entering to see those reclined at the feast, found a man not wearing a wedding garment and commanded that he be cast into outer darkness (Matthew 22:11-13). They may bear the name of Christianity, yet will be excluded for lacking righteous deeds. Similarly, the Apostle Paul, aware that one cannot simultaneously love both God and worldly pursuits, wrote to his spiritual son Timothy, stating: “No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer” (2 Tim. 2:4). Furthermore, he emphasized that if anyone suffers for righteousness, they will receive a crown only if they endure according to God’s law (2 Tim. 2:5). Encouraging Timothy not to lose heart for his efforts, he remarked: “The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops” (2 Tim. 2:6). In his correspondence with others, he noted: “An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord; but a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife” (1 Cor. 7:32-33). Such a person, caught up in worldly concerns, risks hearing the dreadful proclamation: “Cast him into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13).

When one is consumed by worldly concerns, another is troubled by meddling in others’ matters, and yet another taints his spirit with fleshly desires, each of them remains repulsed and fails to respond to the invitation of the Eternal Life.

We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He comes from” (John 9:28-29). Others made excuses related to the acquisition of five yoke of oxen, which represents an attachment to the pleasures derived from the five senses—our two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, the tongue, and the external and internal senses of touch that reach both our skin and our deeper emotions. These individuals, captivated by sensory indulgence and unable to embrace the spiritual and heavenly teachings of the Savior who called them, remarked, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60). Furthermore, some not only rejected the call but also deemed it untenable to respond due to their wife's beauty. Through this, the Savior illustrated the compelling and unyielding nature of carnal desires and sins. Collectively, all these three groups symbolize individuals who are consumed by love for money, glory, and carnal pleasures. Though they are called by the voice of the Gospel to repent, participate in the Divine Mysteries, and partake in the joys of the heavenly kingdom, they turn away—some due to anxiety over their possessions, others due to enslavement to their sinful desires. Let us now consider the subsequent message:

In this narrative, the servant sent by God, the banquet host, to invite the guests, represents Jesus Christ (hence, the term for servant: τόν δοΰλον). The time of the banquet symbolizes the period of His earthly ministry (Galatians 4:4). Prior to this moment, the banquet host invited numerous individuals, and the servant first approached those initially called, namely, the Jews. These were the individuals who declined the invitation to the banquet. It is clear from the subsequent invitation to the second group of invitees—also Jews—that the servant finds them "in the streets and alleys of the city," while the third category of invitees is located "on the roads and hedges," indicating they are outside the city. Thus, those who rejected the invitation represent the Jewish leadership, including the scribes and Pharisees, while the first group that accepted comprises the common people, and the second group, the Gentiles. Their refusal stemmed from an attachment to worldly pursuits and the overpowering influence of carnal desires. A similar, though distinct, parable is recorded in Matthew 22:1-14.

Consequently, the host, incensed by the irreverence and indifference of these guests, instructed his servants to immediately traverse the streets and alleys to gather all the beggars, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Once this was accomplished and space still remained, he commanded his servants to invite even the homeless drifters found along the hedges and roads. The moral of the parable was evident to everyone present. A heart devoted to worldly affairs, whether tangled in material pursuits, the gathering of riches, or the fleeting pleasures of a self-indulgent life, cannot genuinely yearn to partake in the banquet of the kingdom of heaven. The marginalized, including sinners, publicans, and destitute workers, are likely to be present there rather than the scribes with their arrogant knowledge and Pharisees with their showy piety. ‘For I say unto you,’ the Savior declared to emphasize this lesson more directly, ‘that none of those called shall taste My supper. And so ‘many are called, but few are chosen.’ This parable served as a vivid illustration of Christ’s own mission. He invited all to the feast of His message, yet the majority of those first addressed, engrossed in the distractions of vanity, rejected Him. It became apparent that the religious leaders and the societal elite resisted the gospel. In contrast, all who were burdened and afflicted—the poor, the disabled, the unjustly marginalized, tax collectors, and sinners—those ostracized by society, found it easier to open their hearts to the new gospel that promised them a kingdom beyond this world. They responded with genuine sincerity. When the scribes and Pharisees turned against Christ, He chose to associate with these tax collectors and sinners, who thronged around their divine Comforter.