The Parable of the Great Supper (Luke 14:16–24)

Public-Domain Patristic Commentary

At the Pharisee's table, when one of the guests said, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God," the Lord answered with a parable. "A certain man made a great supper, and bade many." At supper time he sent his servant to say, "Come; for all things are now ready." But they all alike began to make excuse: one had bought a field, another five yoke of oxen, another had married a wife. The master, angered, sent the servant out into the streets and lanes of the city to bring in "the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind," and then into "the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled," for "none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper." It is the parable of the invitation refused by those preoccupied with the world, and of the calling of the poor, and last of all the Gentiles. It is found only in Luke.

The Fathers read it on two levels at once. As the arc of salvation, the man who makes the feast is the Father, the servant sent is the Son who emptied himself, the food is Christ's own flesh, those first bidden are Israel, and the poor of the streets and then the strangers of the highways are the lowly and the Gentiles drawn in at the last. As a lesson for the soul, the three excuses become three forms of the love of the world: the field is pride or possession, the five yoke of oxen are curiosity and the five senses, and the wife is the pleasure of the flesh, which Augustine lines up exactly with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Gathered below are six Fathers, three from the East and three from the West, each quoted verbatim from a public-domain translation. A note on the sources follows.

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St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

From his Commentary on Luke (Homily 104, on Luke 14:15–24), trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain.

On the man who is God the Father, and the great supper held in honour of Christ:

By the man therefore is to be understood God the Father. For similitudes are formed to represent the truth, and are by no means the truth themselves. He therefore, the Creator of the universe, and the Father of glory, made a great supper, that is, a festival for the whole world, in honour of Christ. In the last times then of the world, and, so to speak, at this our world's setting, the Son arose for us: at which time also He suffered death for our sakes, and gave us His flesh to eat, as being the bread from heaven, Which gives life to the world.

On the servant who is Christ Himself, who took the form of a slave:

And next, who is he that was sent, and who it also says was a slave? Perchance Christ Himself: for though God the Word is by nature God, and the very Son of God the Father, from Whom He was manifested, yet He emptied Himself, to take the form of a slave. As being therefore God of God He is Lord of all; but one may justly apply the appellation of a slave to the limits of His humanity.

On the invitation, "all things are ready," and the gifts prepared in Christ:

And what was the nature of the invitation? "Come: for lo! all things are ready." For God the Father has prepared in Christ for the inhabitants of earth those gifts which are bestowed upon the world through Him, even the forgiveness of sins, the cleansing away of all defilement, the communion of the Holy Spirit, the glorious adoption as sons, and the kingdom of heaven. Unto these blessings Christ invited by the commandments of the gospel Israel before all others.

On the excuses, which betray a heart overcome by the love of the world:

You perceive that by senselessly giving themselves up to these earthly matters, they cannot see things spiritual; for being overcome by the love of the flesh, they are far from holiness, and are covetous and greedy after wealth. They seek those things which are below, but make no account, no not in the slightest degree, of those hopes which are stored up with God. Far better would it have been instead of earthly fields to gain the joys of paradise.

On the poor and lame called in from the streets, and then the Gentiles from the highways:

In their stead therefore those were called who were in the streets and market-places, who belonged, that is, to the Jewish common people, whose mind was sickly, and infirm, and dark, and halting: for such one may consider to be blind and lame. But they became strong and whole in Christ: they learnt to walk uprightly, and received the divine light into their mind.

Here observe, I pray, the calling of the Gentiles after that the Israelites had entered by faith ... he who invites to the supper is sent unto the highways, outside the city, and to the hedges in the fields: moreover he is commanded by him who sent him not merely to invite, and offer them exhortation only, but even to compel them. And yet in all men faith is a voluntary act ... For it was necessary, absolutely necessary for the Gentiles, as being fettered by an intolerable tyranny, and fallen under the yoke of the devil ... that their calling should be very urgent, resembling the use of force, that they might be able to look up unto God.

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St. Basil the Great (c. 330–379)

From his Ascetic Rules, as compiled in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the "I cannot come" of a mind grown feeble for God:

But he says, I cannot come, because that the human mind when it is degenerating to worldly pleasures, is feeble in attending to the things of God.

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Origen (c. 185–254)

From his commentary on Luke, as compiled in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the three excuses as three ways of preferring something to the Word:

Or else, they who have bought a piece of ground and reject or refuse the supper, are they who have taken other doctrines of divinity, but have despised the word which they possessed. But he who has bought five yoke of oxen is he who neglects his intellectual nature, and follows the things of sense, therefore he cannot comprehend a spiritual nature. But he who has married a wife is he who is joined to the flesh, a lover of pleasure rather than of God.

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St. Gregory the Great (c. 540–604)

From his Homilies on the Gospels (Homily 36), as compiled in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the supper as eternal sweetness, and how spiritual delight reverses the appetites of the flesh:

Or he made a great supper, as having prepared for us the full enjoyment of eternal sweetness. He bade many, but few came, because sometimes they who themselves are subject to him by faith, by their lives oppose his eternal banquet. And this is generally the difference between the delights of the body and the soul, that fleshly delights when not possessed provoke a longing desire for them, but when possessed and devoured, the eater soon turns from satiety to loathing; spiritual delights, on the other hand, when not possessed are loathed, when possessed the more desired.

On the strange refusal of those richly invited:

Our Lord then offers what he ought to be asked for, not ask others to receive. He wishes to give what could scarcely be hoped for; yet all begin at once to make excuse ... Behold a rich man invites, and the poor hasten to come. We are invited to the banquet of God, and we make excuse.

On the excuses that wear the words of humility but the act of pride:

But we must observe, that the one who for his farm, and the other who to prove his five yoke of oxen, excuse themselves from the supper of their Inviter, mix up with their excuse the words of humility. For when they say, I pray thee, and then disdain to come, the word sounds of humility, but the action is pride.

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Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

From his Sermons (Sermon 112) and Questions on the Gospels, as compiled in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the Bread of the kingdom, which lay before the man who sighed for it afar off:

For who is that Bread of the kingdom of God but He who says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven? Open not thy mouth, but thy heart.

On the bought field as the pride that will not have a master:

Now there were three excuses ... The bought piece of ground denotes government. Therefore pride is the first vice reproved. For the first man wished to rule, not willing to have a master.

On the five yoke of oxen as the five senses, and the curiosity that believes only what it handles:

The five yoke of oxen are taken to be the five senses of the flesh ... But they are called yoke of oxen, because through those senses of the flesh earthly things are pursued. For the oxen till the ground, but men at a distance from faith, given up to earthly things, refuse to believe in any thing, but what they arrive at by means of the five-fold sense of the body ... But that you may understand that it is not the delight of the five senses which charms and conveys pleasure, but that a certain curiosity is denoted, he says not, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and go to feed them, but go to prove them.

On the three excuses lined up with the three lusts named by John:

The lust of the flesh, I have married a wife; the lust of the eyes, I have bought five yoke of oxen; the pride of life, I have bought a farm.

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St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 339–397)

From his Exposition of the Gospel of Luke, as compiled in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the earthly possessions that shut a man out of the kingdom:

Thus it is that the worn out soldier is appointed to serve degraded offices, as he who intent upon things below buys for himself earthly possessions, can not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Our Lord says, Sell all that thou hast, and follow me.

On marriage not blamed, but virginity held in higher honour:

Or marriage is not blamed; but purity is held up to greater honour, since the unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and spirit, but she that is married careth for the things of the world.

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Note on sources and other Fathers

Cyril carries the whole arc of salvation, and the others fill it out from both sides. The man who makes the feast is "God the Father," the great supper is held "at this our world's setting," when the Son "gave us His flesh to eat," so that the feast is at once the Gospel and the Eucharist; the servant sent is "Christ Himself," who "emptied Himself, to take the form of a slave"; the invitation, "all things are ready," gathers up "the forgiveness of sins... the communion of the Holy Spirit, the glorious adoption as sons, and the kingdom of heaven"; and after the first-bidden refuse, the poor and lame of the streets are brought in, and last the Gentiles from the highways, whose calling had to be "very urgent, resembling the use of force," though Cyril is careful to add that "in all men faith is a voluntary act." Around this, Gregory sets the deep contrast of fleshly and spiritual delight, the one loathed once devoured and the other only deepened, and exposes excuses that sound humble but act proud; Augustine reads the three refusals as the pride of the field, the curiosity of the five senses, and the pleasure of the flesh, lining them up with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; Ambrose presses the possessions that bar the kingdom and the higher honour of purity; and from the East, Basil names the mind "feeble in attending to the things of God" once it bends to pleasure, and Origen reads the same three excuses as preferring strange doctrine, the senses, and the flesh to the Word.

On the much-discussed "compel them to come in," it should be said plainly that Augustine elsewhere invoked the phrase to justify pressure against the Donatists, a use later centuries rightly questioned; but in the reading gathered here the compulsion is the urgency of grace reaching the Gentiles in their bondage, not the coercion of conscience, and Cyril guards the freedom of faith expressly. The Catena on this passage also frames the man's opening remark through Eusebius and notes Bede on the bread received by smell but not taste; these are mentioned rather than quoted here. Cyril is quoted from his own Commentary on Luke in Payne Smith's translation; the others come through the Catena Aurea on Luke, as marked, with Gregory from his thirty-sixth Gospel homily, Augustine from his Sermon 112 and Questions on the Gospels, Ambrose from his Exposition of Luke, and Basil and Origen as the Catena preserves them.