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| Christ's Advice to Invite the Poor in Accordance with Isaiah. The Parable of the Great Supper a Pictorial Sketch of the Creator's Own Dispensations of Mercy and Grace. The Rejections of the Invitation Paralleled by Quotations from the Old Testament. Marcion's Christ Could Not Fulfil the Conditions Indicated in This Parable. The Absurdity of the Marcionite Interpretation.
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Chapter XXXI.—Christ’s Advice to Invite the Poor in
Accordance with Isaiah. The Parable of the Great Supper a Pictorial
Sketch of the Creator’s Own Dispensations of Mercy and Grace. The
Rejections of the Invitation Paralleled by Quotations from the Old
Testament. Marcion’s Christ Could Not Fulfil the Conditions
Indicated in This Parable. The Absurdity of the Marcionite
Interpretation.
What kind of persons does He bid should be invited
to a dinner or a supper?4726
Precisely such as
he had pointed out by Isaiah: “Deal thy bread to the hungry man;
and the beggars—even such as have no home—bring in to thine
house,”4727
because, no doubt,
they are “unable to recompense” your act of humanity. Now,
since Christ forbids the recompense to be expected now, but promises it
“at the resurrection,” this is the very plan4728
of the Creator, who dislikes those who love
gifts and follow after reward. Consider also to which deity4729
is better suited the parable of him who
issued invitations: “A certain man made a great supper, and bade
many.”4730
The preparation for
the supper is no doubt a figure of the abundant provision4731
of eternal life. I first remark, that
strangers, and persons unconnected by ties of relationship, are not
usually invited to a supper; but that members of the household and
family are more frequently the favoured guests. To the Creator, then,
it belonged to give the invitation, to whom also appertained those who
were to be invited—whether considered as men, through
their descent from Adam, or as Jews, by reason of their fathers;
not to him who possessed no claim to them either by nature or
prerogative. My next remark is,4732
if
He issues the invitations who has prepared the supper, then, in this
sense the supper is the Creator’s, who sent to warn the guests.
These had been indeed previously invited by the fathers, but were to be
admonished by the prophets. It certainly is not the feast of him
who never sent a messenger to warn—who never did a thing before
towards issuing an invitation, but came down himself on a
sudden—only then4733
beginning to be
known, when already4734
giving his
invitation; only then inviting, when already compelling to his banquet;
appointing one and the same hour both for the supper and the
invitation. But when invited, they excuse themselves.4735
And fairly enough, if the invitation came
from the other god, because it was so sudden; if, however, the excuse
was not a fair one, then the invitation was not a sudden one. Now, if
the invitation was not a sudden one, it must have been given by the
Creator—even by Him of old time, whose call they had at last
refused. They first refused it when they said to Aaron, “Make us
gods, which shall go before us;”4736
and again, afterwards, when “they heard indeed with the ear, but
did not understand”4737
their calling of
God. In a manner most germane4738
to this parable, He
said by Jeremiah: “Obey my voice, and I will be your God,
and ye shall be my people; and ye shall walk in all my ways, which I
have commanded you.”4739
This is the
invitation of God. “But,” says He, “they hearkened
not, nor inclined their ear.”4740
This is the
refusal of the people. “They departed, and walked every one in
the imagination of their evil heart.”4741
“I have bought a field—and I have bought some
oxen—and I have married a wife.”4742
And still He urges them: “I have sent unto you all my servants
the prophets, rising early even before daylight.”4743
| 4743 Bible:Jer.44.4">Jer. vii. 25; also xxv. 4, xxvi. 5, xxxv. 15,
xliv. 4. | The Holy Spirit is here meant, the
admonisher of the guests. “Yet my people hearkened not unto me,
nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck.”4744
This was reported to the Master of the
family. Then He was moved (He did well to be moved; for, as Marcion
denies emotion to his god, He must be therefore my God), and commanded
them to invite out of “the streets and lanes of the
city.”4745
Let us see whether
this is not the same in purport as His words by Jeremiah: “Have I
been a wilderness to the house of Israel, or a land left
uncultivated?”4746
That is to say:
“Then have I none whom I may call to me; have I no place whence I
may bring them?” “Since my people have said, We will
come no more unto thee.”4747
Therefore He sent
out to call others, but from the same city.4748
My
third remark is this,4749
that although the
place abounded with people, He yet commanded that they gather men from
the highways and the hedges. In other words, we are now gathered out of
the Gentile strangers;
with that jealous resentment, no doubt, which He expressed in
Deuteronomy: “I will hide my face from them, and I will show them
what shall happen in the last days4750
| 4750 ἐπ᾽
ἐσχάτων
ἡμερῶν, Septuagint. | (how that
others shall possess their place); for they are a froward generation,
children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy by that
which is no god, and they have provoked me to anger with their idols;
and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people: I
will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation”4751
—even with us, whose hope the Jews
still entertain.4752
| 4752 Gerunt: although
vainly at present (“jam vana in Judæis”—Oehler);
Semler conjectures “gemunt, bewail.” | But this hope the
Lord says they should not realize;4753
“Sion
being left as a cottage4754
| 4754 Specula, “a
look-out;” σκηνή is the word in LXX. | in a vineyard, as a
lodge in a garden of cucumbers,”4755
since the nation rejected the latest invitation to Christ. (Now, I
ask,) after going through all this course of the Creator’s
dispensation and prophecies, what there is in it which can possibly be
assigned to him who has done all his work at one hasty stroke,4756
and possesses neither the
Creator’s4757
| 4757 This is probably the
meaning of a very involved sentence: “Quid ex hoc ordine secundum
dispensationem et prædicationes Creatoris recensendo competit
illi, cujus (“Creatoris”—Oehler) nec ordinem
habet nec dispositionem ad parabolæ conspirationem qui totum opus
semel facit?” | course nor His
dispensation in harmony with the parable? Or, again in what will
consist his first invitation,4758
| 4758 “By the
fathers.” See above. | and what his
admonition4759
at the second
stage? Some at first would surely decline; others afterwards must have
accepted.”4760
| 4760 An obscure sentence,
which thus runs in the original: “Ante debent alii excusare,
postea alii convenisse.” | But now he comes to
invite both parties promiscuously out of the city,4761
out of the hedges,4762
contrary to the drift4763
of the parable. It
is impossible for him now to condemn as scorners of his
invitation4764
those whom he has
never yet invited, and whom he is approaching with so much earnestness.
If, however, he condemns them beforehand as about to reject his call,
then beforehand he also predicts4765
the election
of the Gentiles in their stead. Certainly4766
| 4766 Plane: This is a
Marcionite position (Oehler). | he
means to come the second time for the very purpose of preaching to the
heathen. But even if he does mean to come again, I imagine it will not
be with the intention of any longer inviting guests, but of giving to
them their places. Meanwhile, you who interpret the call to this
supper as an invitation to a heavenly banquet of spiritual satiety and
pleasure, must remember that the earthly promises also of wine and oil
and corn, and even of the city, are equally employed by the Creator as
figures of spiritual things.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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