Feast Etiquette

British television ran a show between 2005 and 2010 called Ladette to Lady. In the show, ladies are given instructions on how to be a traditional proper “lady.” Etiquette experts taught them how to dress, act, speak, cook, dance, arrange flowers, draw, etc.

Every culture has unique festival or feast etiquette. In India, for example, people shouldn’t use their left hand to eat food. Similarly, if one is sitting on the ground to eat, the soles of the feet shouldn’t face the food.

In ancient cultures, like the Hebrews, once the doors were closed for a banquet or feast, they wouldn’t be open to late arrivals or newer guests. Within this context, Jesus gave a parable.

“Once the house owner gets up and shuts the door, you who stand outside the door, knock at the door saying, ‘Lord, open for us,’ he will answer you: ‘I don’t know you. Where are you from?’” (Luke 13:25)

This was a typical response in those days with a warning that one shouldn’t be late to a banquet or feast. A reason for such caution by the house owner was robbers who waited till dark and a little drunkenness in the party to barge in as if they were invited guests and robbed the place. Once the doors were closed and the wine was served, none were let in. That was why the house owner said, “I don’t know you. Where are you from?”

They replied, “We ate and drank with you while you were teaching us in the streets” (13:26). But that wasn’t a validation for the house owner to let them in. He might have had several people eating with him in the streets or drinking with him in pubs. How could he know who they were? He replied, “I don’t know where you are from. Go away, you who do unrighteous deeds” (13:27). The house owner concluded that they must be robbers, people who did unrighteous deeds, and didn’t let them in after the doors were closed.

Having told this parable, the Lord Jesus gave a practical application that fitted their situation.

“When you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the prophets in God’s rule and many people coming from the East, West, North, and South and reclining with them in God’s rule, but you are left outside the banquet, there will be crying and gnashing of teeth.” (13:28–29)

Just as it was essential to enter a banquet when the doors were open, people who heard Jesus’s words must enter God’s rule with him then and there when the doors were opened. If they didn’t, one day, they would see all the patriarchs and many unexpected people reclining at a great banquet, and they couldn’t even enter. In fact, although they were the first to hear the news, they would be the last to enter the kingdom, if at all (13:30).

People in Jesus’s time didn’t see the value of God’s rule coming in and through him. They ate with him, drank with him, and heard him teach, but didn’t enter God’s rule promptly. As such, Jesus gave them this warning.

Unlike them, by God’s grace, we have entered the banquet. As such, we encourage others to join the banquet while the doors remain open. One day, it may be too late.