Scripture · John 20:1-10
Luke 14:15-24
Invitation to the Feast
When one of those reclining with Him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is everyone who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” But Jesus replied, “A certain man prepared a great banquet and invited many guests. When it was time for the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first one said, ‘I have bought a field, and I need to go see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, so I cannot come.’ The servant returned and reported all this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ ‘Sir,’ the servant replied, ‘what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ So the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. For I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will taste my banquet.’”
Plainly dressed people approach a waiting figure at the edge of a wooded clearing in Burnand’s Invitation to the Feast.
About the artwork
The first people have not yet crossed the space before the host. An older man leans forward near the front, children stand among the adults, and people behind steady one another. The group advances unevenly. At the right, the waiting figure extends both arms; a man in the crowd raises his own arm toward him. Those answering gestures begin to bridge the open ground.
Burnand makes the invited people’s arrival the subject, leaving the banquet itself out of sight. Their bare feet, worn clothing and dependence on one another matter beside Luke’s instruction to gather poor and disabled people. The picture holds the unfamiliar welcome at a threshold: an invitation has reached them, but the movement into the feast is still being made.
Featured in: Luke 5 in Art: The Catch, the Roof, the Tax Booth, and the Verses Worth Remembering
What does Luke 14:15-24 mean?
In Luke 14:15–24, a host prepares a great banquet but the invited guests excuse themselves with concerns about land, oxen and marriage. He sends his servant to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame from the streets. When room remains, the invitation goes farther, to roads and hedges. The people previously outside the expected company now have a place at the table.
Burnand’s approaching group gives that outward movement a human form. The passage makes welcome urgent and generous, while also treating the earlier refusals seriously. Attention to the people coming in helps the viewer see the parable as a story about responding to an invitation, rather than merely a picture of shared food.
The arriving group makes visible the banquet invitation carried beyond its first recipients to people waiting outside the expected company.
Sources
Kunstmuseum Winterthur, as identified in the artist archive.
Luke 5 in Art: The Catch, the Roof, the Tax Booth, and the Verses Worth Remembering. Artwork reading adapted from this guide.
Luke 14 — Berean Standard Bible. Context for Luke 14:15-24.
Also from Luke:The Angel Appearing to ZachariasAnnunciation