The works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., Vol. 6 (of 6) — Text and Context

t a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompence thee: For thou shalt be recompenced at the resurrection of the just!” Thus did our LORD entertain the company. Words spoken in such due season, how good are they! Would CHRIST’s followers thus exert themselves, and, when in company, begin some useful discourse for their great master, they know not what good they might do, and how many might be influenced, by their good example, to second them in it.

An instance of this we have in the 14th verse: “And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of GOD.” Happy they who shall be recompenced at that resurrection of the just, which thou hast been speaking of. A very pertinent saying this! every way suitable to persons sitting down to eat bread on earth, which we should never do, without talking of, and longing for that time, when we shall sit down and eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. This opened to our LORD a fresh topic of conversation, and occasioned the parable, which is to be the more immediate subject of your present meditation. As though he had said to the person that spoke last, Thou sayest right: blessed are they indeed, who shall sit down to eat bread in the kingdom of GOD: But alas! most men, especially you Pharisees, act as if you did not believe this; and therefore he said unto him, “A certain man made a great supper, and bade many;” by the certain man making a great supper, we are to understand GOD the Father, who has made provision for perishing souls, by the obedience and death of his beloved Son CHRIST JESUS. This provision is here represented under the character of a supper, because the _Cæna_ or supper, among the ancients, was their grand meal: Men could never have made such provision for themselves, or angels for them. No, our salvation is all from GOD, from the beginning to the end. He made it, and not we ourselves; and it is wholly owing to the divine wisdom, and not our own, that we are become GOD’s people, and the sheep of his pasture. This provision for perishing souls, may be justly called _great_, because there is rich and ample provision made in the gospel for a great many souls. For however CHRIST’s flock may be but a little flock, when asunder, yet when they come all together, they will be a multitude which no man can number. And it is especially called _great_, because it was purchased at so great a price, the price of CHRIST’s most precious blood. And therefore, when the apostle would exhort the christians to glorify GOD in their souls and bodies, he makes use of this glorious motive, “That they were bought with a price.” He does not say what price, but barely a _price_, emphatically so called; as though all the prices in the world were nothing (as indeed they are not) when compared to this price of CHRIST’s most precious blood.