When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.  (Luke 7:36)

Gospel accounts of Jesus dining with others are manifold.  The Greek verb φάγω phago means simply eat, but he is asked, ἐρωτάω erótaó, and his presence requested – in other words, he is invited – on many occasions, and by many different kinds of people.  There are those of high society, which in Jesus’ day, were the ultra-religious.  In addition to the head quotation, Luke records two other instances of Jesus accepting an invitation to dine in a Pharisees’ home, 11:37 and 14:1 but, of course, the Pharisees were also critical that Jesus was indiscriminate in his choice of table.

Because Jesus ‘reclined’ at the tables of the lowly and the pariah.

The apostle, Matthew (also called Levi) was a tax collector, universally hated by all Jews because they were publicani, officials working for Rome, the occupying power.  

… Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’  (ibid 5:29-30)

It the case that not only were the publicani ‘collaborators’, they were notoriously crooked and grew wealthy by levying more in tax than they passed on to Roman exchequer, as another tax collector Zacchaeus freely admits, when he in turn invites Jesus to be his guest.

 ‘Look, Lord! Here and now, I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’  (Ibid 19:8)

Jesus, of course, was always forced to be the invitee; because having left his family home, he had no table, indeed, no place of his own, which he affirmed with an aphorism:

‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ (Ibid 9:58)

Thus, any follower would have to also abandon his home.  At the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus was followed by the crowd to hillside.  He was not in the position to act the host, as he lacked a table but also any food to offer:

 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to (Jesus) and said, ‘Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.’

He replied, ‘You give them something to eat.’

They answered, ‘We have only five loaves of bread and two fish – unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.’  (Ibid 9:12-13)

Thus, the disciples sourced the food and were made responsible for its distribution, which miraculously was sufficient. 

Only once, and very reluctantly, was Jesus co-opted into hosting duties, and this was before his earthly ministry began; this occurred at the wedding feast at Cana, which is close to his home town of Nazareth.  This was a family event, in which a close relative, perhaps one of his brothers, was being married.  Joseph having died earlier, Mary was forced to preside.

 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’

^‘Woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied. ‘My hour has not yet come.’  

(John 2:3-4)

Until his time, that is his second coming, Jesus declares he must always be the guest, never the host:

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.  (Revelation 3:20)

If the wedding feast of Cana, at which Jesus obliges by miraculously providing an abundance of the very best wine, is a foreshadow of the heavenly banquet, the Last Supper is its inauguration.  Having given bread and wine to his disciples as a sacrament, he says:

‘I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’  (Matthew 26:29)

This is The Wedding Supper; not that in Cana, but in the New Creation and ‘blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb,’ Revelation 19:9 (mirroring what Jesus says in Luke 14:15.)

The finally, Jesus will be the host.  As was his liberal dining habits, his invitation is freely offered to all.  Yet, while there is no record of Jesus ever refusing to eat with anyone, many will decline his invitation to dine with him.  Jesus illustrates this with a parable, given to demonstrate that his invitation has to be accepted during one’s lifetime:

‘A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, “Come, for everything is now ready.”

‘But they all alike began to make excuses…’  (Luke 14:16-17)

The excuses all bespeak worldly preoccupation, business, commerce and family commitments and the master reacts to the servant’s litany of rejection.

‘Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.”

‘“Sir,” the servant said, “what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.”

‘Then the master told his servant, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.”’ (ibid 14:21-24)

In the context of the parable offered while sitting at the table of a ‘prominent’ Pharisee, the Jews were the initial invitees, and those that would not accept Jesus as their heavenly host would be excluded.  But of course, while ‘sinners’, with whom he ate are the recipient of the gracious invitation, this must be responded to with a positive RSVP – and thus there is a condition.

‘I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’  (Luke 5:32)

If any already consider they stand in God’s divine approval, they will be excluded from the banquet; but all stand in that camp unless they repent. That deliberate and continual act of change, rejecting earthly ways and worries in order to obey God’s will, is the response that ensures the invitation is not withdrawn.