The Parable of the Great Banquet in Luke 14:7-24

The Parable of the Great Banquet in Luke 14:7-24 This bachelor thesis deals with the behavior of Jesus on the banquet while invited by a Pharisee. The Master communicates to present guests rules of right behavior (i.e. an objective look on one's own qualities, selfless assistance to those who are in need etc) that lead to the God's Kingdom. The way to this goal of earthly life is characterized by humility, listening to the Holy Spirit and full surrender into God's arms. God invites to Himself every human being that needs to prepare himself thoroughly by doing works of mercy. The banquet in this parable is compared to the Kingdom of God in which a man will experience the true and never lasting beatitude in contemplating God's face on the hardly describable place where no eye has seen, nor ear heard, what God had prepared for those who love Him.1 The final chapter of the work presents one of several possibilities how to apply the parable on the banquet in pastoral ministry. Keywords Banquet, the Kingdom of God, humility, mercy 1 Cf. 1 Kor 2,9