“Compel people to come in, that my house may be filled”
Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame… Go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. (Luke 14:16–24 BSB)
What it sounds like today
The same story as Matthew's wedding feast; and 'compel' has an ugly history.
The cultural key
Likely a sibling parable rather than the same one retold: Matthew has a king, a wedding, an army burning a city, and the garment scene; Luke has a private host, a dinner, and no violence. The shared skeleton runs on the double-invitation custom: guests accepted the first invitation days ahead, then were summoned when the meal was ready; backing out at the summons, with excuses as flimsy as Luke's (inspecting a field already bought, testing oxen already paid for), was a coordinated public insult to the host. His honor response: fill every couch with people who could never have expected an invitation. 'Compel' (anankason) means insistent urging, not force; low-status invitees would refuse politely by custom until pressed, and a Gentile reader would recognize the etiquette. (Honesty note: Augustine later cited this verse to justify coercing heretics, one of the more consequential misreadings in history; the banquet's grammar is hospitality, not police power.)
Recovered meaning
The insulted host does not cancel the feast; he widens it, and the urging exists because the new guests cannot believe they are meant. Luke's version ends not with a garment inspection but with a filled house and one line for the original guests: they will not taste it.