Luke 14:17
15 When one of those at the meal with Jesus heard this, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will feast in the kingdom of God!” 16 But Jesus said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time for the banquet he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is now ready.’ 18 But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please excuse me.’ 19 Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going out to examine them. Please excuse me.’ 20 Another said, ‘I just got married, and I cannot come.’
Pirkei Avot 3:16
Mishnah16 He used to say: everything is given against a pledge, and a net is spread out over all the living; the store is open and the storekeeper allows credit, but the ledger is open and the hand writes, and whoever wishes to borrow may come and borrow; but the collectors go round regularly every day and exact dues from man, either with his consent or without his consent, and they have that on which they [can] rely [in their claims], seeing that the judgment is a righteous judgment, and everything is prepared for the banquet.
Notes and References
"... compare the wording in the invitation in the Parable of the Great Supper, 'Come, for all is now ready' (Luke 14:17) ..."
Young, Brad Meet the Rabbis: Rabbinic Thought and the Teachings of Jesus (p. 131) Hendrickson Publishers, 2007
"... The first unit of two lines directs the hearer's attention to the expectation of an eschatological feast of salvation filled with the abundance of paradise. The hearer who was familiar with the Bible would be reminded of Isaiah 25:6: 'On this mountain [Zion] the Lord of hosts will prepare for all nations a feast of rich foods, a feast of aged wines, of rich, marrowy foods, of aged, purified wines.' The concept is too widespread, however, for us to assume that the text is a direct reference to Isaiah. Indeed, it is a standard religious theme in Early Judaism (cf. 1 Enoch 62:13-16; 4 Ezra 9:19; Pirkei Avot 3:16; 4:16; Revelation 19:6-9; also Testament of Levi 18:11; 1 Enoch 25-27; Sibylline Oracles Prologue 84-86). Nor would Jesus' contemporaries be surprised by a list of illustrious guests, with the patriarchs (mentioned because they are the traditional bearers of the promise) as the most honored guests ... Luke 14:16-24 demonstrates that the general expression a man can introduce a parable about a master and his servant. Since, of course, the parable presupposes the milieu of a great king, it is conceivable that Matthew's source began with the words a royal man ..."
Becker, Jürgen Jesus of Nazareth (pp. 67-69) Walter de Gruyter, 1998