The Pharisees valued their own paltry concerns more than the joy the banquet host invites them to share. Thus they have excluded themselves from the ultimate joy, the feast of the joy of sharing with the Lord himself and so with all the guests as well. Such exclusionary "joy" as has been the motive in the worldly banquet that day must rob them of true joy. How can one feast in the presence of hungry misery, and not be touched by the sad irony in their...