The parables begins as the elite householder prepares a huge banquet dinner and invites all the town's wealthy. However, when the rich refuse his noble invitation with their poor excuses, the householder becomes enraged and decides to hold the party anyway.
He has his servants round up "the blind, the lame, the halt, the maimed and the poor, so my house may be filled." Even then, the banquet is not yet filled in number. In further frustration he is moved to find more attendants. In addition to the poor and disabled, he insists his servants bring in the least desirable of all; the prostitutes, tax collectors, the disreputable and any other social outcasts.
Finally, this does the trick and the hall is full to capacity, though not necessarily with those choosing to be there. The final straw is drawn when the householder voluntarily chooses to suffer self-humiliation by joining the crowd for the feast, which is an unheard act for those of such high status such as he.
The significance relayed by Keating in the parable exemplifies how the Kingdom of God is no longer a place for the "chosen" as was once widely thought at the time, but is available to everyone, even those who may dismiss it (those forced to attend). Although it is hard to see the householder as a hero in this parable since he seemed to be acting at times only to save face, he demonstrates the path God took by allowing his divinity to become that of a lowly man, Jesus.
Jesus accepted public humiliation to make a connection for our benefit and understanding, just as the householder finds out the direct road to God is through humility, not wealth and status. The guests also come to see this as well. Though perhaps having been forced to attend the banquet of someone whom they may have harbored much resentment, they find the unapproachable elite class can be met on the same road, the only road, of the Kingdom of God.
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