Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, “What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God!” Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ “The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’” Luke 14: 15-24
The old saying goes something
like there’s no such thing as bad weather, only a bad choice in
clothing. That sounds a
little empty when you’re talking about people in the pathway of a Category 5
hurricane. However, the clothing
in this case is the preparation choices – which, in my case, would probably
involve moving as fast as I can in the opposite direction of the storm!
Jesus’ parable about the man
who was giving a great banquet is all about the responses of those whom he’d
invited. They gave excuses – some which
sounded quite reasonable; others that were lame. We must remember that this story is told in
response to a man’s musing over the grandeur of God’s heavenly banquet in the New
Kingdom. Jesus travels back further than
the banquet…all the way to the invitations.
We could sum up the story in
many ways, but what strikes me this morning is that there are always
obstacles in the way of obeying and serving God; our resolve must be to never
let them become excuses. I am,
for instance, an old guy now. That is an
obstacle with health issues, decreased energy reserves and strength, and a
thousand other things that want to claim my attention; there could be an excuse
(or twenty) for every ministry opportunity.
We all face the same dilemma…not
enough time, resources, strength or knowledge to do all life seems to
demand. But – back to Jesus’ parable –
this was an invitation to a great, grand party; we’re talking priority
here! And the grandest factor is the
Giver of the invitation. As we live life
in the Kingdom of God, there must be a constant focus kept of the name signed
at the bottom of the invitation; how we respond determines a lot about the
reception we will get at the front door on that final day.
There are many these days who
reject the invitation outright, even denying God’s existence…or, if He does
exist, His right to demand our attendance at His
party. That is a right God granted to every
human; it’s called free-will. It’s a sad response to a grand invitation,
but each person chooses heaven or hell.
Perhaps the saddest response
is the excuse of the half-hearted Christian who wants both heaven’s blessing as
well as the hell of selfishness. It’s
something like getting an invitation to the party, and responding thank
you, how kind of you to think of me; unfortunately, I can’t come because Friday
is my poker night with friends, and your party isn’t nearly as much fun. You can send my piece of cake and whatever
else you’re going to serve to my apartment.
And could you send it Thursday? I
wouldn’t want to inconvenience my friends if the messenger showed up during our
game.
For You Today
Parables can get kind of
fanciful and far-flung; this one isn’t!
What Jesus said about the excuses people not
getting even a morsel to taste at the Heavenly Kingdom banquet is clear…it’s
not an invitation to ditch, duck, or demur; you don’t want to miss this
party!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.
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Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com Unless
otherwise noted, Scripture used from The
New Living Translation©
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