Luke 14:16-24 An Invitation to a Feast

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.  None of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’” Luke 14:16-24

Thanksgiving – and soon after the Christmas season – is upon us, a time of large meals and family gatherings, special events at work and church. It’s a time we usually find ourselves deciding how to respond to the myriad of invitations coming our way. I’m careful not to overextend what I attend or volunteer for, because life can quickly become an overwhelming series of events, especially when your core life at home already is full of driving the kids around, trying to find time for a spouse and working full-time.

We cannot do everything. Having too much on your plate also makes you less effective with everything, rather than being selective as to which invitations you accept and in doing so, allowing you to be better focused in those things you do say “yes” to. When I decline an invitation, I do so as graciously as possible, never wanting to offend, but knowing my limits.

Of all the possible commitments we have to decide upon, however, there is one which we should not put off until another time.

The people in Jesus’ parable are very polite in saying “no” to the wealthy man preparing the feast. They have commitments and obligations with their families and daily life which, on the surface, are justifiable reasons to decline, as much as they might yearn to attend. Jesus uses this story to illustrate how God calls us into a relationship with Him, to connect and become the men and women He knows we can be. To be with Him, forever, then celebrate this relationship in His home. We receive this invitation in our heart and have to decide how we will answer.

How many of us, myself included, put off giving our lives to Jesus because it ‘wasn’t the right time’ or we would accept ‘after we do this, or that,’ as if becoming a believer meant losing out on something good. Quite the opposite, but we do not learn this until we’ve accepted the invitation and see the joy and peace such a relationship brings. The feast in this story is going to happen regardless if the people invited accept. The wealthy man also begins sending his invitation to strangers, outcasts, people on the edges of society.

God invites everyone to His feast, because he knows them all. Personally we might have all the best reasons in our minds to decline, but unlike Thanksgiving which rolls around every year, we might not have a second chance to sit at His table. Like the servants in another parable – who never knew when the master was returning and so had to be alert – we don’t know how many more chances we will have, how many more days we’ll be on this Earth, to accept the invitation Jesus has personally handed to us.

We can accept and step into a life that He promises will be full of God’s presence and Spirit, a life of hope and peace under any circumstances; or, we can politely put it off one more day, one more year, and risk the feast beginning without us.

Prayer

Lord, continue to invite everyone around us to your banquet, and of all the priorities and commitments they might have in their lives, show them how this one invitation is the most important they will ever receive. Prompt them to accept so that they might not miss the opportunity to celebrate with you forever. Amen.