You are invited to the Banquet

Luke 14:15-24

You may not identify with the first person to speak in this account, but I do.  Often, I’ve wanted the head guy or gal to know I had some knowledge of what they were saying, in my case it was my flesh needing to act as if I know more than both God and I knew to be true, now I’m not sure about the guy referred to as “one of those who reclined at the table” but after Jesus’ reply he is not reported to have had any more comments.

This is the man’s statement at the table and Jesus’ reply: “When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he (Jesus) said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”  (Luke 14:15-24 ESV)

And that’s how you and I got invited into the banquet hall, not by some work of righteousness on our part, not by any goodness on our part; maybe we need the rest of the story.  The apostle John tells us about how we got invited to the banquet in John 1:9-13, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The church is full of cultural Christians, many who by a false message have wrongly believed that all they needed to do was pray a prayer of forgiveness and they would be signed up for the banquet, but that is not what God’s word tells us. It is not a prayer, but faith in the One who gives light to all who come to Him by faith in the finished work of the Cross, and the resurrected Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father.  You have been invited to the banquet, but it’s your choice, will you be like the ones in the story above where you begin to make excuses for why you cannot come?  If so, please listen to these words from Jesus; “For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.”  My dad always said, “A word to the wise is sufficient.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice