What Have You Done with Your Invitation?

Great fellowship around the table in Armenia.

Scripture:

Luke 14:15   One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” ¹⁶ Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. ¹⁷ At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ ¹⁹ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ ²⁰ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ ²¹ So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ ²² And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ ²³ Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

Observation:

It’s not the host, but one of the guests who understands the value of joining Jesus in the marriage supper of the lamb. This is another beatitude, but this time spoken by a guest — “blessed” are those who get to dine in the kingdom of God. This is a great truth but then Jesus reveals something about the invitation to dine. Ultimately, all are invited, but not everyone responds to that invitation. 

Banquets were usually held so that there would be a reciprocal invitation. In other words, a person would throw a banquet so that they would be invited to the next banquet. Jesus wanted them to see that the kingdom of God was entirely different. There was no expectation of a reciprocal invitation, but there was an expectation of a response. 

The first level of invitations was sent out to those who would typically be engaged in these types of social activities. For Jesus’ purposes, these were probably the religious people — those who expected an invitation into God’s kingdom. These are the ones who were expecting a political Messiah and would expect to be in the inner circle. However, when the invitation came to respond to Jesus, they found excuses to not participate. 

Life can get in the way of participating in the fellowship provided in the kingdom of God. We become engaged in business, trying out and using new items we have purchased, and spending time with family. None of these are bad in themselves, but if they become a distraction to life in the kingdom of God, they can become devastating. 

The servant shows the master that very few responded to the invitation. Wesley says “The servant came and showed his Lord these things—So ministers ought to lay before the Lord in prayer the obedience or disobedience of their hearers.” When the master became aware of the situation, he sent the servant out to bring in “the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” The religious leaders were shocked by the fact that Jesus made room for those who needed a healing touch, and yet, they were welcomed at his gatherings. He lovingly took time to touch them and bring healing to their bodies. These were welcomed at the table.

Finally, the table still has vacancies and the servant is sent out again, this time to find those on the highways and byways to come and join the banquet. These would have been the foreigners, the immigrants and those who may not have had a permanent home. Ambrose said that this banquet fulfilled the prophecy: “Then wolves and lambs will feed together” (Exposition of the Gospel of Luke). 

Green tells us that this is an “implicit challenge that they embrace social identity with the poor and destitute, those incapable of participating in the social games of reciprocity and status augmentation” (NICNT). If the disciples could not embrace this kind of kingdom perspective, they would reject the invitation, and would discover that they would not be able to taste Jesus’ dinner. 

Application:

There’s a lot to think about in what Jesus says here. First of all, we have to wonder where we fit in the story. For those who have been a part of the church for generations, it’s easy to think that we can go about our business, but still make it to the final dinner. Sadly, this is not true. Because of “salvation and lift,” those who have experienced the benefits of following Christ, may be the most vulnerable to distractions. While our grandparents may have been very poor, maybe we are not. They came to Christ with nothing, but we are distracted by everything. The excuses in this passage sound far too real. The average church attender no longer attends every week. Of course, as a result of COVID, no one really knows what church attendance looks like, or will look like. We have easier ways in which to participate now, and sometimes that’s a real blessing, but it can also become a crutch. 

Just this morning I heard that people are lamenting that there are so few laborers. We are recognizing this in the service industries, where the lack of workers is creating a real strain. Let me take this moment to remind all of God’s children to show patience, kindness, graciousness — and leave big tips these days! Within the life of the church, pastors are struggling to get enough volunteers. Maybe the pandemic made us feel comfortable staying at home and now we are afraid to venture out — however, not all volunteer work is about being with groups of people. The invitation is for us to be active participants in God’s kingdom work. Too many invitations are going unanswered.

This invitation from Christ means that we won’t be sitting at the table with the “cool kids,” or that everyone will be just like us. The generous invitation from Christ doesn’t ask for us to throw a banquet in return, but that we just say “yes,” and come and dine at his table. At his table we will discover that we have brothers and sisters from every walk of life, economic and health status, as well as racial and ethnic background. The beauty is that at God’s table we are all treated the same. A about a week ago I wrote about coming to the table, but being given different food. That doesn’t happen here, for the food is fabulous for all and we are all treated as honored guests.

This story reminds us that it is the Lord’s desire that ALL will be saved. We cannot allow our own prejudices to create barriers to those who ought to be warmly invited to sit at the Father’s table. I think we ought to seriously think about what we’ve done with our invitations, and whether we are encouraging the Father to send out more. The table is spread. Who will come and dine?

Prayer:

Lord, may I be a faithful participant in your kingdom’s work. Amen.