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 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).
Jesus responded to the presumptive declaration
of a follower with another banquet parable. He used this parable to show us
more clearly the way to enter and live in the kingdom of God and to describe
the responses of people to His Father’s invitation to “eat bread in the
kingdom of God”. For the lost the parable represents an invitation to
salvation… “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of
the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9). For the saved the parable represents an
invitation to live in fellowship with God… “Behold, I stand at the door
and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him
and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). In Christ, Our
Father is always inviting us to go deeper in our fellowship with Him. He calls
us corporately and individually to know Him more intimately through church,
Bible study, and ministry. Diligent disciples who will allow the Holy Spirit to
lead us in a study of the special invitation that Jesus presented in this
parable will discover precious, encouraging truth about the invitation that
is sacred.
The sacred invitation proceeds from the
Father through His Son. Our lives are saturated with invitations. They come
from family, work, and strangers. They come through television, internet, and
all sorts of other media. There are also cultural invitations to devote our
time and energy to so many good and bad things. But Jesus reminds us that there
is a sacred, holy invitation. It is God’s call to come away with Him… “My
beloved speaks and says to me: ‘Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away’”
(Song of Songs 2:10). Enoch heard and answered this invitation… “Enoch
walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). The
Revelation of Jesus Christ is the result of John the Apostle’s response to a
sacred invitation… “After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open
in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a
trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after
this’” (Revelation 4:1).
The sacred invitation produces consequences
for those who reject it. Those unwilling to reply to God’s invitation are left
with the fruit of their own longing. In the parable Jesus described three men
who rejected the invitation and were left with a field, a few oxen, and a wife.
Everything on earth, no matter how attractive or noble, is fleeting and cannot
compare with the eternal blessings derived from a few moments with the King… “For all that is in the world—the
desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from
the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its
desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:16-17).
The sacred invitation provides blessings
for those who accept it. We are created like God and graciously saved by God to
enjoy fellowship with God. Evidence that we are truly born again is a longing
for the true, lasting joy that is found only in His presence… “You make
known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at
your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).
As we grow up into Christ, we are saved
and becoming more like Him as daily we accept…
The Invitation that is Sacred.
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