Wow! What a Celebration?

“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 now have a wife, so I can’t come.’” (Luke 14:18-20 NLT)

Have you ever not wanted to do something, so you made up some lame excuse? You were available, but you just didn’t want to go? Why do we do that? Jesus told the story of a great feast while He was a guest in the home of a leader of the Pharisees. As was often the case with the Lord, He let His surroundings give rise to some teachable moments.

It was in this context that He told the Pharisees, while they scurried to get the best seats, to take a seat at the foot of the table, then be honored by having the host show them to a better seat. It was also here that Jesus told those present, who were predominantly Jewish Pharisees, to not invite “your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors” but “Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.”

He coupled that with the fact that “at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you.” Then Jesus tells the story of the great feast where in the verses above, people began to make excuse. What was His point? Why that story in that setting? Essentially, He was painting for those Jewish religious leaders, a picture of what they were doing with His invitation to come to Him for eternal life.

These Jewish religious leaders were the spiritually “poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind,” just like we are today, apart from Jesus. He was showing them that their refusal to accept the message He was bringing them from the Father they swore to love and obey, was no different than those in His story. Most people, then and now, don’t miss heaven because they don’t want to go there, it’s because they misunderstand their necessity to respond to the Lord’s invitation.

Jesus did then as He does today, invite people who believe the “Host” is privileged to have them IF they decide to come. His generous invitation is open to all who would respond by faith, beginning with His chosen Jews, but, gratefully, when they made excuse, He opened the door to “whosoever will.”

Yet, there’s another dimension to this story that we can’t miss. Jesus loved feasts. He loved to feed people, but He also loved interacting with others around a meal. What does that tell us about our Savior? He loved a good time! He loved to be with His friends in a relaxed and casual setting.

A few verses before the ones above, a man at the dinner table with Jesus said: “What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God!” Can you begin to imagine what a scene that will be? Millions, perhaps billions of people who have yielded their lives to Jesus, being ushered into a banquet hall the likes of which none of us can imagine. All those people, but no one is pushing or jockeying for a better position at the table. There’s a sense of awe and wonder, but the most predominant emotion is joy!

It’s a celebration, but ironically, it’s not for Jesus – He’s our Host! The banquet is His opportunity to celebrate US! It’s our “Rewards Ceremony” where He’ll call each of us forward to brag on us and to tell about times in our lives that we may have forgotten, but that meant so much to Him. A word of encouragement spoken to someone when no one else was around. Or when we gave money, we didn’t have to spare, to bless someone who needed it more than we did.

And you know the funny thing about all of this? All of these people, you’d think it would take years to greet each one – and it may! But it will seem to us that all of this elaborate celebration was planned just for us, individually, as though we were Jesus’ only guest! Wow! What a celebration!

 Blessings, Ed 😊