An open invitation Luke 14:16-24

I wonder how many of you really have answered to the call that The Kingdom of God is open to you? How many think this is for fools? How many are trying to find the key? how many are already active participants and are dining with The King! Dining with the Master! How many are just too busy carrying a load that could easily be let go and turned over, and how many just want to live in your own kingdom, serve your own selves and have your deserved pleasures even as you claim to serve God?

In Luke 14:16-24 Jesus is still using the wedding feast as a means to explain The Gospel!  He said that a man (God the Father) was giving a big dinner and He invited many. At the dinner hour, He sent His slave (Jesus, God the son.) to say to those who had been invited (The Jews. For He came to them first. It could also mean anyone who rejects God’s word) Come, for everything is ready now!

Yes, everything is ready now! Not tomorrow, now!  When Jesus came He said in Matthew 3:2 “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” He did not say it will be. He said it is. The scripture continues to say that they all alike, began to make excuses. They were all busy with earthly matters and did not have time to dine with the King. Imagine that!

One said: ” I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it.”  I bought it without seeing it first and I am hoping to build my house there and grow my own crops. I hope it is a good land. I am committed to it and now I am going to have to miss your feast. Since I don’t know what I am missing and that dining with you would give me direction and vision, I rather focus on what my eyes can see.

The other said: “I bought five yoke of oxen and I am going to try them out.” I don’t know if they will be able to do the work so I need to go try them out and see if I can plow my own land and grow my own food. Since I don’t understand that dining with you during this feast would clarify my path and give me wisdom to make the most out of the least, I would rather rely on my oxen and my plow. Sorry, I have to miss your feast.

The third said: “I have married a wife.” Since I have no clue that dining with you would help me with my marriage, my purpose and your purposes for me, my family and my community, I am going to have to miss your feast.

The scripture says that after the guests (those who heard God’s plan first; the Jews) made excuses, The head of the household became angry and said to the slave (The Holy Spirit through those who carry the Gospel). ” Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame. The slave said: ” Master, what you commanded has been done and still there is room”

And the Master said to the slave, go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of My dinner”. In Matthew 28: 19-20  Jesus gives us our great commission “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Friends, Those of us who did not or do not know Jesus and who have not made Him our Master by obeying His commands, are the lame, the poor, the blind and the crippled. It is not a physical handicap but a Spiritual one. As we listen to the invitation and accept to dine with Him, we are made whole. As we obey Christ and live a life that follows in His steps, we are participating in that feast and can offer others of what we eat. It is a Spiritual feast for now.

God has an open invitation at this time for that feast.  Jesus has been on our streets, our highways, our cities. He continues to call on all to enter His Kingdom. For now we participate Spiritually but then at the fulfillment of His coming, we will participate fully. At that time, the door will be shut and there will be no more open invitation. The time is now. Please accept His invitation for He loves you and wants you to live an eternity in His presence, enjoying the benefits He already paid for on your behalf.