God’s Invitation
For Meditation
This week, we find Jesus at a dinner party provoking the religious elite. They appear more concerned with a strict adherence to rules and their own social positioning more so than with a man's restoration of wholeness. As is often the case, Jesus responds with stories and parables that often turn conventional wisdom on its head.
Parables are not moral tales. They are invitations to glimpse the Kingdom. They’re not meant to change our behavior nearly so much as to enlarge our imaginations. Parables are invitations that illuminate. Challenging us to listen, to lean in, to seek; they invite us into mystery and relationship, much like Jesus himself.
In our text this week, Jesus tells a parable about various responses to the invitations to a grand party. The parable provokes several questions. How do people respond to social invitations? How do we judge their importance? Do we feel pride or disdain? Who do we consider ‘blessed’? Perhaps we are overly concerned with who might be there or not? Do we ever notice those not invited, those who are struggling around us, those in need of help or healing or the ones the world rejects as inconvenient or unclean? Or are we so consumed with our own affairs and schedules that we decline the great gift of life with God?
We all deeply desire to be invited—to be welcomed in, known and counted as worthy. How might our hearts be transformed to have ears to hear and eyes to see the Kingdom of God and then extend the invitation of life with God to those around us?
Luke 14:12–24
12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”