Inclusion in Community - Luke 14:15-25 Part Two

Inclusion in Community – Luke 14:15-25

Part Two

A Gracious Invitation is Summarily Ignored

The fourteenth chapter of Luke opens with the last of four Sabbath controversies.  In these dilemmas, Jesus redefines the purpose of the Sabbath and obeying it to the detriment of leaving a broken person in the same predicament because it is the day of worship.  These disputes afford the Lord the setting and occasion to share wisdom about worthwhile honor in the sight of God and people.  Then, He finishes this teaching by encouraging His listeners to consider the poor, crippled, lame and blind in their lives.  Traditionally, such persons were shunned as impure because of the prevalent belief that their infirmities manifested sin.  Jesus concludes this ongoing religious argument by stating that Almighty God favors people over religious regulations.

Someone at the gathering offers an enthusiastic reference to the forthcoming messianic banquet in the kingdom of God.  Jesus seizes this chance to clarify the composition and purpose of the kingdom.  Heretofore, there were those who assumed that they had reservations to this banquet because of their genealogy, legacy, religiosity and righteousness.  Ironically, they did not realize that their self-righteousness and busyness had resulted in their denial of the invitation that they earnestly desired.  Nonetheless, Jesus utilizes this parable to inform His listeners that the kingdom has been inaugurated in His arrival.  Now, is the time to respond affirmatively and prepare for the banquet.  Delay is dangerous as one will not be able to reply to God’s invitation in future ages.

In the concluding verses of this parable, the master instructs his servants “to compel people to come in” to the banquet.  This is not a violent or otherwise coercive act.  Rather, it refers to the power of love.  Christ’s love compels us to reply affirmatively to God’s appeal.  When we realistically understand in our heart of hearts the indescribable gift of Christ’s sacrifice, we yield to God’s appeal with humble submission. 

 An Excuse is the Easiest Thing to Find

It is often observed, “An excuse is the easiest thing to find.”  Outside the locker area at the middle school where I teach, a character education poster encourages the students.  “Make an effort not an excuse.”  These students possess illimitable creative abilities to explain their failure to submit work, yet alone on time.  Moving at the speed of molasses, they seemingly believe there will always be time for them to retrieve their books, arrive in class, turn in homework assignments, transition to other classes and improve their performance.  Lacking the maturity to appreciate the worth of time, these naïve boys and girls superfluously believe that there is always time.

Their failure to comprehend the importance of being prompt and faithfully fulfilling their academic requirements resemble the aimless busyness of the invitees in “The Parable of the Great Banquet.”  Apparently, these people naturally assumed that they could always just attend the next affair.  They saw no reason to interrupt their lives and respond to this invitation.  They brush away this minor inconvenience by finding the nearest excuse to justify their indifference to the invitation.  Like children with new toys on Christmas day, the original invitees become obsessed with trying out their new gadgets.  They become distracted to the point of being unable to determine priorities. The fleeting happy emotions that new things and experiences bring into their lives prevent them from understanding the significance of the invitation to the banquet.

I suspect that a warp sense of priorities contribute greatly to their indifference to the invitation.  The first invitee recently acquired a new field.  The value of the property and his quest to increase its value by enlarging its harvest consumes his mental, intellectual and spiritual energy.  The second invitee has five new yoke of oxen that he absolutely must try out.  Imagine the dollar signs and bountiful yield of produce that he conjures in his mind as he plows new rows of farmland with his oxen.  He probably rejoices in his mind that the next harvest will resolve all of his financial problems.  The third invitee is a new bridegroom who finally is able to satisfy his amorous and erotic thirst.  Certainly, we understand his refusal to attend as he has waited so long to drink from the chalice of love.  In total, these persons permit daily and circumstantial matters of property, work, money and relationships divert them from the primary purpose of loving God with all of their heart, mind, soul and strength.  Evidently, because God is not their “Ultimate Concern,” the least activity becomes a priority and displaces any consideration of prioritizing service, obedience and faithfulness to Almighty God.

We can easily find equivalent distractions in our contemporary context.  Buying, furnishing and decorating a new house can consume the lion’s share of our time, talent, treasure and temperament for a considerable period of time.  Moving into the house automatically becomes our answer to any inquiries about church and community service work.  Second, the acquisition of a new sports car will dominate a man’s weekend activities until the newness wears off around the time that he takes the car in for a tune-up.  The high mechanic’s bills will dull the sensation of newness.  Yet, periodically, this car will begin to conjure mental images of the days of his youthful vigor and liberties.  He will want to relive that penetrating feeling of limitless joy and endless possibilities.  Third, who would forsake a honeymoon on a tropical island to attend a church banquet or go on a missions trip?  Truly, if we were to excuse any of the three invitees, we would choose this man above the others.  All the same, whether in biblical times relative to the context of this parable or in a current setting, the invitees find easy excuses to justify their lack of interest in the Lord’s call to a banquet.

In addition, this parable teaches us how convenient excuses impede our commitment to eternal values.  Unquestionably, God set eternity in the hearts of humankind.  The Apostle Paul’s eloquent and inimitable discourse in the first chapter of Romans certifies this spiritual reality.  However, the vicissitudes of life tend to dull our spiritual senses.  Easily, we preoccupy ourselves with earthly matters without any regard for eternal implications.  Procrastination, “the thief of time,” perpetuates this Rip Van Winkle-like slumber as we busy ourselves with mundane earthly concerns.  We fall prey to the fallacy of thinking that eternity will take care of itself.  We additionally fool ourselves into believing that many earthly preoccupations have eternal worth when they absolutely do not.  We confuse membership in fraternities, sororities, not-for-profits boards of directors, and philanthropic organizations with obeying The Great Commandment and fulfilling The Great Commission.  We fail to further gospel of the Lord and expand the kingdom of God on earth because we are very busy with civic, political, familial and social obligations that take precedence to attending the Lord’s banquet for humankind.  It is vitally important, eternally and temporally, the disciples of the Lord preserve an eternal perspective in things.  We must ask, “Does this activity have any inherent eternal worth?”  Furthermore, “Will this accomplishment withstand the blazing and consuming fire of the Lord’s countenance in the afterlife?”  (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)

As a final point, we must appreciate that those who attend ultimately are the people who chose to respond favorably to the Lord’s invitation.  Countless millions of persons daily receive an invitation from the Lord to joy and wholeness of the abundant and eternal life He offers.  Succumbing to the false notion that there is always time to respond later, they ignore these appeals and carry own as “the captains of their souls and the masters of their fate.”  Most regrettably, they fail to realize that their denial of the invitation has eternal consequences.  Justly and practically, Almighty God does not condemn anyone to hell in the afterlife.  He is not willing that nay should perish; He greatly desires that all people would come to a knowledge of the truth.  He delays His return in the hope that as many as possible will accept His invitation to the banquet.  Even more piteously, many shall not be there because they were simply to busy to reply.