The Great Banquet

Our core read Luke 13-15 last Wednesday. A story that stuck out to me was the Parable of the Great Banquet, in Luke 14:15-24. Jesus had just given some practical advice about doing things for people who will not or cannot repay you, such as inviting the foor, crippled, lame, and blind to a banquet. Then someone at the table says, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God." Well, duh, right? How could that possibly not be awesome? Of course we want to be at that feast, right?

Then Jesus continues to tell about a man who was preparing a great banquet, inviting lots and lots of people, but for some reason, they all started coming up with all sorts of excuses:

• "I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me."
• "I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me."
• "I just got married, so I can't come."

What's with these guys? Did they not want to go to the banquet? I think probably they did want to go, but you wouldn't know it from their actions. Apparently, checking out their new fields, testing their new oxen, and playing chess with a new spouse (or whatever newlyweds did back then) were more important to them than going to the banquet.

What about us? I think we would all agree that "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God." After all, this is what makes it worthwhile spending my entire life trying to serve others and obey God's commands. Do we really believe that though? Are we excusing ourselves from the banquet because we have "more important" stuff going on?

• "I just moved into a new apartment, and I want to go check it out. Maybe next week."
• "I got Rock Band 2 for Christmas, and I really want to try it out. I'll hang out some other time."
• "I recently got a job, and I'm really busy right now. I can't make it tonight."
• "I have 3 exams, a paper, 4 projects, and 15 chapters of reading to take care of this week. Sorry, too busy."
• "My friends are in town this week, so I'm going to hang out with them instead."

I think often we get opportunities to store for ourselves treasures in Heaven, but find reasons not to. This is not to say we're earning salvation by what we do, but if we've accepted our invitations to the banquet, shouldn't our actions reflect that? It makes me uneasy seeing how many people (for starters, let's take the group of people who call themselves Christians) have been invited to the real banquet, and then reading how few of the people in these parables actually went.

"Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God." I wish we could comprehend how blessed such a man would be. If we did, wouldn't it be so much easier for us to accept the invitation? Wouldn't we make every effort, use every bit of our energy, every millisecond of our time living our lives in ways that let nothing get in the way of that banquet? It's time I realize how trivial my pleasures in life are, and how awesome the banquet will be.