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 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."
"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.
8 comments:
your post reminds me a lot about our need for patience, discipline, and diligence.
it is so easy to stay consumed with all of the little pleasures that add up to little fulfillment, little dreams, little hopes, and little expectations.
the Banquet will be worth it if only we can learn to ignore all the little distractions that pale in its comparison.
This passage makes it clear just how convoluted our "priorities" are. I mean, sure, there are important things in life that must be taken care of, but when you really consider just how much of a real privilege it is to even be invited to His banquet, why would you want to avoid it?
If you decide to whet your appetite now, you'd be spoiling your dinner later.
Matt's comment made me think of how we often trade best for good. Sure studying for my test tomorrow is a good idea but isn't learning more about God better? Best even? I guess it can be hard to see the difference between good and best sometimes, studying seems so urgent while I have a lifetime to learn about God.
Some of what you wrote reminded of some stuff in the Signature of Jesus we read. This is from chapter 8. "However, my past twenty-five years of pastoral experience indicate that the stunning disclosure that God is love has had negligible impact on the majority of Christians and minimal transforming power. The problem seems to be that either we don't know it or we know it but cannot accept it. Or we accept it but are not in touch with it. Or we are in touch with it but do not surrender to it."
I think our heads are full of "knowledge" that hasn't made it to our hearts. We know God loves us. We know we can feast at this great banquet. But our lives don't reflect that. For some reason it hasn't become our reality.
You said "if we've accepted our invitations to the banquet, shouldn't our actions reflect that?"
The tone I perceive in this rhetorical question reminds me of Jesus' desire to know us.
Not everyone will accept their invitation to the banquet but of those who have we should expect exemplar behavior. How else will others know there is even a banquet that we want to attend? How else will they know just how amazing that banquet is-- so great that it transforms us in our expectation of it?
We need to realize that our actions affect others, possibly with eternal consequence. Are we going to let things of this world distract us and others from taking part in that awesome feast?
It's the old self, or the flesh taking over when we don't fully pursue the Kingdom of Heaven. Since the old self will always be a part of us (at least here in this life) it's easy to cave in to its desires. in short, it's just a matter of maturing and being transformed to want the things of God. I notice personally that there's areas where I have not surrendered to God, where I still want to be in control.
I see two main reasons why we don't do what we should.
1. Lack of Faith - We sometimes doubt that there will be a banquet.
2. Lack of Hope - We forget that the banquet is not only worthwhile, but something we should really want to go to.
What does it look like to eagerly try to get to the banquet? Are we supposed to be radical, forgetting all else in order to be obedient to the Master? Does God really require us to DO something in order to go? Doesn't that mean I'm saved by what I do? Is that wrong if it is? What does God want me to do? How do I tell when He wants me to do something? If I haven't heard anything from Him in a while, do I just keep on doing what I'm doing? Or is that just following my own plans?
I'm pretty sure newly-weds played backgammon back then. Chess may have come along more recently. This post was touching and challenging. The thing that struck me is our addiction to "new" things. When the newness wears off, I go looking for something else. So we need the newest stuff and even look for newer people, new phases of life, not enjoying the ones we have. So that priceless invitation gets old, and as the banquet approaches, I forget how valuable it really is. It's really quite adolescent when I think about it, like kids mistreating their families as teenagers because they've found "life-long friends".
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