Our God has prepared a great banquet and invited many guests. This
invitation has been going on centuries over centuries, urging the people to
respond to come and dine in the great banquet. Here to know what the banquet
means is the key to understand the parable. It is the wedding banquet of the
Lamb with the church. The first notable thing of this banquet is invisible
right now. It doesn’t mean it will happen in the future like after death. Though
it is true that after death we enter into eternity, that’s not the point of
this parable. The invitation to the wedding banquet is so real and urgent that
it shall be responded immediately now. The kingdom of God is not a remote place
in space where someday we enter into. Rather, it is where all frustration,
anger, despair, suffering, pain, sorrow, comfort, enrichment, strength, empowerment
occur in the invisible realm and where God reigns and rules in the midst of the
devil’s rebellion.
“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.’” (Luke 14:15)
When they heard Jesus saying the one who invites the poor,
the crippled, the lame, the blind will be repaid at the resurrection of the
righteous, one of them at the dinner table was inspired and said, “Blessed is
the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” This anonymous man
should have understood that Jesus was talking about the feast in the future after
death. Now our Lord Jesus reveals the truth who is qualified to eat at the
feast in the kingdom of God in the earth now and in eternity.
Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet
and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell
those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
“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.’
“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and
I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
“Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’”
(Luke 14:16-20)
At the time of the banquet, the
host of the banquet sent his servant to tell the invited guests, “Come, for
everything is now ready.” But they all alike began to make excuses. The first
just possessed a field and made excuse to go and see it. Another bought five
yoke of oxen and made excuse to try them out. Another just got married and
couldn’t come to the banquet.
Now are those things like buying a
field and oxen and getting married wrong? Absolutely not. These are perfectly
normal activities in our human lives. The Maker of the universe should know
better than that. There is no doubt at all. No, our Lord Jesus does not say that
there are something wrong in trading essential possessions and getting married
themselves.
Then what is wrong when they make
excuses not to come to the banquet? It really lies how to perceive what the
invitation of the wedding feast is because it’s what is going on right now to
all of us. The words of Jesus is truth which reveals what the true humanity is.
Our Lord Jesus knows as the Maker and Designer what we are and thus what we truly
need now and forever. What is seen is not all what we live by. Mostly we live
by what is unseen. Without air we can’t breathe. What force does make the human
heart function faithfully and consistently day and night? Where does the
gravitational force come from? What does cause the mighty forceful wind? What
force does stop the relentless waters at the shore?
Humans do not exist randomly and
accidently that we live in the earth for a while and disappear forever.
Although the world says so, it is not true. Humans are more than physical
beings that once exist and get gone forever. It is too big for humans to make up
themselves on their own. It is too complicated for us to understand what the
makeup of everything is in human life.
Why do so many young people commit
suicide? Why are so many people suffering from neurosis, psychosis, and various
mental illnesses? Why are we constantly experiencing unquenchable worries and
anxieties? What about unperceivable and untraceable fear which produces cold
sweat in our back? What about depression and despair, lurking around and behind
and haunting down and making our hearts wrecked and ruined? What about bitter
sweetness in the midst of happy and achieving moments of life?
What’s wrong with our humanity? Although
the world seems to deliver much of solutions if we work on certain issues using
the intelligent mind and education and legislations and the works of
committees, in fact it does not bring anything at all. Look all the
achievements in our history which we really want to take pride ourselves like
the technological advancements and scientific discoveries especially in
medicine and information technology. However, after all it doesn’t improve even
a bit in the realm of human morality. Humans have been gone wrong since Adam
ate the tree of good and evil. That’s called the fall of race. Human beings have
been trapped into the self-dependence on them rather than depending on the
Creator God. That’s called the deadly poisonous sin of humanity.
Our God knows us what we are
better than what we know of ourselves. That’s why our God sent his servant to
tell the invited guests to come and dine in the banquet. The host says, “Come,
for everything is now ready.” Responding to the invitation and coming to the
banquet is more urgent and significant than anything else, even the essential
things in our lives like taking care of the field purchased and trying out the
oxen bought and getting married. There is no time to delay for our humanity
needs to enter into the banquet where everything is now ready.
What does the banquet signify? It does
sharing the love, joy, and peace of God. Coming to the banquet is to take all
inheritance our God has promised to give to his beloved children by faith in
the fellowship with Christ Jesus the Lord. Entering into the fellowship with
Christ Jesus the Lord is the way to have life in full and more abundantly. Apostle
John puts bluntly that whoever has the Son has life and whoever does not have
the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:12). Our Lord Jesus is the true
bread of life that came down from heaven.
“Very truly I tell you, unless you
eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
(John 6:53)
Entering into the fellowship with
Christ Jesus is that we shall continue to do daily without ceasing. “Come, for
everything is now ready,” says the Lord Jesus. All the saints in Christ are invited
to come and dine with the Lord of grace and truth who lavishly gives eternal
life.
“Come to me, all you who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
What’s happen to those who refuse to
come the banquet? Here our Lord Jesus reveals the truth that the inevitable
consequence shall follow to those who make excuses not to come and dine in the
table of the Lord.
“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.’
“‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done,
but there is still room.’
“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. I tell
you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’” (Luke
14:21-24)
The owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant
to go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town to bring in the poor,
the crippled, the blind and the lame. There were still room, said the servant
to the master. Then the servant was sent out to the roads and country lanes and
compel them to come in until the house was full.
Jesus teaches his disciples who
is blessed in the kingdom of God. “Blessed are poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)
The poor, the crippled, the
blind and the lame are the representatives of those who are spiritually bankrupt
that they have nowhere else to go but unto God because they have nothing to
depend upon on earth. It is not the field, nor five yoke of oxen, nor marriage
to depend in finding the abundance of life. They have found the fountain of
life in Jesus Christ who is faithful and just and never fails in giving in full
whatever asked in his name.
Those who reject the invitation to
the banquet where everything is now ready will not get a taste of the Lord’s
abundant and overflowing provisions—love, joy, peace. Apostle Paul admonished
the saints in the church of Corinth so pertinently, reflecting the significance
of accepting our Lord’s invitation and come and dine in his table now and in
the midst of daily routine lives.
“What I mean, brothers and
sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should
live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are
happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs
to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them.
For this world in its present form is passing away.” (1 Corinthians 7:29-31)
Prayer: Our Father in heaven,
Thank you for the words of rebuke and soberness on our slowness and ignorance
to the urgent invitation to come and dine in the table of the Lord. May God
help us not to delay of coming to the banquet where everything is now ready but
to run into the glorious fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In the name of
Jesus Christ. Amen.
November 26, 2015
© 2015 David Lee Ministries – All Rights
Reserved.
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