#DailyDevotion Jesus & The Church Invite Everyone To His Banquet
Luke 14:21-24 21“The slave went back and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house became angry. ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city,’ he told his slave, ‘and bring in here the poor, crippled, blind, and lame.’ 22“And the slave said, “Master, it’s done as you ordered, and there’s still room.’ 23“Then the master told the slave, ‘Go out to the roads and stone fences, and make them come in! I want my house to be full. 24I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.’”
This must have been very hard for those hearing this from Jesus particularly as many of them were not accepting his invitation to follow him. Not only were they not accepting the invitation, they were working hard on seeing him get killed for some offense to the Law. We don’t know how many of the Jews eventually accepted Jesus’ invitation to follow him, to repent and be baptized into his name. There has been at least one historian Rodney Stark who proposes that vast numbers of Jews throughout the world did in fact convert to or rather have their faith fulfilled in following Jesus. Unfortunately, as we can read from the New Testament text and history, many Jews also did not and suffered the consequences in 70 AD and the Bar Kokhba revolt.
What Jesus describes here is what is described in many Old Testament text. Abraham’s seed was to be a blessing to the nations. It was not enough to save the Israelites, the LORD was going to save the nations as well. We see in Acts the Good News of Jesus going to the Samaritans, the Ethiopians (who followed the Jewish faith), the Roman soldier Cornelius and his household and throughout the Roman empire. Paul tells us in Ephesians Jesus’ blood, his cross has removed the enmity between Jew and Gentile and made them one people.
So Jesus in this parable tells his servants to go into the street and allies of the cities and “bring in here the poor, crippled, blind, and lame.” When the hall still isn’t filled he tells his servants to, “Go out to the roads and stone fences, and make them come in! I want my house to be full.” So today, there are 2.6 billion people who claim to follow Jesus and are his disciples. That does not include the masses of people who followed Jesus throughout the centuries or trusted in his coming in the centuries before Jesus was made manifest. If you look up we are more than the stars the naked eye can count as promised to father Abraham.
Since we are still here, Jesus is not finished with us going out and inviting people to his banquet. Yes, the Church is to continue to reach out to all people of every nation, people, language and tribe. The banquet hall is not completely filled yet. Pray the LORD to you use to bring the good news of salvation in Jesus’ name to the people he brings you and pray the Holy Spirit so opens their hearts they accept the invitation. We may have to invite people more than once. We cannot say there is no one Jesus doesn’t want us to invite. Whether they come or not is between them in Jesus. We are merely his servants doing Jesus’ bidding.
Heavenly Father, open our mouths that we may invite the people we meet along the highways and byways of life to the banquet of your son Jesus Christ and open their hearts by your Spirit so they may accept his invitation and join us all in his heavenly banquet on the Last Day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.