“…A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.” Luke 14:16-24
My Summary & Reflection
In this parable, a man hosts a feast and invites his many friends. He sends out his servant to let the invited guests know that the feast is ready to begin. One by one, the guests each make a different excuse for why they cannot attend the feast. One invited guest says that he must look after some land that he had just purchased. Another invited guest claims that he needed to examine some livestock that he had just bought. A third guest blamed his absence on the fact that he had just married and could not attend. The servant returned and told his master of the different excuses provided by the invitees. The master of the house then told the servant to go out into the streets and invite all that he could to come and attend his feast instead of those that had originally been invited. The master of the house noted that none who was originally invited will benefit from his feast.
This story is similar to the parable of A King Hosts a Wedding for His Son. https://leaveninthemeal.com/2018/09/19/week-9-a-king-hosts-a-wedding-for-his-son/ In both parables, those originally invited to a grand celebration make excuses for why they cannot attend. In both parables, the invited guests claim that they are too busy to come when called. They claimed to be too busy to receive the blessings that had been set out for them by their hosts. And in both cases, it seems that those invited did not appreciate the gravity of the invitation that they were declining. This invitation was not just an invitation to a dinner, but an invitation to eternal life and by declining it to focus on building their earthly possessions, they were in fact forfeiting their own souls.
There’s a commonly used phrase that a person can’t see the forest for the trees. This basically means that because someone is surrounded by the trees, they can’t comprehend the forest that they are a part of. Or to decipher this metaphor, the surrounding details can obscure the bigger picture that we’re a part of. In the same way, those who were invited to the feast in this parable, could not see past their day to day earthly concerns to accept the grander plan they were a part of. They couldn’t see that they were declining their own eternity, in exchange for the temporary.
Your Reflection
- Is your focus on the temporary or the permanent? How can you know?
- Have you accepted your invitation to the great feast?