“Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Luke 14:7-35 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, ⁸ “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, ⁹ and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. ¹¹ For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹² And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. ¹³ But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵ When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

¹⁶ But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; ¹⁷ and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ ¹⁹ Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ ²⁰ Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ ²¹ And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ ²² And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ ²³ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”

²⁵ Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. ²⁸ For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³ So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

³⁴ “Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? ³⁵ It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

In today’s text there are three parables told by Jesus about meals, one concerning where to sit, one concerning who to invite and the third about the response of those who are invited.  In the first, Jesus says:  “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place. But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”    Jesus used parables to teach about the kingdom of heaven. What Jesus was conveying to the people was not really about their place at the table, but rather their place in the kingdom. Some people would like to believe that in heaven all we be equal, that there will be no position. That contradicts what scripture says. James and John, disciples of Jesus once asked Him to be granted the position of being next to Him in heaven. In Mark 10:40 Jesus responded:   “To sit on My right or on My left, this is not Mine to give; but it is for those for whom it has been prepared."    Even Jesus is not left to decide who will be next to Him in heaven. We are not told all of the determining criteria, but we do know:  everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.  Our striving will not give us better position. Instead, humility, putting others before ourselves will position us closer to the Lord. Regardless of our place in heaven, we also know this, when Jesus spoke of John the Baptist He said:  "Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Matthew 11:11) The highest position on earth is lower than the least in heaven.

That leads us to the second parable where Jesus says:   “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”   The idea that when we do things for reward or repayment here on earth, or even for recognition by people; that earthly reward is all we can expect, there is no reward or credit for us in God’s sight, is a principle Jesus frequently spoke of. It is not only what we do that is important in God’s sight. Even more important is our motive. We have been invited to the greatest place any of us could ever go. We could never repay the Lord for granting us a place with Him. To follow Him, to be like Him, we should do things for others expecting nothing in return. We have already been given all we need and more than we could imagine in Christ.

Many people question how or why God would possibly exclude people from heaven. How or why would or could a loving God have a heaven and a hell? Jesus tells the third parable saying:  “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”    The truth is, God does not exclude anyone. He has invited, even compelled all to come. As in the parable, there are many ways people respond to the invitation of the Lord. There are many excuses people have for not coming when they are invited. It is not God who excludes people. Rather it is those who refuse the invitation of God who are excluded. John 3:16 says:  “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”   In Revelation 3:20-22 the Lord says:    “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”   The invitation is for everyone, for whoever believes in Christ. The response is up to each one. He is standing and knocking. What’s your response? What’s your excuse?

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit; thank You for the invitation I neither deserve nor can repay. I say yes. Come into my life. Come into my heart. Overwhelm me and overtake me. I am not concerned with my position on earth or even where I am in heaven, only that I am with You. Like the psalmist in Psalm 84:10, I say:  A day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.   Amen.