Luke 14:16 Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. 17 When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ 18 But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ 19 Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ 20 Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come. 21 “The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’22 After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ 23 So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. 24 For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’”
Jesus is all about offering this great feast to everyone and His invitation is real and life-changing, but there can be a glitch in all of this if we try to reason out whether we should give out the invitation or not. The glitch is us keeping the invitation to ourselves and not compelling others to come to the party. In the above verses even though the invitation was given those who heard it had many excuses for missing the banquet. It appears that threr was a certain group of people who should have been very receptive to the invitation but they wouldn't come, no matter the invitation. Then those with the invitations were instructed to take the invitation to all who would be willing to come.
This indicates the thought that the message was sent out to the those who should receive it easily and attend, which could be alluding to the jews or the religious people. When they rejected the invitation the master to the one giving invitations told them to go everywhere and to everyone with an invitation and compel them to come to the feast. This could be an indication of the Gentiles also having an invitation to the great banquet, or salvation.
Sometimes we might think a certain kind of person will be one who knows about Jesus and the Bible, like a church attender and we direct our invitation only to those who attend our church. But that is limiting the scope of who this invitation is meant to go to. So we are Propelled to Compel all to come to Jesus, and that doesn't exclude those who may not be "churchy" enough in our thinking. Even Jesus would embrace those who were outcasts of society and give them hope to attend the great feast, or salvation and His attitude was not very well received. Some examples of Jesus breaking societal norms includes the woman at the well, the leper, and the Roman Centurions servant.
Be open and be Propelled to Compel all to come to Jesus and get outside the church walls and reach the world as Jesus tells us to do. The invitation is still offered and we need to get a "Jesus" attitude about who to take it to. Lets compel, or at times beg those without Jesus to come to Him and receive eternal life. Just like Batman, IT'S WHO WE ARE!!!
The Pilgrimage Continues
David Warren
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