Invited

My Today’s Personal Devotional: Wednesday 1-14-15 (Home)   

Scripture reading: Gen 34-36 and Luke 14

S.  Luke 14:23-24  Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full.  NLT

O.  Invitations had been sent out with anticipation.  The date and time was set.  The meal was hot and the tables decorated.  But what is this?  No one shows up!  So now cell phones are ringing reminding the invited guests that all is ready.  But everyone is consumed with their daily activities and refuses to come.  The first guy had recently invested in 40 acres and needed to check the fences.  Another had just purchased a brand new 210 Ox-Power tractor and was anxious to crank it up.  One couple preferred a quiet evening at an expensive restaurant before leaving for their honeymoon in Hawaii.  All are “legitimate” excuses.  Life is busy, you know.

So the master of ceremonies calls together his team and sends them out again, this time to bring in the crippled, the poverty stricken, the sickly and the blind.  A motley, ragged group now sits on cushy chairs formerly reserved for the elite. 

But still seats are vacant.  “Okay, boys, hit the streets.  Run with the news!  Go down those dirty back alleys and don’t miss the little shacks of the slaves out behind those huge country mansions.  Urge them to come… for my banquet is waiting and ready for them.” 

What a banquet!  “Silence, please!”  The master of ceremonies now addresses the unlikely crowd.  “Moments ago you may have been sitting beside the road with a tin can, hoping for the sound of a coin.  Or you may have been a confused youth with no hope for the future.  Today you are sitting where kings and princes were invited to sit.  Why are you here?  Others did not appreciate their invitation.  They refused to come.  They showed no interest in the Kingdom of God.  You are here because you believed my messengers and responded to my invitation.  Please bow your heads.  Let us pray.”  

At the “amen” a live orchestra strikes up the background music while uniformed waiters carry steaming hot delicacies to each table.  A blind beggar is seated by a slave worker and they begin to chat.  Soon the sound of many happy voices fills the room as they share their good fortune. 

With this story Jesus is addressing the Jewish folk who were the initially invited ones.  He is announcing a new “open-door-to-everyone” policy. 

A.  I was not born into a Jewish family.  My name was not visible on page one of the list of those classy people invited to sit with Jesus at the table.  I had no pedigree.  I was a “nobody”.  But a messenger of the King came running and invited me to the King’s banquet table. “Who?  Me?  Is this a joke?  It is for real?”  I grab my best coat and run to find my place at the table of the King of King’s. 

P.  Lord, this morning I sat in wonder as I enjoyed rich fellowship at Your banquet table.  Okay, so it was just a breakfast… a regional minister’s breakfast, but to me it was a banquet… not because of the delicious food, but just for the privilege of sitting with royalty… Your kind of royalty.  You have promoted each of us from the dust of the streets to the honor of princes, princesses, kings and queens.  They are my friends… my peers.  I can talk with them although they serve in important, high-ranking positions.  I am a “nobody”, but now, in Your company, Jesus, You have elevated me to become “somebody”.  Lord, You have a way of bringing us up from the lowest level and seating us alongside Your special royalty.  Thanks, Lord.  Life is delightful!

Ralph