onthly MeditationMeditation for January 2010
Leave a comment at the bottom if you wish.
Judith reads:
As the New Year of 2010 begins, I continue with our meditations on the parables of Jesus that are unique to the Gospel of St. Luke. The eighth such parable is The Parable of the Great Feast. Jesus told this parable when he was at dinner in the home of one of the leading Pharisees.
While at this dinner, Jesus spoke to his host and suggested that instead of inviting friends and relatives who, in turn, would invite him to dinner, it would be better to invite the poor, crippled, lame and blind. They would not have the means to invite him in return and his reward would come from God at the time of the resurrection.
One of the guests at the same dinner who heard the remarks of Jesus to his host, commented how great a blessing it would be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God. It seems to have been this comment that prompted Jesus to tell the Parable of the Great Feast: Luke 14: 16 – 25.
The man in the parable had invited many friends to a great feast but when the time came for the dinner, those who were invited made excuses and refused to come. The man who was giving the banquet was furious and told his servant to go into the town and invite the poor, crippled, blind and lame. After he had done this, the servant reported that there was still room, so the master sent him out into the country lanes to urge anyone he could find to come so that his house would be full. For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet. (New Living Translation)
I presume that the invited guests were so blessed in their lives that they didn’t need to partake of a meal. They already had plenty to eat and were not hungry or in want. They should never have accepted the invitation in the first place because obviously their own lives were of more importance than fulfilling their commitments to their host.
God has given us a great opportunity and privilege in his invitation to us to follow Christ. We must be careful not to throw his invitation to us away as if it was of no consequence. He has offered us spiritual life abundant and we must not reject this offering in order to pursue our everyday existence without thought to God.
There is room for all at God’s banquet table but, according to this Parable of the Great Feast, there is not room for those who despise Christ and that for which he sacrificed his life.
© Judith Lawrence—January 2010
Leave a comment:
Meditations in the Archive
