Do You Want To Go To Dinner?

Luke 14:16-24

Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.' "Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.' "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.' "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.' " 'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.' "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.'"

We have received a great invitation.  A formal invitation complete with our names penned in calligraphy, two envelopes, that transparent paper inside, and little RSVP slips included.  A dinner invitation to beat all dinner invitations.  God has offered ? we have accepted.  No more eating alone ? God’s throwing a dinner party, and we are gonna be there.

Stuff comes up, though.  We plan to attend, confirm our invitation, but something comes up and we have to excuse ourselves.  I’d already accepted an invitation to join a few friends for some live music one night, but when they called to go, I found myself knee deep in the middle of writing a sermon.  I told them, “I can’t right now, maybe next time.” 

As we observe the invited dinner guests in Jesus’ parable, we see stuff crop up in their lives.  They had accepted the original invitation, but when the time came to attend the dinner, it seems things came up ? life got hectic, “maybe next time.”  At first glance, these are men leading busy lives and making judicious judgments about the use of their time, preferring prior commitments to a simple dinner party.  They had real estate to inspect, a fleet of commercial vehicles to test out, and a new bride who needed some attention.  But, deep within these commonplace, acceptable regrets, however, lays the heart of the matter. 

The Bible gets interesting when we realize we’ve been misreading it.  Suddenly, in our new awareness, we can sense the Gospel breaking through the Bible, the Word of God erupting through the words of God.  What appeared nice regrets become blatant excuses.  As one commentator wrote, “Who would buy a farm before he inspects it? Who would buy five pairs of oxen, even a single ox, before checking it out?  Who would accept an invitation to a banquet and forget that he was getting married on that day?”1 These excuses sound like asking your big crush out on a date only to be told they are too busy washing the goldfish, ironing non-wrinkle shirts, or planting plastic flowers.  These aren’t regretful friends, they’re deceitful scoundrels.  Who knows what they had against the host, but the priorities of their lives trumped all else.  Their saying, “not now, but maybe next time” was not an honest response, but a rote rejection.  Something always comes up.