Jesus and the Great Banquet

When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed are those who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."

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 compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.
I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.' "
Luke 14v15-24 [TNIV]

What's heaven like?

What's God like?

When you ask questions like those, you tend to think of place and person. Jesus however, wants us to think of an event when we think of heaven and God. What is heaven and God like? A great banquet!

Who doesn't want to get invited to a great banquet - especially when it is for a feast at the home of someone famous, powerful, and wealthy? And what if, upon receiving the important invitation, you instead rejected it and came up with measly excuses that were rather insulting?

When you look at the examples in the text, consider: who would buy a field without first looking at it prior to the purchase? Or who would obtain oxen without first trying them out? Or who, upon getting married, would pass up the opportunity to take his wife to a lavish banquet? These rejections were meant to shame the one who did the inviting.

Amazingly enough, there are people who are quite willing to pass up on the Great Banquet! God is good - which means that heaven is good - and which means the feast will be really really good! Why would anyone pass up on a great banquet, attended by great and good people - even God himself? How do you explain people who don't want God?

It's just as baffling to Jesus as it is to us, so it seems. But rather than try to figure out all the reasons for why it happens, it seems that Jesus just keeps on inviting people to the Banquet. In the meantime, as we await the Great Banquet to begin, we hold our own great banquets here on earth - inviting friends and neighbors, even aliens and enemies to join us for meals, for fellowship, for worship, for life.

We get glimpses of heaven and God now when we open up our table and our hearts to the people around us - disregarding their identities, their ethnicity, their accent, their smell, their status, their manners, their background, their habits. When we invite the "uninvitable" to our table, to our homes, to our lives, we keep our own heart open to God and his invitations to us.

You want God and heaven when you die? Then want great banquets with the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind while you are alive. To follow in the way of Jesus for this life and the next includes actually feasting in the way of Jesus in this life...and the next.