Don't Miss Out

Have you ever given a party and at the last minute no one you invited showed up? How did you feel? What did you do?

When we have a party or plan a special dinner we only send one invitation to each person we want to invite, but in the time that Jesus lived, people sent out two invitations. The first was to tell everyone about the event and let them know they were invited. The second was to tell them everything was ready and it was time for them to come.

In our Scripture today, Jesus tells a parable about a host who is preparing a great feast. The invitation was sent and those who were invited said they would come. When everything was ready, the host sent his servant to those who had been invited. The servant said to them, "Everything is ready! Please come to the feast."

One guest after another began to make all kinds of lame excuses as to why they could not come.

"I have bought some land and I have to go and look it over," said one.

"I have bought some new oxen and I need to try them out," another said.

Still another said, "I have just gotten married, and I can't come."

The host became very angry and told his servant to go out into the streets, the alleys, and the fields and invite the blind, the crippled, and the poor until every seat at the table was filled. Guess who didn’t get to come? That’s right. The ones who had been invited the first time. "Not one of those I first invited will get one bite of my food," the host said.

In this story, the host is God and the feast is at his heavenly banquet. The Jews accepted the first invitation that was sent by Moses and the prophets. The Jews were God’s chosen people. But when Jesus came with the second invitation, they chose not to accept it. They were too busy doing other things that they felt were more important than giving themselves to God and serving Him. So God decided to invite us - the Gentiles.

God has invited us to His Heavenly banquet and it is the most important invitation we will ever receive. We don’t want to miss it because we let little things become more important to us than attending his banquet. If we keep making excuses to not accept His invitation, even if we think they are good excuses, one day He will pull His invitation from us and we will miss out on all He has prepared for us.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for inviting us to your banquet. Help us to not let anything seem more important than accepting your invitation today. Amen.