Tuesday, November 7, 2017 - How have you responded to the invitation that God is constantly issuing?

To read the texts click on the texts: Rom 12:5-16; Lk 14:15-24

The setting for the parable in these verses is the meal introduced in 14:1. It is known as the parable of the great supper or banquet. After the host has sent invitations to those whom he desired to come for his banquet, he sent his servants to call those guests when everything was ready. The guests however began to offer excuses. 

The first excused himself because he had bought a piece of land which he wanted to go an see. This excuse is absurd, since no one would buy a piece of land without first inspecting it. 

The second excused himself because he had bought five yoke of oxen, which he had to go and see, which again is absurd for the same reason. These excuses bring out the fact that it is material possessions and their hold on the persons concerned which prevent them for responding to the invitation. 

The third guest allows family commitments to hinder his response. While such a reason is plausible, it serves to highlight the fact of the total rejection of the host’s invitations. 

On hearing the excuses through his servants, the host is angry. He now reaches out to the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. This list is identical to the list mentioned in 14:13 and the ones whom Jesus challenged his host to invite. Since there is more room, a second invitation is sent in order to fill the banquet hall. 

The point being made by the parable is that many of those who take for granted that their places are reserved will find themselves out of a place and their place taken by those whom they considered unworthy. While the invitation of the host is important to enter the banquet hall, one excludes oneself from it by the choice that one makes.

Procrastination is a sin of many of us. We keep putting off till later what we can and sometimes must do now. To get over this sin one needs to start now and not later.