Come to the Feast!Näide

Do not neglect God’s invitation!

“A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses.” (Luke 14:16-18)

Jesus invites every single person to come to Him and celebrate with Him. However, not everybody accepts His invitation!

In Luke 14, Jesus is at a dinner and uses this opportunity to teach the people present about God’s Kingdom. He compares it to a man who prepares a great banquet and invites many. However, when everything is ready, none of the invited guests wants to come! They have all kinds of excuses why they cannot attend — which actually don’t sound very urgent.

Instead of canceling the banquet, the organizer tells his servants to invite whoever wants to come and even compels them to accept the invitation. These people don’t have any social status and do not usually attend luxury banquets, but that’s not an issue. The house is filled, and the party can begin!

However, the people who were initially invited will not taste the banquet, Jesus says as a warning. They have excluded themselves from the feast and won’t get a second chance. Similarly, people who don’t accept Jesus’ invitation to come to Him won’t spend eternity in His presence.

Do you take the warning seriously that you could miss out on God’s great banquet? How could this happen? How can you prevent this from happening?