Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. Luke 14:23

This parable is one that expresses the heart of God—who wants a full house at His banquet table. But it is also a warning from Jesus, that many will make excuses not to join the life that He offers. The parable follows a brief teaching from Jesus who is at a table, having been invited by a Pharisee to a dinner. Jesus notices both how people sat themselves according to what place they thought they deserved. He goes on to challenge people with some upside-down kingdom of God values. Namely, to invite some unlikely guests:

But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Luke 14:13-14

What Jesus is challenging here is the practice of being generous to others, with the hope that they in turn will be generous to you. Jesus is looking for hearts that give generously just to give. Not to gain recognition, or repayment.

Jesus is also asking people to sit at a table with those that his culture thought were cursed by God. Illness and differing abilities were thought to be a judgment by God, and Jesus constantly sought to reverse that thinking. Instead, Jesus repeatedly treated people as those who were made in the image of God.

Who is God calling us to invite to our table?  

Grace and peace,

David