After two days of leading into the parable of the great dinner, here is the first day on the parable.
One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, "Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" Then Jesus said to him, "Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for everything is ready now. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of land, and I must go see it; please accept my regrets.' Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.' Another said, 'I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.' (Luke 14:15-20)
Let's stop here before we continue. First it must be noted that all of these excuses are actually quite lame. None of these reasons are reasons that would keep someone from coming to a feast to which they had been invited. I won't go into detail here. So let's go back to the comment made by the person who heard Jesus speak. It sounds like someone who comes to eat bread in the kingdom of God will be special...well...what does that mean? Special because they were able to come into circle of people invited - and maybe even a small circle. Within the sounding of this statement, Jesus goes into the parable. What is of note here is that the people who were invited had been invited previously. That means, they had the invitation and they had probably agreed to come so that the person throwing the dinner would have a notion of how many people would be coming. That is important because then the host knows what kind of animal to slaughter in order to fill the plates of those who said they were coming. When the slave is sent out to gather the folk, these are ones who already said, "Yes, we'll be there." But now, they offer excuses and do not come to the dinner to which they were the primary guests! The food is ready - the time is now - the dinner is at hand - the smell of food is bursting from the home of the host...but no one is coming. As we will see tomorrow...it must have been a dinner with some size to it...for the next invitees are without limit. Hum.... "Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God."
Connection: We have already been invited to the dinner...today is the day when it is ready for the taking...today the table of this blessed Reign is set for the benefit of the guests. Dig in.
Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest and let this food to us be bless. Guide us to the feast of your promised life and lead us to our place at the table when it is time to partake in your Reign as it is set out before us today. Amen.
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