Luke 14:15-24 -- On the Lord's Supper

"And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.
Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.
And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.
And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.
And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper."
Luke 14:15-24


This parable seems similar to the one in the parable of the ten virgins, where five of them go in and five of them are shut out because they weren't ready. In this case, it isn't necessarily that they aren't ready, but the guests each prioritize something else over the invitation, finding excuses not to come. Part of this I think is showing that the people that seem important, that were the invited guests, are not the ones that are going to be eating of the Lord's supper, perhaps because they feel something else is more important. Rather, those that are humble and regonize the invitation for what it is will drop everything else and be ready to attend at the last minute.

The last part is the point that seems central. Here, hopefully we aren't the invited guests, but rather the ones that are being scooped up from the roadside, and we need to be ready to drop everything, and put the Lord's invitation above everything else. The ten virgins story does give hope to the invited guests though... in that story at least half of them made it in, so as long as we have oil in our lamps and don't prioritize other things over God's invitations, we're good.

I think that part of life is learning that last point though, and we shouldn't despair completely if we haven't been putting God first and responding to his invitations in a timely manner. We can repent, and learn better to recognize the Spirit and act on those promptings. The warning of the story is that we need to be working to learn this before it is too late though, so today, let's take God seriously and work to place his will before our own.