Your Invitation
Introduction
One day, I received a message that Queen Elizabeth II (1926–2022), who was then Queen of the United Kingdom and 14 Commonwealth Realms, had invited me to lunch! At first, I thought it was a practical joke. But it wasn’t. I turned up at Buckingham Palace on my bicycle, which an amused policeman looked after for me. I sat next to the Queen as we ate some amazing food. Then she turned and began to talk to me as the ‘Parfait de Rhubarbe et Chocolat Blanc’ arrived.
It looked delicious. But I did not want to talk with my mouth full – nor did I want to seem rude by cutting into it while the Queen was speaking to me. Eventually she asked me whether I did not like the food. ‘No, no, no,’ I said, ‘I love it’ (as I quickly began to eat). I did not say it to her, but the real reason I had not eaten was that I was overwhelmed by the privilege of being invited to lunch with the Queen.
Jesus likens the kingdom of God to a great party with the King, one to which we are all invited. It is an even greater privilege than lunch with the Queen, and it is extraordinary that anyone would refuse this invitation.
Psalm 44:13–26
13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbours,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations;
the peoples shake their heads at us.
15 I live in disgrace all day long,
and my face is covered with shame
16 at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me,
because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.
17 All this came upon us,
though we had not forgotten you;
we had not been false to your covenant.
18 Our hearts had not turned back;
our feet had not strayed from your path.
19 But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals;
you covered us over with deep darkness.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God have discovered it,
since he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
24 Why do you hide your face
and forget our misery and oppression?
25 We are brought down to the dust;
our bodies cling to the ground.
26 Rise up and help us;
rescue us because of your unfailing love.
Commentary
Cry out to God as King
Have there been times when you have found yourself ‘a reproach’ to your neighbours because of your faith (v.13a)? Have you faced ‘scorn and derision’ from those around you (v.13b)? I certainly have. Sometimes you may face difficulties in your life, not because you are doing something wrong but because you are doing something right.
This psalm is addressed to God as King (v.4). That God is the King (and real leader) of Israel is a common idea in the psalms. Suffering is not necessarily a result of disobedience to the King. Rather it may be a result of following him.
Opposition is not necessarily a sign of failure on the part of God’s people: ‘All this came down on us, and we’ve done nothing to deserve it. We never betrayed your Covenant: our hearts were never false, our feet never left your path’ (vv.17–18, MSG).
Paul quotes this psalm (v.22) in Romans when he asks if anything can separate us from Christ’s love: ‘“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us’ (Romans 8:35–37).
As I have seen so often in my own life, the King is faithful. He answers our cry for help and his love never fails (Psalm 44:26).
Prayer
Luke 14:15–35
The Parable of the Great Banquet
15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”
The Cost of Being a Disciple
25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
Commentary
Accept the invitation of the King
The kingdom of God is a party. It is a feast. ‘Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God’ (v.15). Jesus is the host of this party. The Son of God invites you to experience the lavish hospitality and love of God. You are not on your own with the host. It is the presence of other guests that turns it into a celebratory party.
The food that Jesus supplies satisfies the hunger in your heart. It fills the spiritual vacuum. It satisfies your hunger for meaning and purpose in life, for forgiveness and for life beyond death. The drink at the banquet satisfies the spiritual thirst in every human heart.
The sad thing is that many people do not see it as a banquet but as a bore. They make excuses as to why they should not come. ‘All alike began to make excuses’ (v.18). One person’s excuse is property: ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me’ (v.18). The second excuse is possessions: ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me’ (v.19). The third is to do with other people: ‘I have just got married, so I can’t come’ (v.20).
When analysed, these are pathetic excuses. Each is utterly irrational and perfectly absurd. There is no urgency about going to see a field that has already been bought or trying out five yoke of oxen. There is no shortage of space at this party and the recently married man could have been accompanied by his wife.
Yet, Jesus’ words ring true today: when people are invited to the great party of the kingdom of God, ‘all alike [begin] to make excuses’ (v.18).
Jesus also talks to the crowds about the cost of following him. He urges them to ‘sit down and estimate the cost’ (v.28) and later to ‘sit down and consider’ the cost (v.31). He says, ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even life itself – such a person cannot be my disciple’ (v.26). The word for ‘hate’ is a Semitic idiom that means ‘love less’. It is a relative term meaning not to honour or privilege something above something else. In other words, Jesus must be the number one priority in your life above even family and your own life.
He goes on, ‘And those who do not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciples’ (v.27). The image of the cross clearly suggests that there will be suffering. Finally he says, ‘Those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples’ (v.33). You have to open your hands and put everything you have at his disposal.
It is worth remembering the cost of following Jesus is nothing compared to:
1. What you receive
God has prepared a party for you, a feast, which nothing else on this earth can match.
2. The cost of not following Jesus
Jesus said those who made excuses will not get ‘a taste of my banquet’ (v.24). There could be no higher cost than missing out on all the blessings that God has prepared for you.
3. What it cost him to make it possible
Jesus calls you to carry your cross (v.27). But the small cross you carry is nothing in comparison to the cross Jesus carried for you.
Don’t miss out on all that Jesus has made possible for you. Accept his invitation to the party of the kingdom of God. And invite others to it as well as you respond to Jesus’ command to ‘go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame’ (v.21).
Prayer
Deuteronomy 16:21–18:22
Worshiping Other Gods
21 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the LORD your God, 22 and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the LORD your God hates.
17 Do not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect or flaw in it, for that would be detestable to him.
2 If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the LORD gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God in violation of his covenant, 3 and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars in the sky, 4 and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, 5 take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death. 6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. 7 The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.
Law Courts
8 If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge —whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults —take them to the place the LORD your God will choose. 9 Go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict. 10 You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do. 11 Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left. 12 Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the LORD your God is to be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel. 13 All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.
The King
14 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” 15 be sure to appoint over you a king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. 16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” 17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
Offerings for Priests and Levites
18 The Levitical priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings presented to the LORD, for that is their inheritance. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.
3 This is the share due the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head. 4 You are to give them the firstfruits of your corn, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep, 5 for the LORD your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the LORD’s name always.
6 If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the LORD will choose, 7 he may minister in the name of the LORD his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the LORD. 8 He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.
Occult Practices
9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
The Prophet
14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so. 15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”
17 The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”
21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.
Commentary
Worship Jesus as your God and King
Jesus is the only true king. Worship him and him alone. There is a warning in this passage against worshipping ‘other gods’ (16:21–17:7).
There is also a severe warning here for everyone to avoid fortune-tellers, psychics, horoscopes, tarot cards, palm reading, Ouija boards and other such activities (18:10–11).
There is no need to worship the stars when you can worship the one who made them. Don’t waste your time, energy or money on those who purport to tell you about your future. Let God be your guide as far as the future is concerned.
There would come a point in Israel’s history when they would say, ‘Let us set a king over us’ (17:14). Unlike God, of course, the king would not be perfect. He would be subject to the temptations to which so many of the kings of Israel and Judah fell and into which many leaders today still fall. These temptations include immorality (v.17a), greed (vv.16,17b) and pride (v.20).
The passage sets out the ideal king (vv.18–20). This high ideal of the monarchy came closest to fulfilment in David. But it was never fully realised. In later years, it provided a basis for the hope of a coming King who would ‘reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom’ (Isaiah 9:7).
Jesus is not only the ideal King, he is also the ideal prophet. Moses prophesied that there would be a prophet like him who would speak the words of God (Deuteronomy 18:15). Both the apostle Peter and Stephen, the first Christian martyr, quote this passage and see Jesus as the fulfilment of it (Acts 3:21–22; 7:37).
What an amazing privilege it is to live in a time when the kingdom of God has been inaugurated by Jesus. The great prophet has arisen. All the Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled. Jesus is King.
Prayer
Pippa adds
In Luke 14:33 it says, ‘Those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.’
Oh help! I am sure I am holding on to lots of things.
Verse of the Day
Psalm 44:26
'Rise up and help us… because of your unfailing love’
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References
The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel (commentary formerly known as Bible in One Year) ©Alpha International 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Compilation of daily Bible readings © Hodder & Stoughton Limited 1988. Published by Hodder & Stoughton Limited as the Bible in One Year.
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.
Scripture quotations marked (AMP) taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.