Dear Editor:

Miscommunication causes a world of problems and troubles. The people of Israel did not understand Jesus was meant to be their Saviour as well as the Saviour of the world.

Luke 14:15-24 is Jesus’s parable of the great feast. Some of Jesus’s greatest lessons to us were stated in parables. These events did not actually happen, but He told them to make a point.

In this parable Jesus is telling those present they have been invited to “the table” of God, but they have refused to accept the invitation.

Numerous references in the New Testament verify to us Jesus offered salvation to gentiles as well as the Hebrew people. God selected the Jewish people and the land of Israel to be His chosen people and land. He chose them and the land to provide the world with a Saviour.

In this parable Jesus tells the people of a great feast, recognised as being the kingdom of Heaven. The master of the house was symbolic of God. When invited, the guests presented many excuses for not attending the banquet.

We know, of course, many times, many people making excuses do not tell the real reason for an action. When invited to various activities we may make lame excuses for why we cannot participate, when the real reason is we simply do not want to. This, I suppose, is human nature to not want to hurt feelings.

Beginning in Luke 14:15, Jesus told the story of a man (God) preparing a great supper. He sent His servant (Jesus) out to invite many to come in and sup with Him. Upon receiving these invitations, they began to make excuses.

The scripture tells us many of the reasons the Jews of the time rejected Jesus as the prophesied Saviour. They did not expect Him to be a Nazarene. They expected royalty; they may have expected a warrior Saviour to expel the Romans from their land. And they most certainly did not expect their Saviour to be born in a barn and His bed to be a cattle feeding trough.

But the real disappointment to them was that this Jesus taught salvation by a faith-based belief in Him and they no longer had to earn their own salvation by their works. Jesus would “earn” salvation for the world by His sacrificial death and shedding of his blood on the cross.

After the resurrection and ascension, thousands of Jews came to believe in Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. Jewish Christians are now numbered in the thousands, and many were led to Jesus by the Apostles, with verification in the New Testament (Acts 4:4).

The first man invited to the great banquet had the excuse of going to buy a parcel of land and he had to go see it (Luke 14:18). Of course, no one would purchase land without going to look at it, but did he really? He was placing material wealth above that which was Holy.

The second man had the excuse of going to buy a yoke of oxen (Luke 14:19). Oxen were used as beasts of burden to pull plows, carts, and other such objects. Should one place his work before God?

The third man’s excuse: He was going to be married to a wife (Luke 14:20). Perhaps she could have come with him. Jesus also told us to place Him before everything, including one’s own family (Luke 24:26).

Our priorities sometimes do not coincide with God’s priorities. Being in a constant state of self-evaluation may be a good way to avoid being one of the invited guests that refused to come.

Then the master sent His servant out into the town to invite everyone to attend. When the table was still not full, He sent the servant to the highways and byways to “compel them to come in”.

The story in this article is to make the point that at times we do not realise whose we are. Just as the first invited guests to the great banquet did not realise the seriousness of the invitation and the eternal consequences, in today’s world, multitudes still do not understand.

“Compel them to come in!” What powerful words these are. Jesus was speaking to Pharisees in Luke 14, but He was also speaking to us.

Matthew 28:19 says, “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

Van Yandell

Ordained gospel evangelist and missionary

vmy2121@gmail.com