- Luke 14:17 - «Come, for all things are now ready».
- Luke 14:18-20 - «But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’»
- Luke 14:21 - «So that servant came and reported these things to his master. 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 here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’»
- Luke 14:23 - «Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.’»
God's invitation is open before us. The main issue is how we respond to this invitation. Fred Ramsdell could not hear the call while he was in the mountains. Mary Brunkow received the call in Sweden, but she thought it was spam. David MacMillan deleted the message because his name was misspelled. Paul Milgrom could not answer the call because he turned his phone off at night. Abdulrazak Gurnah received the call, but he didn't believe what he was hearing. These people missed the news that they had been awarded the Nobel Prize for various reasons. In the parable Jesus told, people also refused a great invitation. The host then told his servant to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame from the streets and alleys of the city because he desired his house to be full. This parable demonstrates the generous invitation to the Kingdom of God. God invites people to the life He offers through Jesus Christ. We accept this gift by faith. It is easy to ignore or devalue God's invitation. But we must take this invitation seriously. God calls us to the eternal life He offers through Christ. Truth for today: God's invitation is open. Respond by faith in Jesus Christ.
Reflection
Is there an invitation from God in your life that you are currently ignoring due to excuses?
