The Great Banquet: Luke 14:15-24

Luke 14:15-24 (New American Standard Bible)

15When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, "(A)Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!"

Parable of the Dinner

16But He said to him, "(B)A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; 17and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for everything is ready now.'
18"But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, 'I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.'
19"Another one said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.'
20"Another one said, '(C)I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.'
21"And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, 'Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.'
22"And the slave said, 'Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.'
23"And the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.
24'For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.'"

************************************************************************************

Luke writes the Parable about how God invites all of us to heaven. However, as the story goes all that were invited made excuses. But all wanted to come to the dinner. We all say we want to go to heaven but, we all end up making excuses not to follow the Gospel or to spread the beautiful teachings of the bible to others. Many of us make excuses not to pray to god in the morning, lunch time, and dinner; go to church on Sunday; and to repent for our acts against gods teachings in the bible.

I have through out my life have run into friends that I went to sunday school with or went to church and have asked why I did not see them last week or a whole month and they tell me either they could not get up early enough for mass or was not able to come because of a sporting event on TV or something else they felt was a good excuse. However, if my friends realized that they basically made an excuse not to follow the ways of god and end up pretty much making an excuse not to come to heaven and get in when God calls us to go to the next chapter of our life, the eternal life, basic we are going to end up in the pit of fire for us not praying, following gods teachings, and repenting for our actions against god. I remember the peers that I had that made an excuse for not going to church or sunday school because the were either to tired well are you going to tell God when he invites to heaven that you are to tired? What would you say if he asked you to go to heaven and you said you are too tired? Would say that if you realized it was an indirect way of getting into heaven. I feel we would obey and follow Gods invitation through the word of the lord in the Bible teachings throughout the ages and all the biblical books and teachings.

May god be with you all. Amen.