INVITATION TO A FEAST

One day Jesus told a story, which again is really my story :

“There was a man that gave a great supper and sent out many invitations. And when the time came for his supper, he sent one of his own servants telling the invited guests to come, for all was now ready. And all of them, with one accord, began making excuses, `I have bought a farm,’ the first said to him, `and I must go and look it over; I pray you hold me excused.’ And another said, `I have bought five pairs of bullocks, and I am on my way to make trial of them I pray you hold me excused.” And another said, `I have married a wife, and so I am unable to come.”

“The servant came back and told his master all this, whereupon the host fell in a rage, and said to his servant, `Quick, go out into the streets and lanes of the city; bring in the poor, the cripples, the blind and the lame.’ And when the servant told him, `Sir, all has been done according to your command, but there is room left still, the master said to the servant, `Go out into the highways and the lanes, and give them no choice but to come in, so that my house may be filled. I tell you, none of those who were first invited shall taste of my supper,’ (Luke 14, 16-24).

MY STORY

In this story, the master of the house gives a strange and almost unbelievable command to his servants. He orders them to invite the unwanted and down-and-outs to his banquet.

In the same way, but with infinite love and mercy, God deals with me. I am altogether unworthy to enter His household and enjoy His divine hospitality. My sins have made me the enemy of God. They have made me more helpless than the cripples, the blind and the lame, for they have made me dead to the love and friendship of God.

Dead and sinful man would have no hope unless God gave him a new start. And the story of Jesus Christ is the story of that new start, for “God so loved the world, that He gave up His only-begotten Son, so that those who believe in Him may not perish, but have eternal life.”

Through His Son, God renewed the human race as He had foretold through the prophet Ezekiel :

“I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh. I shall put my spirit in you and make you keep my laws and sincerely respect my observances……..You shall be my people and I shall be your God” (Ezekiel 36, 26-28).

In very truth, then, could Christ say : “Behold, I make all things new.” He offers me what I can never give myself : new life.

Christ says, “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.