Come!
13th Sun of Luke-2nd Sun before Nativity; Dec.12, 2021 Luke14:16-24
In today’s gospel reading, we are invited by the King of Kings, the Creator of all, Father God Himself, to come to the feast of feasts. Come, for all is now ready. Come and feast! What great and arduous task must we do to earn such an honour? Simply choose to Come! To share in the love and joy and life of Christ for all eternity! Christ invites us (Matt.11:28) “Come to Me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” But will we come? It is entirely our choice, but we must RSVP our response now! Now is always the day of our salvation.
In Matthew’s version the parable starts (Matt.22:2) “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.” There has never been, nor will ever be, a more monumental banquet in the history of the human race. This is the wedding feast given by God the Father for His only begotten Son. And if God’s Son Jesus Christ is the bridegroom, who is the bride? We, the Church are! We are invited not just as honoured guests, but even as the bride of the Bridegroom. How sad if the bride is just too busy and doesn’t show up!
We understand our invitation to this great feast is the invitation to that great and final feast day at the second coming of Christ, when the sheep will be separated from the goats. All are invited, but those too busy or unwilling to prepare to come will not be let in. The last line in today’s Gospel reading is very sobering (Luke 14:24) “For I say to you that none of those men who were invited (and were too busy to come) shall taste My supper.” We get a foretaste of this great and eternal feast right now, joining with all the heavenly citizens at every Liturgy when we receive Holy Communion.What could possibly be so important that we would be “too busy” to come? We respond to this invitation by our actions not our words..
Let us look at the excuses offered in today’s gospel reading by those who are “too busy” to come, for they really haven’t changed much. We shout them out by our decisions as to where we spend our time. Overall they are the same response; “I’m much more interested in the material fulfillment of my wants and desires right here and right now, than in connecting with God now or throughout eternity. I’ve got more important things to do.”
The first man bought a piece of ground. He was a busy man, focusing completely on increasing his earthly material wealth. He had no time for God, for the immaterial and spiritual side of life.
The second had just bought 5 yoke of oxen. The 5 yoked oxen represent the 5 senses of our physical body being completely yoked to the things of this world, allowing for no development of our spiritual sensitivity, which is developed of course in prayer and fasting. We can’t expect to gain any proficiency in anything if we don’t take the time to practice and develop the muscles needed. Even our hand will wither away if we don’t use it. Prayer and fasting muscles are no different. These first two excuses place material gain, money, and the things of this world ahead of anything else. Where we spend our time and store our treasure is where our heart is. The third man’s excuse is that he has taken a wife, representing placing love of pleasure before love of God. There is nothing wrong with any of these activities if they are kept where they belong, firmly in 2nd place while choosing God above all. Yet no matter the culture, no matter the historical time, the story stays the same. We humans get caught up in the less important, in the “good” things of the world, neglecting the one thing truly needful, life in Christ.
Notice that the invitations were first given to those whom God had blessed with material wealth. The problem isn’t that these were sinful people, they were diligently pursuing good and blessed things, marriage, a home, a business. But anything that becomes more important than God becomes an idol. Refusing God’s invitation to join Him, and choosing instead to focus only on building our earthly treasure results in eternal tragedy. Remember, the foolish rich man? He planned to build bigger barns to contain his bumper crop harvest. He told his soul to eat, drink and be merry as he had it made. But God’s response was “You fool, for this very night your soul is required of you,” His lack of preparation for his true eternal home would reveal him to be poorer than the most destitute here on earth. Remember, the nameless rich man, honored on earth, yet desperately poor, having not invested enough in the kingdom of heaven to even secure the comfort of a drop of water from Lazarus. It was suffering Lazarus laying destitute at this rich man’s gate that we remember. Taken by the angels to heaven to await the great wedding feast!
In today’s gospel lesson, we see the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, eagerly and gratefully accepting the invitation to the great feast of feasts. The weak and destitute know first hand they need the help of God and others. St. Paul tells us (1 Cor.1:26,27) “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty.” In today’s epistle reading we hear St. Paul tell us (Col. 3:11) “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.” I might add there is neither Conservative nor New Democrat, Republican nor Democrat, Vaccinated nor Unvaccinated, White, Black nor Indigenous, ALL are invited to the supper.
So, where do we see ourselves? Our presence at the great wedding feast depends on our answer!Self sufficiency tends to generate pride. Dependence tends to lead towards humility. Do we realize we are all completely dependant on God? When we have more than we need of everything, we can become blind to our need to rely on God for our very lives. The message in today’s Gospel lesson is that as the bride of Christ, rich or poor, in sickness or in health, for better of for worse, we need to come, to accept the invitation to the great wedding feast with humility and gratefulness, realizing we can do nothing to earn or deserve such love and grace, such a precious and priceless invitation! We are invited because He is a good God who loves us and all mankind, not because we are worthy of such a blessed and generous offer.
So how do we send in our RSVP? We continually and daily choose to accept the invitation to the great wedding feast. Then we continue to repent, asking for God’s help to see clearly, to be delivered from the adverse powers of the devil, from vain and useless thoughts and evil imaginations. We take the time to decide what is a true priority and schedule it and try to live a Christian life, taking up our cross daily with thanksgiving and resolve. Then when we fall, we get up and start again. As we follow Christ, we taste the appetizers, the fruit of this wonderful banquet, even now, while we are journeying here on planet earth. Will we accept His invitation? Will we demonstrate this through our actions? The table is set, the invitation is in our hands. What is your response? What is mine? Glory to Jesus Christ!