The Outsider

 Jesus turned to his host.  "When you put on a luncheon or dinner, don't invite your friends, brothers, relatives and rich neighbors.  For they will invite you back and that will be your only reward.  Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.  Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you."

A man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, "What a blessing it will be to attend the breaking of bread in the Kingdom of God!"

[The famous Great Feast parable follows - including the surprised of who it will include.]

Jesus told this parable:  A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations.  When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, "Come the banquet is ready." But all the guests began making excuses.  One said, "I have just bought a field and must inspect it.  Please, excuse me."  Another said, "I have just bought five pairs of oxen and I want to try them out.  Please, excuse me."  And another, "I now have a wife, so I cannot come."

The servant returned and told his master what they had all said.  His master was furious and said, "Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame."  Even after the servant did this, he reported, "There is still room for more."  

So, his master said, "Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full.  For none of whom I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet."  Luke 14:12 -25

I have often heard this preached as a warning to the wealthy, the hosts.  Here we find that the original guests allowed other demands to take precedence over meeting the conditions of saying "yes" to an invitation.  In this shame and honor culture, such events were highly significant...and turning down such an offer was quite offensive to a host.  Yet, the first guests let economic opportunities, relationships and bad planning interfere with their first commitment.

What is the quirk of human nature that causes us 

to miss out on the greatest invitations?

Yet, I find myself in the crowd of those not usually invited to such galas.  The usual avenues to feeling like I am welcome, too, in religious circles feel awkward to me.  I feel like I am outside of the invitation circle.  I think all have felt like an outsider at some point, but God is intent on going to great effort to include us in his blessing banquet.

The servant, who is put in charge of the second wave of invitations, knows all the haunts to find people who really need the bread.  This host even uses references of homelessness I understand:  behind the hedges, along the roads.  I've been lost down the backroads, hiding behind the boundaries, too.

The host, God, wants a full house.  He has a table of plenty.  He is using his servants to lure the needy to the table.  Take your role.  Be part of the call or heed the call.  Make the table full!!