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Wednesday, 25 December 2013

Luke 14:15-24 - Whose problem?

This is a continuation of the discussion in the preceding section. Jesus has warned the Pharisees that they should invite the poor and lame to their banquets, for it is God who gives the final reward, and we should be looking to Him for our reward, not an earthly reward.
Jesus then tells the parable of the Great Banquet, and inviting the poor, lame and blind is precisely what God does. It was not that "respectable" people were not invited, but that they all made excuses. Now see how the master reacts, He does not accommodate the people who have made excuses, but sends His servants out into streets to invite the lame and blind and poor. This was done but there was still room, so the master sent them out into the highways and byways.
There are several lessons to be learnt from this. The first is that God does not accommodate His ways to suit us. We need to change our ways to suit Him! Yet look at how men always react, listen to complaints and debates from atheists. They all boil down to "God should do things the way I want Him to do them". We need to beware of the same tendency within ourselves as well. We need to fit in with God's plans. 
Then we see that the problem is not that there is not enough room in "heaven". God will quite willingly take all who accept the invitation. God is not reluctant to save, rather we are reluctant to be saved. That is the problem.

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