Receiving the Banquet
As Jesus continues his journey toward Jerusalem, he is shaping in his disciples a true vision of the Kingdom of God and how to live in it now. One of the biblical images for the Kingdom of God was the Feast, and Jesus tells a parable about who will be wanted and welcomed at the feast. Shockingly, those who are invited to the feast reject it, and the master of the Feast sends his Servant to collect the busted and broken, compelling even those outside the city to come to the Feast. This is the ministry of Jesus, a wide-open invitation to the least and the lowest to draw near. At the same time, Jesus tells those who are coming after him to be sure they know what they’re getting into, because while becoming a disciple of Jesus is totally free, it will cost you everything! Only those who are able to count the cost are ready to become his disciples. Christianity is both a wide-open invitation of grace and a line-in-the-sand call to death — and both are good news!
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Read Luke 14, and take note of where Jesus is in v.1-24. His contexts shifts in v.25-35.
In vs.15-24, Jesus tells the parable of the feast. What hinders people from coming to the feast? Who comes instead?
What does Jesus tell us is required if we want to be his disciples? What does he mean by the strong language in v.25-33?
Is Christianity easy (all are welcome!) or hard (count the cost)? How do we hold both?
January 22, 2023 - Steve Hart