Luke 14-15 – October 26

Jesus councils us to “invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind” (see Luke 14:13) when we invite people to the "feast" of the Kingdom of God; then we will be rewarded in the age to come since they can’t reward us in this age. After this, Jesus tells a parable of how a man gave a great supper and sent his servant out and invited many (See verse 16), but they all began to make excuses of why they couldn't make it (See verses 18-20). Verse 21 says, “So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.'” In the parable “the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind” are invited since the others can’t get their priorities straight. What does this all mean for the church? We are not supposed to focus our attention on the outward appearances of people’s lives; neither should we look at what a person has to give with their talents or resources. We are to focus on those that are willing to come and make Jesus first in their life regardless of how messy their life is right now. In the parable, the servant tells the man that he has already invited the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind, and there is still room. The man’s solution is to “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus would call His people to bring the Gospel to the heathen nations of the world to fill up His kingdom. These people were spiritually poor, maimed and blind but many of them would repent and put Jesus Christ first in their life. This is still true today. We must be willing to go to hurting, messed up people and “invite them to the feast” the Lord has prepared for them. Let’s make sure our priorities are right and our reward will come; not mostly in this age, but it will come.