Invitations

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

“Who is God for?” Is there a more wrestled with question in life? In the parable of the Great Banquet this week, we found Jesus sitting at the dinner table of a Pharisee. (Luke 14:15-24) Sometime during the meal, Jesus was asked a very similar question, which Pastor Dirk rephrased as “Who is God for?” The Jewish believers around the table were expecting a particular answer. If we had the courage to ask Jesus the same question, we might also have an answer in mind. 

Photo Credit: Flickr user Vilseskogen

Some of us might feel a bit behind the game, unready for Jesus. We know Christians who seem to have it all together – serving on every ministry team with ease, reading their Bible in Greek, teaching their kids hymns instead of Taylor Swift – and so we feel un-together. Our culture, and especially our Christian sub-culture, doesn’t highly value messy people. So sometimes we just act like it’s all together; but if we can take a humble look at our lives, we know we’re a mess. We are undeserving of Jesus.

In this parable, Jesus tells us that we – the messy, undeserving leftovers – are invited! We are the ones He chases down and beckons to come and feast!

Tucked away in the Old Testament is a real story from King David’s life that sheds some light on this idea. King Saul sinned and was rejected by God, so God sent Samuel to anoint David as the next king. Sometime later, he killed Goliath and became widely beloved and praised. In fact, his popularity made Saul (still king) so jealous that he wanted David killed. So David fled, all alone, to the desert and hid in a cave.

“All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader.” (1 Samuel 22:2) Like Snow White, his cave was filled with Dopey and Sleepy and Grumpy; unfortunately he was missing Happy and Doc. (I’m not sure where Sneezy and Bashful fit in this analogy!) David didn’t start off his leadership with a group of strong, wise, upstanding guys. It was a bunch of outlaws, debtors, and grumps. And David, a man after God’s heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22), doesn’t turn them away, but transforms them into his best men, his circle of trust, his go-to guys. They weren’t the guys David needed; they were the guys who needed Him.

And so it is with us at God’s table. He doesn’t need us there; we don’t bring anything He doesn’t already have. He’s not hoping we’ll bring our proverbial Jell-O salad or famous cookies. We’re invited to the table because we desperately need Him, and He graciously provides more than we could ever ask for.

What good news for all of us who are still in progress and not all together! This is the gospel – the good news – that Jesus has come for the messy; the physician comes to heal the sick, not those who are well.

(There is a caution here for us good-at-church folks: If we feel like we deserve an invitation based on our church attendance or checklist of good works, we are like the first three guests. Do we tally our attempts at righteousness, while ignoring our humanness and depravity, and then feel entitled to an audience with Him? And since we feel like we deserve an invitation, do we put God off until later, holding back from Him until we’re older or married? Until the kids grow up or we’ve settled into our house and job? Until we’ve paid off our student loans or our mortgage?

Let us not miss the invitation!

Let’s not eat the hors d’oeuvres of the kingdom while declining the invitation to the Banquet!)

Or perhaps we are a bit further down the road with Jesus; we know that we know that we know that we’re going to the feast – we are more like the servant in this story. When we ask Jesus “Who are you for?” we’re thinking about the people we might hesitate to invite. We like to invite people who mostly have it together, and are just missing Jesus. Instead we hear Him send us to the complicated, unclean, and not-so-nice; messy people. Undeserving people. People who will laugh at us when we invite them. People who might mock us. His invitation is for those who will need to be encouraged, to be compelled. If they are going to believe that He is a God who loves and desires the undeserving, we will have to love them as they don’t deserve. We will have to love them with His love. Nothing less will convince them that they are invited and desired, messy as they are, to His table.  

“Who is God for?” What answer do you anticipate? 

God is for the broken, the messy, the unexpected, the hurting. He does not require our self-perfection or readiness; He desires that we need Him and that we want Him; that we rest in His love and feast at His table.

[Robin Bupp is married to Caleb, and they are from many places east of the Mississippi (but are calling Michigan home for the foreseeable future). A former high school science teacher, Robin is slowly turning the two Bupp kiddos into tiny nerds while they teach her lots of things, including humility and patience.]