Thoughts From Luke - Day 67

                                                     Luke 14:12-23

¹² Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴ and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
¹⁵ When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
¹⁶ Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. ¹⁷ At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
¹⁸ “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
¹⁹ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
²⁰ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
²¹ “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
²² “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
²³ “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. ²⁴ I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”


          I'm currently on a medical mission trip to Panama with my church. We saw 120 patients between the two of us in 2 days and 31people prayed to receive Christ. That means 25% of the people we saw responded to the gospel and I would say another 50% we saw were church members of the church we were helping by doing a clinic and were already saved. I have been on 25-30 foreign missions in my life and always amazed by the response to the gospel. This parable tells a big part of the reasons for the "success"we have in sharing the gospel on these trips versus sharing it in the United States. 

           First of all the people we share with aren't distracted from coming to christ by material possesions because they have so little.  I would say the response to the gospel is directly proportionate to the poverty level. When you don't have oxen or fields to distract you, you have time to listen to and contemplate the good news. When you count the cost of following christ,  it is a lot less when you have nothing. Also, possessions tend to temporarily give you happiness.  Whenever you are depressed, going to the mall and buying something can cheer you up. When you have nothing, you are quick to find happiness and joy in Jesus.  I was always moved by a story a friend of mine told at a men's bible study one morning. He recounted that his 6 year old son always came to the door before he left and gave his dad a big hug and told him he loved him. Then one day my friend bought his son a computer to play on. From that point on, my friend never saw his son at the door anymore. His son would yell from the room, "Goodbye, Dad". You see, the very thing that my friend wanted to bless his son with, served to separate them.  This is how the Devil uses materialism. 

         Another reason is options - poverty could be loosely defined as a lack of options.  The people in this parable have options -" do I want to come to the feast or not? " The poor, crippled, blind, and lame have no other options,  it's come and eat or starve - not really an option. In these countries we go to, the people have very little autonomy or freedom to do and be whoever they want to be. Their future is set for them when they are born. No wonder they jump at the offer to be children of the king someday.

         One more factor that keeps people from Jesus,  although it isn't a cultural thing,  nor does it answer the question of why we have so much success sharing the gospel on mission trips versus in America,  is the whole issue of sex. In the parable,  the guy just got married and can't come to the feast. Now obviously there is a whole lot more to marriage than sex, but in my experience, sex is a big deterrent to coming to christ.  People know that the Bible teaches that any sexual relationship outside of marriage is a sin or direct disobedience to the God that you say you are coming to.  Therefore people have to decide to follow that rule or not follow christ and unfortunately,  sex usually wins. When I did youth group, whenever I started hearing views on the Bible like "that was written for that culture ", or " that was just Paul's opinion ",  or the like,  I know what's up with that person.  They are either having sex or wanting to. It's not just teens. My dad started a church with a man whowas a sstrong believer. This guy had an affair with his secretary,  left his wife and completely left the faith. He told my dad, "I can't believe all the good years of my life I wasted following jesus". He lost his soul for sex.

I'm also reminded of my mission trip to Jamaica in '98. I would ask my female patients, "Are you a Christian. " They would say "no".I would ask "do you believe that you are a sinner separated from God"? They would answer, "yes". I would ask "Do you believe Jesus died on 
the cross for your sins and rose from the dead to give you life"? They would say "yes". I would say, "Have you asked Jesus into your heart to forgive your sins?" They would say, "yes". Then, confused,  I would ask," Then why do you say that you aren't a Christian? " If I heard it once, I heard it 100 times,"Because I'm living with my boyfriend and not married. " One one hand I was happy that they understood God's call to obedience and lordship,  but on the other hand, I was grieved that they would choose hell over heaven for a sexual relationship.  It blows me away!

       Of all the many sins out there, why are sex and money the two that usually keep people out of heaven?  I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that it is true and I believe this is one of the lessons that Jesus is teaching in this passage.