Luke 14:15-24 Invitation to the Banquet
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: September 26, 2018 Luke 14:15-24
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”
(Understanding the Text) Jesus had just spoken of inviting guests to eat and the resurrection of the just, so it turned the mind of one of the guests to heaven. Also, the guest may have wanted to turn the conversation away from any criticism of the host and focus it in a different direction. If so, he didn’t succeed as well as he may have hoped. Jesus responded with a parable where the respectable people had been invited and they would not come, so the same group as before–the poor, lame, crippled and blind were brought in to the feast. There was still room, so the servants were to go grab people off the street and bring them in to the feast.
In one way this is an allegory of the Jewish nation. When the religious leaders of the Jews rejected Jesus, He brought in the lost sheep of Israel, those that were despised and rejected. After His resurrection, He sent His disciples to the Samaritans and Gentiles to bring in the strangers from the highways. The religious leaders who refused Him will have no part in the resurrection of the just.
In another way this is an allegory of Christians today. When we decide that the world’s amusements and responsibilities are more real and important than Jesus, we are denying the inheritance that we claim to want. God is inviting us to eat with Him. Will we accept His invitation, or make excuses? If we make excuses long enough, we will miss the final invitation to the feast. However, others that we never expected to be there will be brought in–maybe those who have been wounded and, thus, have rejected the church, but not God; maybe those who are simply shut-in and cannot reach others for fellowship; and certainly strangers from other religions who never planned on partaking with Jesus, but who somehow found themselves in the company of Jesus’ servants and drawn in to communion without planning to.
In one way the king is setting the example that Jesus told the host he should set of inviting the poor, blind, lame, and crippled to a banquet; however, Jesus’ advice was to not invite friends and to invite these people instead. In contrast, the king invited the friends at first and only invited the others when the friends refused to come. I am not sure what to make of the difference, except that Jesus was changing the focus from charity which resulted in receiving a Sabbath blessing to judgement and reward in heaven. Who will be eating with Jesus in heaven? Unexpected people. I usually think of myself as one of the respectable people, but the truth is that I am one of the ones who was crippled and blind. I was hurt by the world and blinded by my interactions with second- and third-generation Adventists so that I no longer saw God clearly, and God brought me back in to the feast.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I need to be a servant bringing more of the poor, blind, crippled, and lame into my Savior for healing. I need to not judge whether someone is worthy of the effort to bring him/her in since my Master has said to bring in those who are disabled and not worthy. It is not up to me to judge. It is up to me to be faithful in the small things. I want to serve You. Show me the people that I should talk to and how to bring them in to You.