Choosing to Reject the Blessing

Scripture: One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, "Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" Then Jesus said to him, "Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for everything is ready now.' But they all alike began to make excuses." Luke 14:15-18a

Observation: Jesus tells the parable of the great feast - a feast where invited guests refuse to come, so the master gives orders to fill the house with anyone off the streets and willing to attend - in response to a declaration ... 'blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.'

The meaning of the parable is understood, which is that God invites people to his feast of heaven, but many of the "chosen" refuse to attend, and thus the invitation is cast more and more broadly. The obvious target for this is the Jews, whom will reject Jesus and the gospel will be extended to the gentiles. However, today this message can include anyone who has been actively invited to know Jesus but rejects him.

At the same time, by responding to the original declaration, Jesus is emphasizing a key point of the parable, which is that ... people will actively, intentionally, and willfully reject the blessing of God because they choose to prioritize earthly activities. The three examples given clearly align to people who are more interested in their financial investment, or their work, or sexual relationships. Despite being invited to a grand feast, they would rather do these worldly things. Yes, anyone who eats bread in the kingdom of God is indeed blessed, but people will - and do - choose to reject that blessing.

Application: I absolutely know people who have heard and received the good news, even to the point of believing that God exists, but have decided to reject faith in Jesus explicitly because they would rather support 'social issues' of today's culture that they believe the teaching of the bible is against. They have personally been invited to the great feast, hosted by the Lord himself, and they have decided ...  no thanks, I'm good.

The three responses in the parable align well to the themes of today. Everyone pursues money and power. Work is the dominant activity of most lives. People now define themselves by the types of sex they have and with whom. Meanwhile, a large number of people support this model of life to the point that they have decided faith in Jesus must be wrong because it would force them to rethink these social standards.

I choose to prioritize joining the Lord and eating bread in the kingdom of God. I deprioritize and reject the world's cultural norms and direction in favor of a wonderful blessing of heaven.

Prayer: Lord, this day there will be so many people who choose to reject you because they instead choose to accept the lies of this world. I pray they don't. I pray that at least some will rethink this, and will decide to choose you. I pray this specifically for Eric, but also for anyone else who is making such decisions during this season. Let us break bread in heaven someday. Amen.