(This message was preached in three parts separated by singing.)
I. Finding Our True Place
(This first segment is taught as a children’s object lesson. In preparation a number of chairs was set out equal to the number of children with one being especially nice and another being very shabby. Chocolate bars were cut into various sized pieces, one somewhat larger than the others, and an extra piece somewhat smaller. The children are then invited to come and find a seat at the front and enjoy a piece of chocolate as they answer a few questions and listen to a Bible Story.)
(This is written in advance, if the children behave differently the preacher will have to improvise.)
I notice that when I called you to come and sit with me here at the front you all headed for the nice leather-bound chairs and left this poor chair for the visitors who were too shy to race to the front. Why do you think that you did that?
Jimmy* I notice that you have taken the largest piece of chocolate from the plate. Do you know why you took the largest piece? Does anyone know why Jimmy took the largest piece? Jimmy, what would you do if I told you that that piece was a special piece I was saving for my mother who is visiting today and likes chocolate very much? I suppose you would be left with this very tiny piece, wouldn’t you. I’ll bet you wish you had been satisfied with an average size piece now. (Don’t worry, my mother will be happy to have the smallest piece instead.)
Do you know why we do these things? Adults, do you know why we cut off cars in traffic, or jump out of our seats as soon as the airplane lands even thought the flight attendant asked us to remain seated? We do it because we somehow believe that we are more important than the rest of these people. That is why we take the biggest and best things for ourselves, we think that we deserve them more than anyone else.
I want you to listen to a story that is based on a parable that Jesus told. It was about a party that someone was having. A lot of people were invited, and when they got there, they saw that the seats were set up so that some were closer to the birthday cake and others were much further away. Which seat do you think you would choose?
Some people came very early and took the best seats they could find. But when the person who was having the party came and saw all the seats full except for the ones far away, he came to those sitting close to the front and said, “I’m sorry, but my closest friend has yet to arrive and I was keeping these seats for him. You’ll have to choose a different seat.”
But if they had come in and seen all the seats and chosen one of the poor seats far away, the person having the party might have come in and seen them so far away and called to them, saying, “You are good friends, you should have better seats, here, come and sit in these good seats.”
How do you think you would feel if you had to move to the poor seats with everyone watching? How do you think you would feel about being asked to take the better seats?
Jesus says, ‘It’s better to humble yourself and allow God to lift you up, rather than to be so proud that God must knock you down.’
(Dismiss children with a prayer.)
Conclusion: Selfishness is the deification of the self. That’s what Stuart Briscoe called it. This story is not told to give us a tip on how to get the very best seat. It’s not a story about how to find prestige in the world, but Jesus told it so that we might understand where we really fit with God.
When we humble ourselves, only then do we discover our true place, and only then are we in a condition for God to lift us up.
II. Finding Our True Blessing
How long had Jesus silently observed the supper cycle of the Scribes and Pharisee’s? Had he watched it ever since he was a boy? It must have been hard to miss.
On one day a leading Scribe would invite all the Pharisee’s to dine with him. Then the Pharisee’s decked out in their best robes would strut through the city to the home of this important man where they would wrestle over the seating plan.
With dinner over, a leading Pharisee would then invite all the scribes to join him for dinner the next week, and the scene would be perpetuated. But the invitation list never seemed to change. There were the occasional additions of celebrated Rabbi’s or a new Pharisee, and there were deletions, anyone that fell out of the social circle. But always it was the same procession, the same struggle for prestige and the same re-invitations.
So Jesus makes this shocking suggestion: ‘Then He also said to him who invited Him, ‘When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor your rich neighbours, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.’
I have two distinct recollections from when I was a youth pastor in Creston. The first is of a particular family that had proven to be a thorn in my side from very early in my ministry. I was short on help for the annual summer camp, and the wife of this particular family came and offered to volunteer to take over the extra work I needed accomplished. Coming from anyone else it would have been a wonderful offer, but coming from this source it wasn’t much of a gift. Sure enough, a few months later the request came for a favour, something that didn’t fit in with the current ministry direction. This wasn’t a gift of service that was given, it was an offer to purchase future favours.
The second story is one that I am quite fond of. I was in Calgary with 9 teenagers on a ten day mission trip. The day before we had spent a few hours in a park talking to some homeless teenagers about God’s love for them. The conversation had been good, but we sensed that these teens held us at arms length. So the next day I challenged the group, would they be willing to sacrifice the money they had raised for our dinner to provide a feast for the teens we had visited. Everyone of them agreed, and as we sat on the grass, surrounded by homeless teens chowing down on KFC, we heard one of the kids say, ‘This is just like when Jesus fed all those people.’ My kids were hungry that night, but they were all smiling, nothing fills you up quite like the sense that you have given something with all your heart.
Conclusion: If you’re giving to get, you better get as much as you can now, because there’s nothing more coming. But if you’re seeking blessing, give without expectation… no, without hope, of return.
III. Finding Our True Calling
December 6, 2001 was a day which made me angry. When I think about it, it still brings a sense of hurt to me. That was the day that my little girl turned 1. My only consolation is that she is too young to remember what happened.
Michelle had gone to great lengths to prepare for her party. Birthday’s in Michelle’s family are a big deal. Her mom had sent special decorations from Japan for the party. Michelle had planned everything out. It would be a Tweety-Bird Party, complete with Tweety-Bird table cloth, napkins, cups and a special Tweety-Bird cake.
All day long Michelle had worked on decorating the cake. She had picked out a cute yellow outfit for Tabby to wear. A few weeks before we had distributed to all our friends neatly printed Tweety-Bird invitations. Many of them had said they would come.
That was when the phone rang. A couple hours to the party and one of our friends had to call and cancel, something else going on that day. Then another call, and another. The worst wasn’t the phone calls, but the ones who didn’t call and didn’t come. When the time for the party rolled around no one was there yet. 20 minutes later and still no one. After an hour we were sitting in an empty house decorated with bright paper and pictures with an uneaten cake on a table set with a dozen unused plates. I was angry. For once I think I was angry for the right reasons.
I was angry on behalf of my wife, who had planned so long and worked so hard to prepare for this special day. But I was even more angry on behalf of my little girl, who was too young to know anything was wrong. Of all my friends, not a single one thought my daughter was as important as the other things they had to do that day.
In the story Jesus tells, the master has prepared a great feast. It was the custom in those days, just as it is today to invite people to a wedding before it took place so that one would know how much to prepare. But unlike today, in Jesus day the guests would be summoned when everything was ready.
But the guests that are invited claim they are not able to come. The excuses they give are hard to swallow, however. For who would buy land first, and then go and look at it? Who purchases a yoke of oxen and then tries them out? And what difference does it make that the third man has recently married?
Perhaps they fear that the things they value will have to be set aside in order to attend this lavish feast. For indeed, there are things we must set aside when we accept the invitation into the Kingdom of God. But more likely these people felt that what they had was of more value and interest to them than the great banquet offered at the Master’s Table.
We don’t need to think to long on what this feast represents, or on the identity of the master. For Jesus speaks these words in response to the comment by one of the Pharisee’s that blessed is the man who will eat in the Kingdom of God.
Indeed Jesus is now speaking of that great wedding feast that is yet to come, the host of whom will be none other than the Almighty Creator of the Universe.
But who are the invited guests who dare to reject the offer of God? As Jesus is speaking it is the very ones gathered at this table. The Jews who have for nearly 2000 years received revelation from God about the coming Messiah and the Kingdom he would usher in. Yet they are so engrossed in their own matters that they are actively rejecting the invitation that Jesus has made to them, not only once, but repeatedly.
Is God angry…
Yes.
Is God right to be angry…
Yes. For this is no birthday party with uneaten cake that is being shunned. This is the inauguration of God’s rule on earth. The invitations were engraved by a nail-marked hand. The feast was paid for by the blood of His only begotten Son. This is not a rejection of hospitality, this is a rejection of salvation
Who are these others. Those in the alleys and streets of the city? Those in the highways and by-ways outside the city gates? And why must they be compelled to come in? These are the tired and weary who have no claim on God. There is nothing about them to commend them to God. They have no beauty in themselves to attract Him to them. They do not deserve the invitation and they know it. Perhaps that is why they must be compelled – not forced, but called in with urgency, because they know they will never be able to repay the debt. They are like those in the second story who have no table to lay out a spread in recompense. They simply sit as beggars at the feast.
So now we are led to this reality. That we are those who have been called from without the city gates. What have you done with your RSVP?
I cannot help but see a danger here. For North America, Canada and the USA especially were founded on Christian principles. Churches were constructed here before schools or court houses, sometimes before homes. For decades the gospel has been preached and proclaimed from shore to shore. In so many ways we mirror those who have received an engraved invitation… but in the words of Yesterday’s London Free Press, “In the public forum, the only people who refer to God with a straight face are clergy and politicians – the latter of whom probably can expect to be excused on grounds of rhetorical norms. Can anyone consume popular culture – movies, television – and seriously think religion carries the weight in people’s lives it once did? In the public forum, at least, God is dead. He’s dead at the water cooler.”
Conclusion: All three of these stories have to do with a similar theme. Everything revolves here around the have’s and the have not’s. Jesus is telling us stories about status, status which is both real and imagined.
You see, it turns out that much that we think is reality is illusion; and things which seem of little significance may play the key role at the end of all time.
You won’t get promoted by inviting all your underlings to dinner; but you will reap real blessing. You won’t get rich giving money to charity, but you will discover that sometimes the satisfaction of giving is better than money in the bank. You might lose out on some investments, wealth and pleasure by accepting the invitation to the kingdom. But rest assured, that when the table is finally set and the host calls you friend and shows you to a seat, there will be no one thinking about their bank balance.
Humble yourself, not in order to be lifted up, but because only in humbling ourselves to we find our true position in life.
Give generously of what you have been given, not in order to receive reward, recognition and recompense, but because only in sacrificial giving do we discover the blessing of God.
Accept God’s invitation to the Wedding Feast. It may seem an inconvenience today, but no greater feast will ever be given, the invitation is in your hands, what will you do with it?
Let’s conclude this morning with the commentary of a scholar by the name Manston: “The… essential points in [this] teaching are that no man can enter the kingdom without the invitation of God, and that no man can remain outside it but by his own deliberate choice; man cannot save himself, but he can damn himself. And it is the latter fact that makes the preaching of Jesus so urgent. For He sees the deepest tragedy of human life, not in the many wrong or foolish things that men do, or the many good and wise things they fail to accomplish, but in the rejection of God’s greatest gift.”
