Inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires the humility and the passion to go to those who are far from Jesus...

This week we have been looking at an event from history that is recorded in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. In this event from history Jesus was invited over to the home of one of the Pharisees one Sabbath. After the service at the synagogue, a natural practice in the culture of the day was to invite one’s friends over for a meal. This meal would be time of connection where people would invite those who were of a similar social status to reinforce their relationships with one another and to honor one another.

Luke then explained that Jesus, aware that He was being watched closely by this group of self-righteous religious leaders, responded by asking them a question: "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?" The Pharisees, however, refused to answer the question but instead remained silent. Upon receiving no answer to His question, Jesus miraculously healed the man and sent him on his way. And as the man who had been miraculously healed by Jesus went on his way, Jesus asked the self righteous religious leaders a second and much more personal question: "Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?"

Jesus exposed the reality that for these religious leaders, keeping God’s rules regarding the Sabbath took precedent over keeping God’s command to demonstrate God’s mercy. After healing a man and breaking one of their rules, Jesus then began to tell a series of parables.

Jesus point of His initial parable was that the person who considered themselves better than others and looked down on others by attempting to seize position, power, and glory for themselves will have the position, power, and glory taken away from them by God. By contrast, the person who has a humble attitude, the person who places others before themselves will have their reputation enhanced by God as a result of their attitude towards others.

In a second parable, Jesus attacked the insider vs. outsider mentality of the self righteous religious leaders of His day. Instead of focusing on what they would receive from those who are already on the inside, Jesus called those listening to focus on the needs of those outside without any expectation of receiving anything in return. Jesus point was that the focus of His followers is to be on the outsiders who are far from God. The focus is to be on receiving recognition from God, not from others who are already insiders.

One of the self righteous religious people at the meal responded by making a statement that was designed to make himself look spiritually mature. This self righteous religious person believed that, just as it was for those at this meal, the invitation to God’s dinner party for all eternity in Heaven would be for only a select few. From this self righteous religious person’s perspective, only a select few would be invited to be a part of God’s kingdom in Heaven. However this self righteous religious person’s statement led Jesus to launch into a third parable, which Luke records in Luke 14:16. Let’s look at it together:

  But He said to him, "A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour 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. The first one said to him, 'I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.'  "Another one said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.' "Another one said, 'I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.' "And the slave came back and reported this to his master.

Now to fully wrap our minds around this parable, we first need to make sure that we notice a few things. First, did you notice that the man who was the head of the household gave two invitations to the dinner party that he was going to have? As was normal for the culture of the day, the head of the household issued the first invitation in verse 16.

This invitation would have been given well in advance and would have been similar to an RSVP in our culture today. This invitation was necessary so that the head of the household could make the necessary preparations in terms of food, beverages, and the like for the dinner party. Then, in verse 17, we see the head of the household sent his servant out with a second invitation. This invitation was to let the invited guests know that it was time to go to the party.

Second, did you notice that the invitation was to many, not to only a select few? Jesus tells us that the head of the household invited many. However, in verse 18, Jesus explained that they all alike began to make excuses. Now just as it is today, an excuse is simply an attempt to avoid something by making a statement that provides a reason to reject the invitation.

Now this leads us to the third thing that we need to notice, which is how lame these excuses were. All of these excuses involved preplanned activities, not last minute emergencies. So, basically what happened is that those who had been invited gave the impression that they were interested in attending the dinner, but in reality had no intention on actually attending the dinner.

Fourth, did you notice that all of these excuses come down to an issue of priorities? All of those invited either chose to make their possessions or their personal pleasure a priority over the invitation to attend the dinner party.

And fifth, did you notice that all of those that were invited would have been very similar to the people that were also in attendance at the meal that Jesus was at? These were people who appeared to be close to the head of the household in terms of their proximity and their social status. These were people who were well off financially and appeared to be insiders with the head of the household.

However, while they may have appeared to be insiders who were close to the head of the household, their rejection of the invitation to attend the dinner party revealed that their relationship with the head of the household was not a priority in their lives. After the servant shared with the head of the household the excuses of those who had been invited, we see Jesus continue His parable by revealing how the head of the household’s responded to their excuses in the second half of verse 21:

Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, 'Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.'  "And the slave said, 'Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.' "And the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. 'For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.'"

The head of the household, furious that so many had rejected his gracious invitation to have dinner with him, commanded his servant to go back into the city to invite the poor, crippled, blind, and lame. In the culture of the day, these would have been outsiders who had little or no position, power, or influence. After extending the invitation to those who were outsiders, the servant returned to his master to explain that there was still room for more to attend the dinner party.

The head of the household, who desired that his dinner party be filled, responded by commanding his servant to go and invite even more people. This time, however, the servant was directed to travel far and wide so as to compel them to come to the dinner party. Now the word compel here literally means to strongly urge.

You see, the head of the household wanted as many people as possible to enjoy the dinner party. And the head of the household was willing to send his servant further and further away from home in order to extend the invitation. However, for those who thought that they were insiders who were close to the head of the household but rejected his invitation, they were not going to receive another invitation.

Now can you imagine what was running through the mind of the self righteous religious person who had wanted to make himself look spiritually mature? Jesus had just blown up all of his categories. The point that Jesus wanted to drive home to all the self righteous religious people at this meal was that God was extending an invitation to many people to be a part of His kingdom.

The point that Jesus wanted to drive home to all of the self righteous religious people at this meal was that God was willing to pursue people who were far from God and would be viewed as outsiders so that He could strongly urge them to accept His invitation to be a part of His kingdom. The point that Jesus wanted to drive home to all of the self righteous religious people at this meal was that God was on a mission to humbly and passionately invite not just a few privileged insiders, but many, many outsiders to experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for.

And it is here that we see God reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to inviting people to follow Jesus is a way that follows the example of Jesus. And that timeless truth is this: Inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires the humility and the passion to go to those who are far from Jesus. In order to invite people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus, we must have the humility and the passion to go to those who are far from Jesus.

Inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we humbly place others who are far from Jesus before ourselves instead of looking down on others who are far from Jesus. And inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we passionately go to those who are far from Jesus by loving, serving, and investing in their lives.

You see, the Lord is passionate about reaching out and rescuing those who are outsiders who are far from Him. As a matter of fact, Jesus is far more committed to this reality than we are. And because Jesus is committed to reaching out and rescuing those who are far from Him, we can have confidence to invite those who are far from Him to follow Him. We can have confidence because Jesus desires to use us as the vehicle that He uses to reach out and rescue those who are far from Him.

Inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires that we recognize what is at stake in the life of the person who is far from Jesus so that we would respond to that reality by preparing ourselves to represent Jesus well as we extend the invitation to follow Jesus. This means that we are seeking the Lord’s presence, power, and direction when it comes to what we say and how we say it as we extend the invitation to follow Jesus. We are to be committed to knowing the person who we are investing and inviting to follow Jesus as well as the words that we are going to use as we invite them to follow Jesus. 

So here is a question to consider. Are you willing to humbly and passionately go to those around you who are far from Jesus? Are you willing to do something that will connect with someone that Jesus has already placed around you that is far from Jesus? Are you willing to take the time to love and serve someone around you that is far from Jesus in a way that enables you to connect with them in a tangible and practical way?

Because inviting people to follow Jesus in a way that follows the example of Jesus requires the humility and the passion to go to those who are far from Jesus...