9.00am and 10.30am Sunday 30 March 2003
Rev Des Botting
Reading: Luke 14:1-24
Riddle: the longest word in the English language? There are a number of sayings that revolve around the word smile. In the I've learned series there are these ones: "I've learned that everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile" or, "I've learned that a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks". And "a smile has enormous face value". Even Gollum, in "The Lord of the Rings", looks better with a smile. Another one linked with this is, If you laugh a lot, when you get older your wrinkles will be in the right places. Or, He/She who laughs, lasts. The Bible adds its own wisdom along this line when it says, "A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones." Medical research has shown conclusively that there is a very direct relationship between happiness and health.
There are, however, different kinds of happiness. There is the very fragile and shallow type of happiness, which is dependent on ones circumstances; and there is the deep, enduring kind of happiness that is constant irrespective of what is going on around a person. It is this latter type of happiness, which is best described as joy, which the Bible teaches is the distinguishing mark of a Christian. This deep joy was characteristic of the life of Jesus.
Joy comes through in the passage we read from Luke this morning. All these verses have to do with feasts and banquets, and it is significant that Jesus thought of His kingdom in this way.
The Bible speaks of Gods people being crowned with happiness. The prophet Isaiah writes, "So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." The Book of Revelation says, "He (God) will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying or pain. These things of the past are gone forever. " Heaven is going to be a happy place. But we dont have to wait until then to know this joy the Bible speaks of. It is constantly ours through having the presence of Gods Spirit in our lives.
In the passage we read this morning, Luke begins by telling us of Jesus being once again the dinner guest of a Pharisee. This is the third time in Luke that we find Jesus in the home of a Pharisee. Hospitality was very important in Bible times, and God gave specific instructions to His people about it. Jesus, as far as we are aware, never turned down an invitation of dinner. These occasions provided Him with another opportunity to talk about Gods kingdom. His concern was to see these very religious people won over, and so He never refused to go when He was invited. The Pharisee who invited Jesus this time Luke describes as very important. He also makes it clear that Jesus was under close scrutiny. He says, "everyone was carefully watching Jesus." So it may well have been a set up, when Luke says this man with swollen legs, or dropsy, suddenly appeared on the scene. This dinner event was on the Sabbath, and to heal on the Sabbath was against the Law, at least in the eyes of the Pharisees.
This incident, and what followed can help us to answer the question,
Four Necessary qualities: spoken of here that God looks for in people. The first quality God is looking for is
Jesus said, "God blesses those people who are merciful. They will be treated with mercy." The Concise Oxford Dictionarys definition of mercy is compassion shown by one to another who is in his power and has no claim to kindness. Mercy is something that is undeserved by the one to whom it is shown. Earlier in Luke Jesus said, "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." Gods mercy to us is completely undeserved, and He is looking for this quality in His children. This is part of fulfilling His commandment to "Love your neighbours as much as you love yourself." He told the story about the Good Samaritan to illustrate this truth. Our neighbour is anyone in need, whether they be deserving of it or not.
(This next paragraph may be left out)
If I can digress for a moment, last week I shared why Jesus used picture stories, or parables as the Bible calls them, to get His message across. The stories were about familiar things in the lives of His hearers, but then in the twist He gave the stories people were given new insight and understanding into what God really meant when He gave them His Law. When explaining the meaning of the command to love your neighbour, He told the story of The Good Samaritan. We are so used to hearing its title, The Good Samaritan, that we fail to realise how offensive it was to Jewish ears for anyone to call a Samaritan good. That was not how they viewed Samaritans. Samaritans were despised by self-respecting Jews. And that the Samaritan was the only one who showed pity to the man who had been attacked by robbers, would also have shocked His audience. The Samaritan, himself, was virtually helping an enemy, as the ill-feeling between Jews and Samaritans was mutual. The point of the story is that loving ones neighbour is showing mercy to anyone in need, irrespective of their race, creed or culture. Jesus, both by His words and actions in this leading Pharisees house, is saying that this is what God is looking for in people.
One of the implications of this is our willingness to forgive. Many, many times those who wrong us do not deserve to be forgiven, but, as it says in the Lords prayer, our own forgiveness by God is conditional upon our willingness to forgive others.
How would you score yourself on this quality of mercy on a 1-10 scale, with 1 being very weak, and 10 being very strong? How would you score us as a church?
The second quality God is looking for is
2. HUMILITY. This comes out in verses 7-11. These religious people always liked to be seated in the
best seats, and there may well have been an undignified scramble for the best places at the table in that Luke says, "Jesus saw how the guests had tried to take the best seats." He warns them against this because they may well be asked to sit elsewhere if a more important person turns up. He said it was better to take the lowest seat, than go through the embarrassment of having to move seats. Jesus is giving a lesson in humility. Again in His Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, "God blesses those people who are humble. The earth will belong to them." This picks up a theme that we find throughout Scripture. For example in Proverbs we read, "Showing respect to the Lord will make you wise, and being humble will bring honour to you." Peter, likewise, gives good counsel when he says,
"All of you young people should obey your elders. In fact, everyone should be humble toward everyone else. The Scriptures say, God opposes proud people, but he helps everyone who is humble. Be humble in the presence of Gods mighty power, and he will honour you when the time comes."
This was one of the things that Paul had to write about in his letter to the church at Philippi. The Christians in Philippi had problems in their attitudes toward one another within the church, and Paul encouraged them to adopt the mind of Christ in their relationship to each other. He said, "Dont be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves." The life of Jesus is always to be our standard, and He encouraged us to follow His example. He said, "Take the yoke I give you, Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest." As we know from the Gospels, the disciples had to be reminded of this several times.
When the disciples asked Jesus on one occasion who would be greatest in Gods kingdom, He called a child over and had the child stand near Him. "Then He said, I promise you this. If you dont change and become like this child, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. But if you are as humble as this child, you are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Humility is essential if we are to enter Gods heaven. We can never come to God as long as we think we can do it all on our own. We must have the humility to recognize that we are sinners in the sight of God, in desperate need of His forgiveness and help, and that we do not deserve His kindness and goodness toward us in His Son, Jesus Christ. How would you score yourself on this quality?
This leads naturally to the third quality necessary for entry into Gods heaven, that of
3. KINDNESS. We see this in verses 12-14. As was mentioned at the beginning, this whole passage is about feasts and banquets. In the previous verses Jesus was speaking to the guests at such occasions. In these verses He is addressing the host. Jesus wasnt saying that it is wrong for one to entertain friends and rich neighbours, but that we should not invite these alone. He says it is good when we do good to those who may never be able to repay our kindness.
Kindness is a quality that God has always desired for His people. In the Old Testament it says,
"He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" The reason why we are to show kindness is because God has been infinitely kind to us. Paul says, "Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realise that Gods kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" When we take time to consider what God has done - He created us in His own image and likeness, gave us this beautiful world in which to live and which we messed up by our sinfulness, and then sent His only Son to die for us - it is truly amazing. He has been infinitely forbearing and patient with us, and it is to one end, that we will return to Him to whom we rightfully belong, do what is right, love kindness, and walk humbly with Him. This is what we were created for.
Further, Jesus says such acts of kindness do not go unnoticed by God. His words here are, "God will bless you and reward you when his people rise from death." It brings to mind Jesus words in his story of the final judgment. "Then the ones who pleased the Lord will ask, When did we give you something to eat or drink? When did we welcome you as a stranger or give you clothes to wear or visit you while you were sick or in jail? The king will answer, Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me." When Mother Teresa was ministering to the dying beggars on the streets of Calcutta, she looked past the filth and stench to see Jesus in the eyes of those she helped.
Kindness is the evidence that Gods Spirit lives within us. It is included in Pauls list of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, along with love, joy, peace, etc. How well do we fare in this quality as individuals, and as a church?
The final quality that comes through in this passage is
4. READINESS. We are told that when Jesus had finished speaking, one of the guests at this dinner, said, "The greatest blessing of all is to be at the banquet in Gods kingdom!" It is quite clear that this man thought he was going to be there. But Jesus immediately responds by telling a rather sober story of a great banquet where the invited guests didnt attend. In the story Jesus says, "When the banquet was ready, he sent a servant to tell the guests, Everything is ready! Please come. One guest after another started making excuses." Jesus makes it very clear that those who one would have expected to be there, turned down the invitation, and others whom one would not have expected to be there, attended in their place. There are a number of points we should note from this story. Note that all who were excluded from the banquet, excluded themselves. They were all invited, but refused to come. And all who were included, accepted the invitation to attend. This brings home the truth of
Note a) the ABSOLUTE FREEDOM to ACCEPT or REJECT the invitation to enter Gods heaven. The Bible
makes it very clear that the invitation is there for all to come. It says, "God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die." This well-known verse says, "everyone who has faith in Him will have eternal life." It is an open invitation. It is a gracious invitation. "Please come", are the words that are used. It is amazing that we have been invited to enter Gods heaven in the first place. We do not deserve this kindness. It is even more amazing that anyone should refuse to go. No one has been able to give a good reason for not accepting the gospel invitation. The reasons the three people in the story gave were all excuses. None of them were legitimate. The first invited guest who bought the land must have had a good look at it before buying it. The guest who had bought five teams of bullocks would have done the same. As we will see next week, even those nearest and dearest to us must not come between God and ourselves. Love for God must always come first. He always has prior call on our lives. All their excuses related to good things, but it is wrong to make any of them a substitute for coming to Christ. Too often it is the good that keeps us from Gods very best. There is an absolute freedom to accept or reject Gods invitation in Christ. All who were excluded from the banquet excluded themselves.
Secondly, note
b) the URGENCY of the invitation. Jesus said, "The servant told his master what happened, and
the master became so angry that he said, Go as fast as you can to every street and alley in town! Bring in everyone who is poor or crippled or blind or lame." It is a terrifying thing to put ourselves outside the grace of God, because then we have to answer to our own sins. Hebrews chapter 10:26-31 speaks of the dangers of doing this and ends with the words, "It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God!" Jesus went through terrible suffering to save us from that. He took the punishment we deserved. God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. But His coming is a judgment in itself, for if people refuse to believe in Him, they are without hope. Speed is of the essence as we share the good news of what God has done. There is an urgency to this that comes through in this verse. All who are sinners will fit into one or more of the categories of people to be invited to the great banquet in heaven. This verse is not speaking only of physical disabilities. They can be spiritual, too.
Then, finally note
c) that God want HIS HOUSE FULL "His master then told him, Go out along the back roads and
fence rows and make people come in, so that my house will be full." Notice how the master instructed his servant to go everywhere to extend the invitation, even "out along the back roads and tracks." No one is to be overlooked. All must receive an invitation to come. There will not be an empty place at Gods banquet in heaven.
In closing, note that there was a gap between the time when the invitation was first given and when the banquet was ready. This was common in Bible times. It is the same for us. In Jesus Christ, God has extended to us an invitation to enter His kingdom, to acknowledge His reign and rule in our lives. This we are to do now. There will come a time when the promise becomes a reality, that is, Gods kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven, and we need to be ready. Why not say "Yes to His invitation today?