The Parable of the
Great Feast

The parable of the Great Feast reminds us of the dumb excuses we make to justify not attending to invitations and events that are ultimately of great importance.

There is a grave danger in our assigning wrong priorities to temporary or unimportant things, and not evaluating our best usage of time and commitment.

Be careful what invitations we turn down, which may prove to be a misguided and costly decision...

The Parable of the Great Feast:

Luke 14.15-24

"When one of those who reclined [at the table] with Him heard this, he said to Him, Blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!

16 But Jesus said to him, A man was once giving a great supper and invited many;

17 And at the hour for the supper he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for all is now ready.

18 But they all alike began to make excuses and to beg off. The first said to him, I have bought a piece of land, and I have to go out and see it; I beg you, have me excused.

19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine and put my approval on them; I beg you, have me excused.

20 And another said, I have married a wife, and because of this I am unable to come.

21 So the servant came and reported these [answers] to his master. Then the master of the house said in wrath to his servant, Go quickly into the great streets and the small streets of the city and bring in here the poor and the disabled and the blind and the lame.

22 And the servant [returning] said, Sir, what you have commanded me to do has been done, and yet there is room.

23 Then the master said to the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges and urge and constrain [them] to yield and come in, so that my house may be filled.

24 For I tell you, not one of those who were invited shall taste my supper.

The three excuses

I bought a field, and I must inspect it - dumb excuse
I bought oxen and I need to try them out - dumber excuse
I got married, so I can't come - dumbest excuse

The truth - they did not want to come...

Each had a legitimate activity. Nothing they were collectively doing was evil of itself - the problem arises when those things prevent our attending that which is of greater importance...

Take excuse #1...

Ground that he bought cannot run away or disappear overnight. He could have inspected it the next day, if he wanted to attend...

Take excuse #2...

He had to prove his five yoke of oxen. Right! That couldn't be put off until the next day, could it...?

Take excuse #3...

The dumbest excuse of them all - he had a wife! How about bringing her along, as she has to eat too!

Why did they not want to come to the feast?

The answer may lie in the verses prior to this parable -

Luke 14.12-14

"Jesus also said to the man who had invited Him, When you give a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, lest perhaps they also invite you in return, and so you are paid back.

13 But when you give a banquet or a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind.

14 Then you will be blessed (happy, fortunate, and [c]to be envied), because they have no way of repaying you, and you will be recompensed at the resurrection of the just (upright)."

Maybe they did not want to be obligated to have to repay in kind

The "imagination" is a whole world inside the mind...

Parables are powerful "word-pictures" that are meant to be engrafted into our thinking...as mental pictures do control our thought-life.

That's where the "imagination" gets involved. The imagination allows mental exploration of the past, present, future. It is the ability to see pictures and images in the "movie theater" of the mind. The imagination is the "workshop" of the human mind. It is the only thing in the world we have complete control over. That's why GOD takes great interest of what goes on there, and judges what we allow to grow there - Genesis 6.5