“Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.”

As this parable speaks of the Great feast to come, which we are to enjoy when Christ returns, we see that there are guidelines and criteria for those who will atend. Only the guests who have accepted the invitation will be allowed to take part in the banquet. But it is important to look at the requirements of the guest list. This feast is not reserved for the the most powerful, prestigious, successful or substantial as the world would assume. This guest list is made up of the lowly, the meek, the hungry and the humble.

Once again, God has thrown open the doors of His banquet of grace to the least expected party guests. His mercy has turned the economy of this world upside-down. One does not need to dress for the occasion as God has welcomed us just as we are. As it was for the banquet in this parable, it is often the case of those in our world today. There are some who say that they’ll join the spiritual feast and attend God’s banquet, but then, for a variety of earthly reasons, they will make other plans. The list of “no-shows” in this parable could be seen as the originally well-intentioned, but later misguided group of individuals who heard the invitation but neglected to respond.   

Lest we think that we must get “cleaned up” in our lives in order to come into God’s presence and enjoy His blessings, we can see that the doors are opened wide for the meek and the lowly who humble themselves and respond to His merciful invitation for salvation through Jesus.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 28th, 2007 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Daily Readings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.