Excuse Me

Son is getting married— Wedding plans, learning more about weddings than i used to know—I’ve done a lot of weddings but up until now my role has been VOWS, RINGS, KISS, DONE!

Now we’re having to pay attention to Invitations, save the dates, seating charts, guest lists, rsvps.

Text in shows Jesus at a banquet and as he’s at the banquet enjoying food he told the lawyers and pharisees a parable, story about food… (food was that important to him).

Those at the banquet need to learn to see beyond their own table.

Most of us miss out on the party because we’ve mishandled the invitation…

sometimes we’re not sure what to do with the invite.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

14 One Sabbath, pwhen he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were qwatching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to rthe lawyers and Pharisees, saying, s“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, t“Which of you, having a son1 or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 uAnd they could not reply to these things.

This is why Jesus addressed them— he knew it was a setup, he knew they didn’t know what to do with the invitation was about to give.

Most of us miss out because we MISREAD the INVITATION.

the invitation is not EXCLUSIVE to us.

The INVITATION IS NOT EXCLUSIVELY YOURS.

We make EXCUSES to Avoid the Invitation

growing up, id have to say something if i wanted to leave the table— may i be excused? (there were times i didn’t want to eat everything on my plate. so i devised a plan— corn— in the napkin, in my pocket, excuse me… i need to go to the bathroom. flush. no more corn— I cleaned my plate like that a lot of times :). (until i tried to flush some pretty tough meat down — nope)

Jesus EXTENDED/EXPANDED the invitation to include everyone.

Jews were the USUAL

Streets were UNINVITED

Hedges were UNWORTHY.

What can we learn from this Dinner with Jesus?

Jesus wants His banquet/table FULL

Some fail to recognize the importance of the invitation

The invitation is for all of us/everyone

while we weren’t the ones expected we are now the ones invited.

Recognize who you are in the Banquet—

pharisees— it’s about me

poor, maimed , lame, blind, etc

we bring nothing to the table.

Jesus welcomes YOU to his table

many have accepted the invitation— but there’s still room.

Jesus used this DINNER to REFRAME what a banquet should look like.

don’t forget we are all HEDGE DWELLERS.

a hindrance that keeps us from having dinner with Jesus is that we are so full of our own goodness that we don’t see the need for his banquet.