Old School Ghosting
Working with teenagers, it’s always interesting to see how slang terms come and go. One term that skyrocketed into use a couple of years ago is called “ghosting.” It means cutting off communication with someone you’re no longer interested in. It’s a popular and hurtful way to end a dating relationship or friendship, and it shows you don’t have the maturity to actually communicate how you feel or why you want to end the relationship. I recently had a youth lesson to talk about this issue.
While the word “ghosted” is fairly new, the concept is as old as time. We’ve all had people cut off contact with us, sometimes disappearing altogether. Most of the time, though, they just find ways to make excuses every time we try to meet up with them. Maybe you’ve had friends that stopped being available, or maybe you’ve held a party or a get-together only to have people decline at the last minute. At least a plausible excuse doesn’t hurt your feelings like being ghosted does.
Parable of the Great Banquet
People have been backing out of their commitments as long as people have had enough activities to cause conflicts on their calendars. It’s hurtful when people back out of your event because it feels like people are choosing other activities over you. In fact, Jesus tells a story about that exact situation to teach the religious leaders something about the Kingdom of Heaven. (Before we dive into our Story Time with Jesus from Luke 14, I must tell you that this chapter begins with Jesus attending the party of a leader of the Pharisees. He is surrounded by the religious type.)
Luke 14:15-24 – 15When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
16Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
18“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
19“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
20“Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
21“The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
22“ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
23“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”
So the story starts off with a proud religious leader making an off-handed comment about how good it will be for those (like him) when they get to eat at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus uses this to make a point. He tells this parable about several characters.
Cast of Characters:
Master – Jesus.
The master has already sent invitations for the party, and people have RSVP’d. However, at the last minute, when everything is ready, people begin to make their excuses. This alludes to the fact that the entire Old Testament tells of the coming Messiah and the Kingdom to come. God’s people have been hearing for centuries about this coming day. That’s the invitation that has gone out. Now that Jesus has arrived on the scene, the time is here for the Kingdom of God to begin its rule and reign in the hearts of people on earth.
Original Guests – Jews.
These guests who find reasons not to come represent the Jews – the family chosen by God to bless the whole world, beginning with Abraham. These are the people God has redeemed over and over after they foolishly wander away from Him. Now, as the Kingdom of God is approaching with the arrival of Jesus, the Jews are finding all sorts of reasons not to join the party God is inaugurating.
Let’s be honest – they’re not unique. People from the time of Adam and Eve all the way up to today have been making excuses to walk away from God. It’s like we don’t know how good He really is, or we are tempted to believe there is something better for us than God Himself. So let’s not get judgmental here! We all do this in our own lives. Praise God for His grace and forgiveness!
Anyway, because the guests don’t all come, the master tells the servants to go out and bring in more people. A party isn’t a party without people to share in it.
I had an incredible birthday surprise for my 40th birthday! A group of amazing youth leaders sneaked into my office and filled it with black balloons up past my waist. It was incredible! However, my boss was on vacation, and the secretary was out sick that day; so I had a birthday celebration with lots of decorations and nobody to share it with. If anyone had been in the building, I would have dragged them to my office to see it, because without sharing the moment, a celebration feels empty. Of course the master in this story wants his great banquet to be filled with people.
Streets and Alleys – Outcast Jews.
To fill up his party the master first tells his servants to go invite those in the streets and alleys. He describes these people as the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame – certainly not the type of person who would be invited to a rich master’s banquet! This begins to show the great reversal Jesus teaches us about the Kingdom of God: the self-righteous religious leaders, God’s obvious choice, are going to miss the invitation by their own choosing, and they will instead be replaced by the lowly outcasts. The first shall be last and the last shall be first.
Roads and Country Lanes – Gentiles.
Even after inviting all these people there is still room in the house, so the master sends the servants further out – into the roads and country lanes – to the non-residents outside the city. In this way, Jesus points to the fact that while many Pharisees will miss Him, even the hated Samaritans and Gentiles will be found and brought in. He is much less concerned with the status of the guests than with the fact that he wants his house full! He wants ALL to come and be part of the great celebration.
The point of this parable is to show how far Jesus extends the invitation to join His kingdom. While we call this the Parable of the Great Banquet, it could just as easily be called the Parable of the Unexpected Guests. When Jesus finished sharing this parable, the religious leaders probably were thinking not about how great the feast of the Kingdom of God is going to be, but about that guest list! And I doubt they were very happy! I’m sure they understood that this parable was about them and their rejection of God’s great banquet.
We Are Both the Invited and the Inviters
As we apply this lesson to ourselves, we must see ourselves both as those in the country lanes and as the servants sent to bring them in. If you’re not Jewish, then you are a Gentile; and by God’s good grace, all of us are invited – through all time – to His banquet table. The servants have been going out for centuries now, telling people about the Kingdom, and inviting them to join the banquet that one day we will all share in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Each of us, after receiving the invitation to follow Jesus, has had to decide whether to join Jesus or to be like the original guests and make excuses not to show up. This decision must be made! If you haven’t made it yet, or if you have been making excuses, I encourage you to stop running and to turn around and join the party with God.
Those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus also have the opportunity to join the team of servants inviting still others. In thinking about inviting others to the banquet, remember the point of this parable: we are to reach beyond the expected to the unexpected guests.
The Banquet is for Those Beyond the Church
Too often, Christians invite only people like themselves, or maybe people who are already Christians but who aren’t currently attending church or who are looking for a new church. They make the “safe invite” by inviting “church folks.” They don’t think the guy covered with tattoos or the woman who cusses like a sailor would be interested in Jesus, but that’s the point of this parable.
God doesn’t want us to play it safe and invite only those who already have their lives together. He wants us to GO BEYOND. He wants us to reach out to the modern-day poor, the crippled, and the lame. He wants us to be willing to share the message of Jesus far and wide with people who are very UNLIKE ourselves and who honestly might not feel at all comfortable coming to church. Church isn’t for those on the inside; it’s a place of hope for those on the outside. We must remember that and let that drive our willingness to tell others.
Even though a lot of the people we talk with about Jesus will not be interested and will make excuses, we can’t let that deter us. As in the parable of the sower, our job is to spread the seed of the message about Jesus. We trust God to cause the growth. The servants in today’s parable were told to compel people to come to the banquet, but they were not held responsible if people said NO. They just moved on.
As we go beyond safe, church-type people, we must remember that just as the outcasts of Jesus’s time would never have felt comfortable attending a party at a rich ruler’s home, many people we know today have no interest in attending church with us. All the rituals and our unwritten liturgy of one song, announcements, four songs, message, and closing song are completely foreign to many people. It makes them uncomfortable – especially all the group singing.
Fortunately, we are called to invite people to fill God’s house – His Kingdom – not our own church. The problem is that many of us don’t feel like we know how to invite people to God’s Kingdom. So, instead, we invite them to come to our church, where the pastor can do the teaching. However, part of being Baptist is the understanding of the priesthood of all believers. That means you need to know how to share your faith yourself.
A Primer on Sharing Your Faith
Today I want to help you share your faith – to give you some ideas about what you can say to help somebody see why you follow Jesus and why that is the best thing they can choose as well.
One of the easiest ways to share your faith is to tell people what Jesus has done for you. If you can’t explain what He has done for you, then how could you ever explain what He can do for them? Also, even the hardest people, those most opposed to God, are usually willing to listen to your story. They can’t argue with a person’s own experience, so it won’t lead to a debate.
Another way to compel people to join you at the coming Great Banquet of the Kingdom (though don’t use that phrase) is to show them how the gospel fills their greatest needs.
- If you meet someone who feels like life is meaningless, share how Jesus has given your life purpose.
- If you talk with someone who is struggling to understand why they experience so much more hardship than people around them, share how Jesus gives meaning even to life’s trials. He promises to turn them around into something good.
- If you know someone who wrestles with guilt, tell them how Jesus provides acceptance and forgiveness.
- If the person feels isolated and alone, share how joining the family of Jesus makes you part of a church family who loves and accepts you.
- Tell people how other aspects of the Gospel have met your deepest needs and can meet theirs.
Conclusion
God is going to throw an incredible party for everyone who wants to come and be a part! It will be more lavish, more awe-inspiring, and more satisfying than anything any of us has ever experienced. And it is going to last forever! The experience will never end. The pain and troubles of this world will never interrupt what God has in store for all of us.
When we begin to fully wrap our minds around what God’s banquet will be like, we should be motivated to go out and be inviters. We should want to be like the servants in the parable who compel others to come to the banquet – our friends, our family, people we run into around town, and the down-and-out folks who surprisingly pop into our lives. We should want them all to come join Jesus and attend the incredible banquet He has prepared for them.
One problem with a message like this one is that the instructions to “tell people about Jesus” often leave us with a good idea but no real plan to put it into practice. So, today, I want each of you to make a plan. I want you to take a moment to consider who you need to pray for and start a spiritual conversation with. If you don’t know anybody, pray that God would unexpectedly put someone into you path this week with whom you could have a spiritual conversation.
And – breaking my instruction about not just inviting people to church – keep in mind that we do have a really good invitation opportunity coming up. Easter Sunday is in two weeks, and this is a great time to ask people around you if they would like to join you here on that day.
Bottom line: the Master desires to have a full house. He wants every person to experience eternal life and the Kingdom to come. Let’s go out and help Him fill it.
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