Have you ever been at a social event where the atmosphere has suddenly become awkward because one guest openly criticises the attitudes and actions of the other guests? If you have you’ll know that one way of lifting the mood is to change the subject to something everyone can agree about? (ie. “Weren’t England/the UK rubbish in the rugby/football/cricket/Eurovision Song Contest etc..)

In the Bible in Luke 14, there is a social event where Jesus is that awkward guest. He openly criticises the host and the other guests for their lack of compassion, their social arrogance and their selfish snobbery! And when someone tries to improve the atmosphere by making a diversionary comment he is sure everyone will agree with - “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God” - Jesus basically replies, “I wouldn’t count your chickens if I were you!” (see Luke 14:1-15 for more details)

Although Jesus sounds like the ultimate party-pooper, the parable he then tells about a great banquet in Luke 14:16-24) is story that both challenges & encourages whoever reads it – including us.

A man decides to host the party of the year and wants all his friends and neighbours to join him so he sends everyone a ‘save the date’ card. When everything is ready, he tells his servant to go and collect the guests. But the servant returns with news that nobody is coming to the party for a variety of reasons. Some of the excuses are fairly reasonable – ‘I’ve just got married’, and some are downright insulting – ‘I’ve just bought a field!’, but they all share a common factor, people had more important priorities to attend to rather than going to this party.

So what does the ‘Billy No-Mates’ host do? Cancel, rearrange, beg? No, he decides that the party will go on! He prepares a new guest list – anyone who wants to come! Everyone was invited, whoever they are, whatever their circumstances, whether they were locals or not! If you wanted to attend, you name was on the list!

The reaction of the second guest list could not be more different - they dropped everything and went! Being at this party was more important than anything else and the result was the time of their lives at the best party ever. There is an implication that some of the first guest list changed their mind and tried to come along but they were barred from entering, not even getting a slice of cake!

As with all his parables the important point Jesus is making needs a bit of contextual understanding to make sense of. The party host is God and the party he’s inviting people to is heaven (not only when we die but also when we live life in the reality of God’s presence now). The original guests were the religious people of the day and the second guest list is everyone else – then and now - including US!

Which all means that this parable is good news for us because it tells us something amazing about God – He wants us to be with Him forever! We are invited to His party in heaven and there are no entrance criteria to fulfil and no hoops to jump through in order to attend. We can be there, if we want to, provided we accept God’s invite

Now we could be like those on the first guest list, making excuses because there is something more important (what would that be for you?) with the result that you miss out.

Or we could be like those on the second guest list, dropping everything to be there, with the result that you are enthusiastically invited in and have the time of your life

But the obvious question to ask is – how do you say yes to God’s invitation? I’ve run out of space here so why don’t you visit your local church to find out? There’s one within walking distance of where you are now and they will be happy to help!