Go Find the Ones Hungry for the Father
In Luke 14 we’re given the picture of a man standing at the entrance of a grand banquet hall. It’s been filled row upon row of finely dressed tables — each one overflowing with roasted meat, fine wine, and freshly baked bread. And around those tables are many, many chairs — most of which have yet to be occupied.
This man’s servants, those who’d been sent out to spread the message that everything was now ready!’” were now headed back with heads hung low. They’d been unsuccessful for everyone with whom they’d encouraged to come to the feast had told them they were already occupied. One had a field, one had a flock, one had a wife, and so on. They weren’t coming.
Perhaps on the slow walk back, one of those servants was wondering, “Did we do something wrong in how we delivered the invitation?” Perhaps another was thinking, “Guess we might as well get back and shut the doors, no one’s coming!” Perhaps still another might of thought to himself, “Maybe the feast, this thing I’ve so been longing for and excited for, just isn’t all that great to begin with…”
Have you ever found yourself in a season of ministry that felt like this? You’ve invited neighbors to church, invited co-workers to CG, invited a friend to read the Bible with you…and were met with a chorus of “No thanks.” You know you’ve got this feast of joy ready to be had, this good news that Jesus saves sinners, and it’s waiting for anyone who’d be willing to receive it, but no one has. You start questioning yourself, questioning your mission, questioning if the gospel truly is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Now when you hear the commission to go and make disciples, you just shrug your shoulders and say, “I’ve tried, and it hasn’t worked.
If this is you, take note of what happens next in this parable. The man of the feast does not accept no for an answer, rather, he tells his servants, ““Go, Go back out…but this time, go to a different kind of people. Go to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame…Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in.” And they do.
The poor, crippled, blind, lame, and outsider by the highway — these would be the people who’d come to the feast because neither the feast, nor the invitation to it, was ever the problem. The problem was that all those who’d previously been asked had thought themselves already quite full on what the world had to offer them. A feast? Who needs your feast, I’ve already got my own — I got a field, I got a flock, I got a wife — I’ve been filled by the world’s goods and I need no other.
But to the poor, the lame, the outsider — their stomachs were empty, their hearts were lonely, their souls were longing to be filled and thus far the world had given them nothing. So when they hear the invitation to the feast, for them, it’s almost too good to be true.
Might it be the same story for you and me? Might it be that our fruitfulness in ministry, just as the servants in this parable, might only be found in abundance if we’re willing to seek out those in this world who feel themselves to be hungry, empty, needy? Might our fruitfulness in ministry only be found in abundance if we’re willing to walk the streets and lanes of the city, or go to the outsiders on the highway. It is my exhortation to you today to consider this, and consider who in your world right now, though they might not be pretty in the world’s eyes, not be valuable in the world’s eyes, might just be the perfect person to sit beside you in the great banquet hall of our Father.
The table is set, the chairs are in place, feast is good — go find those who are most hungry for it.