Luke 14:16-21 “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 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.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry…”

I have been involved in hosting two grand-sized banquets in my lifetime. At each we fed about 150 people. We rented rooms almost as big as my whole house. The food was catered. We had music and dancing. Guests came from all across the country, some from more than a thousand miles away. People stayed and ate and laughed and danced past midnight. One of them was the reception at my own wedding. The second one was the reception at my daughter’s wedding.

We laid out more money for these events than our family brought home in a month, maybe even two. We printed formal invitations and sweated over the guest lists. Who would or would not be able to come? Who would be offended if they didn’t receive an invitation? How many people can we actually afford to feed?

But what if no one had come? I have had to send my regrets when invited to a wedding before. What if there were a perfect storm of bad scheduling and no one could make it? What if we just didn’t rate that high in the priorities of our guests?

There are a number of reasons people decline an invitation. The people in the parable seem to have reasonable excuses. What is wrong with their choices? Why does the host of the banquet get so angry?

There are a number of things that go into the value we place on an invitation. What is being offered? The banquet in the parable is the feast of salvation. This banquet is the forgiveness of our sins, peace with God, the comfort and power that come with faith, life after death, the resurrection of our bodies, and all the eternal joys of heaven. This isn’t some chintzy appetizer plate or cheap slop. It’s all you can eat and gourmet all the way. Compared to eternal freedom from guilt, and pleasures that never end, what are a few farm animals or acres of land?

But we understand the temptation to misjudge the value of the banquet, don’t we? We are tempted to decline God’s invitation to grace and life for much less–a few extra hours of sleep each Sunday, a few fleeting moments of pleasure in someone else’s arms, a few more rounds of golf or casts for fish at the lake, a few more hours at work to make a few more dollars on the next paycheck, a few more sunburns sitting in the bleachers watching the kids show off their athletic ability. There’s nothing wrong with most of these things in and of themselves, any more than there is anything wrong with fields or oxen–until they get in the way of God’s invitation to come home for the feast that never ends.

The Lord put no small amount of effort into preparing that feast. My two family wedding receptions cost thousands of dollars. The Lord sacrificed the life of his one and only Son, he let him die for the sins of the guests he invited to his banquet, to make that banquet happen. Don’t misjudge the value of what is being offered.

And it’s not just about the spread, what the host puts on the table. It’s about the host himself. People didn’t come to our wedding receptions for the culinary experience, or because the entertainment was so good. Believe me, you did not miss that much. They came because they loved us. We invited them, because we loved them, too.

The host in the parable is the God who made you, and everyone and everything you love. He is your Savior. He paid the ultimate price to rescue you, to rescue us, from the most horrible fate you can imagine. Yes, he deserves a spot, he has earned a spot, on our list of priorities, in the treasures of our hearts, even above our sweethearts, our children, or our parents. It’s not prideful or arrogant for him to claim such a place, or expect us to recognize it, when he offers us a place at his banquet.