The Party

Yesterday, all of a sudden, I understood the parable of the Great Banquet. This rich guy had planned a banquet and invited all his favourite friends and relatives. He went to a lot of trouble and expense getting caterers, decorators etc to make his banquet special. At the appointed time people started dropping out. One had just bought a field and wanted to look at it, another had bought a team of oxen (the equivilant to a new car perhaps?) and wanted to try it out so one by one they excused themselves, leaving the host with a lot of debt, too much food and no guests.

I don't know if this has ever happended to you. It has happened to me and my family.(see the post on Yesterday's balloons). It always left me feeling profoundly hurt that my friends thought so little of me and my relationship with them that they found other things more important. I felt rejected and of no value. It also made me angry that I had gone to trouble and expense which would now be wasted.

I think that is the essence of the parable. It is all about relationship. God longs for an intimate relationship with us. He longs to give us from His bounty. But we regard other things as more important. In the parable the host takes people off the street to fill his party and partake of all the special food he had prepared. He makes sure that none of the invited guests get any.

God offers us so much - His love, forgiveness, grace, guidance, protection and most of all a relationship with Himself. When we find other things more important He is deeply wounded and possibly even angy. What do I find more important than my relationship with God?