Excuses

Rejection is a difficult thing to take.

He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, "Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" Then Jesus said to him, "Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for everything is ready now.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.' Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.' Another said, 'I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.' So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, 'Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.' And the slave said, 'Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room." Then the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.'" - Luke 14:12-24

What makes people say "No" after saying "Yes"?

I assume the invited had accepted the invitation or the one having the dinner wouldn't have sent the slave to fetch him, right?

We make excuses when we really don't want to do something .  We all do it.  But we usually offer the excuse upfront, avoiding the situation where someone has to remind us that we said we would come.

If they had said "No" from the start, the one holding the dinner would have chosen others, which is what winds up happening in the end.

And that's the main point here.

Jesus uses this parable to explain why he has come.

God has given up on those who were chosen before.  They have said "Yes" but then changed their yesses to "No" too many times for Him to make excuses for them.

So, He is inviting everyone else to take their place at the table.

WOW!

Those who rejected Him, will never know what they lost out on.

More to come...