The Kingdom of Heaven is ready and we are invited. But are we like the original guests to the King’s wedding, putting off the invitation and finding something else to do that they consider more important. We might also be like those invited to fill the hall when no one else would come, and grateful to be invited. And some of us respond gladly to the invitation and then just don’t show up. Again, this is directed first at the Jewish listeners who were promised a Messiah and saved from Egypt and then had better things to do than to keep God’s commands and even ignored or killed the prophets who kept trying to bring them back.

The highways and the byways include those the Jewish leaders considered unworthy, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the maimed, the lepers, the Samaritans and the Gentiles. The thing we have to remember is that all are invited to the banquet in the Kingdom. This includes those we consider worthy of the invitation and those we do not. In God’s eyes, we are all equal, all invited to the family gathering. Just like all families, there can be a little dysfunction, a few wayward children, but in the end families come together.

We need to decide to answer the invitation, save the date, plan for the wedding and show up every day so that when the servants come to let us know that the banquet is ready, we will be ready to come.

PRAYER

Loving and forgiving God, thank you for all the times you send us reminders that the Kingdom is waiting for us. All we need to do is follow Jesus who not only knows the way to you but is the way. Amen.