If you could invite one guest from history (recent, past or ancient) to dinner who would you choose to invite?
We asked that question at our recent RnR Black Tie Christmas Banquet and the best we could come up with was Batman and Bruce Willis! Either decent High School history teachers are in short supply or some of the young people were too shy to speak up!
If you thought about it properly, there’s no doubt the responses to that question would vary greatly from person to person.
But back in the first century, there was probably just one name that would appear at the top of everyone’s guest wish-list. That name, was Jesus.
Even before he was born, people were talking about him; writing songs about him (Luke 1:31; Luke 1:46-55; Luke 1:67-79). On the day he was born he drew the attention of kings (Matthew 2:7,8). Before he even hit puberty his wisdom and understanding blew the minds of wise men and great teachers (Luke 2:41-52). As a young man he was a magnet for crowds (Luke 6:17). Women fell at his feet (Luke 7:38). Tough guys called for his help (Luke 7:3). And that’s just skimming the surface.
What made this Jewish carpenter so popular?
Simply put, no other person who walked the earth before him – or since – was, or has ever been like him.
He did things and said things that no-one had seen or heard before (Luke 4:32; Luke 9:43). Blind people bumped into him but parted his company seeing clearly; the first thing that deaf people would hear after encountering him was his voice (Luke 7:21) paralysed people left him with a reason to go sandal shopping (Luke 5:18). He could make weddings even happier occasions (John 2:1-12) He gate-crashed funerals and made people smile because he raised to life the very person they came to mourn over (Luke 7:12). He spoke to furious storms and the lashing waves like they were primary school kids (Luke 8:24).
You know back in the first century even people who didn’t like Jesus couldn’t resist hanging out with him! According to the accounts of eye-witnesses and historians in the bible, on at least two occasions Jesus was even invited to dinner parties by people who hated him!
Can you imagine what it would be like to have Jesus at a dinner party? Could you imagine what the conversation would be like?
Suspend your imagination for a moment. Because the great thing is that when someone like Jesus went to dinner parties, they were so incredible that they were recorded and remembered for centuries! We can read of one such occasion recorded for us in the Gospel of Luke chapter 14 verses 1-24.
If you could dine with Jesus, here’s two things you could expect from him.
1. Jesus: a guest with no time for small talk
On the two recorded occasions Jesus was invited to a dinner party like the one recorded in Luke 14, the conversation soon got heavy. Rather than talk about work, family, the weather, politics, Jesus cut to the chase and made his hosts and fellow guests think about much bigger subjects than they were expecting. He’d talk about God, about death and about life after death.
That’s exactly what happened at this dinner party. He told his host and fellow guests two stories (or parables) to teach them something about God, about life after death, and about who God will accept into heaven and who God would reject.
Did you notice how at the beginning of that account twice we read that Jesus did things and asked things that left his hosts and fellow guests speechless?
…they remained silent. — Luke 14:3,4
…they had nothing to say — Luke 14:6
Not only was Jesus not very good at small talk but he was a great conversation stopper because He made people think about bigger things than they were expecting.
Even at Christmas many people find it weird, rude or even inappropriate to interrupt life and conversation to talk about things like the bible, God, Jesus, death and heaven and hell. But the fact is nothing could be more important or appropriate.
The Christmas season is upon us. It’s a time to reflect on who Jesus was and why He came. And as He himself demonstrated, one of His purposes was to cut to the chase, and tell people that one day they would stand before God and give an account to Him for the life He gave them; and based on what each did with it they’ll either face a wonderful eternal life with God or horrible one without Him.
This Christmas will you do Jesus the honour of giving some time to think about the bigger, much more important things in life that shaped so much of what He talked about?
2. Jesus: a guest full of big shocks and big surprises
In Luke 14 the dinner party that Jesus attended was being hosted by a person who belonged to a group of people who really disliked Jesus. You might be surprised to learn that this group of people were in fact religious people! Religious people were often the people that Jesus tangled with most.
This particular group of people were known as the Pharisees and they prided themselves on having all the answers to questions related to God. They lived their lives by a list of religious laws that they strictly followed and for that reason they reckoned God was well pleased with them. They believed that on that final day when they would face God, their account of their lives would be so impressive that God might even roll out the red carpet for them as they entered heaven.
Religious people like this got the shock of their lives when they met Jesus. What Jesus taught about God and the way to God rocked and shocked the Pharisees. He told them that all their religious works counted for nothing. They didn’t impress God or please God one bit. You can understand why they disliked him!
But Jesus had a big surprise to accompany this big shock.
In the parable Jesus told, the way He described God wasn’t as some sort of celestial X-factor judge waiting for us to entertain Him and impress Him with some religious routines. He didn’t describe God as some heavenly kill-joy calling people into a life of religious misery. Jesus described God as someone handing out an invitation to enjoy something wonderful with Him.
Accepting God’s wonderful invitation
When you accept an invitation to something wonderful you do so on the terms of the person who invited you. How many of us after receiving an invitation have ever decided to arrive at a different venue or at another time other than that stated on the invitation? How many of us have received an invitation to a wedding reception only to ask the bride and groom to change the date to something that’s more suited to our own diary? Hopefully, not many!
In the last parable that Jesus told at this dinner party, those people who were originally invited to the Master’s banquet all missed out because they found other distractions which kept them from accepting the invitation on the terms stated; when the dinner table was ready and waiting they were not ready and so the master assures them they will never get to be his guests again.
In order to accept God’s invitation we need to do so on His terms.
One day, one of the guys among Jesus’ enemies (the Pharisees) came to Jesus secretly. This guy was named Nicodemus and although he’d devoted his life to the kind of religion that Jesus denounced, he recognised that he couldn’t just brush Jesus aside.
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” – John 3:1,2
Nicodemus looked at Jesus and humbly concluded that when it came to God, Jesus was worth pursuing and knew best. During that conversation Jesus affirmed Nicodemus’ convictions
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. – John 3:16,17
None of us have lived the kind of life that pleases God. But God still loves us and wants us to enjoy a wonderful relationship with Him. He loves us so much that He wants us to be in heaven with Him for eternity when we pass from this life to the next. He doesn’t want religious routine from us. He wants us to accept His Son, Jesus, as a gift. He wants us to listen to what Jesus had to say, to believe it and trust it. Jesus is the key to heaven!
Directions to the party
It sounds so cliche, but this Christmas, give room to the reason for the season. Go and discover more about Jesus. Don’t assume you know who He is, what He stood for and what He ultimately came to do. He’s full of surprises – wonderful, life-changing surprises.
A few ways you can begin that discovery is to read through the historical eye-witness accounts of the bible – make four friends in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John this Christmas and read more about the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. If you don’t have a bible, why not add one to your Christmas gifts list? At Manor Park Church we will have a number of Sunday morning and evening services during advent where we will open up the bible and share more about Jesus. And even when the season is over, there’s plenty of opportunity to continue that discovery. If you hover over our Church Life menu option you’ll see a variety of bible-discovery opportunities available for all ages.
May you have a truly meaningful and truly meaningful time this Christmas and beyond.
