Divine Dining March 27, 2026 Devotional

LUKE 14:15-20 | ¹⁵ One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” ¹⁶ Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. ¹⁷ At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸ 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.’ ¹⁹ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ ²⁰ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’

The dinner guest who remarked "blessed is the one who'll eat bread in the kingdom," thought he was making a conventional remark about a future reality. He may have smugly included himself in that future reality, in which case his blessing was a form of self-congratulation, or he may have been expressing a future hope. But either way, he was missing a present reality. The Kingdom was already present whenever the King was acknowledged and followed. Jesus was that mighty Sovereign. The guest was at a Kingdom banquet already!

Jesus tries to jolt him and his friends into awareness. His parable involves invited guests who say yes to a dinner only to rudely refuse when the meal is ready. All three excuses are insulting and                deliberately bogus. No one buys oxen, or land, or takes on obligations of marriage without careful study of the matter in advance. There can be no “sudden emergency” in any of these cases preventing attendance. Those who miss Jesus' Kingdom celebration do so deliberately by rejecting Him and undervaluing the opportunity.

Have you ever missed what you most desired?

Gracious God,

I want to attend the party. Help me avoid excuses and false priorities. Let me know the beauty and wonder of Your kingdom.

Amen.