Highways and Hedges

"A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses...  So the servant came and reported these things to the master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame... Go out into the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled.'" 
-Luke 14:16-23

I've heard this parable many times in different contexts. It has encouraged me to get rid of excuses and follow Christ. It has encouraged me to share the Gospel with everyone, not just those whom I prefer. It has taught me that God through Christ has reached out beyond His chosen people of Israel to Gentiles like myself. It has also showed me God's great love in reaching down to mankind to save them in their poor condition. As John MacArthur puts it, "God is more willing to save sinners than sinners are to be saved." However, lately this passage among others has emphasized a different view of the Church.

It is in our nature to think highly of ourselves. Therefore it is natural for us to identify with the rich invited guests of this parable first. But when we realize we are not like them, we would rather identify ourselves with the servant of God's household. But looking at other similar parables, we realize that only Jesus Christ is the servant, the mediator of the relationship between God and man, the "new way" invitation. So that leaves us to identify with the only other characters in the story: the poor, crippled, blind, lame, homeless, helpless, unwanted outcasts. If you are in Christ, then He is describing you as a lowly human being with as many adjectives as possible.

For fear of reading this parable too literally, let me interject that Jesus is not saying all rich people go to hell and all poor people go to heaven. Rather, I believe we can equate the meanings of the word poor in this passage and in the Beatitude of Luke 6:20 ("Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.").

So when next Sunday rolls around, take a look around the members of the church. Here gathered in one place are the poor, crippled, blind, lame, homeless, helpless, unwanted outcasts. We are not the almighty righteous. We are not the holy and blameless. We are not the one with it all together. We are not the best society has to offer. We do not deserve to be together worshipping our Savior. More so, we are the last to deserve salvation.

The church is made up of sinners saved by grace, not religious people once tainted by sin. The church is the result of Christ's most powerful saving work on the cross reaching down to the lowliest of sinners to give them the opportunity to worship Him. The church should be the shining example of extreme grace, not a people who think they are worthy of grace. We should say with Paul, "I do not account my life of any value or precious to myself" and sing with Isaac Watts:

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?