Empty to Be Filled
Finding God at the End of Your Rope - Part 2
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Luke 14:7-24
The master said to the servant, "God to the highways and back alleys and urge people to come in so that my house will be filled."
Luke 14:23
I remember a classic Andy Griffith episode when Andy was invited to multiple dinners in the same night, and being the gracious friend he is, he could not say no. All three hosts served spaghetti, and every one used their "secret ingredient", oregano. Needless to say Andy did not enjoy his third spaghetti dinner nearly as much as his first.
We too are invited to plenty of dinners. The world offers us more than we could ever possibly consume, and yet it continues to convince us that we need more. But by the time we get to the Lord's table, we are full. We are full with all the stuff the world told us we needed to be happy and more than that, we are full of ourselves. By the end of the weak, we're lucky if we have enough energy and willpower left to get to the Lord's table at all. Some weeks we just want to stay home and recover from all of our gorging.
Jesus tells the story of a master who finds his banqueting table empty because everyone is too full or too busy to come. Rather than lamenting the empty table, he sends his servants to invite all of those hungry and empty people to the feast. They will appreciate it. They need a good meal more than anyone, but they are always the last to be offered.
What might this say to our churches, always complaining about our empty pews? Is there really no one hungry enough to dine at the Lord's table? Or could it be perhaps, that we only invite people like us, those who are already too full?
God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves.
- D.L. Moody