Good, Better, Best...
Good, better, best… You may have heard of a quote that is sometimes falsely attributed to St. Jerome. When looking at this in several different scenarios you can start to get a feeling for what is being discussed here. Pork chops are good, T-bone steaks are better, but filet mignon is the best! For the basketball lovers you may say Charles Barkley was good, Hakeem Olajuwon was better, but Jordan was the best! Or if you’re looking at purses you may say Guess is good, Michael Kors is better, but Fendi is the best! I have no idea, I just did a Google search on purses and Fendi had a purse that was well over $5k! No lie! Now think about this thought for a moment. When given a choice of good, better, and best… Which would you choose? Unless you are a consistent contrarian or angry because I didn’t say Lebron was the best you are going to choose for yourself THE BEST! Upon reading a passage of scripture from Luke this week I found that there may be times when we choose good and better when God has offered THE BEST! Check out the text below.
Luke 14:15–24 NRSV
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.’ 21 So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ 22 And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ 23 Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’ ”
For the purposes of context read the whole chapter and more by clicking HERE
Let’s talk for a minute about what exactly is going on here. Because reading this parable on the surface makes this host of the party sound like a real jerk. You may think to yourself “this guy is ultra sensitive to the fact that no one wants to come to his party!” He invited three people to his party and they said no because they had other things to do right?! Wrong! Let’s take off our westerner glasses and take a look at what’s really happening. In the time of Jesus when someone was about to throw a party they sent out invites and got back word so that they could make preparations for the amount of people coming. The planner would need to know how many animals to slaughter. There were no grocery stores folks. In addition to that when he would have sent the servant out the invitations would have already been accepted! So for the three invitees mentioned accepted the invite, allowed him to make preparations, allowed him to send out his servant, but then they had better things to do. When we look at these excuses they are not the best. Check out the three guests below.
“I bought some land and I gotta go check it out!”
Ok purchasing property is still a great thing to do and if I weren’t a preacher (The way my bank account is set up… “Kevin Hart voice”) I’d buy some land! It is a GOOD investment that usually grows in value!
“I bought some livestock and I have to go see if they are worth my money”
Livestock may be a BETTER investment. They offer value and they are able to reproduce and give more value!
“I just got married…”
This man found his Prov. 18:22 “GOOD THING” and if you are a husband you better say it is the BEST thing!
The person throwing the party hears of their excuses and he does NOT think that their excuses are good enough for him not to have the party! The person throwing the party has already set things into motion. He planned very carefully for this party. He got the servants in place to decorate, prepared the animals to be sacrificed, and made sure that he kept his word by inviting the people he initially sent the invitations out to in the first place! But when the time came to be a part of this great celebration they missed out. And the host had the servant go into the streets and invite those who most people would not invite into the “good” parties. The host had the servant invite the poor, crippled, blind, and the lame! Now I am the first to admit this party is sounding pretty lame and not have much dancing due to the guests not being able to see, walk, or afford dancing shoes. But this party is special because the folks invited at this time would have been the untouchables! These folks invited would have gladly accepted the offer to be a part of something that they wouldn’t have dreamed of being a part of! And the host goes even further to say I want my house to be FILLED! He tells the servant to go to the streets and compel folks to come in and be a part of the celebration! And the host also proclaims that those originally invited are going to miss out! Now you may be wondering what the purpose of this parable is.
At the beginning of this chapter Jesus heals a man who would not have been welcome in because of his condition and the possibility of making others unworthy. Just before this parable mentioned here begins Jesus is having a conversation at a banquet with someone who is overly confident that he is going to be a part of the great banquet he thinks Jesus is talking about. But the fact remains that most Jews will reject Jesus very soon. Even after their rich history of kings, kingdoms, and God working miraculously on their behalf they will not see that His coming is a time of celebration. They will miss it! Some will miss it because they believe that it is GOOD to protect tradition rather than recognize the son of God. Some will miss it because they believe that it is BETTER to side with the priests of the Temple and their cause to kill an innocent Jesus. Some even still will miss out on the BEST day 50 days later when all nations and all people are invited to fill God’s house and be a part of the celebration (Acts 2). God’s people of that time seem to have started to believe that they were special because of who they were instead of knowing that they were special because of who God IS.
And we still see the issue today. Some of us are telling God “I know that you sent your son Jesus to be a sacrifice for me and I accepted it, but I have a good excuse for not being what I should be.” “I have a good excuse for not speaking up about the news that could save someone’s soul.” “I have a better excuse as to why I have not obeyed the Gospel.” “I have a good excuse as to why I stopped worshiping you.” And we have all been in the position of giving excuses to God as to why we are standing Him up. But understand that if we are living in a condition of sin that has us trapped, God is inviting you! God is inviting you to dinner! He is inviting us to the celebration! Why haven’t you totally committed to God’s BEST over the good and better things that go on in your life?
Ye call me Master and obey me not,
Ye call me Light and see me not;
Ye call me Way and walk not;
Ye call me Life and desire me not;
Ye call me Wise and follow me not;
Ye call me Fair and love me not;
Ye call me Rich and ask me not;
Ye call me Eternal and seek me not;
Ye call me Gracious and trust me not;
Ye call me Noble and serve me not;
Ye call me Mighty and honor me not;
Ye call me Just and fear me not;
If I condemn you BLAME ME not!
—Unknown