At the Table | Too Busy

16 Jesus replied, “A certain man hosted a large dinner and invited many people. 17 When it was time for the dinner to begin, he sent his servant to tell the invited guests, ‘Come! The dinner is now ready.’ 18 One by one, they all began to make excuses. The first one told him, ‘I bought a farm and must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ 19 Another said, ‘I bought five teams of oxen, and I’m going to check on them. Please excuse me.’ 20 Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

Luke 14:16-20 (Common English Bible)

The people who turned down the dinner invitation weren't bad people. They had legitimate responsibilities. They business to attend to, property to inspect, a new marriage to nurture. These weren't frivolous excuses or rebellious rejections. They were just...busy.

And that's exactly what makes this parable so challenging for those of us living in the 21st century. We're all busy. We all have legitimate demands on our time. We all have responsibilities that feel urgent and important.

The host in Jesus' parable represents God, throwing a feast and inviting people to join him. But the invited guests – the religious people, the ones who should have been first in line – were too caught up in the demands of daily life to accept the invitation.

Sound familiar? How many times have we been too busy for God? Too occupied with work to pray regularly. Too exhausted from our schedules to read scripture. Too overwhelmed with family responsibilities to serve others. Too stressed about our own problems to notice people in need.

We don't wake up intending to reject God's invitation. We don't consciously choose other things over God. We just get caught up in the urgent and lose sight of the important. We let the good crowd out the best.

The tragedy isn't that these people were evil. It's that they missed out on something wonderful because they were distracted by things that felt necessary in the moment. They chose the temporary over the eternal, the urgent over the important, the good over the best.

God's invitation to join his feast – to experience his love, to participate in his kingdom, to find our place at his table – is always open. But it requires us to say yes. And saying yes often means saying no to other things, even good things.

Personal Application: What good things in your life might be crowding out God's best? How might you need to adjust your priorities to make room for God's invitation?

Prayer: God, forgive us for the times we've been too busy for you. Help us see that our urgent responsibilities, while important, shouldn't crowd out our relationship with you. Teach us to recognize your invitations and give us wisdom to know when to say no to good things so we can say yes to your best. Amen.