Luke 14:15

EATING BREAD IN THE KINGDOM

‘Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God.’

Luke 14:15

That was the chance remark of a bystander who had heard our Lord speaking of the reward that belongs to the resurrection of the just.

The resurrection of the just! The glory that belongs to the risen life, worth possessing, worth struggling after! Yes, blessed is he that shall taste of that heavenly bread, that shall enjoy that holy fellowship! It is all that we mean by heaven, all that we dare to look forward to when the pilgrimage is over, something far exceeding hope or thought. Yes, fortunate is the man that reaches that place of heavenly bliss!

It is in reply to that natural exclamation that our Lord tells the story—the parable of the Great Supper. The story might be called ‘The acceptance and rejection of an invitation,’ and in it we notice three facts of importance—

(1) The joy and happiness that belong to the heavenly state.

(2) Why so many are indifferent to it.

(3) Why others accept it.

Rev. Canon Walpole.

Illustration

‘The future belongs to the strenuous, the wrestlers, the watchers, not to the idlers, and those who take no trouble. But though so many are too tired and distracted with the interests of their business or pleasures to give any heed to the invitation to that best of blessings, the Great Supper, there are others who make every effort to get there; the maimed and lame, who can only walk with difficulty; the blind, who require to be led; the poor, who have nothing but shabby clothes to go in—these all clamour to be taken in. It is far more difficult for them in some ways to get there, but their great needs have made them sure that God meant to satisfy them. They have had too little of the prosaic realities of life to be killed by them. Their sufferings have only sharpened their imagination. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” ’