<p>14:22<i> And the servant said: Master, what you did command is done, and still there is room</i>- See on Lk. 14:12. The servant seems surprised that after the crippled and blind beggars have been drafted in to the opulence of the feast, &quot;still there is room&quot;. Quite simply, there are more places in the feast of the Kingdom than there are people willing to fill them How encouraging is that thought The same Greek word for &quot;place&quot; recurs in Jn. 14:2,3, where the Lord Jesus taught that He was going to die on the cross in order to prepare a place for us in His Father's palatial mansion. The effort made in preparing the feast therefore speaks of Christ's life, death and resurrection for us. And it's <i>so</i> tragic that most people don't want to know. So in a sense, &quot;all you gotta do is say yes&quot;. Just accept the invitation; take the messengers for real. Although perhaps we are left to read in the detail to the story, that many a desperate beggar just couldn't grasp that the messenger was for real, and preferred to stay put. Maybe only the <i>truly</i> desperate thought 'Maybe there's some truth in it... I've nothing to lose&quot;. The many places in God's Kingdom... are only for those who desperately want them. Those who make meaningless excuses about how busy they are, those who can't believe that really God could be true to His word and really give us beggars a place in His wonderful Kingdom... will by their own decision not be there.</p><p>Let's not under-estimate the struggle which there is to believe the simple fact that there are more places in the Kingdom than people willing to fill them; that really God is begging us to come in to the place prepared for us through the death of His Son. When we read of the Master telling the servant to &quot;<i>compel</i>&quot; the beggars to come in to the feast, it's the same Greek word as we find used in one of the excuses given for not going in to the feast: &quot;I <i>must needs go</i> and see&quot; (the field the man had supposedly bought that evening without ever seeing it) (Lk. 14:18,23). Just as our loving God, with all the power of His most earnest desire, can seek to <i>compel</i> us to accept His offer, so the power of our own flesh <i>compels</i> us the other way. The petty human issues had become so large in the minds of the people concerned that they ended up telling obvious untruths or giving very poor excuses to get out of attending; life had gotten on top of them and that was it. The story seems so bizarre; the refusal of such a wonderful invitation would've been the element of unreality which struck the first hearers. The point is that petty human issues, coupled with our lack of appreciation that we are down and out beggars, really will lead people to lose out on eternity. The other such element of unreality would've been the persistence of the host to fill the places with anyone, literally <i>anyone</i>, willing to come on in. It's not so much a question of 'Will we be there?' but rather 'Do we really want to be there?'. Because if we do, we shall be.</p><p>The servant reports to the master that the invited guests wouldn&rsquo;t come to the supper cp. God&rsquo;s Kingdom. The master tells the slave to go out into the streets and invite the poor. And then we&rsquo;re hit with an incredible unreality, especially to first century ears: The servant has already done what the Lord had commanded him. No slave would take it upon himself to draw up the invitation list, or take the initiative to invite poor beggars into his master&rsquo;s supper. But <i>this</i> servant <i>did</i> He not only had the unusual relationship with his master that allowed this huge exercise of his own initiative- but he somehow knew his master <i>so</i> well that he guessed in advance what the master would say, and he went and did it without being asked. In all this we have a wonderful insight into the relationship possible between us and our Lord, especially in the area of preaching / inviting people to His supper. The initiative is in our hands, and as we come to know Him better, we come to know His mind, and to sense how He would react. We have His aims and desires as ours, and we are in harmony with Him without having to be told things in so many words. And of course for a master to serve his servants was unheard of (Lk. 12:35-38). But this of course was the wonder of what the Lord did for us, &quot;as one who serves&quot; (Lk. 22:27), defining for us our attitude to each other at the memorial table and in all aspects of our lives and relationships. See on Lk. 13:7.</p><p>We can also understand the servant as the Lord Jesus, reporting to the master = God that the invited guests wouldn&rsquo;t come to the supper cp. God&rsquo;s Kingdom. This servant not only had the unusual relationship with His master that allowed this huge exercise of his own initiative- but He somehow knew His master so well that He guessed in advance what the master would say, and he went and did it without being asked. In all this we have a wonderful insight into the relationship between the Father and Son, especially in the area of inviting people to His supper cp. salvation. The point of all this is to demonstrate how the Lord Jesus has His influence upon the Father, and can at times change His stated purpose e.g. with regard to the rejection of Israel- just as Moses did. And this is the same Father and Son with whom we have to do, and whose matchless relationship is the basis and reason of our salvation.</p>