My Favourite word in the English Language. (Part 4)

One of Jesus parables on grace involves a wedding invitation to the down and outers. It is found in three gospels. My favourite version happened more recently as an account of a most unusual wedding banquet.

A young lady and her fiancée booked an expensive hotel and ordered an elaborate reception. They poured over the menu and made selections of china, silver plated utensils, and pictures of flower arrangements. The bill was expensive, and they had to make a 50% deposit. They went home and flipped through books of wedding announcements.

The day the announcements were meant to hit the mailboxes the groom got cold feet, “I’m not sure’ he said “lets think about it a little longer. The angry women returned to the hotel to cancel the wedding. The events manager was understanding but the bad news was that they had signed a contract and there would be no refund on their deposit.

It seemed crazy, but the more she thought about it, the jilted bride liked the idea of going ahead with the party. Ten years earlier the same women had been living in a homeless shelter. She had got back on her feet and found a good job and had set aside a sizable nest egg. Now the wild notion of using her savings to treat the down-and-outs to a night on the town appealed to her.

So it was that on June 20, 1990, the Hyatt Hotel of downtown Boston hosted a party such as has never been seen before. The hostess changed the menu titles to things like “Boneless Chicken” to honour the groom. She sent invitations to missions and homeless shelters. That night people who were used to peeling half gnawed pizza of cardboard, dined instead on chicken cordon bleu. Hyatt waiters in tuxedos served hors d’oeuvres to senior citizens propped up on crutches and aluminum walkers. Bag ladies, vagrants and addicts took one night off from their hard life on the sidewalks outside and slipped champagne, ate chocolate wedding cake, and danced big-band melodies late into the night.

Can you see yourself in that story – invitation to the unworthy. It is a picture of God’s grace.

Grace is undeserved, unearned, and given freely as a gift. We are accustomed to finding a catch in promises, but in Jesus stories God’s extravagant grace includes no catch, and no loophole that would disqualify us from God’s love.

The gospel is not good advice it is good news. Advice is about something I should do; good news is about something already done. The law says do; the gospel says done! Your salvation is not dependent on your performance but Christ’s.

If you ask people how they get to heaven, most will reply, “Be good.” Jesus’ parables constantly contradict that answer. Jesus stories show a preference for real people rather than good ones.

Jesus’ parables are not pleasant stories to hold listeners, or literary vessels to hold theological truths. They are templates for Jesus’ life on earth. He is the shepherd who left the safety of the fold, for the dark dangerous night outside. To His banquets he welcomes despised tax collectors, reprobates, and prostitutes. He came to the sick, not the well. He came for the unrighteous, not the righteous. To those who betrayed Him, especially the disciples who forsook Him in His hour of greatest need, He responded like the lovesick father in the story of the prodigal son.

Grace is everything. It is the most powerful and distinctive Christian principle. Your salvation depends on it! Can you see why it is my favourite word in the English language?