Jesus Gave An Open Invitation

What Did Jesus Do?

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden…”
Matthew 11:28

The Father, “not wishing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9), instructed the Son to deliver an open invitation, which is exactly what Jesus did. Trouble is, most of the people in the world never receive the invitation, or, if they hear the words of Jesus from Matthew 11:28, they conclude either 1) their burdens are not so heavy that they can’t bear them on their own, or 2) that Jesus was not speaking to them, but to someone else. But, an open invitation is just that, OPEN to ALL. And, Jesus gave an open invitation to the world.

What does this mean to those of us who have received and responded to the invitation? Well, more than I am going to take the time to discuss here. BUT, one thing it should mean, and for some reason doesn’t, is that we who follow Jesus, who no longer live because Christ now lives in us (Galatians 2:20), are to daily deliver His invitation to people we meet. And when I say deliver, I mean personally, one on one, from us, or rather from Jesus, directly to someone. It could be a family member or a friend. It could be the person waiting on our table at Ruby Tuesday’s. It could be the woman who just backed into our car in the parking lot at the mall. Or it could be the boy who just held us up at knifepoint.

Now, personal invitations, well, they are personalized, which is to say that they are not all worded the same, that they don’t all look and sound exactly alike. Sure, Jesus issued an open invitation, but he touched and transformed lives one at a time. Just ask blind Bartimaeus, or wee little Zaccheus, or all but stoned Mary Magdalene. So, the invitation we deliver to a son or daughter will probably be different from the one we give to a co-worker, and all of these will not be the same as the one we offer the kid who just robbed us. But, regardless of the wording, the message we pass along from Jesus will always be the same, “Come to me…”

My belief is that we should do a couple of things with this teaching. One is we should have a list of people who we pray for regularly, and ask for opportunities to get the invitation to them (Of course, we need to take advantage of the opportunities when they are given!). Something else we should do daily, is ask the Lord for opportunities to pass on the invitation to people we might not know we are going to meet that day, but with whom God has scheduled a divine appointment for us (It would also be a good idea to ask daily for the discernment and faith to recognize these opportunities and act upon them). The fact is, there are thousands, no millions, no billions who are waiting to be invited. We don’t need to try and figure out who to invite, and who not to, because the chances are real good that the majority of people we meet have not received their personal invitation yet. And, after all, it is an open invitation, so who are we to hold back? Give the invitation to all, that’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4