“Blow-out in Boston”
BIBLE
READING: Luke 14
Boston Globe's
account in June 1990 of a most unusual wedding banquet… Accompanied by her
fiancé, a woman went to the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston and ordered the
meal. The two of them poured over the menu, made selections of china and
silver, and pointed to pictures of the flower arrangements they liked. They
both had expensive taste, and the bill came to $13,000. After leaving a check
for half that amount as down payment, the couple went home to flip through
books of wedding announcements.
The day the announcements were
supposed to hit the mailbox, the groom got cold feet. "I'm just not
sure," he said. "It's a big commitment. Let's think about this a
little longer." When his angry fiancé returned to the Hyatt to cancel the
banquet, the manager could not have been more understanding. However, concerning
the refund, she had bad news. "The contract is binding. You're only
entitled to $1,300 back. You have two options: to forfeit the rest of the down
payment (loss of $5,200) or go ahead with the banquet.”
It seemed crazy,
but the more the jilted bride thought about it, the more she liked the idea of
going ahead with the party--not a wedding banquet, but a big blowout. You see,
ten years before, this same woman had been living in a homeless shelter. She
had got back on her feet, found a good job and set aside some money. Now she had the wild notion of using her
savings to treat the down and outs of Boston to a night on the town. And so, it
was that in June of 1990, the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston hosted a party
such as it had never seen before. The hostess changed the menu to boneless
chicken--"in honor of the groom," she said--and sent invitations to
rescue missions and homeless shelters. That warm summer night, people who were
used to rummaging through dumpsters, dined on chicken cordon bleu. Hyatt
waiters in tuxedos served appetizers. Bad ladies, vagrants, and drug addicts
took one night off from the hard life on the sidewalks outside and instead ate
chocolate wedding cake and danced to big band melodies late into the night.
This jilted bride spent $26,000 to feed and entertain people who could not pay
her back.
Although I
don’t believe that is exactly what Jesus meant in Luke 14.1-11, it does come
awfully close. Jesus wants us to do to
others, because it is the right thing to do!
All too often we find ourselves doing things for selfish reasons. He wants us to know that His banquet is for
all, the rich and the poor, the sick and the healthy, the lost and the
saved. When we humble ourselves and do
things for the benefit of others, not thinking of ourselves, He will exalt us
when the time comes. Today, pay close
attention to the person sitting alone at the lunch table or begging for food on
the interstate and those that are sleeping under the overpasses. They need Jesus, just as much as we do!
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