Highways and Hedges

Luke 14:23 says, “And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

Our Sunday morning church service was over. My wife and I were hungry, so we went to Zips to get something to eat. Because Zips was crowded, we decided to try a little café in the strip mall that was a bit more expensive. As we were about to enter, a man on the sidewalk invited us to come in and eat with him. Next to the café was a small storefront. A Baptist congregation had made it their church. We accepted the invitation and went in and ate. There was one long table, with about 10 people seated around it. A huge amount of food was on another table. We had a wonderful meal and left a donation, which they didn’t want to take. This church is bound to grow if they keep going out on the sidewalk and asking people to come in!

Jesus went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat on the Sabbath day (Luke 14:1-24). The first thing Jesus did was heal a man. Jesus knew the Pharisees didn’t approve of healing on the Sabbath day. Before they could say anything, Jesus gave them a lesson about an ox in a pit. There may also have been some arguing about seating positions. Jesus spoke to that issue too. The idea of eating bread in the kingdom of God came up. Again, Jesus spoke to the issue. Strangely, He addressed the issue that there may be a shortage of guests to eat bread in God’s kingdom. The story He shared focused on invited guests who had excuses not to come.

Many churches today are far from crowded – more like near empty. Jesus gave a solution for this problem. He wants His house filled. The first step was to bring in the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind. These are the type that many churches don’t want, if they would admit it. They would not have money to give. They would probably drive others away. We are more selective in who we want to come than we realize. “We need young people,” is often heard. 

The servants in this story obeyed the command. They must have been successful, yet there was still more room. The bottom line was to go out and find people and compel them to come.

We tend to think if we make our church services highly desirable, that the Lord will bring people in to fill the house. We tend to think that our church is the kingdom. We look at a full house as success.

People come into the kingdom by being born again. What if we were compelling someone to come to church and they got saved while we were doing it? We won’t know unless we try.

Jesus didn’t build His church by renting a little building somewhere, putting 12 disciples in it, and expecting the world to come in. Instead, He got them out where they could be seen, where there was enough room for multitudes. God sent them out. He didn’t send the people in.

Come on, Church, the highways and hedges are ripe unto harvest!