Kua rite katoa; haere mai (Everything is ready; come)
by Mark Whitfield
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
Look, I have prepared my dinner … and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet (Matthew 22:4b).
Read Matthew 22:1–14
Our family is preparing for our daughter’s wedding early next year. There is something wonderful about getting ready for such a celebration – the invitations, the planning, the food, the service order and all the little details that need to be prepared. Then comes the moment when all the preparations are complete, and the guests are invited: ‘Come!’
That is the invitation Jesus places before you today.
It’s easy to imagine that before God can welcome you, you need to get your life in order. Perhaps you think you need to become a better Christian, overcome your failures, pray more, believe more strongly or somehow make yourself worthy of God.
But listen again to Jesus: ‘Everything is ready; come.’
The invitation begins not with what you have done, but with what God has done for you.
God has prepared the feast. In Jesus, he has dealt with your sin, carried your guilt and opened the way for you to live in his grace. You don’t have to make yourself worthy before you come. You don’t have to arrive with your life neatly sorted out.
You simply come.
In Māori, we hear the invitation: ‘Kua rite katoa; haere mai’, which means in English, ‘Everything is ready; come.’
Perhaps you need to hear those words personally today. Whatever you are carrying – your regrets, disappointments, doubts, weariness or sense that you have not done enough – Jesus invites you.
The invitation is not a demand to become someone different before God will love you. It’s an invitation to receive the love and grace God has already prepared for you in Christ.
So, come. Come as you are. Receive his forgiveness. Rest in his grace and rejoice in his love.
And having received this gracious invitation yourself, become someone who gladly says to others: ‘Everything is ready; come.’
Lord Jesus, thank you that everything is ready, not because I have earned it, but because you have prepared it for me. Help me to receive your grace, trust your promise, and rejoice in your invitation today. Amen.
Pastor Mark is a Kiwi and loves being pastor of St Paul’s Lutheran Church in Ōtautahi (Christchurch) on New Zealand’s South Island. He is bishop emeritus of the Lutheran Church of New Zealand (LCNZ), has served on the LCA Commission on Worship and represents the LCNZ on the Roman Catholic–Lutheran Dialogue Commission. He is married to Leanne and is dad to Chelsea (and Tim), Brittany and Charlotte. A musician (organist, pianist, singer and composer), Mark also enjoys gardening, making people laugh and following sport, especially cricket and rugby. And when the opportunity arises, he loves eating rollmops on fresh bread with his father-in-law, Kevin.
- Click here to read previous devotions.
- We are also posting them on LCA Facebook, making it easy for you to share them with family and friends.
- Sign up to receive Daily Devotion in your inbox every morning. If you’re already doing that, please encourage others to sign up. Click here for the link.
