INVITED

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.”

“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’”

“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.”

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.”

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Matthew 22:1-14

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever received an invitation?

I think we all have probably been asked to attend something at one time or another.

So how do we approach these invitations? What are some of the reasons we might reject?

Well, sometimes our schedule is in play. We all seem to be busy with any number of things between work, family, church, or any number of other things. Sometimes an invitation conflicts with something we already have planned to do. Perhaps this is why people usually try to give a lot of advance notice to people when they are holding an event, so to allow for people to get it on their schedules.

At other times, we may not be able to accept an invitation because of health issues. We may be injured or dealing with an illness that would keep us from going to an event. In these cases, we choose to recover and heal instead, a wise move especially if a sickness might be passed onto other people.

Maybe we just don’t like the person inviting us or we might like them but dislike someone else we know has also been invited. Either way, we can allow our feelings to dictate our actions.

And of course there’s the possibility that we just don’t want to go because we usually have a choice, right? We might turn down the offer, giving some excuse so not to offend the inviter, and then go and do something we would rather do instead.  

The point is, we all get invited to things and there are any number of reasons we might choose to decline the proposition.

With this as a back drop, we turn to the opening verses of Matthew 22 as Jesus is in His final days before being arrested, falsely accused, brutally assaulted, and then crucified as a criminal, even though He was completely innocent. Hard times were ahead and He not only knew that but He knew who would be the main perpetrators of His false conviction and subsequent execution. In fact, some of those responsible were the very people He was telling the parables to at the end of Chapter 21 and in the verses for today.  

Over the last two messages, we have looked at the first two parables that Jesus told to the Jewish religious authorities. You’ll recall the first was centered on two sons and how they responded to their father’s request to go and work in the field. The second was centered on a group of wicked tenants who occupied a landowner’s property and then not only failed to deliver on their part of the deal but abused and killed people the landowner sent to collect, even going as far as murdering their landlord’s son.

Today, we find Jesus delivering the final parable in this series as He addresses a group of Jews in Jerusalem, a group which included chief priests, elder, and teachers of the law. And as we’ll see, although the parable’s characters and scene is different, the root meaning of the illustration remains the same regarding who will gain the kingdom of heaven and who won’t. Look again at His words here:

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.”

“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’”

“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.”

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.”

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

In order to frame the parable correctly, it’s important to know that the king in the parable is none other than God Himself and the son, God’s son, Jesus, the teller of the parable.

The king had sent servants to invite others to the banquet (in this case, the Jewish nation) but they refused to accept the request. Still other servants were sent and this time, those invited were told of what had been prepared for them. They could expect to enjoy a feast at the wedding banquet but this time around they not only rejected the offer and went about doing other things but some actually harmed the messengers, even going as far as killing them. Such was the case with many of God’s prophets who had foretold Jesus’ coming.

Well, the king was incensed at the snubs he received and the abuse of his servants. The scriptures tell us that he “sent his army” and “destroyed” the murderers before burning their city. There were severe consequences for those who brought harm to people the king had sent to do his bidding.

Rebuffed two times the people he had selected, the king decided to open up the wedding banquet to anyone, rejecting those who had rejected him before. He sent his servants out into the streets and gathered people who actually wanted to come. There was no discrimination between good and bad. Anyone who wanted to attend could come and as we read, the wedding hall was full with guests.

But there was a problem. One person attending was not wearing the proper wedding attire. They were not prepared properly for the feast and when asked about it, the man was “speechless”. There was really no excuse for the man being in the state he was in because anyone who wanted to attend and did not have the proper clothes could get them from the banquet servants.

And so the king, angered by the man’s unwillingness to be properly prepared, ordered his attendants to evict the man from the banquet, saying:

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

He added, “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Before we look at what Jesus was trying to get at through His parable, let’s look at a few other scriptures like this one from John’s Gospel:

To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of Him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom.” John 3:27-28

“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.”

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.”

“Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)

Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” Revelation 19:6-9

I find it interesting that we find John speaking in both of these passages on the same subject from two very different New Testament books.

In his Gospel, we learn that the bridegroom is not him but the coming Jesus, the Messiah, and the bride will be all those who place their hope and trust in Him. In other words, the church.

Then in Revelation, we find a connection to Jesus’ parable for John mentions the wedding supper of the Lamb, Jesus, and how blessed all those invited to it will be. Indeed, those who accept Jesus invitation for salvation will find themselves at the great wedding celebration banquet.

Going back to the parable, since the Jews chose to reject Him, the gates of the kingdom were opened up for anyone who simply chose to believe in Him as Savior. This included all Gentiles who had been shunned by the Jews and considered banned from heaven. Even the most unclean, the most bad prior to finding Jesus, were invited to the banquet.

But note that not all were chosen.

We know this because Jesus said so. Some will think they are a part of the wedding banquet but they never actually accepted the invitation. They just showed up, wanting to be a part of the celebration but not willing to believe in Jesus as Savior. They were maybe the original biblical wedding crashers but note that they would suffer severe consequences for their actions. For while everyone else was celebrating and enjoying the union between Jesus (the bridegroom) and His followers (the bride), those who were not “married” to Him would be cast out into judgment to suffer a terrible fate, characterized by weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The main point Jesus was making was no different than in the prior two. He wanted the Jewish religious authorities to know that they were going to be rejected entry into the kingdom of God because they refused to accept Jesus as Savior, even though the very prophets they professed and taught about had foretold His coming. Perhaps it’s one of the saddest commentaries in the scriptures but in the end, it was part of the overall plan God set forth. The stone the builders rejected (Jesus) would indeed become the cornerstone that God would build His salvation promise upon.

So how about you as you read this today? You have been invited to the great wedding feast by God, invited to be the bride of His Son, Jesus, the Bridegroom.

Have you accepted the invitation or have you come up with excuses as to why you won’t be attending?

I pray you have decided to take God up on His offer because if you haven’t the kingdom of heaven will not be open for you. You’ll only be destined for great weeping and gnashing of teeth, joining others who chose to reject Jesus, the chief priests and elders and teachers of the law in that group.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com