The Wedding

I love weddings: their testimony that love finds love, their beauty, their promise, their pomp and ceremony, and yes, their food, too. So in Matthew 22:1-14 when Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a king who gives a wedding banquet, I’m all ears. But I soon discover it’s not your typical wedding. First, the invited guests refuse to come. And even when the king sends his servants to personally tell them that all is in readiness, they actually make light of the invitation and give silly excuses why they can’t attend. Then to make matters worse, they even abuse the servants and actually kill some.

What’s the king to do? Well, being a king with all the authority and power of a kingdom at his disposal, he answers this affront by sending his soldiers to punish the murderers and abusers. Not only do they forfeit their lives, but their city is burned.

Next, the king once again sends out his servants to collect guests for the son’s wedding, this time ordering them to go to the highways and byways. Everyone was now welcome, even the assortment of unsavory characters one always encounters along life’s roads. Even so, it pleases the king for now his banqueting hall is full. But wait! There was one who didn’t wear the required wedding garment, the garment provided by the host for each of his guests to wear. And what a sad end for him, for he’s quickly bound hand and foot and thrown out into the darkness where “there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.”

Of course this speaks about God and the wedding feast He is planning and preparing for His son, Jesus. And the wedding guests refusing to come are His chosen people the Jews. When, as a nation, they rejected their Messiah, the invitation (the salvation message) was extended to all peoples of the world. And oh how fortunate for us! But don’t despair, God is not finished with His people and will, in the last days, bring them to Jesus.

God is love. And that love desires a banqueting room full of people who have accepted His invitation of salvation. And that invitation has been extended to everyone, all of life’s symbolic derelicts, which means us, so no one is excluded. However, like that man who entered the banqueting hall improperly dress and was promptly thrown out into utter darkness, no one will be able to enter without the garment of righteousness that Jesus’ blood sacrifice secured for us. We must wear the garment God provided or we cannot enter.

And oh how sad for those without the proper garment. Instead of a sumptuous wedding feast in a beautiful setting (symbolic of eternal life with Christ) their eternal future will be lived in darkness and weeping and pain.

It seems so foolish. The invitation is for all and the only requirement is that we are dressed in God’s proper garment. So why do so many make light of the invitation and give silly excuses?

Until next time,

Sylvia