Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “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.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.
13 “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.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
As Jesus was telling this parable the Pharisees and crowd listening must've thought it was a ludricrous and far fetched story. I mean, can you imagine being invited to the weak long wedding party and feast of Prince William and Kate - and then refusing to come because you were to bothered with your work and simply didn't care, or even worse, grew so hostile you killed the ones sent to bring you to the wedding? It's ludicrous!
And yet, that was exactly what the Jewish people had done. They were invited to the most amazing party of all - the celebration feast given by God in hour of His Son, Jesus Christ. But when the preachers came to invite them, they refused. Some were simply too caught up in the cares of this world to bother. And some were so hostile to the invitation that they killed the preachers that had been sent to usher them into the celebration!
MacArthur maintains that Jesus' parable mentions two sets of preachers, not to focus on the preachers themselves but to demonstrate God's incredible graciousness and patience.
But even God's patience has a limit and Israel, who rejected Jesus, was destroyed about 70 years later when Roman general Titus Vespasian annihilated the city of Jerusalem, killing over a million Jews and destroying the temple.
Because the Jews rejected Jesus, the invitation was extended to the Gentiles - both the good and the bad (in terms of human morality). God calls everyone without discrimination. The only thing that makes you worthy to enter the kingdom is whether or not you accept the invitation.
But then there was a gatecrasher. Someone who had access to the wedding clothes, but didn't wear them and offered no excuse when confronted.
Yes, Israel treated Jesus Christ with indifference and hostility. Yes, they too were set aside of the judgment. Yes their city was destroyed and their nation and they've never yet been able to rebuild their temple. And yes they've lost for all the time since that their sacrificial system. Yes they've been set apart. And yes we've been brought in by the gracious preaching of the salvation message that extends to every one everywhere. But at the same time, if they have been guilty of indifference and hostility, then we have been guilty of gate crashing. And in Christianity we have a lot of people who hang around and who push their way in and who want to belong but they have no manifest holiness which is the robe of salvation....When we come to love Christ and receive Christ, we receive the righteousness of God. And that's our robe...Good and bad people come but once you come in, you have a robe...You must be clothed with His righteousness by faith in His death and resurrection.
Not much has really changed today.
The world is filled with people who are consumed with secular pursuits and worldly pleasures, and are indifferent to the gospel message.
There are others in false religions that are hostile to Christ.
And there are myriads of people who identity with Christianity on the outside but have tried to come on their own terms instead of being clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, with no manifest holiness in their lives at all.
And finally there is the mingling of free will and election once again.
Yes there is the will of man in receiving the invitation. Yes there is the will of man in rejecting the invitation. But the perfect balance to that is that God is sovereign. And those who come choose to come, the Bible says, because they're chosen by Him. That's a mystery we'll never fathom. But we believe it. So many are called, few are chosen. The broad road, many go in that way. The narrow, few there by that...find it.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 22:15-33
1 comment:
Great post, thank you. I couldn't remember the explanation of the guest without wedding clothes. Thanks for refreshing my memory.
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