The Wedding Feast

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

THE WEDDING FEAST

Matt 22:1-14

22:1 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." 

NIV

There are three people represented here in this parable of Jesus. God is also there as we can well see represented by the king. Although, as Jesus usually does, He uses the customs of that day, this wedding banquet is the one that will take place in the kingdom of heaven. We have those who were first invited, which we could say were the Jews, but within this parable, these who are invited can be all of creation, who at this point are sinners. They refuse, but God is insistent and keeps inviting, telling the sinner, that He has killed the lamb, that the lamb of God has been slain, everything is ready for your salvation, come to the wedding feast of the Lamb. But they paid no attention. The sinners who refuse say, we have no time for religion, we are busy with our life of trade, of making money, being concerned with their own self-interests. Can we not see that those who live like that refusing to come to the wedding feast, will be ultimately burned up? The second people here are those who accept the invitation of the king. We could see them as the Gentiles, as described as the good and bad, versus the Jews. But, they are still all sinners, some who live fairly normal lives, not being murders, thieves, or other breakers of civil laws. Others that are invited are the bad, the breakers of civil law. However, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are invited to come to the wedding feast of the Lamb. It is interesting that on that day when people arrive at the wedding, they are given white robes, wedding clothes to wear. These robes are provided by the King. Oh, we can see this is surely the kingdom of heaven and for those who overcome, which means endure to the end, will be given white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb. Now, we do have to deal with this last person who arrived and had not taken the white robe but stayed in his street clothes. Could he be the hypocrite in the church? The one who appears to accept the invitation, but still wants to be engaged in his worldly desires. This could also be seen in the spiritual sense as this person shows contempt for God. Salvation can be his through the provision of the Lord, and he could have taken it, and worn the white robe, but instead, he wants to come to the wedding in his filthy rags of self-righteousness. We see the result of this type of faith in good works. Oh, how glad we are that we have been invited, that we accepted the messenger who came to call us to the wedding feast. How thankful we are that we have that white robe washed in the blood of Jesus. That we are in the wedding feast and enjoying being in the presence of the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, forever and ever, Amen.