The parable of the wedding feast is easy enough to understand, but it has always fascinated me. Why invite guests and then throw them out?
Of course the original guests to be invited are the Jewish people. They turned Jesus away, and before Christ they rejected God several times as a nation. The spiritual ups and downs of the Jewish people remind me of how all people tend to experience peaks and valleys in their spiritual lives.
We don’t live in a monarchy, so we aren’t accustomed to the king “summoning” us to a party. In the United States you are free to refuse if you want to. The king (or President, or whoever) doesn’t control you.
Well, so you would think, anyway. Let’s say that your boss at work put together a party for his son, who is taking over the business. You are a manager at this business but you decide that you don’t feel like attending. So, you don’t RSVP. A few days later another messenger shows up at your door, asking if you will attend the party. Clearly the boss is going out of his way to elicit a “yes” from you. But, you decide to refuse, and you even insult the messenger who delivers the invitation. Here’s a question for you: “How much longer do you think you’ll have that job?” I’d wager it won’t be long.
When God invites us to join Him, to refuse is sin. God isn’t commanding that we attend, but He is preparing consequences for those who decide not to. The invitation He has extended is for eternal life in His kingdom. In order to accept the invitation we must admit we are sinful and in need of something only Christ has…a perfect life offered as a sacrifice for us. We cannot enter without His forgiveness.
There are those who reject this entire train of thought. They don’t believe God even exists, so they aren’t going to admit they need him. This passage clearly outlines their fate.
Then there are those who accept the invitation. That would be you and I, the ones who weren’t originally invited, but are now. Check this out: some of the people who respond to the invitation are later thrown out because they weren’t dressed in wedding clothes. I think the appropriate attire is holiness, and the righteous acts of the believers. These things don’t gain us salvation, but they are the clothing that keeps us at the feast.
Thinking briefly of the money “given to Caesar”: if money doesn’t control us, then we won’t have a problem paying our taxes or our other bills honestly. If we have an unhealthy attraction to money, that’s when it leads to deceiving. I think it’s perfectly acceptable to petition the government to reduce taxes, and take every imaginable tax break you can. The government almost never uses our money wisely. Far better for us to spend it benevolently ourselves.
I find it odd that the Saducees, who don’t believe in a resurrection are questioning whose wife the woman will be in the resurrection. This was clearly a thin lie meant only to trap Jesus into saying something they could use against him. Sadly our political system does the same thing among opposing parties. If they don’t have solid evidence, then they convene hearings where the probe around and ask inflammatory questions in hopes of finding something worthy of smearing their opponents character. It’s sickening and disheartening to watch…frustrating too.
I don’t know how Jesus put up with it, he clearly had to be operating on a different level of relationship with the Father. I have experienced deep personal relationship from time to time but I never seem to be able to stay there. I never drift away from my faith, but I don’t always press into the deeper relationship all the time. Even for myself I find that there are “peaks and valleys”. I guess that is to be expected.
Jesus on the other hand, never seems to have a day when he wasn’t growing closer to God. Now, if it’s possible for Jesus to do that in human form, then it’s possible for us (me) as well. I pray often to that end.
Be blessed, and have a happy Easter weekend!
Serving the Risen Savior,
PR