Matthew 22:1-14
When the religious leaders challenged Jesus' authority, he responded with three parables: The parable of the two sons, The parable of the tenants, and the parable we read today -- the parable of the Wedding Banquet.
This parable is a warning to all who hear it a warning about not missing out on all that God has for you. When Jesus talks about the kingdom of God, he talks about a banquet because a relationship with God is something to celebrate. It is a cause for joy and happiness in our lives. lives.
God has invited all of us to a banquet feast. This banquet is not merely symbolic of heaven, it is symbolic of the Christian life here on earth. God has invited all of us to a banquet: a personal relationship with him, and a holy, empowering relationship with one another. He wants our lives to be lives of celebration, and the purpose of this parable is to ensure that we experience it to the fullest extent.
There are several things this parable teaches: 1. There's more than one way to miss God's purpose for your life. There is more than one way to reject Christ. There's more than one way to reject the gospel. The king prepared a wedding banquet for his son and invited all these these people to attend--and they rejected his offer in three ways.
a. Some were apathetic. This is how some people miss out on God's purpose for their life. They re just not interested. They don't hear God's offer because they don't care to listen. They're too apathetic to give serious consideration to what God wants to do in their lives.
b. Some were hostile. That's how some people respond to God's offer to an eternal banquet--they become belligerent.
c. Some were simply uncooperative. It s how many people miss out on God's purpose for their life. They come to church, they re here every week, but they never really engage themselves in God's kingdom. Their hearts are far from God, and they're never serious enough about it to become fully committed to him.
Symbolically, what does it mean come to the wedding feast dressed in wedding clothes? It means that you approach God's work in your life with a spirit of reverence, a spirit of respect, a spirit of cooperation, and a spirit of commitment. There's more than one way to miss out on God's purpose for your life, but there's only way to get it: full-on, no-holds-barred commitment to him.
2. The call of God in your life is not based on your past. God extends his invitation to those in the highways and the byways--to those whose clothes may not be completely clean. Why? Because once you come to the banquet he will clean you up.
God issues the same invitation to the good and bad: come join the celebration. If you're not clean he'll make you clean. If you're not worthy, he'll make you worthy. The fact is, none of us are worthy--we all need his grace. This story teaches us that there is more than one way to miss out on God's purpose for your life, but only one way to get in on it: through complete commitment to him. It also teaches us that God's call is not based on your past, it's based on his mercy.
3. Your response to God's call determines your future. God has issued the invitation; how will you respond? With apathy or with passion? With hostility or with joy? With a non-cooperative attitude, or with a noholds-barred level of commitment?
Our king has issued an invitation to his banquet feast. The invitation is being extended today...it doesn't matter about the past, because the invitation goes out to everyone, both good and bad. But what does matter is the future. Your future. Your future is determined by the decision you make.