The Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22)
And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying,"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.' But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' And
those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they
found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
"But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen."
Wow. I'm not wowing at the beginning. That's understandable. I'm shocked at the end about the man who came in without a wedding garment. My first thought is, what if that's all he had? Where's God's mercy in that? Maybe he was one of the bad people. But you have to reread the parable and look at the end of the 1st paragraph..."both bad and good," came. It's taking me a while to process this. Even after this post I will continue to process it. This parable caught my attention and absolutely scares me to death.
God's throwing a wedding feast. A FEAST. Maybe similar to today's "feasts" (OK that could be a big stretch.) The best of the best is prepared for us by GOD--yet we often respond by not coming. Our 'businesses' are too important to leave them and go to this FEAST. He sent other servants to remind them to come...nah, my farm or business is more important! Apparently we need days like 'Thanksgiving' to remind us of what God has done on the cross (can you pick up on my sarcasm?). How many of us will forget what God did tomorrow AM or even as we make room for the pumpkin pie coming down to an already stuffed stomach? At what point do you keep asking someone to come to something if they clearly don't want to come? I'm shocked because there's a time where mercy will not be offered anymore. Do people know that God's FEAST will be no more at sometime or are they truly ignorant? (that's not bad...it just needs more of those who are aware, to say something.)
I'm also sad for the man who came in without any wedding garments. Maybe the man has the means to put on wedding garments, but doesn't. I don't know. My comments here are premature and without any study or prayer through it. But I'm sad for the guy. I'm also sad to the many who know what kind of FEAST God will provide, yet come half-heart-ed. Or don't want to come, period. I'm sad for people like me who have an idea to have complete strangers in his home for Thanksgiving, yet doesn't. Yup, I'm a coward. I'm sad for the people who will be in the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
"Erasing Hell," by Francis Chan might help, a little. "God has the right to do WHATEVER He pleases (Psalm 115:3). If I've learned one thing from studying hell, it's the last line. And whether or not you end up agreeing with everything I say about hell, you must agree with Psalm 115:3. Because at the end of the day, our feelings and wants and heartaches and desires are not ultimate--only God is ultimate. God tells us plainly that His ways and thoughts are infinitely higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9). Expect then, that Scripture will say things that don't agree with your natural way of thinking."
Today I'll toast to God's mercy.
