From Matthew 22:
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
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.'
Have you ever done all the work and invited those closest to you to celebrate? Have you ever prepared your life is such a way that you have developed insight to the point you ask a loved one, "Just do it this way, life will be so much better for you?" When you get rejected by those you love most. When those who should be on your side, but have left, this is God's way of pointing you back to those you have rejected, who you should have stood by. It is his way of turning you back to him.
God has called you to celebrate, through Jesus, the bride of the church. In this parable, the Pharisees should have accepted Jesus, as they claimed to be righteous. But they refused.
"But they paid no attention and went off - one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
Of those who should be there to accept Jesus, there are some that are just too busy with their current focus. They have their own burdens to carry, they have their own families to worry about.
Then, there are those who mock, slander and even hurt. God will judge them accordingly. "Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too. - Will Smith"
"Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
There are those who should receive, but they are closed. So deliver your gift to those who are open to receive it.
Jesus goes to the broken, because those who know they are broken, are open to receiving his gift, his covering on their lives.
"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, 'How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?' The man was speechless.
God found someone who was broken, who had received the invitation, who knew the truth. Who knew right from wrong. But yet, he was not repenting. He was not accepting the grace and precious gift laid before him. And when confronted, the man was speechless. Unlike the Pharisees, who are blind to the truth and defend when attacked, the man openly listens to the truth that is presented to him.
"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.'
"For many are invited, but few are chosen."
Sometimes we wonder in our life, why we have pain. Why we are rejected. I want to tell you that this last person is you.
Everyone is a sinner and while we wish to cloak ourselves with Jesus' covering, we all fall short, we all make mistakes. So, what does our God do in this case? He disciplines us like a loving father disciplines his child.
Sometimes when we go through pain, we fill like a slave in life. We feel like our control has been completely taken away. We are bound. We feel like we can no longer see. We are blind. And in that moment of desperation, we weep. We hurt.
Notice, the king did not kill the man, he only disciplined him. Hope is not lost.
So why would God do this? Is he mean? Is he cruel? No, accept the discipline and the pain and the struggles. They are a gift. God is not trying to hurt you. Pain is an awesome blessing. He is try to mold you into the person you were meant to be.
The recipe for hope is that trials lead to perserverance which builds character which leads to hope. So why you? Because you were chosen.
This post was reposted from http://sizuservices.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-parable-of-wedding-banquet.html, originally written on September 13th, 2014.
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