“The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore, go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.” Matthew 22:8,9
In one of Jesus’ parables concerning the kingdom of heaven, He uses the illustration of a father, who was a king, who prepared a wedding feast for his son. This king took care to make all the preparations, so that the blessing of that moment for his son and his bride, would be the most blessed, and joyful occasion, confirming to them the blessing of heaven upon their marriage, but also, the promised continuation of that blessing, even into eternity. An invitation had been sent out for many to come to the celebration. For some reason, those invited were not willing to come. The king sent out his servants a second time explaining that great care had gone into the preparations for the wedding, and that all was ready for the celebration. He then simply, but explicitly said to those who were invited, “Come to the wedding.” It was after this second effort to win the hearts of those invited that the real reason for them refusing to come was revealed. Jesus said that “…they made light of the wedding, and went their ways,” esteeming their farms and other businesses to be more important than the wedding of the father’s son. Not only was their refusal the deliberate rejection of the father’s invitation, but they would even seize the servants of this king, treat them spitefully, and kill them. What would this father do? This father was also a king, with all the power and authority of that position to do what he chose to do.
The first thing that we recognize about this king, after the invitations had been rejected, and his servants killed, was that he was furious, no longer benevolent and gracious in his dealings with those who were now his enemies. He sent out his armies, destroying the murderers, and burned up their city. To treat lightly and reject the wedding feast of the son of this father-king, was a very serious thing, especially when his servants were killed. It was after this that the father-king instructed other servants to go into the highways, inviting as many as they could find, to come to the wedding, as it was ready. This his servants did, and the wedding hall was filled with guests dressed for the occasion, that is all except one. For some reason this person gained access to the wedding but was not properly clothed in wedding attire. In other words, he did not come in the right manner, and certainly not with a right heart and spirit. His intentions were like those of the thief who would not come by the gate into the sheepfold but sought entrance by some other way. This man who came to the wedding, ill-prepared to celebrate this momentous occasion, in the freedom and joy of the son, would be bound by order of the king, cast out into outer darkness, where there was “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt. 22:13)
When Israel rejected the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father had already put into place an alternate plan for the wedding of His Son and His bride. It was to take the message of the gospel, the good news, to the uttermost parts of the earth, into the highways where the multitudes passed every day, there to invite them individually to celebrate the momentous, joyful, blessing of the marriage of the Lamb of God. Though God would still seek to save the people of Israel who rejected and crucified Christ, His attention would be given to the Gentiles, those nations which were not Hebrew. It is to them that the glorious gospel of salvation would be given in the demonstration of the Spirit and power. Many would be saved, because they responded obediently to the invitation of God, but an even greater number would not, for they would treat lightly the invitation, and reject God’s greatest gift to man, Christ.
Dear Father, Work through us today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.