Friday, May 13, 2016

We have spent this week reflecting on the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew 22.  Take a moment to read the entire parable again one more time.

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.’  “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.  “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.   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, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.  “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.  ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.  “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.” 

- Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus told this parable to the religious leaders of His day.  These were the men who were already quite convinced of their place at God’s table.  They were so certain of their own spiritual status, that they missed the primary point Jesus was driving home in this story.  While there are many interesting cultural and historical details in this story, there is really just one penetrating theme.  The story is really not about the guests who rejected the King, nor is it about those who accepted Him.  The central theme of this parable is the amazing grace of the King!

I think we have a very shallow understanding of grace today because we do not fully understand our desperate need for it.  We do not like to think of ourselves as unacceptable to God.  We like to think that while we may not be perfect, we deserve at least a little credit for the good things we’ve done.  Let me close out our week of reflection by telling you the story of a man who was utterly transformed by the amazing grace of the King.

John Newton was born in 1725 in London. His mother, who was a godly woman and who taught him to pray as a child, died when he was only seven years old.  He had only two years at school, and at the age of eleven, his father, who was a Sea Captain, took him out to sea for the first time.  His sea-faring life is well known, and includes becoming the captain of a slave-trade ship.  Newton spent many years buying, selling, and transporting human beings as slaves.  On one such slaving trip, Newton was shipwrecked on a remote island off of the African coast.  He was rescued by a friend of his father who was a ship's captain as well.  Newton lit a fire of driftwood on the shore to attract the attention of any passing ship.  In the providence of God, this friend of his father, who was searching for him, sent a long-boat ashore to investigate, and John was rescued.  He was on this ship returning across the Atlantic when it encountered a great storm which was threatening to destroy it and everyone on board.

This took place on March 10, 1748. `That tenth of March', writes Newton, "is a day much to be remembered by me, and I have never allowed it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748.  For on that day the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters."

The storm was terrible.  When the ship went plunging down into the trough of the sea, few on board expected it to rise up again. The hold was rapidly filling with water.  As Newton hurried to his place at the pumps, he said to the captain, "If this will not do, the Lord have mercy upon us!"  His own words startled him.  "Mercy!" he said to himself in astonishment, "Mercy!  Mercy!  What mercy can there be for me?  This was the first desire I had breathed for mercy for many years!"  At about midnight the hold was free from water, and then came a gleam of hope. "I thought I saw the hand of God displayed in our favor.  I began to pray.  I could not utter the prayer of faith.  I could not draw near to a reconciled God and call him Father.  My prayer for mercy was like the cry of the ravens, which yet the Lord does not disdain to hear."  "In the gospel," says Newton, "I saw at least a chance of hope but on every other side I was surrounded with black, unfathomable despair."  On this glimmer of hope Newton staked everything.  He sought mercy and found the amazing grace of God. 

It was this same John Newton who would later write these immortal lines to one of the greatest hymns ever written:
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,that saved a wretch like me.I once was lost, but now am found,was blind, but now I see."
Pastor Jeff Frazier