Wednesday, May 11, 2016

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.

- Matthew 22:1-10

The king in this story showed incredible mercy and kindness even toward those that had initially rejected his invitation. "Again he sent out other slaves saying, 'Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened cattle are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."'  He did not want them to misunderstand.  The king was not asking his guests to prepare the feast.  He had prepared it.  He was not asking them to come to a feast that lacked preparations. This was no potluck supper! Everything necessary for the royal banquet had been set forth.  Nothing was neglected or left undone.  All they had to do was show up!

But nobody came.  Those fortunate people who were invited to the king’s feast ended up rejecting Him.  To reject a royal invitation was a serious offense; it was an insult to the king.  In our culture, we don’t see it quite that way.  We value the rights of the individual to make his or her own decisions.  We think, “Well, what does it matter to God if I do not want to follow Jesus Christ? Can He not just leave me to my own decision and life?”  I suppose that would be the normal logic, and that might be the case if we were dealing with mere men. But we are not dealing with a normal human king; we are talking about the Creator and Sovereign Lord of the universe. 

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  – Colossians 1:16-17

Stop and think about that for just a minute.  This is not a human king or the president of a country.  This King is the Lord of heaven and earth.  This is King is the one who created and rules over every planet, in every solar system, in every galaxy, in all the universe.  And He rules over every molecule in every cell of your body as well!  If this is the kind of King we are talking about, then you don’t respond to Him when you get around to it!  You don’t put Him off until you’ve had time to weight your options.  You don’t tell Him that you will come to Him after you have had a chance to live it up a little.  You don’t come to Him on your terms.  You come to Him when He calls/invites you, or you don’t come at all.  This is the truly amazing thing about this King.  Although He is Lord of all creation, He is also so patient, and so gracious, and so loving that He continually extends His invitation out to all people, even to those who will ignore and reject His offer. 

Pastor Jeff Frazier