Todays reading: Matthew 22:2-14 and Psalm 132
We recently celebrated a wedding in our family. My step daughter Paige married Ross on 6/16/18. It was perfect. Even though it poured down rain 25 minutes before the outdoor ceremony……it was perfect. And at the end of the day they were married!!! We spent many hours preparing for the ceremony and the reception. Then we waited for people to RSVP to the blessed event. As we waited, I was convicted of all the times I was slow to respond or failed to respond all together to various invitations. Why would I be so slow to respond to an invitation to a banquet with free food and drink, entertainment, and celebration with friends and family?
The parable in Matthew 22:2-14 speaks to an invitation and is an illustration of the kingdom of heaven. There was a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. Invitations were sent out but the people were too busy to respond (RSVP). Their minds were on other things. They were busy with work, family, illness, animals. When it came time for the banquet the people that were invited didn’t accept the invitation. They actually got mad and violent towards the servants that were inviting them! So the king, who spent so much time preparing for the event, invited other people off the street to come to the party in place of the ones initially invited. They accepted the invitation and came to the banquet. Once there, the king noticed someone who was not dressed appropriately for the banquet. At that time, when Jewish people had a wedding banquet they gave the invitation and provided clothing for guests to wear to the event. This particular guest came to the banquet but wasn’t wearing the new clothes given to him. He showed up, but didn’t fully accept the invitation. He was only half present. The king got rid of him because the guest arrogantly arrived in his own clothes and wasn’t willing to put down his pride and fully commit.
Have you RSVP’d to Jesus invitation?In accepting Jesus invitation have you fully committed by also putting on the new clothing of Christ? God asks us to clothe ourselves in His righteousness, not our own. It’s part of the celebration of fully accepting the invitation of salvation from Jesus.
Isaiah 61:10 “I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels.”