PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Matthew 22:1-14
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14)
In this story, this king is a human king, selfish and insisting on his way.
God is not like this king, but there is a lesson in this worldly example.
Even God, who is pure love and goodness, will not pressure people to respond.
The emphasis in this story is the gracious invitation, and the peoples’ response.
The primary audience is the pharisees (v.15), who are refusing Jesus’s invitation.
Jesus is warning them that they will lose out on the grace that they are rejecting.
All people are invited to feast on God’s grace; the feast represents abundant goodness.
To reject the invitation is also to choose the opposite: ungrace, cruelty, violence.
In God’s gracious kingdom, those who embrace grace continue to enjoy it.
The man without wedding clothes is another example of someone rejecting grace.
His refusal to participate (dress up) is his rejection of what it is all about.
God’s gracious kingdom is for everyone – Jews and non-Jews – but how will it be received?
To choose grace is to live it, to be clothed in it, to share it with others.
God chooses those who take hold of his grace, who wear that grace before others!
PRAYER
Lord, you have freely invited me into God’s grace feast. May I eagerly receive and wear your grace as a garment that everyone can experience and appreciate!
Jesus invitation reaches further and more broadly than we could think or imagine. His grace is expansive – yet we tend to restrict it. We are quickly selective and judgmental of others. Jesus invites and he also provides the wedding clothes. He makes us righteous because we have no way of cleansing ourselves and to be properly seated at the banquet table. We cannot come if we do not wear the wedding clothes – like the blood on the doorposts – Jesus blocks the angel of death – we wear the clothes he provides -and make us ready to sit at the table. We look forward to that day – to celebrate the victory – when sin and death will be no more! Lord help me be more gracious and invitational to others!
God invites the people to the feast. He knocks at our doors of our hearts to let Him in. He gives many chances. We need to be dressed with our faith hope and love. We need to give ourselves totally to Him so that others can see we are His and He is ours/mine. We all need to come to the banquet feast for the meal has been prepared.
REFRAIN:
I cannot come.
I cannot come to the banquet,
Don’t trouble me now.
I have married a wife,
I have bought me a cow.
I have fields and commitments
That cost a pretty sum,
Pray, hold me excused,
I cannot come.
Verse 1
A certain man held a feast
On his fine estate in town,
He laid a festive table,
And wore a wedding gown.
He sent invitations
To his neighbors far and wide,
But when the meal was ready,
Each of them replied”¦..
(REFRAIN)
Verse 2
The master rose up in anger,
Called his servants by name, said:
“Go into the town,
Fetch the blind and the lame,
Fetch the peasant and the pauper
For this I have willed,
My banquet must be crowed,
And my table must be filled.”
REFRAIN
Verse 3
When all the poor had assembled,
There was still room to spare,
So the master demanded:
“Go search ev’rywhere,
To the highways and the byways
And force them to come in,
My table must be filled before the banquet can begin.
REFRAIN
Verse 4
Now God has written a lesson
For the rest of mankind;
If we’re slow in responding,
He may leave us behind
He’s preparing a banquet for that
Great and glorious day,
When the Lord and Master callus,
Be certain not to say”
(REFRAIN)
I cannot come.
I cannot come to the banquet,
Don’t trouble me now.
I have married a wife,
I have bought me a cow.
I have fields and commitments
That cost a pretty sum,
Pray, hold me excused,