Jesus has used quite a few parables in recent weeks to give us a picture of what the Kingdom of Heaven is going to look like. He used examples of a fine pearl, a great treasure, a mustard seed, a treasure found in the field, a net cast into the sea to catch a load of fish. But here we have an imagery of what life in the Kingdom of Heaven looks like. It looks like a wedding feast. And what a beautiful image that is. If you’ve ever been to a wedding and a wedding reception you know how much effort goes in for this to be perfect. This is the bride’s special day – it has to be perfect. You can’t have a hair out of place. You have wedding rehearsals to hopefully prevent any last minute uncertainty. The hair and makeup is started at the crack of dawn. The photographer arrives early to capture every preparation of the big day.
One of the hardest parts however of a wedding is getting the invitation list together. Weddings are expensive – a meal you might pay $30 to $50 in a restaurant can end up around $200. So you refine the list – you have a back up list so if someone can’t make it you can invite them because you would have already paid for them. I remember with our son getting married that because of Covid we were even ringing people the day before the wedding to invite them because someone had come down with Covid.
In our bible reading we have a King giving a wedding banquet for his son. It’s hard to imagine that anyone would say NO to a royal wedding – such an elite invitation yet this is what we find. But not only did they say NO they got angry at being invited: They made light of the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. Not wanting the day to be ruined the King extends the invitation to anyone who is prepared to come. It didn’t matter if they were on the A list – anyone, good or evil was invited. Through this parable we see that the King is a gracious King wanting nothing more than to invite people to his celebration and for some unknown reason his invited guests reject him.
This is a picture of our world condition. We have a God who loves the world so much that he sacrificed his own Son for us.
We have a God whose desire is to have all of us live in heaven with him. We have a God who wants to lavish on us all his love and abundance as John saw in Revelation: A new Heaven and Earth, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. Where there will be no more suffering or death – where nothing evil will ever exist – and not only do people say no but they become violent and hateful to anyone who tries to share the Good News with them. Just like how they treated the King’s messengers who only came to let them know the sumptuous feast was ready for them: They seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. And yet this is how we find more often than not the response to the Gospel in the world today.
But we are not to give in but, like the King, continue to go out to the highways and byways to invite people to experience the joy of heaven. It’s so hard to understand what is so offensive about an invitation to experience heaven without anything required and yet that is what Jesus experienced and what the church continues to experience today. But God is a gracious God and does not treat us as we deserve. As we see in our Old Testament reading. Despite all that God has done for Israel at the first opportunity they replace God with a golden calf. The people demand from Aaron:“Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron took the gold from them and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
God was furious – he disowned them – let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them;
But Moses stood between God’s judgment and the rebellious people who had rejected him. Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. And what did God do?
The Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people. You see, God is not a vengeful God.
So often we read, as we read in today’s Psalm, the qualities of God as, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
Do you realise both the power and the responsibility that you have – that the church has – in standing between God’s anger at how the world treats him and the world. That’s why as Christians and the Church we pray for the world.
Because, as we see in the parable of the wedding feast there is a time of Judgment when those who reject Christ will face a judgment without the covering of Christ’s forgiveness. When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
It’s unthinkable to imagine but there will come a time when all must face God’s judgment – when every knee will bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ as Lord. As we read in Hebrews 9: people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
So let us be like Moses. Yes there is so much antagonism and rejection of the church but it’s not our place to call down fire and brimstone like James and John wanted to do when the Samaritans rejected them: “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. No, let us be like Moses, praying for them.
Let us listen to Paul who said: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. We can all get passionate and emotional at times and wonder why people can’t understand that God loves them and offers them eternal life in heaven. Just like I can’t understand why anyone would have rejected an invitation to a Royal Wedding. But that’s the reality of Satan turning the hearts of people against God.
But let us not be deterred from our faith that God can work miracles in the hearts of hardened hearts. Let us keep valuing whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable – and keep praying for the world and the God of peace will be with you.
