Dear Trinity Family,
“I just don’t have time that!”
How often to you hear people say that? Time seems to be a pretty scarce commodity. Our days are filled with so many activities, responsibilities, and to-do’s, that we have to choose what we can and cannot fit into our schedules.
Jesus told a parable about where God fits into our priorities. He tells a story about a king who invited people to a wedding banquet for his son, but some of those people thought they had better things to do. They ignored the invitation. They had farms to tend and money to make. They simply didn’t have time for their Lord. Others were aggressive about it. They abused the messengers and even killed them.
It doesn’t surprise us that the king brought swift and furious judgment on those murderers. Rejecting God is neither wise nor safe.
The parable doesn’t stop there. The king proceeded to invite everybody his servants could find and filled his house with guests. That’s a picture of the Christian church today. Everybody is invited. But not everybody is chosen. The man without the wedding clothes is someone who sits among God’s people without faith. Without faith, we stand before God on our own (in our own clothes),
We can’t get into God’s kingdom by responding to an invitation. We can only enter by faith.
And by faith we are filled with gratitude for God’s invitation. We are thrilled to be in God’s presence, celebrating the love of his son. The cares and the concerns of this world fade into the background as we praise our loving Savior.
Matthew 22:1–14 (EHV)
1Jesus spoke to them again in parables. He said, 2“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent out his servants to summon those who were invited to the wedding banquet, but they did not want to come.
4“Then he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet!’
5“But those who were invited paid no attention and went off, one to his own farm, another to his business. 6The rest seized the king’s servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7As a result, the king was very angry. He sent his army and killed those murderers and burned their town.
8“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9So go to the main crossroads and invite as many as you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10Those servants went out to the roads and gathered together everyone they found, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wearing wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. 13Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14For many are called, but few are chosen.”
God bless,
Pastor Tesch