Parable of the Wedding Feast

“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 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 22:1-3; 8-10. NIV) [Read Matthew 22:1-14 and Luke 14:16-23]

I think we all like weddings. Something in the ceremony speaks of faith and new beginnings, of promise and commitment. And the wedding feast, or reception, as we commonly call the post-wedding celebration now, is a time for gladness and rejoicing. But what if the wedding feast is prepared with the finest accoutrements you can imagine, the best of repasts, and those invited refuse to come? The King in our story had such a predicament. What did he do? So as not to waste the carefully prepared feast, he sent his servants into the highways and byways and invited all who would to come. But even then, as we saw in the last of this parable, one slipped in without the wedding garments on, and had to be bodily removed from the feast. Was this cruel treatment? Was not everyone invited? Yes. But there were still some requirements for admittance. Everyone had to be clad in wedding garments.

Taken symbolically, we see this as our “doctrine of election”. Everyone is invited to the marriage feast of the Lord, and into His kingdom. But there are certain things the invited guests must do. The Jews had the first opportunity. They were the first-invited guests. But when Jesus did not meet their expectations for the Bridegroom sent from God, they refused to participate in the marriage feast or the union God had prepared. Other guests were then invited. And they came from all walks of life, every tribe and condition. Election depends upon God’s grace to all, not on their goodness or worthiness, their race or religious affiliation. God’s invitation must be met on the basis of His standards for the wedding feast. We know those as repentance (turning from our old way of life in the highways and hedges of life) and by faith (putting on the new life in Christ). The proper dress for the wedding feast of the Lamb, then, is that we are dressed in repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this respect, by our personal choice, we become one of the elect, eligible for the wedding feast.

Our entrance is due to God’s goodness in inviting us. Our remaining depends upon not our goodness but upon His forgiveness and grace when we have turned to Him, expecting the marvelous feast He has for us in the Christian walk and way, and the rewards in store in eternity. Enough said! That is the essence of the wedding feast! We don’t need to be cast out. Not if we wear the garments of grace and His goodness! And that invitation to the wedding feast is still open. Read about what is yet to come in Revelation 21 and 22. Until Jesus, the Bridegroom, returns to claim His bride (the redeemed church) the invitation is still open: “The Spirt and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come! Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life…The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.” (Revelation 22: 17, 21. NIV). Praise be to God!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Sunday, September 5, 2010