THE WEDDING BANQUET

Jesus responded by telling still more stories. “God’s kingdom,” he said, “is like a king who threw a wedding banquet for his son. He sent out servants to call in all the invited guests. And they wouldn’t come!

“He sent out another round of servants, instructing them to tell the guests, ‘Look, everything is on the table, the prime rib is ready for carving. Come to the feast!’

“They only shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden, another to work in his shop. The rest, with nothing better to do, beat up on the messengers and then killed them. The king was outraged and sent his soldiers to destroy those thugs and level their city.

“Then he told his servants, ‘We have a wedding banquet all prepared but no guests. The ones I invited weren’t up to it. Go out into the busiest intersections in town and invite anyone you find to the banquet.’ The servants went out on the streets and rounded up everyone they laid eyes on, good and bad, regardless. And so the banquet was on—every place filled.     The Message Matthew 22:1-10

Our Sunday School class studied this section and it made for some interesting discussion. I put on a sign saying: Most Important Person. Then asked what they would expect when the Most Important Person invited them to a wedding banquet. Would it be hard to decide if they were coming? What would they wear? What would the banquet hall look like? What would they expect to eat?

They quickly decided it would be elegant.

They also decided the menu would consist of hamburger, steak, asparagus, salad, lemon pie, loaded baked potato and chocolate cheesecake. Now who wouldn't want to show up for a free meal like this?

Weed the garden? Work in the shop? Is that the best they could do? And to beat and kill the messenger! Why didn't they just say no? But why didn't they want to go?

This is a parable and we had to dig deeper.

God is the King. Jesus is the Son. The wedding banquet celebrates the marriage between Jesus and the church (us). We are the "B" list of guests.

The next question was: How do you feel knowing you are only at the table because someone else refused to come?

The answer: THRILLED!! EXCITED!! GRATEFUL!! The class was all smiles to know they were invited to the wedding banquet and not by a human "most important person" but they were INVITED BY GOD!!

We do not know when the banquet will be, but we are ready. We do not want to miss this one. We do not know what we will wear. We trust that the proper attire will be provided. We decided that we have no idea how it will look? We did decide what we will fill our plates with.

Joy. Glory. Patience. Forgiveness. Peace. Hope. Grace. Oneness. Eternal life. Helping Spirit.

We know we will be in the presence of God and Jesus.

We know we will see the fulfillment of God's Word.

But why didn't they want to go? Why would anyone weed the garden, work in the shop and even beat and kill the messenger instead of going to this wedding banquet. Why?

Why? Because they did not realize the importance of the invitation. They thought they would only be eating hamburgers. Or steak. Or chocolate cheesecake. No big deal. Just another banquet.

But why didn't they want to go? Why? Because they did not realize the importance of the invitation. Do you?