Posted on 08/19/2016 8:02:44 AM PDT by Salvation
The Gospel from Thursday’s Mass (Thursday of the 20th Week of the Year) contains one of the most shocking parables Jesus ever told. It is the Parable of the Wedding Feast from the Gospel of Matthew, and it tells the story of a king who gives a wedding banquet for his son. Most know it well, but in case you want to review it, the full text is available here: Parable of the Wedding Feast.
It does not take a degree in biblical theology to understand that this parable is an allegory. The “king” is God the Father, the “son” is Jesus, and the wedding feast is the great wedding feast of the Lamb described in the Book of Revelation:
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteousness of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God” (Revelation 19:6-9).
The invited guests are the Jewish people of that time who, when the feast is ready, ignore or reject it for various reasons. Some guests express concerns for land (I just bought a farm) or profit (I own a business). And a group of them (for unknown reasons) lay hold of the king’s servants (who represent the prophets and, later, the Apostles), beating and even killing them.
This rejection represents not just the rejection by the Jews of history, but also the long human history of ignoring or rejecting God in favor of worldliness (land), profit (business), and hostility to the truth (the beating and killing of the king’s servants (the prophets and Apostles)).
And yet the focus is on the rejection by the Jews of the time, for the parable calls them the “invited guests.”
The reaction to their rejection, related by Jesus Himself, is that the king (God the Father) was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city (Matt 22:6).
This detail is especially shocking to many modern readers, because we have bought into a watered down notion of the holiness of God and the significance of human choice for or against Him. The common modern vision of the Father is that of a doting older man (like George Burns or Morgan Freeman) who exists more to get us out of trouble and offer friendly advice than to summon us to holiness, obedience, and a critical choice.
But take note: this detail of the king burning their city is told by Jesus Himself. And as we shall see in this coming Sunday’s Gospel about the wide and narrow roads, He is not playing around! However we want to “rework” God and render Him harmless, however we want to try to oppose God’s love and justice, however we want to render human choice insignificant, the biblical text will have none of it. The bottom line is that no one loves you more than does Jesus Christ, yet no one warned of judgment and Hell more than He did.
Don’t be surprised if this parable shocks you; it is meant to do so. It is a call to sobriety in the face of the four most critical truths of our life: death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell. This parable teaches that we will either enter the wedding feast and celebrate with the Father or we will be caught up in the conflagration when the Lord comes to judge this world by fire (e.g., 2 Pet 3:7; Malachi 4:1; 2 Thess 1:7).
Add to this shock the fact that the parable was actually fulfilled in 70 A.D. (as a kind of precursor to the final end of the age) when, after forty years of pleading with the Jewish people to come to Christ, a fiery destruction came upon Jerusalem. After rejecting the Lord’s warnings (cf Matthew 24, 25; Mark 13; Luke 21), rejecting the call of the early Apostles and Church, and picking a pointless war with the Romans, the Jewish nation was utterly defeated. Jerusalem was sacked and burned and more than a million Jews were killed.
The choice is ours, but the judgment is certain to come: “God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water but the fire next time!” (Negro spiritual)
The only safe place to be is at the wedding feast of the Jesus the Lamb, who saves us from the wrath to come (1 Thess 1:10).
Jesus, with weeping, had warned,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate (Matt 23:37).
The next shocking part of the parable comes in the second half. The enraged king (God the Father) orders his servants to go into the streets and gather everyone they can. This detail represents going out to the Gentiles and the Great Commission.
Thanks be to God that the response is good and the banquet is filled. But then comes yet another shock:
When the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.
This makes us moderns wince. Perhaps part of our trouble with these verses is that we may think that the newly invited guests were dragged in right off the street with no chance to change clothes. But there is nothing in the text to suggest that they were not given time to don their wedding clothes. The other guests all seem to be clothed properly and the focus shifts to one man who is not properly dressed.
Whatever the debated cultural parameters of the story, the theological parameters are more clear. The wedding garment is provided by the king (God the Father), who clothes us in righteousness at our baptism.
For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteousness of God’s holy people.) (Rev 19:8)
Yes, this is the baptismal gown, the robe of righteousness, which God gives to the baptized, who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb! In the Baptismal Rite, the celebrant points to the white garment of the newly baptized and says,
You have clothed yourself in Christ. Receive this baptismal garment and bring it unstained to the judgment seat of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that you may have everlasting life (# 578).
In the parable, the man is without a wedding garment not because he is poor or was pulled in off the street, but because he cast aside the garment he was given. Remember that the garment is no mere piece of cloth; it represents righteousness. And this righteousness is received and must be cherished. Without it, we cannot endure or remain at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, which is Heaven.
Thus ends one of the most shocking parables Jesus ever told. (We will examine the “many are called but few are chosen” aspect of the text this coming Sunday.) And though the parameters of this parable do shock, Jesus speaks them with an urgent love to bring forth godly repentance from us and to stir an evangelical urgency in us to reach others before “Great and Terrible Day of the Lord” comes (cf Joel 2:31; Mal 4:5 inter al). On that day there will be only two places: safe at the wedding feast with the Lord or outside in the fiery judgment that is coming on this world.
An old spiritual says,
“God’s gonna set this world on Fire one of these days.”
Another old spiritual goes like this:
“I got a robe, you got a robe, all God’s children got a robe. When I get to heaven gonna put on my robe and go wear it all over God’s heaven! Everybody talkin’ bout heaven ain’t a goin’ there!”
Make sure you’ve got your robe and keep it washed in the blood of the Lamb.
What ever happened to *one lord, one faith, one baptism* as we are constantly reminded?
There is Only One Lord, Jesus.
There is Only One Faith Catholic(look up the words meaning, many have fallen away)
There is Only One Baptism, You can only be Baptized once for the forgiveness of Original Sin, After that when you sin there are other Sacraments to help Cleans those sins.
But You Know this already, its just you choose to reject it.
God Bless
I wasn’t up to date on this re-make. I totally enjoyed the original Ben Hur.
I’ll post a review tomorrow. Keep your eyes peeled.
No, because it is not--it is not--real.
It is a fairy story conjured up by wringing catechistic falsehood out of Scriptural reality by adding to, taking from, and maligning the whole Gospel account.
It is not to the hearers best divine advantage, one that you should not have learned to enjoy.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3453798/posts?page=700#700
After all the threads you have posted, I am quite sure you know exactly what the term is, and where to find it, so don't slyly troll this bait across the scent of the other trail we are following to distract our attention from the doctrine of losing one's salvatory righteousness, as proposed by Pope.
Sometimes your effort to divert and deflect is so obvious. It is a shame you are not open to learning ...
But you listed two baptisms and now you’re saying there’s only one.
Yeah. Cognitive disconnect.
On the contrary. I have not rejected Jesus.
It’s the notion that any church is the one true church that I reject and I reject the notion that belonging to any church is in any way tied to my salvation.
Anyone can reject church and not be rejecting Christ.
Are you accustomed to sitting silent in appreciation of a sermon which teaches error? Of course, this particular sermon fits catholiciism doctrine nicely, but then catholiciism is not Christianity, anyway.
NO, I do not reject the *Christian faith*.
And you know what? The *Christian faith* is not going to save you. JESUS is. Someone can accept all the tenants of the *Christian faith*, like them, live by them, encourage them for other people, but that alone isn’t going to save anyone. At that point, it’s just a lifestyle choice.
It’s accepting JESUS that saves you.
I do not reject Jesus. I reject the claims that the Catholic church ( and would for ANY church) that it alone is the one true church and that being in any one organization is the means by which I am saved.
Of the many called, so few will let HIM do it ... because their secret pride in their fidelity to the man-made sacraments by which they believe they 'will obtain' salvation. The scene on the Day of Pentecost shows salvation is immediate ... and it is not like a yoyo which comes and goes, despite what catholiciism teaches to Catholics.
Look at post #21 to see what error catholiciism instills in sincere people!
And why is that important?
Because if it s not in Scripture, then you don't have to believe it? It's not real doctrine? It's not true?
These words/phrases are not found in the Bible either.
Then that must mean that these things are not Scriptural either.
trinity
catholic
pope
eucharist
sacraments
annulment
assumption
immaculate conception
mass
purgatory
magisterium
infallible
confirmation
crucifix
rosary
mortal sin
venial sin
perpetual virginity
apostolic succession
indulgences
hyperdulia
catechism
real presence
transubstantiation
liturgy
free will
holy water
monstrance
sacred tradition
apostolic succession
Benefactress
Mediatrix
Queen of Heaven
Mother of God
beatific vision
invincible ignorance
Divine Office
guardian angel
Corporal Works of Mercy
Petrine authority
infallible
heresy
Would you really like to go there and use that as an argument against the doctrine of the rapture?
The anti-Catholic heretic may not realize that many are invited to follow God’s will and receive His Sacraments but few are chosen because of their pride and their choice to follow their own judgement instead of the teachings of Jesus and His Catholic Church.
The Sacraments are all Bible based and initiated by Jesus and His Church.
I realize that many may be confused and think they know precisely when one receives salvation (and that you have your own personal interpretation of the teachings of Jesus), but the Bible says the following:
Scripture teaches that one’s final salvation depends on the state of the soul at death. As Jesus himself tells us, “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 24:13; cf. 25:31–46). One who dies in the state of friendship with God (the state of grace) will go to heaven. The one who dies in a state of enmity and rebellion against God (the state of mortal sin) will go to hell.
Like the apostle Paul I am working out my salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), with hopeful confidence in the promises of Christ (Rom. 5:2, 2 Tim. 2:11–13).”
I do hope one finds salvation, but anti-Catholic views on the principle doctrines may not help.
Try reading for comprehension the next time you read the third chapter of John's gospel, paying particular attention to ther explanation JESUS gave regarding the brass snake.
Oh! And you might wantr to check that secret pride you carry for your fidelity to the sacraments, sacraments which do not gain you eternal life. But they do make you feel so rpoud of your striving ...
Sounds like the man came dressed in his OWN righteousness (he wasn’t naked!) rather than the righteous robes of Christ.
Does a person get born from above, lose that birth, get it back by striving to keep the sacraments, lose it again when they stumble, then have to get back on the striving horse so they are finally worthy for that 'final salvation'? Does your god of catholiciism need Catholics to keep HIS Promise to save you when you believe in Jesus?... Do you wear a Brown Scalpula? Do you pray to Mary the Mother of Jesus so she will mediate for your in Jesus's stead? Do you think you've worked enough, striven enough, been faithful enough, trusted Mary enough, done enough charity, so when you die The God Who IS will finally grant you salvation on your meritorious striving?
I wonder, were the man’s robes red and purple, draped with the earnest striving to be worthy? Your point is SO CLEAR that I doubt any poster of the catholic apologetic will even acknowledge the meaning of it!!
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