Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem
Imagine being a very young child and hearing this Parable for the first time. I remember the thoughts that went through my own seven-year-old brain, and I remember finding this story to be incomprehensible. Here is what it was like for me (my thoughts in italics):
22 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
What? Everybody likes to go to a party! What's WRONG with those guys?
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
This doesn't make sense. All the best food, and it's FREE too! I don't get it.
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
Now that's just CRAZY. Killing the King's servants for inviting them to a party? An d then the King taking revenge upon the very ones he invited to the party in the first place? This is getting stranger by the minute.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Uh oh...I wouldn't do that! You might get some real bad characters at your party if you just pick them up off the street!
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Now THAT was the weirdest part of all! If the King was going to pick people up off the street to attend his party, how could he expect them to have the right CLOTHES for the occasion? THAT'S UNFAIR!!!!
I pondered these questions and struggled with them until I finally asked my Dad about it. He explained that the KING himself gave out the "wedding garments" which were like a little white shawl. The miscreant in the story would have had to REFUSE the free gift at the door to be caught inside without one. OK. That made sense. Even though I did not understand the whole Parable at that point, at least I knew that God was not being UNFAIR.
This parable has many depths of meaning about God's Chosen People, the Old Testament Prophets, Gentiles being invited into the Kingdom, The Free Gift of Grace, The Robe of Righteousness bought and paid for at the Cross, and The Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Revelation, just for starters. We could spend a year on this one Parable, but it fit perfectly into our context of the "Shared Meal".
Come and Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.
"The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance..” Psalm 33 NASB
God Bless America!
Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.
This Symbol Represents Christians in The Middle East, who desperately need our Prayers.
Hallelujah and Amen
ML/LTOS
