Jump Start # 853

Matthew 22:2 “The kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.”

This week we are looking at weddings in our Jump Starts. My daughter is getting married next week and that is the talk of our house, getting everything ready, done and checking off everything on the list. It seems the more we check off, the more things get added to the list. It is interesting how many times Jesus referred to weddings in His teachings. Today, we look at one of those occasions.

Weddings, long ago, or today, are about a couple who are embarking on a journey together. The foundation of this new relationship is love, trust and mutual goodness for each other. I have been to big weddings and little weddings. I preformed a wedding years ago in the front room of our house. It was me, the bride, groom and my wife. That was it. Very simple. My wife made them a cake. Yet in the end, they were just as married as a huge expensive gala that some weddings are.

Weddings are happy occasions. Most like going to weddings. I like the cake at a wedding. We were at one wedding and the usher asked us if we were friends of the bride or the groom. I said, ‘I am a friend of the cake.’ The atmosphere of weddings is happy. People get married because they are anticipating a future, a future together. Using that setting, Jesus borrowed from weddings to teach kingdom principles.

In our passage today, a king has prepared a feast for his son. I can only image what that would have cost. How special that would have been. At the palace…food fit for a king…the best of everything. The servants go to announce that it is time for the wedding to begin and those who were invited refused to come. Back in Jesus’ world, people would be told what day the wedding was, but not the time. Things had to be ready. When the food was cooked, servants were sent to tell the guests that it is time to come. That is the setting here. The people had been invited. They knew it was the day. When word arrives that it is time to go, they refuse. A couple of verses later, the text says, they “paid no attention.” That is more than insulting, it is rude. They are doing this to the king.

What a nightmare that would have been for those who prepared the wedding. It’s ready. The food, the music, the decorations, the bride, the groom, but there are no guests. They refused to come. I expect tears would flow. Those that worked so hard would be angry. How insensitive and selfish. Those that have had weddings understand. Some RSVP and then they don’t show up. Others don’t RSVP and no one knows whether they are coming or not. And then there are those who were not on the invitation list, and they come anyway. What a mess!

The wedding Jesus is telling in this parable is not a bride and a groom, but the invitation to salvation. The king is God. His son is Jesus. God has invited. The guests paid no attention. You can now see how God feels. Hurt. Rejected. Angry. What is more important than the feast with His Son? TV? Making money? Doing what we want?

That one expression, “paid no attention,” is very revealing. When people pay “no attention” to the speed limit, they drive what speed they want. When they pay “no attention” to God’s law, they do what they want. Paid no attention. Can you imagine how special it would be to have an invitation from the palace? Can you imagine what it would be like to visit a palace? To eat in a palace? To witness a royal wedding at the palace? But they paid no attention. It meant nothing to them. These people did not live in a palace. They did not eat palace food. They had not seen an event like a wedding at a palace. How could they turn down such an invitation?

That is the very point of Jesus’ teaching. We have never seen Heaven. We have never seen the people in Heaven. We have never experienced Heaven. God is inviting us there. Some, pay no attention to that. How could they do that? There is nothing here like Heaven. There is nothing close to what Heaven is like. How could some go on with their empty, shallow lives when an invitation to Heaven, from the King, sits on their night stand, being used as a coaster. That invitation is the Bible. It leads to God. It tells of righteous living. It reveals the heart of God. It invites us to Heaven. And, too many pay no attention to it. How God must feel. How disappointed He must feel. What could be more important? He has done so much to get things ready.

Have you paid attention to God’s invitation? Maybe you need to get it out and look at it again. It’s something that you don’t want to miss.

Roger