Getting the Kingdom 8, The Wedding Banquet: "Inviting Everyone" Matthew 22:1-14

* - Not too terribly long ago, we witnessed the royal wedding of William and Kate with all its pomp and circumstance and the many, many invited guests.

- What if you or I had received an invitation to the royal wedding?

- Would it even enter our minds to consider whether or not to go? Or would we just go?

* - Can you imagine someone refusing an invitation to a royal wedding today?

- Let's keep that question in mind as we look at this parable of Jesus.

- This week with the parable of the wedding banquet, we are continuing to follow the same context in which Jesus gave the parable of the two sons and the parable of the vineyard. It's holy week, a day or so after Palm Sunday.

- Jesus continued his critique of the Jewish leaders in this parable by judging those who oppose him and warning his followers against being like those who oppose him.

- As we begin to consider this parable, it is helpful for us to keep in mind the obvious metaphors.

- The king is God. The son is Jesus. The invited guests, however, "vary in meaning" (Keener, Matthew, p. 518).

- It is with the invited guests that this parable of Jesus really begins to get interesting because we have not one or two, but three invitations.

- The first two invitations may be explained by the Jewish custom of double invitation.  It was customary to extend two invitations to expected guests; first, a while before & second, when everything was ready.

- The King had already invited guests, who refused, some time before the wedding banquet was to occur, later sending his servants again to let his guests know the banquet was ready, but once more they all refused to come, ignoring the king's servants and going about their business. We will get to what still others did in a few minutes.

- In ancient Judea, attendance at wedding banquets was not considered to be optional for anyone invited. It was, in fact, a social duty.

- The higher up the social ladder you were the more of an insult it would be to refuse to attend.

- The lower down the social ladder you were the more punctual you were expected to be.

- The King assumes that there must be some mistake in hearing of the refusal of his first invitation, so sends out the customary second invitation, but the invited guests add insult to injury by refusing the King's invitation a second time now that the feast is ready.

- Such a rejection would've been received with shock by first century Jewish listeners. They would have been appalled.

- And when we add into consideration the royal context, such behavior would've been received as treasonous, especially when we add the treacherous seizure, abuse, and murder of the king's servants.

- No wonder Jesus tells us the king was furious.

- As we think about this parable, remembering the obvious metaphors, we remember first that God is the King.

* - God is King and those rejecting God's invitation are insulting his dignity and nobility.

- The rude refusal by all of the invited guests to attend the wedding banquet in this parable of Jesus would never, ever be directed at a king or someone of such power or standing in the community. No one would dare do such a thing.

- Since it is all the invited guests who refused to attend the wedding banquet, then we can only assume that they all intentionally, calculatedly conspired together to insult their host, the king.

- The King's response is, therefore, one of judgment against that community.

- Should the Judean elders, teachers, and priests expect no less from God?

*- Because God is King, we also remember that He will judge those who scorn his compassion.  Because God is King, He will judge those who scorn his compassion.

- The king had no other option to salvage his honor than to invite others to enjoy the wedding banquet and punish those who had scorned him.

- Rejecting the king's invitation was equivalent to open rebellion.

- Such treachery had to be judged and punished. Anyone who heard Jesus' parable would have agreed that the king's anger and actions were justified.

- Israel's leaders have rejected Jesus their Messiah, therefore, their actions are no less treacherous, truly more treacherous.

- The king himself does not accompany the troops because the feast cannot wait otherwise the food will spoil, so he sends for those out in the streets to come in to the banquet.

* - That's what we need to remember most today and what we are called to do: Take the gospel to the streets, inviting everyone to the banquet seats.

- Because the original invited guests scorned God's invitation, like the king in the parable, God invites people off the street to his banquet.

- The street corners, literally road intersections, were places where the poor, the lame, and the outcast tended to gather.

- A wedding feast was too special an occasion to allow to go to waste, so the king sent out his servants to bring in those the elite ignored, good and bad alike.

- When the kingdom of God comes in all its fullness everyone whom God has invited and answers his call will be present at the great banquet.

* - We are called to – Take the gospel to the streets, inviting everyone to the banquet seats.

- We are not to differentiate between the good or the bad. We are to invite everyone, everyone we find so that his banqueting table may be filled.

- We are to invite everyone and let God decide who is worthy to remain at his table for eternity.

- Even as most of the Jewish leaders were not prepared for Jesus' first coming, so also some who claim to be Jesus' disciples will not be prepared for his second coming.

- Those "who insult God's grace by presuming on it," by not honoring his Son, will be bound hand and foot and thrown into the outer darkness (Keener, Matthew, p. 523).

- Without the clothing of repentance, Christ-like grace, and Christian character the presumptuous disciple, through arrogance and self conceit, will spend eternity outside the kingdom of God in hell.

* - Those clothed with repentance, grace, and the fruit of the Spirit will: Take the gospel to the streets, inviting everyone to the banquet seats.

- Unlike the wedding of William and Kate, God has an invitation for everyone to a royal wedding feast.

- In fact, we ought to say the royal wedding feast, the marriage supper of the Lamb.

- It is hard to imagine why anyone would refuse such an invitation or why once receiving the invitation anyone would want to lose such a great privilege, spending eternity with a gracious, just, compassionate, and holy God.

* - I'm invited; you're invited; everyone is invited. The only requirement for attendance is that we clothe ourselves with Jesus and take the gospel to the streets inviting everyone to the banquet seats.

- As the king in Jesus’ parable instructed his servants, “Now go the street corners and invite everyone you see.” Matt. 22:9

- Wherever people gather, the workplace, the marketplace, in coffee shops or corner stores, etc., our King wishes us to “invite everyone we see.”

- Take the gospel to the streets inviting everyone to the banquet seats.