01.03. Your Invitation to the Wedding Feast, RSVP
Your Invitation to the Wedding Feast, RSVP
Few things seem to cause as much fuss and worry as a wedding. They dresses must be made or bought, the tux rented, wedding rehearsals set, rehearsal dinner planned, still in comparison to many cultures in the world our weddings are a one day event or two days at most. Many cultures in the world have feasts that last a week or two. It is even more of a gala event when the king or prince of a nation is wed. Remember the hoopla that surrounded the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana? In the parable set before us today, a king is having a wedding for his son.
I- Background:
Jesus uses a wedding setting for two parables. This parable is given in the temple near the end of His ministry. This parable combines the two favorite images that the prophets used to show us about the new covenant, a wedding feast and a wedding. An example of a feast promised is Isaiah 25:6 "And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined."
The wedding is typified by Isaiah 61:10 "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels."
We have additional background in the minor prophet Zephaniah 1:7-8 "Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel."
Christ is the bridegroom and the church is the bride. Notice the following scriptures. John 3:29 "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
2 Corinthians 11:2 "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."
II- Symbols In the Parable:
As we unfold the parable allow me to give us the who’s who and what’s what of it up front. The King is God the Father, the Son is the Lord Jesus the son of the Father, the servants of Matthew 22:3 are the apostle before the death of Jesus, the city of Matthew 22:7 can be none other than Jerusalem destroyed in AD 70. The second group sent out is the apostles and disciples who were martyred. The third group sent out; Paul, Barnabas, Timothy, etc.; were sent to the good and the bad which are the gentiles that God turned to with the gospel. The wedding garment is the white robe of righteousness given us at salvation, the man without a wedding garment is a lost man. The outer darkness is hell.
III- Your Invitation, RSVP:
I find in the parable a total of three invitations that are given to come to the feast. Matthew 22:2 tells us the king made a wedding. It was common in this time to send out announcements that a wedding would take place soon and to be prepared to come. Matthew 22:3 records that when the time was ready that the King sent forth his servants to bid those who were invited to come. They rejected the Kings offer.
God in the fullness of time sent forth Christ to the nation of Israel but they rejected the invitation. The threat of this parable is that the kingdom of God would be taken from the Jews and given to the Gentiles. The second invitation is in Matthew 22:4 . The rejection is in Matthew 22:5-6 . Those bidden not only rejected the son but also the father. They made excuses and took the invitation lightly. Notice the consequences found in Matthew 22:7 . The people were killed and the city destroyed. The third invitation is in Matthew 22:8-10 a. The servant was to go into the highways and bring in the outcast. The good and the bad were brought in and the wedding feast was furnished with guest.
IV- The Wedding Garment:
We could speculate that many who were bidden from the highways of life would have said, "I don’t have a thing that I could wear" and it have been so. However it was a common practice for a king to have a vast supply of garments in which his guest could be clothed.
Notice the following scripture pertaining to the garment of the saints.
Revelation 6:9, Revelation 6:11 "And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held…11 And white robes were given unto every one of them…"
Revelation 7:9 "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands…"
Revelation 7:13-14 "And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
We are told by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:27 "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." We moan and groan in this body waiting to be clothed. Notice what 2 Corinthians 5:2-4 says, "For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life."
But what about the man who came to the wedding who rejected the wedding clothes. He was removed and cast into hell. He was invited and only responded in his own righteousness. He wanted to go to the feast, heaven, by his own merit. This shows us that we should personally respond to the invitation that is sent out RSVP. We must however not believe that simply getting invited, conviction of the Holy Spirit, is enough to get us in. We must be clothed in His righteousness.