Daily Blast - The Book of Matthew: Chapter 22
Scripture
“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.”
Reflection
Matthew 22:3 - You are invited.
As we have seen, even from yesterday's blast, Jesus often spoke in parables, and most times, the immediate response from people is to ask "what point is He making?". Well, a parable is an earthly story that reveals a heavenly truth and teaches a lesson with a deeper meaning. In this chapter, he even talks about paying taxes! Find the time to read the whole chapter for yourself, but let us focus in on the wedding invitation, the servants who sent the invitations, and the responses people gave to the wedding invitations.
Verse 2 - 14: The wedding invite - The king was in the middle of preparing a wedding banquet for his son, and the invitation was to those who were chosen, but some refused to attend. The responses he received varied, a number of people gave their reasons as to why they could not attend. So once the king realised this, he asked his servants to go EVERYWHERE and send out more invitations. Verse 10 even goes on to mention that the invitations were given to good and bad people, take note of that*. The wedding invitation would have included things the people who were being invited had to know and do before they showed up. Things like the location, time, and most importantly the dress code. Once the party was about to start, the king noticed someone who was not dressed correctly (verse 11-13). And the king's reaction was interesting, he told people to throw out this guest who was not dressed appropriately. Now that does not sound very nice, but let us think about it how Jesus wants us to see it. Remember what was said at the beginning .... "what point is Jesus making?" ...
Let's think about that and look a little deeper.
1. So the wedding invitation is The Gospel, God's kingdom, being sent out to every part of the world.
2. The servants are us, the Christians who choose to serve God by sharing His gospel and love to people.
3. The wedding guests are your friends, enemies, and people around you (good and bad*). This tells us that God is prepared to welcome people as they are and no matter what they have done or how they even see themselves.
4. The guest who came unprepared is the person who did not do what the invitation asked for.
And most importantly, Jesus tells us that many are invited, but few are chosen (verse 14). Now, this can be applied in many instances. But let us look at those two words, invited and chosen.
Invited - the call is the invitation to live a life with Jesus, in His kingdom that He prepared for you after he shed his blood and sacrificed His life. So that we can follow in the footsteps of Jesus and live a different life to those who don't have Jesus. Now let us not forget that the life of Jesus was filled with many many joys, powerful moments, horrible challenges, and fulfilling joy.
Chosen - now the chosen part is looking at something we need to do. Let us remember that the guest who was thrown out, was thrown out because he did not have the right clothing for a wedding. Jesus is telling us about not just any wedding, but an EXTRAORDINARY one, where the most amazing party was being prepared. I believe this is referring to heaven and the rejoicing that is ahead of those who chose to accept the invitation by doing what the invitation asks for. So to be chosen, we have to first choose to accept the invitation, and by us accepting the invitation, we then become the chosen ones who CHOOSE to live a life for Jesus every day, in school, at home, on the paper round, in lockdown, on holiday and basically everywhere, in our hearts as well. And the clothing and preparation we need to have to be accepted to this wedding is to choose in our heart to follow Jesus and live for what He lived for.
Challenge
1. Read Matthew 22:15-22 and share with a friend or parent what you understand by the parable.
2. Think about why Jesus chose to use parables when He was teaching and share it with the Youth Leadership Team next week.