Jesus Isn't For Everyone (Counterintuitive 7)

I know you guys have been waiting to see this. We looked awesome, didn't we? My mom said our 1987 wedding cost about $2,500. We didn't feed our 300 guests, although we did have some very lovely mints (one mint per guest, please).

According to CostOfWedding.com, couples in Raleigh/Cary NC spend, on average, $31,390 for their wedding. (The national average is $28,000.) This does not include an engagement ring, a wedding planner, airplanes or hotels, wedding insurance, or a honeymoon!

What if, after all this effort, the invited guests didn’t show up?

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.”

But according to Matthew 22:1-14, the A-List guests declined the invitation. Actually, they didn’t exactly decline the invitation. The Greek word, ameleesantes, means more that they just didn't care. They ignored it. So the King invited the A-List people again, making the invitation more detailed. Menu secrets were revealed ("The steaks are on the grill!"), the summons was more urgent. And again, the A-List people snubbed their host, and even went so far as to seize the messengers, torture and kill them.

WHAT?!
This parable has just gone from (mildly) interesting to deadly serious. And king sends out soldiers who murder every last invited guest, and burn the city to smoking ruins. Well, my brain immediately derails and I retreat to Luke where Jesus tells this parable over dessert and coffee to friends, earlier in his ministry. There the rejected King is “angry,” but his response is simply to ignore the rejections and send servants into the city to gather the poor, crippled, blind and lame to the feast. (So I feel better.)

The difference is that in Matthew, Jesus is speaking to the Chief priests and pharisees (Matt 21:45-46), the very ones trying to arrest and kill him. There are nothing less than people’s lives at stake.

Gut Check: What kind of guests are WE?
Lots of us Jesus people like to live in the twin certainties that a) our good works will earn us the right to attend the Supper of the Lamb, and b) that God’s good nature will absolve us from having to sit through the feast if we decide we have other, more interesting or compelling plans.

But this parable makes a very forceful point that outside the party, there is no life at all.

Good works don't get us in?
Nope. After the A-List people were killed, the scripture says that the servants "gathered ALL whom they found, both GOOD and BAD, so the wedding hall was filled with guests." Another great definition of grace is the fact that both you and I fit into "good and bad," thanks be to God! Inside the Kingdom, the good and bad are gathered, just as the wheat and weeds grow together until the harvest; just as the great net pulls in fish of every kind that fill the ocean.

Sweet! Now we're in, right?
Not necessarily. Because when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who wasn't wearing a wedding robe. Here I’m going to side with Father Robert Capon, who reminds us of the ancient eastern custom that Kings, when holding parties, often threw open the royal wardrobe so that each guest had something splendid to wear. So when the king looks out over his royal gathering, he sees some joker in dirty jeans and a Marilyn Manson tee shirt. So he makes his way through the crowd and asks him: “Friend," (sounds more like an angry "Hey, pal?") "how did you get in here without a wedding robe?”

The man had absolutely nothing to say to God.
Maybe he didn’t know where he was, who he was talking to. Or maybe he just didn’t care. So he is thrown out, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Where there is only darkness, for outside the Kingdom there is no life at all.

The Kingdom of God isn't for everyone.
We can’t be a part of the Kingdom with half a mind or heart. We can’t be a part of the Kingdom and just not care. We have to clothe ourselves in Christ, put on Christ, get our Kingdom attitudes on!

CS Lewis wrote a provocative book called The Screwtape Letters. In it, the Devil briefs his nephew, Wormwood, on the subtleties and techniques of tempting people. The goal, he counsels, is not wickedness, but indifference. Satan says, “I, the devil, will always see to it that there are bad people. Your job, my dear Wormwood, is to provide me with the people who do not care.”

You can’t do the kingdom with half a heart.

C.T. Studd (1860-1931) was once quoted as saying

“Christ's call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; He came not to call scoffers but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical performances, but to capture [people] from the devil's clutches and the very jaws of Hell. This can be accomplished only by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ.”

God is inviting you to the party.
You can’t get in 'cause you're "good" (you're "good and bad" remember), or smart or wealthy. You are made worthy because God just really, really loves you. There's no trick or hidden fees. However, it will require something from you. It will require that you come with your whole heart, your whole mind, your whole spirit.

May you receive the invitation with joy.
May you seek Jesus with everything in you.
May you know God's great pleasure in your presence.