The Great Feast - 8 April 2009

   Jesus also told them other parables. He said, ² “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. ³ When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!  ⁴ “So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ ⁵ But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. ⁶ Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them.  ⁷ “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. ⁸ And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honour. ⁹ Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ ¹⁰ So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.

Matthew 22:1-10 (NLT)

Today’s parable is another choice, can you see a pattern forming?

Who are we like?  Are we like the original guests who were too posh to attend a free feast?  Or do we appreciate that this feast is now open to anyone?  And it’s free!

It’s always easier to appreciate something if you don’t have it.  Our lifestyle and our experience at times can leave us blasé about privileges that others would dearly love to enjoy.  Try getting a teenage son or daughter to appreciate the joys of free education for instance.

Of course Jesus spoke prophetically; in His mind were the many people to which the Gospel would open up salvation.  Not one tribe or one nation but the whole world.  Every person alive today can enter the Kingdom of God.  It is our job to persuade ourselves and others that the feast is well worth attending and more important than the ordinary things of life like possessions and power and even the love of others.