The Open Door

Matthew 22:1-14

Would you have been invited to attend?

Photo by Pedro Ramos on Unsplash

Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” - Matthew 22:1-14

First off, this is not about a wedding. It is about not making time for God, or rejecting Him altogether.

Now, we could look at this from the perspective of the second group that was invited to the feast. If you were invited as part of that group, would you have been insulted?

If this king had held this feast today, I am afraid no one would come, not even the poor and the others found on the street. Everyone today is either too proud or too sensitive. And many are very proud of being sensitive to the feelings of others.

I was watching a video last night by an author and editor I respect and admire, and she said something that confused me. She said we should not describe our characters’ features, like eye color, or a facial scar, because that could be taken as stereotypical and mean.

She also said that we should not have them speak with a dialect, showing that in the writing, because the reader will have trouble understanding what is being said by the character.

Instead, she said, we should write the dialogue correctly and just say that it was spoken with a certain dialect or with mispronounced words.

I wonder what she would do with Of Mice and men, or Huck Finn.

Jesus might be very disappointed with us for our focus on self-interest and misplaced sensitivities.

The parable would have a different ending. No one came, so no one would have disrespected the King by refusing to wear the supplied wedding robe.

If you think about it, most of us Christians are the alternates, the ones who came to Christ, not from the chosen tribes, but from the Gentiles, the ones Jesus called dogs.

Our religion is a religion of others. We are not the favored ones, but neither were the prophets or the kings. In the Bible, they were the ones no one saw as worthy.

So, maybe we should pack up our pride and self-worth, our false sensitivities, and send them away. We don’t need them. We chose to come to Christ, whether we were born into a Christian family or not. At some point, we make the choice.

And it’s okay if you are not there yet, if you still doubt or feel all this is nonsense. You are still welcome, still invited, still loved.

So, how we read this parable tells a lot about what we have gone through in this life. It may have been super hard for some, and even worse for others. But the door is open, when we are ready to enter.

More to come...

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