A Royal Wedding. You're Invited But Will You Be There?

I started out yesterday writing a fictitious story to help illustrate the message I felt called to share.  After four well contrived paragraphs and forty minutes of my day, the Lord convinced me to highlight the whole mess and hit the delete button.  "I already wrote the story David.  Just share it."

Actually there were two stories both about weddings.  Both had curious and disturbing endings. These stories (parables) are about us.  Yes, you and me.  We can play a number of different parts in the stories and will someday.  Which part we play is of the utmost importance so pay close attention to the rest of the story, 

The first comes from Matthew 22.  Jesus tells of a King who planned a wedding banquet for his son.  It was to be a grand feast and many were invited.  None of those initially invited came so the King sent servants to explain to them how amazing this event was to be.  Still they just went about their business, some even so thankful as to kill the servant messengers.  The angry King then sent out messengers to invite anyone they could find from the streets, both good and bad. When the room was full of the most unlikely guests, the feast began but the King noticed a man who was not wearing wedding clothes.  He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.  The man was then bound hand and foot then tossed outside into the dark where the was "weeping and gnashing of teeth."

A strange wedding don't you think?  A grand event that the initial invitees ignore. Guests that were taken off the street "Good and Bad"?  A very angry father of the groom who not only kicks out a man for having improper attire but  has him bound hand and foot? Strange indeed!

The second story comes from Matthew 25.  It tells of ten virgins who were to meet the bridegroom with lighted lamps.  Only five of the ten chose to bring oil with them.  The bridegroom was "a long time in coming" so the woman fell asleep. At midnight the cry came out that the groom was on his way. The women trimmed their lamps but the lamps of the five who failed to bring oil went out. As the five ran back to get oil, the doors of the banquet hall were shut.  When they arrived and knocked on the door the Lord said, "I don't know you." The door did not open.

Another strange wedding story.  Lamps, oil, and a locked door. There is much to these stories including a reference to the Gospel being sent first to the Jews then to the Gentiles.  There is a connection between oil and the Holy Spirit.  But I don't want to miss the forest for the trees because there is a very simple yet urgent message that binds these stories together.  It's a message that we need to listen carefully to.  As my son says, "Pay heed!"

If you and I aren't prepared, if we aren't properly clothed, and if we don't know the bridegroom, or his father we will be sadly disappointed on the day of the wedding supper. We will be outside of a closed door weeping.  I think if you ask most people who claim to be "Christians" if they're going to heaven they would say "yes".  They would be basing their answer on a list of good deeds outweighing the bad ones, their church attendance, their infant baptism, their observance of feasts, sacraments, or religious laws. These will not earn your entrance.   Many people go about their days with little or no acknowledgement of Jesus.  They say, he is a long time from coming or God is loving and will take me as I am.  Are they right?

Jesus was clear that many will come on that day and knock but the door will not be opened to them.  Jesus said narrow is the road the that leads to life and few find it. He said, many will come to me on that day and say "Lord, Lord …. " and he will say, "away from me I never knew you."  Jesus told parables about the last days and made distinctions between the saved and the lost, the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares. The forgiven and the condemned.

So where do you stand? Does he know you?  Is your lamp full of oil?  Are you wearing wedding clothes?  Careful how you answer.  The only oil that can keep your lamp full is the Holy Spirit.  The only clothes acceptable on that day are robes of righteousness.  Not your good deeds but Jesus' righteousness obtained through faith is him. "For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness"  (Isaiah 61:10)  This isn't just an "Oh yeah, I believe in Jesus and go to church." kind of faith.  It's a life changing faith.  It's a faith that causes us to grieve in our hearts when we sin or when we walk in a way that in contrary to the Spirit of God.  It's a faith that causes us to talk about HIM, post face books posts about HIM, and to bring HIM up in conversations at a party.  Look at your life, your conversations, your tweets, your posts, how you spend your money, and what you listen to on the radio.  Does he know you?  Do you know him?  I think you get the point.

Paul reminds us to "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?"  (2 Corinthians 13:5).  I challenge you to do just that today.  If you find that maybe your lamp is empty or your clothes still dirty, remember that God loves you and sent his Son to die for you. Turn to him in faith and be ready for the wedding of the ages, the wedding between Jesus and his Church (those saved by grace through faith). "Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Revelation 19:9)


Peace,

David