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Invitation to a Heavenly Banquet
When God sends a messenger inviting leaders to heaven, they should stop their worldly business and heed the call. When they don’t accept and even go as far as to kill the messenger, they will be destroyed. When everyone off the street is invited, each should attend fully confident that the invitation is sincere. As evidenced by the invitation, the King has found them worthy of participation.
A closer look at the Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1–14) follows:
22:1 — Christ continued to tell parables to the chief priests and the Pharisees in front of the public.
22:2 — Heaven is compared to a King who gave a wedding banquet for his son.
22:3 — He sent his servants to invite guests, but no one came.
22:4 — The King again sent more servants with details of the luxurious feast that awaited his guests.
22:5 — Again the invited guests ignored the King, preferring to attend to business and other duties.
22:6 — Some invitees even seized the King’s servants, treated them shamefully and killed them.
22:7 — Angry the King sent soldiers to kill the guests and burn their cities.
22:8, 9 — The King then instructed his servants to go into the main streets and invite as many people as they could find to the banquet.
22:10 — The wedding banquet was filled with both good and bad guests.
22:11 — The King surveyed the guests and saw one man not wearing a wedding garment.
22:12 — He asked the man how he got in without wedding clothes.
22:13 — The King had the man bound and cast out into the darkness.
22:14 — Many are called but few are chosen.
Personally, I often lost the meaning of this parable with the final statement regarding many are called but few are chosen. My problem was because I considered that final statement in relation to the one man who was not properly prepared to be at the banquet. However, it applies to people in the entire parable. Invited guests were called but not chosen because of their own refusal. Out of the good and bad in attendance, only the one lacking proper dress was not chosen.
