Abide Together: Reflections on Matthew 22

In Matthew 22 Jesus begins with the parable of the Marriage Feast.  A king was giving a wedding feast for his son.  He sent out his slaves to tell everyone who had been invited that it was now time for the feast.  The original people who were invited refused to come multiple times and in the end mistreated and killed his slaves who were sent out to call them.  The king then had them go out to the highways and invited all the people they found to the wedding feast.  Those people accepted the invitation and came. Obviously the original invitees represented the Jewish nation who rejected Jesus as the Messiah and refused to come to Him as Savior.  Those who finally came to the wedding feast were Gentiles who embrace Jesus as the Messiah and Savior.  Jesus says that those who were originally invited to the feast (Jews) were unworthy.  They were unworthy, not because of any moral excellence of lack of it, but because they refused to come to God on His terms, through faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus then tells of a man who had been invited to come with all the others, but when he came into the feast he did not have the proper wedding clothes.  Obviously, because of the late notice of the feast, it could not be expected that all those invited would be able to get proper clothes or even had the means to do so.  Therefore, the king made provisions for those who were invited to also have the proper clothes.  The man without the wedding clothes would have had to be offered wedding clothes like the rest, but he arrogantly refused them and decided to wear his own.  The proper wedding attire that God requires for entrance into the kingdom is the righteousness of Jesus placed on them by faith in Jesus.  The man without wedding clothes represented all who try to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven by their own effort or status.  Lord, thank you for the righteousness of Jesus that you gave me through faith in HIM.  By Your grace, empower me to call everyone to enter the Kingdom of heaven through faith in Jesus.

– Bryan McKenzie