Day 24 - Nice Day for a White Wedding

 

Day 24: Matthew 22

NICE DAY FOR A WHITE WEDDING (22:1-14)

Read Matthew 22 here first

 

We have a handful of really big days in our lives, days where we want to gather round us the people who matter the most. If I was to think of the big days in my life, I would say that these include my 18th and 21st birthdays, my baptism, the first sermon I preached in Grimsby, the night of my engagement and my graduation from university. However, none of these come anywhere near my wedding day. Your own wedding day is a great thing. As a 29 year old Christian, it feels like I've been to a million weddings, including 16 in one year, which is enough to give you wedding fatigue.

Your own wedding is so different though. Everything matters. You plan the clothes, the songs, the location, the venue, the food, the entertainment. Like everyone, we carefully planned the event. You want everything to be perfect, but that doesn't always happen. For example, we spent a whole day making invites which had the date missing from them and I under-ordered the number of chairs needed, meaning that one table had to sit on garden chairs.

As you go through the planning, you realise it's not about everything being perfect, it's about celebrating the day with the people who matter most to you. Weddings are big deals. Jesus talks about the Kingdom of heaven being like a wedding, giving us a picture of celebration. Revelation 21 paints the amazing picture of the church being the bride of Christ, being dressed in white despite all our blemishes. It's a great picture as we will be united with God forever, with no tears or pain, as He always intended us to be.

The Israelite people had been waiting for the Messiah to come and fulfil the prophecies. Jesus has come to do this, but the many of the Jewish people (especially the leaders) don't want to know. They don't recognise Jesus as the son of God and don't want to be part of his invitation. This parable talks about the fact that ultimately those who refuse the invitation to the wedding won't be there. Whilst this initially is referring to the Israelite people, it can applied to everyone. We live in a time where the message of Jesus has been around for thousands of years. Jesus is clear in the gospels that the only way to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven is to accept his invitation. If not, the alternative is a lifetime without God, or goodness. Sadly, that means hell. It's a hard truth, but it's important that we don't shy away from it.

As we've looked at these devotionals, we've seen a lot about how great grace is, how huge God's love is, and the challenging lifestyle that Jesus calls us to lead. It's also crucial that we recognise that Jesus has come to lay his life down for us, and only through a relationship with him can we gain access to the wedding feast.

So as we look at this parable, the doors have been flung wide open. Jesus again shows us that to be God's people is not reserved exclusively for the people of Israel any longer, but is for all of us. As in Matthew 21, the walls are broken down and we're all invited. Again, this isn't something we take for granted. If we look at verse 13, we see a man rolling up without proper wedding dress, who then gets lobbed out. On the face of it, this seems harsh.

I'm no theologian, but from what I gather, this is saying that we can't just get to the gates of heaven because we were invited. Instead, we need to respond to the invitation by following Jesus and letting it change our lives. As we do this, we will be able to trade our filthy rags for his righteousness, and then we will truly be clothed in white on that day where we come together as the bride of Christ.

In Shakespearean times, it was said that plays could be split into 2; comedies (with a good ending) and tragedies (with a bad ending). It was said that comedies ended with a wedding, and tragedies ended with a funeral. It's great that our story can end with a wedding, but it's up to us to decide whether we want to be part of it.