He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
We have been invited to a great feast, but often we respond with a lack of enthusiasm that is evidence of our greater interest in worldly affairs.
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
Perhaps we have received wedding invitations from someone to whom our relationship was very distant. In such a case, even a great celebration might seem more like a hassle to us because of the way it would interrupt our normal plans. We have probably politely declined in cases such as this. But if they continue to press us we might actually say something to more clearly pull away from any commitment on our part to our relationship with the one who invited us.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
If our relationship with the King isn't strong his invitation to us is going to seem like an unwelcome interruption. This danger was especially real for those who were on the guest list, who presumably knew the king, and were expected to attend. It was easier for those for whom attendance at the feast was meant to be a given to take it for granted.
Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
We need to rediscover the invitation to the feast as something new, generous, and entirely unmerited. In doing so, we discover the goodness of the king who invites us to partake at his table. When we realize what a great privilege it is to be invited at all our other worldly preoccupations will fade.
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
The Lord desires his halls to be filled with guests. He has prepared a feast so good that none of the distractions of this life, not even those things which seem the most essential, nor those that charm us most, can compete. If we believe that this invitation is one like any other we may be tempted to prefer business as usual. After all, only by coming to the feast can we truly taste and see how good it is. So how then should we receive this invitation to make sure we don't disregard it, to our lasting harm? We should see ourselves as those from the streets, good and bad alike, and allow ourselves to be startled and surprised that the king is calling out to us, is somehow inviting us.
But when the king came in to meet the guests
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
If think ourselves unworthy, this is true. We are, after all, no more than random people off the street, often with more bad than good in us. But the king himself can cover us with the grace of the gift of his own holiness. He himself is willing to clothe us with the wedding garment he requires.
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels (see Isaiah 61:10).
If we take heed of the Lord's invitation above our own plans we won't run the risk of Jephthah who sensed that the Lord wanted to work through him for victory but then went ahead to specify the details himself.
“Alas, daughter, you have struck me down
and brought calamity upon me.
For I have made a vow to the LORD and I cannot retract.”
We don't want to commit ourselves to paths that might keep us from the banquet. The Lord may well want to work through us to defeat his enemies just as he did with Jephthah. But as to the celebration of that victory, we are called to leave that in his hands.
Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.”
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