God has prepared a feast for us. He constantly invites us to join the wedding feast of the lamb. He stands at the door and knocks, ready to dine with us (see Revelation 3:20).
Often when God calls us we have an excuse ready at hand.
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
Or perhaps we get angry. His invitation is a threat to our normal routine. We simply don't have time for it and refuse to even listen.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
It seems that the more pride we have the less likely we are to realize what a wonderful and gracious offer it is to come to the feast.
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 the perspective of those for whom the invitation comes as an unguessed surprise. We are not invited because of our goodness. Nor does badness necessarily exclude us. It is nothing about us and everything about our host that causes him to invite us. The wedding feast of the lamb is a cosmic event where we gather around the table of the LORD. We are not worthy to receive. Even the gifts we bring are things which we ourselves are first given.
Let us prefer nothing to this invitation of Christ. Let us stay wrapped in the wedding garment of faith and good works. These, after all, are things which none of us need to be without.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you
to cleanse you from all your impurities,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you,
taking from your bodies your stony hearts
and giving you natural hearts.
God himself cleanses us so that we can come to the feast in proper attire. He himself baptizes us with clean water and fills us with a new Spirit at confirmation. Every time our hearts begin to become stony he miraculously changes them to natural hearts in the sacrament of confession.
If we embrace the changes which the LORD wants to work in us we are well disposed to accept and to respond to his invitation. We then realize why the King is so eager to invite us. His joy is to see our joy in his feast.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
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