The Word This Week
Matt 22:1…
Jesus goes on to speak of His rejection by the Jewish leaders in another parable.
The chief priests and elders had just been stung by Jesus by parable, and He stings them again with another, pertaining to all they refuse to understand. (It is not that they cannot understand the truth of their standing before God, it is that they do not want to.)
An invitation to a wedding feast was a very big deal in their day. It was the most important event on any social calendar. Once the invitations had gone out - and been accepted - much preparation and expense would be expended by the father to make sure the hospitality provided would be up to the standards of the culture of the day. (Hospitality was the one of the greatest and most-honored virtues in ancient Israel.)
To accept an invitation to a wedding feast meant you were committing the one who invited you to a very great expense on your behalf. It would be of the utmost of social faux pas to accept an invitation and then refuse to attend the actual event. That would be unthinkable. Tragic. Terrible. A humiliation to anyone who would do such a thing.
Now imagine this invitation being extended by a king.
No one in their right mind would ever think of accepting an invitation to attend a wedding a king had arranged for his son, and then refusing to attend once all the arrangements had been made and the cost had been paid.
This is the picture Jesus draws for the chief priests and elders regarding Who it is they refuse to believe.
In yet another example of the Church in relationship with Christ being portrayed - this time by Jesus Himself - as a marriage, Jesus is depicting how serious it is to God the Father to have invited His chosen people into Spiritual relationship with His Son – and had them accept the invitation only to refuse to come to His Son’s wedding once all the expenses for the wedding had been paid.
What would the king think of their refusal? (Or anyone else for that matter.)
Pastor Bill
Jesus goes on to speak of His rejection by the Jewish leaders in another parable.
The chief priests and elders had just been stung by Jesus by parable, and He stings them again with another, pertaining to all they refuse to understand. (It is not that they cannot understand the truth of their standing before God, it is that they do not want to.)
An invitation to a wedding feast was a very big deal in their day. It was the most important event on any social calendar. Once the invitations had gone out - and been accepted - much preparation and expense would be expended by the father to make sure the hospitality provided would be up to the standards of the culture of the day. (Hospitality was the one of the greatest and most-honored virtues in ancient Israel.)
To accept an invitation to a wedding feast meant you were committing the one who invited you to a very great expense on your behalf. It would be of the utmost of social faux pas to accept an invitation and then refuse to attend the actual event. That would be unthinkable. Tragic. Terrible. A humiliation to anyone who would do such a thing.
Now imagine this invitation being extended by a king.
No one in their right mind would ever think of accepting an invitation to attend a wedding a king had arranged for his son, and then refusing to attend once all the arrangements had been made and the cost had been paid.
This is the picture Jesus draws for the chief priests and elders regarding Who it is they refuse to believe.
In yet another example of the Church in relationship with Christ being portrayed - this time by Jesus Himself - as a marriage, Jesus is depicting how serious it is to God the Father to have invited His chosen people into Spiritual relationship with His Son – and had them accept the invitation only to refuse to come to His Son’s wedding once all the expenses for the wedding had been paid.
What would the king think of their refusal? (Or anyone else for that matter.)
Pastor Bill