Choices

Everyday we are asked to make choices. Am I going to wake up so I can get to work on time…Am I going to eat breakfast. Am I going to eat a breakfast that could put me in a coma it it is so full of sugar or am I going to eat well… I get cut off in traffic and spill my coffee all over myself…Am I going to say bad things about them and speed up shaking my fist in the air! Am I going to take time to read to my son or am I going to sit in front of the T.V. ignoring his crys of Daddy, daddy daddy will you…Daddy daddy will you read to me…

Matthew 22: 1-14

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

One can hardly begin to understand why the king would be so harsh to this person not dressed in wedding clothes! What is going on here in this passage? We have people being murdered just because they invited people to a wedding not once but on two occasions, then we have a king who is enraged and sends his army to destroy the murders and burn the city! Then we have a king who invites others to come because the original invitations were given to people who did not serve to come. Lastly we have this man who shows up dressed inappropriately and therefore is left to darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth! What just happened? Did we miss something here? As a matter of fact we did. You see this parable has to be read in its context. Starting at Matthew chapter 21:28

The Parable of the Two Sons

28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

29 “ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

The Parable of the Tenants

33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.