The Guests Who Came To Dinner (October 15, 2017).

THE GUESTS WHO CAME TO DINNER

Text: Matthew 22:1 -14

Tell me if this sounds familiar? It dinner time, the meal is ready but everybody is distracted. Dad is watching a ball game and cheering loud. The daughter has on her head phones which is attached to her device, (iphone or tablet). The son is busy practicing guitar. The other son is talking to his sweetie on the phone. The other daughter is busy editing her paper which is due tomorrow. Dinner is ready and 10 minutes have passed and Mom has sent out three different invitations to come while the food is still hot. She will be very unhappy if they do not come to dinner!

This parable is not about food that gets cold. Nor is this parable about people who are worthy. This parable is about both God’s grace and the gratitude of those that God invites to His table. Lets explore the invitation, the guests and the genuineness of the response of those who came to dinner.

THE INVITATION

How many times have you been invited to a party where there was an RSVP involved? In modern day we call the response that one makes to such an invitation an RSVP: (French for re’pondez a'll vous platti which is in English our way of saying "please reply". (Webster's New World Dictionary. Second College Edition. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982, p. 1242). Everyone sitting here has more than likely received an RSVP kind of response request. The reason for the RSVP is to let the host of an event know how many to prepare for ---a head count.

How did those who were invited to the wedding feast in this parable respond? Like the parable of the of the Wicked Tenants, there were three different responses of the target audience. 1) Sequel?: Is it possible that this parable might have been an extension of the parable of the Wicked Tenants for that reason? 2) Evidence?: Doesn’t the abuse in the parable of the Wicked Tenants have a mirror image of the target audience in this parable? 3) Incriminating behavior?: Does this parable not present us all with a mirror of our own actions about our own response?

What about those who tried to make invalid excuses?

Call us anything but do not call us late to dinner right? 1) Excuses: Remember the one who went to his farm and the other who went to his business in verse 5? 2) Self-absorbed: Do we ever make light of God’s invitation because we are self-absorbed? If that question does not make us examine ourselves then maybe we aren’t taking it seriously enough! 3) Survey: God did not ask us to fill out a survey about the invitation citing the things we like and complaining about the things we don’t! 4) Blessed: We are blessed just to be invited and sometimes act as if God owes it to us to invite us! If God were to give us what we truly deserve, then would we not be escorted away ?

What about those who got violent and rebelled against the king’s authority? That is the topic of verses 6 and 7. Surely, that was just a literary motif to explain injustice right? WRONG! That is the way that some people actually treat God who gives them every breathe they breathe. Again, God does not owe anyone anything! The life we have been given and the time we are given for our lives are a gift that too many take for granted!

Have you ever heard of Raymond Albert Kroc better known as Ray Kroc? Ray Kroc’s name is synonymous with the fast food restaurant McDonald’s. How many of you have ever eaten there? Well the truth of the matter is that Ray Kroc entered into a business relationship with the original founders of McDonald’s. Although Ray was a business entrepreneur, he was also a conniving deal breaker who took the concept and the name of McDonald’s away from its creators. Check out the move called “The Founder” to see the history of how McDonald’s really came into existence. That kind of hostile takeover is possible between humans in a business world but it is absolutely impossible between human kind and our Creator! How many of us are willing to risk being thrown into outer darkness will there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth?

Why did the original guests neglect their invitation? The original guests represented the Jews. Jesus came to His own people and His own people would not receive Him! Did they reject Jesus because they felt that God did not meet them on their terms? Or, was it that they preferred doing their own will to God’s will? Before we condemn them and write them off we must ask ourselves where we are in doing God’s will versus our own will! Isn’t it God’s will for us to reach out to the last, the least and the lost? Remember that God invited you to His table! Are we biding our time as we make light of that invitation?