Parable of the Marriage Feast

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.  And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”‘ But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.

But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Have you met flannel graph Jesus? This is the Jesus who is introduced to children in Sunday School. On a board with a scenic backdrop flannel-graph Jesus is stuck into various scenes where he is portrayed as being fond of sheep and strolls in the countryside with close friends. When he stops, the children crawl up on his lap. He is kind to everyone. This Jesus is soft and a kind of fuzzy.

I confess, this is mostly just an impression left on me from my irregular Sunday School attendance. On Sunday’s, I mostly recall watching cartoons and westerns in my parents bed room as they smoked and read the Sunday paper. I wonder, had I become a regular attender, would I have eventually been introduced to flannel graph images of Jesus Christ with his fuzz all wore off, with him saying …..

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.

A pastor recently told me with great certainty he no longer had any fear or trembling. I know where he was coming from and I respect his view because it is born out of his understanding of God’s grace and sovereignty. However,I now wish we would have worked harder at a common understanding. It would have helped because I am still working out my salvation with both fear and trembling.

fear for us who believe we are Christians yet we have not lost our lives. I fear because Jesus said this would ultimately cost us ours. I tremble for those of us who have said “yes” to the flannel graph-gospel, a salvation-only gospel, which secures for us eternal life yet scarcely inconveniences us in this one. This gospel is “good news” only because denying ourselves is not required. In this gospel Jesus gets his flannel shredded and ours goes unscathed.

The sobering words of our passage are being spoken by the Jesus who had real skin in the game, who is endeavoring as always, to rescue us from the lies we have ingested about him. The ultimate delusion is going to dawn when some of us find ourselves at the right party in the wrong attire, clothed with the notion that God’s will was to pamper our furry little hides in this life. It does cause me a type of fear and trembling, knowing the flannel graph gospel fills churches by telling sheep it is God’s will they are to all be healthy wealthy and wise. This gospel could never have been sold to the early church. The life and teaching of the apostles would have protected the flock from a gospel barren of a cross individuals must carry.

Believers carrying crosses?! To many this thought is blasphemous: “Jesus bore my cross! Get behind me Satan with such man-centered notions!” The kingdom of God I see presented in the the New Testament has Jesus as both Savior and Lord. Lordship has always been indispensable to the kingdom gospel preached by the real Jesus.

Many preach around Lordship as it seems to inevitably involve an intentionality hostile toward grace. I’m aware complexities arise when obedience is introduced. Admittedly, a salvation-only gospel is much cleaner and so much less offensive. If my sole objective were to attract numbers and dollars it would be a no-brainer as to which gospel I would preach.

For myself, fear and trembling is not personal fretting about a coming judgement. It is more of a sobriety; it involves an absence of certainty, a moving forward by faith with the light I have been given.

Father, would you open our hearts afresh to the full-gospel, the one that sets captives free. Let our dialogue regarding your kingdom continue and may a common understanding of this world without end ensue. Amen.

 

 

 

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