SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/27/2023 8:40 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT- “The Invitation Rejected”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 22:1-6
Message of the verses: “1 Jesus spoke to
them again in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a
king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3 “And he sent out his slaves to
call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling
to come. 4 “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."’ 5 “But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own
farm, another to his business, 6 and the
rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.”
As we continue looking at this parable it can be
noticed that there are some similar things that happened to the slaves in both
parables, as some were mistreated, and then also some were killed. What would be the motivation for this to
happen in this parable? With the
wine-growers the motivation was to seize the vineyard, but it seems no
motivation in this parable we are looking at.
One can be sure that to those whom Jesus is speaking this parable would
have a difficult time wondering why people would not only want to go to a Royal
Wedding, but why would people kill those slaves who were bringing the
invitation.
MacArthur
writes “The initial response of the king, like the initial response of the
vineyard owner, is as amazing as the response of the guests. Few monarchs were known for their humility
and patience, especially in the face of open insult. But that king sent out other slaves saying, “Tell
those who have been invited, ‘Behole, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my
fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the
wedding feast.’”
I have talked about how long this type of formal
wedding ceremony would be, lasting for many days, and thus the dinner was the
first of many meals eaten during the feast, and it was ready to be served. “Reminded the guests,” the king in effect, “of
all the preparations that have been made.
He spoke of the oxen and fattened livestock are all butchered, and
waiting to be roasted, and everything else is ready also. Plead with the people to come to the wedding
feast now.
Verse
five not gives the final response as to why they would not take the time to
come to the wonderful Royal Wedding: “5 “But
they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his
business.” One could say that they were
selfishly preoccupied with personal concerns for profit that the invitation and
the repeated calls of the king to stop work and attend his son’s wedding were
altogether ignored. These people in this
kingdom willingly and purposely forfeited that beauty, grandeur, and honor of
the wedding for the sake of their everyday, mundane, self-serving
endeavors. They were not concerned about
the king’s honor but only about what they perceived as their own best interest.
As
mentioned yesterday this will take some time to work our way through this
parable.
7/27/2023 9:07 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment