The King’s Banquet

Who gets to go to the Banquet?

But part of the story in Matthew 22 has to do with who gets to go to the banquet. Everybody's invited. The original people declined the invitation, but it's an invitation to the whole of the people of Israel. And it's an invitation to the whole of everybody else. Everyone is invited, but not all of those invited come. You have to come on the terms of the invitation. You have to come in terms of the Gospel. You have to come on the terms of the king. Come with your sin and be forgiven. Come with your sin and turn away from it and follow the Lord Jesus. Come as your own person and give yourself up to be the Lord's person. And those who arrive and sit around at the table of the king are the ones who demonstrate that they're the chosen. They're shown to be chosen by the fact that they respond to the invitation and come.

But what about this man who's there without a wedding garment? Without a wedding robe? It's a very strange picture. Everybody's there and the king comes in and there's a person without a wedding robe. So it seems that everybody who comes is given a wedding robe when they come, or they have to come wearing a wedding robe. So everybody's dressed well, and everybody's dressed the same. The people with the splendid clothes are covered by this, and the people with really terrible dirty clothes are also covered by it.

But this person doesn't have the wedding robe. And the king says to him in a friendly manner, friend, where is your wedding robe? And the man is speechless. Why is he there? How did he get there? It's a very interesting question, isn't it? I've got two possibilities for you. I think one of the possibilities is that he doesn't know where he is. That he's come along with the crowds because the servants have gone out and they've got everybody in, and everybody's coming along. And so he's going along with everybody else. And someone mentioned food. So that was a good thing. So there he is. Where's the food? But he doesn't know where he is. He doesn't know that he's at the king's son's wedding banquet. And it's like that in church. You know, sometimes people can come to church and not really know what it is, what is going on here. For some people, they come along with their friend and they think it's some kind of religious service, which it is. And maybe they come along a few times and they make friends. And so they see that it's a friendly place where people can talk to me and I can talk to people. And while those things are true it as far as they go. But that isn't actually what's going on here. This is a group of people who love the Lord Jesus, who meet in the presence of the Lord Jesus, to listen to the word of the Lord Jesus and to pray to him and praise him. So it's possible that people might come into a church like this and not actually know what it is.

Now, if that's the case with you, I'm glad you're here, because we can explain to you what's really going on here. What's really going on is, yes, friendship, fellowship, food. We've always got a lot of food. But what's going on here is people who love Jesus, listening to the word of Jesus, singing songs of praise to Jesus, praying to him and helping each other know Jesus better. This is the meeting of the people who meet here with Jesus in reality.

Now, that's one possibility. The other possibility, of course, is that the man is there on his own terms. He's determined that he can come to this wedding, and he doesn't have to wear a wedding robe. He can come because, well, he says he can. He's got really good clothes himself, and he's important. And why should anybody tell him he's got to wear these wedding robes? And that's true for church too, isn't it. There are some people who come to church on their own terms and conditions not on the basis of what the Lord says. Some people come to church and they say, well, I'm happy to come to church, but I don't want to have to believe that, and I don't want to have to do that. That's coming on your own terms, and you read the scary story. In the end, if you stay like that, you can't join the wedding, you'll get kicked out.

So what are we to make of all this? This great feast and festival in the future is on offer still in the present. And we are able, in the present to enjoy an aspect of it, because we meet together in the presence of God, knowing the Lord Jesus, through the Spirit and through his Word. We are able to rejoice in being in his presence and knowing him.  And the invitation is still open to everybody.