Matthew 22 reminds me of dining out with my employer. I was 18 and working as a delivery driver; and at the end of a long hot summer day, I was asked to pick up the owner and his guests from their yacht club. I was dirty, smelly and not familiar with fine dining. I was invited to join the group for dinner, but felt completely out of place. Seeing my hesitation, he told me, “Nonsense, you are with me”. Today’s chapter is for those that feel unworthy. Jesus again told a parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son”. He sent his servants to the VIP’s, “but they refused to come”. “He sent some more servants” explaining “I have prepared my dinner… fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready… But they paid no attention”. We read that they were busy working and doing their own thing. Many felt bothered and retaliated against the messengers, even killing some. “The king was enraged… and burned their city”. So the king told his servants, “Those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find… the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests”. Friend, are you too busy to accept the invitation?
The parable notes that even the unworthy guests can come with a wrong attitude. “How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?” This is not about the right clothes, but about the right heart. Some want to skip the wedding and just come for the feast. Wedding crashers do not honor the Father or the Son. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:18). Your seat is with the family.
The religious leaders again try to trap Jesus by getting Him on tax fraud. They asked, “Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” Jesus, looking at a Roman coin asked them, “Whose image is this?” Seeing the emperor’s face, He explained, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s”. Next, they tried to outsmart Him by ridiculing the concept of resurrection. Pointing to the Hebrew requirement for a man to take care of his brother’s widow; they postulated seven brothers all dying and leaving her a widow. They asked, “At the resurrection, whose wife will she be… since all of them were married to her?” Jesus corrected them, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God”. They limited the power of God. This is where many of us hesitate. Perhaps we know we are a little dirty and smelly and feel that we do not belong, but God has the power to renew and restore. Jesus continued, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage”. 1 Corinthians 15 explains, “The dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality”. Apparently our resurrection bodies will not be subject to the corruption of our current flesh. “He is not the God of the dead but of the living”. Again testing Him, they asked the greatest commandment. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself”. To those that say, “I can’t”, I believe the only solution is to draw close to Christ. He will tell you, “Nonsense, you are with Me”. That might just change your life. It is not what you know, but Who you know. You have been invited; will you come to the wedding feast?