Wearing Christ

Scriptures: James 2:14-19; Matthew 22:1-14

A week before my wedding, I suppose it’s only fitting that I get to preach on a parable about a wedding banquet. Hopefully I don’t have quite the difficulty in getting people to attend that the king does in this parable.

It really is an odd parable if you think about it. It would be like if you had been invited to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding and every single person who had been invited went, “Nah. I have better things to do that day.”

But the parable’s meaning is pretty clear up until you get to one particular little point. The first part we get – Israel constituted the “special guests” but they rejected God’s Son and thus, didn’t RSVP. And in fact – killed God’s messengers. Similar to the parable last week of the tenants who killed the servants. So God invited everybody else.

Seems pretty simple. Until you get to this disturbing addendum to the parable about the guy who shows up and isn’t properly dressed for the wedding so the King kicks him out where there is “wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

The Cornerstone

Scriptures: Matthew 21:33-46; Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 3:4-14

Every parable usually has one main overarching theme or message – to reveal to us something about the nature of God. Whether it’s the prodigal son showing us how God welcomes back the lost, or the parable of the Good Samaritan that tells us who God views as our neighbor.

And then you get a parable like this that makes you start going… “That landowner... he’s not too bright.” Albert Einstein once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results.

But that’s how this landowner acts. He keeps persistently sending servant after servant to these tenants, hoping that they will eventually do what they’re supposed to – then finally sends his son, who also is rejected, beaten and killed.

From a worldly perspective – we look at God and say, “Ummm, yeah – not the brightest move.” But on another level, it shows us the patience and persistence of God. How God continually keeps trying to bring his people around, to get his people to do what they were supposed to do – be a priestly nation to the world. His representatives to the other nations. He sends prophet after prophet – then ultimately he sends His son.

But they continued to refuse to bear the kind of fruit God was after.