Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend ?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
For Nathan something about it just wasn't making sense. You see the very last verse says that MANY were invited, not ALL. Other scriptures lead us to believe that Jesus invites ALL people to come to Him, such as John 3:16 which says "whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." Whosoever seems inclusive to all people. Yet we know that God's Word NEVER contridicts itselfs...so what was it that he was missing.
We read and reread the passage, discussed it aloud with one another, broke it down section by section....and there it was. The part we had missed! Right there in verse 9! Did you see it? Are you shaking your head at us for taking so long to figure out such a simple thing? Are you just noticing it yourself? Or are you still wondering what it was?
In verse 9 Jesus sends His servants out to gather ALL the people, yet in verse 14 we see that MANY were invited, not ALL. Jesus didn't fail to send out an invitation to ALL the people, his servants failed to invite ALL the people. They invited MANY...wasn't that enough? No, that was not the command.
Now, it is important that we take notice of the fact that once the guest arrive at the wedding it is their responsibility to put on the wedding garments, no longer is the responsibility on the servants, but it is the servants responsibility to get out the invitation. It is our responsibility to deliver the invitation; not to those we like, not to those like us, not to those we find worthy...but to ALL we can find.
'He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." Mark 16:15
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