Matthew 22:4, “Come to the wedding feast.”
I read three parables this morning. The parable of the two sons (21:28-32), the parable of the tenants (21:33-44), and the parable of the wedding feast (22:1-14). Each one of these parables is told in response to the Scribes and Pharisee’s question about Jesus’ authority, and Jesus’ reciprocal question to them about John’s authority (21:23-27). The central issue in each one of the parables seems to be that the Jewish leaders should recognize—as the tax collectors and prostitutes have—the “way of righteousness” in John and, even more so, in Jesus. They ought not need to ask where Jesus gets His authority since His entire life declares the character of His Father, the one whom they claim as their God.
[[[SIDE NOTE: This, by the way, brings up some very interesting epistemological issues. God’s supreme self revelation comes in Christ in such a way that we must—by the illumination of the Spirit in our inner being—intuit by His character that He is True. He does not give scientific evidence that He is who He says He is. He does not ask us what proofs we would like and then give them. Rather, He asks us—commands us—to know Him; to see His acts and ways; to see how He lives and what He does and what He says; to get to know this person and, knowing Him, to place our whole being into His hands as our Lord and our God. The destiny of our eternal souls depends on getting to know a person. It depends on whether or not this man, Jesus Christ, wins our confidence, claims our worship, proves Himself to be—ultimately—the Love who made our souls and all the world.]]]
This recognition and receiving of true righteousness—and ultimately of YHWH—in Christ is doing the Father’s will in the first parable, it is producing the fruits of the kingdom in the second, and it is receiving the invitation to the wedding feast and submitting to the offered wedding garments in the third. This is what the tax collectors and prostitutes saw in John and in Jesus, this is what they humbly received, and this is why they are entering the kingdom before the Scribes and Pharisees.
May we daily receive that invitation! May we daily feast at the table of God’s own Triune fullness, being filled with the abundance of His house (Psalm 36), delighting ourselves in the good food (Isaiah 55:1-3), the True Food who is the Son given for us (John 6:35,53ff). And may we be ambassadors, calling others to this same Feast!
