September 6, 2026 - Matthew 22

The parable of the wedding feast.  Remember that one?  A king gave a wedding feast for his son.  He invited many guests:  “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready.  Come to the wedding feast” (22:4).  However, “They paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them” (22:5-6).  So, the king sent his servants out in the roads to invite others, both good and bad (22:10), and the wedding hall was filled with guests.  Thinking about the inclusion of the “bad” . . . Whatever we might say about their “badness,” we must acknowledge that, unlike those first invited, at least they came.  They attended.  You know, heaven will be filled with people of all sorts, from all kinds of backgrounds and with so many varying personal stories.  But this must be said about them:  They heard the gospel invitation, and they came.  In one sense it is so hard, that is, the human heart is so sinful that it just naturally rejects the gospel.  In another sense, though, it is so easy.  Turn from opposing God, believe the gospel, receive the invitation, and enter into life.

Come, sinners, to the gospel feast;

let ev’y soul be Jesus’ guest.

Ye need not one be left behind,

for God hath bid all human-kind.

Come, all ye souls by sin oppressed,

ye restless wand’rers after rest;

ye poor, and maimed, disabled, and blind,

in Christ a hearty welcome find.   --Charles Wesley (1747)