You Don't Know What You're Missing, Matthew 22:1-14, Parable of the Wedding Feast

Matthew chapter 22 starting in verse 1, hear the word of the Lord. And again,

Jesus spoke to them in parables saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.

Again he sent other servants saying, tell those who are invited, see I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready.

Come to the wedding feast. But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized the servants, treated them shamefully and killed them.

The king was angry and sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.

Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good.

So the wedding hall was filled with guests. And when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man with no wedding garment and he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?

And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen.

Well, may the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. Well, have you ever experienced something that you enjoy so much and you just want to share it with others?

And so, you know, you want them to experience some spirit. Ever had Indian food? Oh, that's good. Naan with curry mutton, that's good food.

A new movie, it's terrific, you know, come, go watch and recommend it. Or maybe a new band, maybe of an entirely different kind of music, or maybe it's a certain kind of recreation.

You like water skiing? Everyone like water skiing? Alan does. Or maybe an event, something to participate in, like a mud run.

We all got invited to a mud run last week and we all want to go, right? Like I'm thinking, why in the world would I want to do that?

But we have a recommendation. Maybe it could be a vacation spot, you know, a little known beach, someone recommend, that's the greatest beach, go there.

Maybe it's a sightseeing place, Yosemite National Park. If you ever get an occasion to go, go to Yosemite National Park in California.

People just say, this is great, you should try it. But maybe the other person isn't interested. Maybe you're thinking, eh, you know,

I've been to the Smokies, why do I want to go to the Yosemites so far away? You know, maybe people like the same old diners, their usual foods, same old

TV shows, going to their usual spots for vacation, year after year, same getaways, and they think that's fine, they like it,

I don't want to try anything new. But you say, you don't know what you're missing. And you find yourself in the strange position of almost begging someone to try something that you know they will love.

If only they give it a real chance. You know, it's something that you think they should see for themselves how good this is.

They should be drawn to it themselves without having me even to recommend it, without having you try to talk them into it.

You know, it's kind of like talking a kid into trying a rollercoaster for the first time. He's afraid, scared, but you know once he tries it once or twice, you love it.

Maybe it's something like that. Something that they'll be drawn to, if only they'll give it a good chance.

You know, we found that many of the Jim Jr. kids will prefer cheap hot dogs to good quality ones, simply because that's what they're used to.

Or maybe at Thanksgiving, they prefer peanut butter and jelly sandwiches over turkey. Prepare them good turkey, they'll throw it away, give me peanut butter and jelly.

Some people would choose cheap hamburger over good steak. And we just shake our heads and say, you don't know what you're missing.

Now we understand now if it's like enticing a child to take medicine, something that's not pleasant but is, you know, we say it's okay,

I know it doesn't taste good, but it's good for you eventually. But it's just weird to have to be begging someone to try something that is just plain fun that they will enjoy if only they'd be willing to try it.

Now we think of, often we think of religion as like that. You know, you gotta read and you gotta memorize and verses and go to services and give money and listen to messages and they're all good for you.

Kind of like the spoonful of medicine, right? It will eventually be good for you even if it doesn't taste so pleasant right now.

Even we who often, we often don't think of inviting people to Jesus as something that they should just naturally want to do.

We kind of think of it, maybe witnessing evangelism is kind of like coaxing a kid to take his medicine instead of being like asking a kid to try a roller coaster.

He might find it a little scary at first, but eventually we know he'll love the thrill. We don't normally think of the kingdom of God as a party, but that is exactly how the

Lord Jesus describes it here. The kingdom of God is a party, he says.

It's something that you would normally want to go to. And it is particularly, he says, a wedding feast.

So it's a happy, joyous event. It's something, you know, with a lot of free food and good times.

It's the most fun you can have. Now why would you not want to be part of it?

And yet here Jesus also shows us that even though it is a party, that he's inviting us to a party.

It's something we'd, you know, otherwise we'd drop everything else and just go to for the fun of it.

But the sad, the weird still don't come.

And some try to come, but not in the right way. They don't know what they're missing.

This parable is the third of a sort of a trilogy of parables told by the

Lord Jesus when he's approached in the temple by the chief priests and the Pharisees to answer, remember they first approached him, by what authority are you doing these things, they ask him.

And they've confronted him, they come up to him, probably real looking official, come up to him like they own the place.

But Jesus too has come in there, like he owns the place. He drove out the money changers.

He tipped over the chairs of the dove sellers. And then he starts teaching, asking no one's permission, like he's totally in charge.

And so when the human authorities show up asking him, you know, who do you think you are to be doing this, he tells three parables, a sort of trilogy of parables.

And the first was the one of the two sons which had the very pointed conclusion that the tax collectors and prostitutes, the greedy, the sexually immoral, they will enter the kingdom of God before you do.

He tells the priest and Pharisees that. And basically to their face.

Then what we looked at last week, the second parable, the parable of the wicked tenants really gets to the root of their role.

These Pharisees and these priests, they are tenants, right?

But they've been acting like owners. And so they will be put, he says, to a miserable death.

And they know, the priests and the Pharisees by that time conclude, maybe they might have been the brightest people in the world, but they got through.

And at that point, it finally sunk in that he told that parable about them, that he's just called them tenants who are usurping the rights of the owner.

And he has predicted judgment on them for doing that. And instead of getting repented, they said, whoa, you're right.

I'm so...how could we have done this, abused our authority? Instead of that, they got angry.

Now, unless God does a work of miraculous grace, hypocrites always get angry when their sin is pointed out.

So now he concludes, those are the first two, the third of this trilogy of parables, describing what this kingdom of God is that these swindlers and these sexually immoral people come into first, but the

Pharisees don't. What is this invitation to come into? In the parable of the wedding banquet, the invitation to come into God's kingdom, that is to live under his rule, is compared to getting a party invitation.

The invitation is to a feast as joyous as a wedding feast. He's inviting us to joy, to blessings, to laughter, to good food, to satisfaction, to good times.

Now, why would we not want to accept that? They don't know what they're missing.

Now, but many people, oddly enough, decide they don't want to come in. And it is for those, those people, including these priests here, these

Pharisees, standing right in front of him, that Jesus tells this parable, the parable of the wedding banquet.

We see why some miss on the appeal to God's kingdom. Or that it sets the expectation for kingdom on, but it's just a piece of cake, a game, a movie.

Not only is it a party, it's a royal one. Now, literally, put on a pair of kicks, and there, every cent with only free food, you'll get a chance to get in good with the present king and with the future king.

It's his game. Why would you not want the church to come and send us furthermore? Because there's a plenary dinner right now. Now, things like who aren't invited, we'll try to sneak into, to be a believer, not invite, and then invite people to their disses.

It's like a hitchhike. So, they're trying to bring the door to us. It's a difficult experience, but maybe if the church even do provide the door, they care for God or a little focuses on all that.

They didn't care at all. And so, it should be enough to be Jesus. I could just like, the other two things we know are, you're something like that.

They'd be asking if he participated in a petition. So, it's probably the result of the advice of your staff or the pastor that they did enough.

Those who are invited don't come. They're interested. That's just we invite people. It's great, isn't it?

Just like here for, you know, and did show them part of the same video we're watching for Sunday school and give them a brief presentation of the gospel.

But four guys insisted, pulled some four chairs back, further back, sit way back over there.

Actually, it's such an angle, they couldn't even see the screen. So, they were just totally saying with their actions, they're just totally disinterested in what we were doing.

And they were talking and ignoring the video and laughing and whatever, showing their cell phones.

And even when Joe was talking, even when I went over and made my presence felt around them, try to hush them, they just kept at it.

And so, we decided we had to drive them back right away and just tell them, you need to act like this, you're not going to be allowed to stay.

But I thought they're, you know, we shouldn't have to discipline guys to make them pay attention, you know, because their own reaction makes no sense.

Even, you know, and just, I mean, I'm thinking just for their own self -interest. I mean, just being selfish, okay?

They have so much to gain by respectfully listening. You know, their lives probably bump along from one painful problem to another, okay?

And they would be so much happier, so much more satisfied, and live so much more comfortably if even here, even just in this life.

I mean, take heaven totally out of the picture. Just here in this life, if they just accept the invitation to come into the kingdom of God, they don't know what they're missing.

The invitation to come to the kingdom of God should be so inviting, so great. It should just sell itself.

You know, there's some things they say just sell themselves. And the gospel is one of those. But oddly enough, people are so depraved, okay?

Depraved, you know what that means? Bad. It's a fancy word for bad. They're so bad, they're so stuck in their sins that they'd rather keep gnawing on the bones that the world, the flesh, and the devil throw them, than to feast on the steak that God invites them to.

The invitation is rejected. You ever invited someone to something? Maybe you're a guy, a girl on a date, or maybe a prospective friend, you know, go on an outing.

Why don't you come bowling with us? Go to a movie together or something like that. You know, be a part of our fantasy football league.

And did they just turn you down flat? No. Now, what's your instinctive reaction after that? Usually, kind of put up a wall of disinterest.

You know, say to ourselves, you know, I really didn't care about going out with her anyway. I don't really, I don't, we don't really need him in our bowling league anyway.

And who needs him for our fantasy football? He doesn't know anything. Mess it all up. Rejection usually results in us being less willing to invite them again, right?

Someone get turned down, you don't want to invite them to something else next time. You don't want to get turned down again. We don't want to be rejected.

We are not so long -suffering, to use that old -fashioned word. Well, here, notice the story, we see

God willing to suffer our rejection. You know, our rejection, first of all, makes no sense.

The wedding banquet should sell itself. Not only are we invited to a good time, it's an important time. It's like the inauguration of a president.

The king's son is getting married. It's history, but people turn it down flat.

And yet, God, symbolized here by the king, sends out even more. Notice that?

He sends out even more servants to repeat the invitation. Gives them all another chance.

The wedding feast should sell itself. But second time around, he coaches the servants on how to market the invitation.

Now, this is something you shouldn't have to market, but he coaches them. Here's how to sell it. He's not only willing to repeat the invitation, but he actually strives to make it as appealing as possible.

Notice that. He highlights the menu, says, tell those who were invited, see,

I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and fat calves. Okay, that's what's on the menu, that's what we're serving, have been slaughtered.

And everything is ready, okay? Now, who could turn down such an offer?

What Jesus is here telling us, that when we invite people to come into the kingdom of God, to make Jesus their

Lord, that's what it's like. It's something that should sell itself. It's a free steak buffet, okay?

You saw a free steak buffet, I mean, you're gonna go, right? It's something that should sell itself, but yet bizarrely, and here we're demonstrating how twisted and how hardened the human heart is.

People say, nah, I got better things to do. It says in verse five, they paid no attention.

Free steak buffet, nah, I got my celery sticks,

I'm gonna chew on. Anyone who ever tried to do evangelism knows that reaction, right? They paid no attention.

You have such a great thing that you are offering people. Even if they are living very comfortable, wealthy lives, driving their

Mercedes -Benz into their gated community, what we are offering is something that will make their lives better.

And yet, here's what Paul calls the mystery of iniquity. It's a mystery and it's totally unfathomable, you can't understand it, it's not logical, it's the mystery.

Sin is not logical, it's the mystery of iniquity, the unreasonable, foolishly sinful human heart.

We see that in the four boys from North Hills Apartments, pay it no attention, it makes no sense.

How bizarre, but the problem isn't, you can say, well, the problem maybe it was with a host, maybe it was with a message, the invitation, no, here, perfect host, perfect message, perfect event inviting them to.

But it just shows how unbelievably hard the sinful human heart is.

The prophet Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

Who can understand it? They have a wonderful invitation and yet they pay it no attention.

Instead, they make excuses, they go back to their routines, to their farms and their businesses, back to work.

Uninterested in the invitation, more interested maybe in school or in dating or making money or in sports or whatever they are used to doing.

The invitation is rejected outright and the rejection doesn't just stop there.

Others aren't content just to receive the invitation, I'm apathetic, shrug their shoulders, get away, I don't care, disinterest.

Some, he says, are actually enraged by the invitation. In verse 6, they react with violence, abusing, he says, treating shamefully.

They're even killing some of the servants, the servants of God, the prophets. Some are just bored with God's word and would rather go to their golf courses or their video games or do their jobs, make a little more money.

Others are inflamed by it and will try to stamp it out. We've seen that even at a college where people weren't content just to let students respond or not respond, to be disinterested or not.

Maybe some were interested, but insisted it be suppressed, not allowed here.

No, they react with violence in a way. Now, imagine how bizarre this picture is.

You're offering something that should sell itself, and yet the response you get is either apathy, no,

I don't care, or hostility, anger. Now, how would Alan, who I guess is behind that screen with the baby, how would

Alan feel if he went door to door at the poorest mobile home park in this area, offering for quality construction to build you, the people he's going door to door with, a mansion, a fabulous multimillion dollar estate for free, okay?

No strings attached, you don't have to go in a commercial and say anything. And most people just, he went door to door knocking on that, on the mobile home doors, and most people answered and heard it and shrugged their shoulders, mumbled, no thanks, closed the door.

And then some even got mad. How dare you? Are you suggesting that my old mobile home is not a mansion?

You see how deceitful, how desperately sick, how beyond reason the sinful human heart is.

Now, to the rejection comes the destruction, Jesus says.

Now, some people reject the invitation to come into the kingdom of God because they think there will never be a rejection for, there will never be a judgment for rejecting it.

They think they can go on living as if making money or chasing girls or even just like these priests and these

Pharisees here, just being religious. But just not living for Jesus. They think they will never have to answer for that, for their disinterest or their hostility.

They think they'll be able to keep living for themselves always. But even God's long suffering has an end.

In verse 7, the king gets angry, God gets angry, and he sent, it says, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

Whoa, that's pretty rough, turning down an invitation. There is destruction for rejection.

For those who reject Jesus, either with cold disinterest, maybe with a hot hatred, there is, as we see at the end of verse 13, eternal, ongoing, conscious, never -ending destruction.

Now, after the invitation is rejected, it is extended. Starting in verse 8, the invitation to come into the wedding feast is it now extended to all kinds of people.

Now again, the king sends his servants out. He says, the wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.

Notice that in verse 8, because that's not, it's not, it's one of those things you pass over real fast and you probably don't think about it.

But it's actually much different than what we normally think. The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.

Look at that. We think that they were not worthy because they rejected the invitation.

But here Jesus says that they rejected the invitation. They didn't come because they are not worthy.

Worthiness produces the action. The fact they rejected shows that they're not worthy.

Not the other way around. So we think they became unworthy by their rejection.

No, they rejected because they were unworthy. The status of being worthy or unworthy determines whether they will accept or reject the invitation.

The worthy, those who are made worth it, receive the kingdom of God.

Those not worth it, the unworthy, without the worth to accept it. Well, they're the ones that reject it.

The source then, of their rejection or not, isn't our choice but our worthiness.

The question then is, there's Allie. The question then is, who makes us worthy?

Now here Jesus is expanding. If you remember, this is the third of a set of three parables.

On what he had said in the previous parable that we looked at last week. Remember, Jesus concludes, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you.

You Jewish leaders, this nation, literal Israelite nation, will be taken away from you and given to a people, given to a nation, producing its fruit.

Now the Jewish leaders had thought that they had a lock on God's blessings, that basically they owned the kingdom of God.

But Jesus shocked them by saying that the kingdom is being taken away from them and given to a new nation.

And here, illustrating that again, they are like the first group that got invited.

Got invited twice. Got invited repeatedly. Got the invitation made to look good, the menu laid out. But they still rejected it and they will be judged.

And now the invitation is being offered to another people, another nation. And not an ethnic group, literally, but God's holy nation made up of all kinds of people.

The messengers go out to the servants, to all kinds of people, anywhere you can find them, wherever they may be.

In verse 9, they go out to wherever they can find people. You know, go to the main roads, the highways, the interstates.

And invite as many as you find, it says, as many as you find. In other words, don't discriminate.

Don't look at them and say, no, we don't want her type around us.

This doesn't look good. You know, you don't want her in your wedding pictures, right? This is a wedding. We don't want her in our wedding pictures.

Go to where the people are, Jesus says, and cast a wide net and invite them all to come.

The invitation is extended. Now, in this parable, we are either the servants taking the message of the invitation to the wedding feast to people out there, or we are the invited guests.

Or we can be both at different times of our life. And it's not our job to target our invitation to those that we think make the best, you know, party material.

These are the kind of people we want in our party. They're the life of the party. Who, you know, those who think they'll look good in the wedding picture.

We don't want them in our wedding picture. Our job is just to invite every kind of person that we come across. Notice in verse 10, the servants gather all that they found, all kinds of people.

They weren't, there wasn't a, you know, it's not like a bouncer at a rope line, some elite club, you know, who will choose, you'll make good for the party, you can come in, not you, you're too old, whatever, you don't look rich enough.

They extend the invitation to all kinds of people. Both, it says, both bad and good.

That's what it literally says, right? Both bad, verse 10, both bad and good come into this wedding feast.

Now, do you see here that the utter perversity practiced commonly by white churches in the

South in the days of segregation of keeping out the kinds of people they didn't want at their wedding feast as though it belonged to them.

They wanted only one kind of people, those who look like them. They wanted to narrow the invitation to those they liked when

God said to extend it. Now, here Jesus is, he's really coming to a conclusion of these three parables, weaving together the theme from the first parable of the two sons with the theme of the second, the wicked tenants.

And he tells the parable of the, you remember when he tells the parable of the two sons, it shows that the swindlers and the immoral, they go into the kingdom of God before these religious hypocrites.

And he tells the parable of the wicked tenants to tell this powerful establishment who are challenging him, by what authority are you doing these things?

He's telling them that the kingdom of God is being taken away from them, given to a new nation.

Now, here he is showing how the greedy and the immoral get into the kingdom of God.

How are they, how is it coming to them instead of just to these faithful Israelites? And it's simply because God extends the invitation to them.

And he tells the priests and Pharisees who think that they own the place. Clearly, again, that they had been disinvited.

Your invitation has been revoked. And they will be judged as the extended invitation goes out to all kinds of people.

Finally, the kingdom of God is expected. Now, that is, some people just expect that they have a right to go in, that they are a part, even if they're not dressed for it.

In verse 11, after the wedding hall is finally, it's filled now, it's packed full of guests, and the king comes to the feast, and there he sees a guest who's not properly attired for the wedding.

He was not dressed right. Now, certainly, up until now, this man, he expected that what he had on was fine.

He just assumed that the clothes that he had were good enough. And that's the way so many people are about the kingdom of God.

If they do respond to the invitation, many reject it outright, some respond, but they expect that they will be received as they are, that the wedding supper of the lamb is kind of a come -as -you -are party.

God will accept me for myself. They think they are decent as they are. No change or covering is required.

After all, they might think, you know, I'm better than average. Maybe I'm at least kind of average, or maybe

I'm not too terribly worse than average. They expect that when they meet the king, they will simply be well -received as they are, that there are few problems.

They might acknowledge them, but, you know, they'll be excused. It's okay. Everyone has them, right?

Few spots on their clothes. They think that their religion or their morality will be good enough.

They fully expect to be accepted. Now, think of the expectations of those

Jesus speaks to at the end of the... speaks about at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Remember that story, the judgment seat?

Many will come to me, Jesus says, boasting of their religion, of all that they've done for him.

It never occurs to them that they will hear. Never occurs into their mind that they will hear

Jesus say away from me. I never knew you. I often see people who, particularly online, claiming to be

Bible -believing Christians, sometimes behaving in the most unchristian way, spewing insults, breaking the ninth commandment against bearing false witness, making up false accusations against people they don't even know, and sometimes saying exactly the words that Jesus says you will be judged for saying.

And they fully expect that they will be accepted into God's kingdom. But they may very well be surprised.

Now, the man without the wedding clothes, he's kind of a wedding crasher, isn't he? Heard the invitation, but he thought he could go as he is.

In some ornate weddings like this, in their day, it may be hosted by a king, that the king himself may have provided the wedding clothes.

It doesn't say clearly in this parable. It may have been the king provided the wedding clothes so that the poor guests don't feel like they're poor, badly dressed, compared to the rich guests.

So everyone kind of feel equal because the clothes were provided. Now, apparently, this wedding crasher comes in and decides that, you know, what he has on is just as good as the wedding clothes that are being provided.

Here is a man who expects to be accepted at this feast.

His assumption that his clothes are good enough is based on nothing but his expectations, his pride.

And so when he is confronted about it, notice at the end of verse 12, he's speechless. It's not as though, well, they didn't have anything that fit me or I'm too short,

I'm too tall, I'm too fat, nothing like that. No reason to explain anything. He's just speechless.

You know, why didn't you take the wedding clothes? He doesn't have a reason that he can explain. He doesn't have a defense.

All he has were his unspoken expectations, the same flimsy assumptions that most people take with them when they come to God.

They expect that they are good enough. That's called pride.

Don't expect to be accepted by God as you are, just sort of on your own, on your own merits because you're somewhere near average, because you're not too terribly worse than average.

Dressed in your morality and religion, even the best of that kind of clothing, whatever you bring yourself, okay,

Isaiah says in chapter 64 of his book, even the best of what you can bring yourself is as filthy rags, he calls it.

All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment, Isaiah says.

That's how God sees us when we expect to be accepted by him just as we are, you know, in our morality, in our religion, in our good manners, because we were a loyal family member and did our duty.

And even if that is all true, God sees through the veil of our morality right to the ugliness of the heart within, deceitful above all things, desperately sick, incomprehensible in its filthy depravity.

And so, no matter how well -dressed that we think we are, no matter how confident that we are in our expectations, that we met the dress standards for the wedding feast, we have not.

If we are not dressed in the righteousness of Christ, if we are accepted by God, the

King, when we are seen by him as clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ, that means that God sees us, not as we are, what we bring ourselves in our imperfections, even if we somehow managed to dress better than the average depraved person.

But he will accept us if he sees us dressed in the perfect life of Jesus.

He sees us covered in the perfect obedience of the Son. Then, we're accepted.

Now, if you don't have that, you don't know what you're missing. Without the wedding garments of Christ's righteousness, those who just expect that they are fine as they are, and he says here, they are bound hand and foot and cast out into the darkness, far out.

In that place, Jesus says, that's the place that we normally call hell.

In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now, that shows, the way

Jesus puts it, that the punishment is felt, right? They're weeping, they're gnashing teeth.

It's conscious. People are aware of their misery, and finally, they are aware of what they're missing.

What they are missing is what he called, in verse 8, worthiness.

It's what he calls, at the end of verse 14, sort of the moral of the story, we could say, chosenness.

For many are called, but few are chosen. That's how he concludes it.

Now, the many are the first group. Many are called. The many are the first group who were invited.

The ones to whom the king sent his servants, you know, twice. Second time, actually, you know, marketing that invitation even better, to come to this free feast with a steak buffet, but they turned them down cold.

Some even did so violently. There are many who come, you know, and there are many that come believing in God, many who come maybe to church, to religion, with their expectation that they are fine with the

Lord, that they'll be able to, you know, that they have an expectation they'll be able to saunter right up to the judgment seat and be accepted by the

Lord. You know, Lord, Lord, did I not do thus and thus? They are like that, clothed in their religion and morality.

And they have been called. That's true, they have been called. But they responded by coming as they are, proud of their appearance.

But they are not chosen. Many are called. Some are disinterested.

Some are enraged. Some come in their own righteousness. But few are chosen.

Again, in verse 8, this is the opposite of what we might expect. In our natural mind, we expect, as in verse 8, we expect worthiness is based on our choice.

But Jesus says, our choice is based on our worthiness. And who makes us worthy?

The one who chooses makes us worthy. Notice it is not, many are called, but few choose.

You know, that would make sense to us if that's the way it was put. Many are called, God's invitations to everyone, but only a few choose.

That's kind of what we expect it to say. In fact, if we read the verse real fast and we got to go on without stopping and thinking about it, that's probably what we think we just read.

But notice carefully, many are called. Called by who? In this parable, the king who symbolizes

God, God calls many. He calls the disinterested who pay his invitation no attention, shrug their shoulders, don't care.

He calls the hostile people who react violently. He calls the self -righteous who come, but who come on their own terms.

Many, the disinterested, the hateful, the self -righteous, many are called by God.

God calls them all, but few are chosen. Again, it doesn't say, as we might assume if we look closely, many choose, does it?

Few are chosen. Chosen by who? By the same one who did the calling.

It's a passive sentence implying the subject, that is implying the one who does the action, and he is

God. God calls many, and God chooses few.

The only way to overcome our depravity, depravity is so bad that we reject the invitation to this kingdom of God that should sell itself.

The only way to overcome that is if the king, the sovereign God, chooses.

The kingdom of God is a party. If something's so great, it should sell itself.

But we sinners are so hard -hearted and depraved, we don't know what's good for us.

We don't know what we're missing. And so, if we're not to miss out on this great party,

God will have to call us, God will have to make us worthy, able to say, willing to say yes to the invitation.

Enclose us in the righteousness of Christ. For us to choose him, he'll have to choose us.

And if he has chosen us, if he has made us worthy, then, then we'll choose him.

Then we'll be worthy. Then we'll accept his invitation.