The Wedding Banquet

The Wedding Banquet

“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. 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.’ Matthew 22:2-4

This is a glorious invitation! What an exciting time when we are invited to a wedding…especially the wedding of a great friend, the son of someone famous or of course, family! Tonight, we have the privilege and the opportunity to participate in a phenomenal wedding…a literal miracle where two of our best friends, our family are becoming one: Adrian Jimenez and Kacie Fligor! Amazingly, Kacie was able to “run into” Adrian the very first day she arrived in Orlando and well…it was actually love at first sight & first talk and a very loving and pure relationship was born from the sovereignty of God gently guiding Kacie to Florida. He placed these two on an adventure that has been so fun to watch as God has healed both of their hearts of so many hurts and filled them with dreams come true. Personally, I have been inspired watching them develop their friendship in respect and honor first for God and then for one another. Cannot wait for the wedding tonight!

With marriage license in hand, Adrian & Kacie (who will be leading the UCF Campus Ministry) get married today!

In this parable Jesus compares the kingdom to a father throwing the wedding of the century for his son. The father is so excited to lavish love on his son that he seems to make all the preparations even before the invitations have been responded to. He poured his heart into making his son’s wedding special and expected those invited to be as excited and dedicated to his son as he was. The response was pathetic at best! The invitees actually “refused to come”. This is hard to imagine knowing the joy and importance of a wedding banquet and the heartfelt sacrifices the father has made. Yet there was a hardness of heart, a lack of understanding of the father’s intentions and shockingly, a selfishness that is undeniable.

The father, undeterred by their hard hearts toward him and his son, sends more servants to gather the invited. He tells them to explain all the great things awaiting them and pleads, “Come to the wedding banquet”. What an amazing heart! Even after enduring the stubborn refusal of so many, the father again faces shame and rejection in one last attempt to get the people to enjoy the banquet with him. Sadly, those invited not only paid no attention to the father’s love they began to mistreat and kill the servants (vs. 5-7) so the king destroys them! Not wanting to let down his one and only son the father sends more servants and at all costs, finds all the people they could find till there was no room left.

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. Matthew 22:8-10 Truly, the king was not focused on himself or his reputation…he wanted his son to be honored more than anything so even people like you and me got invited. The “good and bad” actually got in! The first invited did not “deserve” to come yet neither did the last invited…especially the “bad”. Would you invite the unknown or the bad to your son’s wedding banquet? This parable of the kingdom surely shows the heart of the king of kings and his unwarranted love for people like us who are undeserving yet still invites us.

Have you accepted the invitation to join in the wedding banquet? God is calling each of us to walk with him as family and attend his “banquet”! We do not deserve this invitation and he will not stop until the wedding hall is full! The heart of our God is world evangelism and he will not quit, he will not get tired, he will not be deterred and he will not stop loving until each of us are invited! Quite possibly you have accepted the invitation and you became a true disciple and yet somewhere along the way you got comfortable and began showing contempt toward the king, his subjects and your heart hardened. You find yourself at the banquet (at church and Bible Talk) yet your heart is somewhere else. There has slipped into your life a longing for the world. You still call yourself a disciple yet you know you are not giving all your heart to the father and have ignored the son.

Joseph “papa joe’ Angerville becomes a
true disciple and is baptized into
Christ at 88 years young!

God forbid any of us ever allow this…rather we must find ourselves as fired up about the wedding banquet as the father is! If any lukewarmness, bitterness, sins of the heart, hidden sins or agendas, selfishness, lust or acedia has struck your faith- remember the undeserved love the father has shown us and resolve to love the wedding banquet as much as He does! Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart! Psalm 37:4

Tonight, we will all meet at 6:00 PM at 825 East Altamonte Drive in Altamonte Chapel and let’s all answer the call for our family wedding between Kacie and Adrian and allow yourself to think of the love of the king, the Father as we together participate in their wedding and then as only the precious kingdom family can…enjoy the wedding banquet!

He stoops down to make us great,

Matt Sullivan