Where in the World is Jimmy?

I'm sorry it has been so long getting back to the blogging. I just finished a graduate class, and I now hope to have a little more time to check out the internet. I am going to double dip now, and share with you a recent Matthew 22 devotion written for Young Life as we do a study of the book of Matthew. Thanks for the encouragement to my wife, Brenda and Ben to get back onto the blog.

Like Jeff Munroe stated last week, so much stuff could be and has been written on this book and each chapter. Chapter 22 starts off with a parable and then shares some of the amazing answers Jesus gives to the religious leaders refusing to fall into the traps they set for Him in their questions. I encourage you to read again through how Jesus outwitted these leaders with incredible wisdom, but I am going to focus on the parable of the wedding feast.

As Matthew 22 starts off with the parable of the wedding banquet, I cannot help but think about how I react when a wedding invitation arrives in the mail. I am either excited about the opportunity, or I am dreading the thought of having to go. What determines my response? The answer can be summarized with one word: relationships. If I have a relationship with the bride, the groom and people that have been invited to the party, I am pumped to see them and to celebrate with them. If I do not have a strong connection with any of these people, I am scheming for some excuse to not be able to make it to the wedding.

I cannot help but think that the people that reacted negatively toward the banquet invitation did not have a strong relationship with the king or his son who was to be married. For people not having an active and relational life in Christ, this life probably seems more like a burden than a life worth living. If you are feeling like this, know that investing time in learning about how great our God is reveals that our life in Christ is meant to be a celebration, not a burden. He knows us so well and wants us to know Him so well. Our Father feels so passionately about wanting us to be with Him, that He repeatedly extends an invitation to both the good and the bad to join Him.

The good and the bad include the kids in the high schools and middle schools that you go out to meet. A characteristic I love about Young Life is how we bring out this invitation as a celebration of life. In the words of Jim Rayburn, founder of Young Life, “It is a sin to bore kids with the Gospel of Christ.” As you share this invitation, ask yourself if you personally are excited about your relationship with the Lord and the invitation extended to us. If you are, I guarantee that this excitement will spill over into the kids you contact. They will see something different in you and may catch the excitement as well.

Also, know that the parable brings out a message that the ONLY way to be able to accept this invitation is to accept the wedding clothes that Christ gives to us. For the longest time, the last part of this parable bothered me. Why did the king throw out the guy who was not wearing his wedding clothes? Isn’t that a bit extreme? Why didnn’t the king accept him for who he is? A commentary I recently read shed some light on this. It was customary in that time for wedding guests to be given garments to wear to the wedding banquet, and refusing to wear these garments would be unthinkable! The host would be insulted assuming that the guest was arrogant enough to think that either he did not need these garments or did not want to take part in the wedding celebration.

Jesus paid the price for our sins, and gave us our wedding clothes. Our Father will never force us to accept the invitation of a relationship with Him, but there is no other way our Father will accept us at His table.

If you are struggling to accept this, consider this…If you were invited by your best friend to an incredible party he was hosting, would you want to embarrass him or her and by showing up in just your underwear? Try to say as seriously and sincerely as possible that your friend should accept you as you are and what you wear or do not wear should not matter. If you truly care for your best friend, I doubt you can. Our God wants the very best for us, and that is why our Father gave us His one and only Son to provide us with the best possible wedding clothes for this ultimate party. Would you want to insult someone that cares that much for you by refusing His gift?