Devo: Matthew 22:1-14

This parable is compared by Jesus to the kingdom of heaven. The king arranged his son’s wedding and invited people to come to the feast. He sent his servants to inform the people that they could come and celebrate with them. However, the people who were invited refused (v. 3).

The king sent his servants again and told them to inform the people that they had prepared the dinner and that everything was ready. However, the people took it lightly and went on to do their own business. Some of them killed the servants (vv. 4-6). This infuriated the king and ordered his armies to destroy those who killed his servants (v. 7).

This is similar to people who disregard the Lord, who do not care about the things of God. People invite them to church, share the gospel with them, but they keep their hearts and minds closed. Their hearts remain hard for God.

For the third time, the king sent his servants to invite the people. This time though, he instructed them to invite anyone, “both good and bad”, to come because the people he initially invited were unworthy (vv. 8-10). This demonstrates the grace of God to us all. We are undeserving of His invitation to enter His Kingdom, but He calls us anyway.

“In this sense, we can say this is a parable about grace. Those who were invited–and who came–were utterly undeserving of the invitation, much less the wedding feast itself.” enduringword.com

Then there was one man who came to the wedding without the proper garment. The king ordered the servants to “take him away and cast him into outer darkness” (vv. 11-13).

This is an illustration of people who appear Christian on the outside but are not transformed on the inside. They do the duties–attend Sunday services, probably even serve in ministries, do all the Christian stuff, but have no real love for God.

“He came because he was invited, but he came only in appearance. The banquet was intended to honor the King’s Son, but this man meant nothing of the kind; he was willing to eat the good things set before him, but in his heart there was no love either for the King or his well-beloved Son.” Spurgeon, enduringword.com