Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Matthew 22:1-14.
Matthew 22:9 Go ye
therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as
many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
In Christ’s parable of
the wedding dinner in Matthew 22:1-14, those first beckoned to the feast rejected
the invitation, so the King sent out a second round of invitations. He gives something
like a Great Commission to his servants: “Go ye therefore…” (v. 9; cf. 28:19). He
tells his servants to go out into the highways (epi tas diexodous tōn hodōn;
literally, the ways leading out of the main way, the byways) and “gather
together (synago, assemble) all as many as they found, both bad and
good” (v. 10a). This refers to that general and promiscuous call of the gospel
that would go out not merely to the Jews but also to the Gentiles. This is the
general call of the gospel to all kinds of men. Spurgeon notes: “Glorious was
the outburst of grace which bade the apostles turn to the Gentiles” (Matthew,
327).
When it says men “bad
and good” were called it is not speaking here of moral indifference to the
behavior of those called. It is simply saying that at the time of their calling
there would have been some considered to be living badly and others considered
to be living well. Their calling, however, was not conditioned on their present
circumstances. This is a picture of what we call “unconditional election.” When
Paul describes the divine choosing of Jacob and the divine rejection of Esau,
he says this took place before they were even born “neither having done any
good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of
works, but of him that calleth” (Romans 9:11).
The end result: “and
the wedding was furnished with guests” (v. 10b). Spurgeon was fond of saying
that there will likely be many more in heaven than we think there will be. The
picture here is of a King (God himself) who wishes to have many, many come to
the wedding dinner of his dear Son. He is not stingy. He is not parsimonious. A
wonderful feast has been prepared, and he desires large numbers to be there.
And his will is always done.
I think of that scene
in Revelation of John’s vision of God’s throne in heaven and those gathered
around it, “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and
kindreds, and people, and tongues” (Revelation 7:9).
Let us long for the
day when Christ returns in glory, and his elect are beckoned to join at last “the
marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9).
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jeff Riddle
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