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2. Do you know the Heart Intention
behind Your Heavenly Wedding Invitation?
[Don't forget to click the little arrow on the right
or anywhere in this text to see the collapsible content below.]
(Matthew 22:1-14, Luke 14:1-24)
The Heart behind the Invitation
It is highly recommended: To read Matthew 22, and highlight verses, and underline, and make notes as you read, to document your understanding and wealth of learning, as you progress through your own spiritual journey investigating this incredible Wedding Invitation. This way you can double check anything that is presented here, and not just take things as being true, because someone else says they are.
God’s kingdom invitation is not a strategy for increasing His status.
He desires to share His overflowing generosity, with those who want it, and will joyfully receive it--as a free gift. As a King who already possesses all glory, all honor, and all things, He calls us to His Table to eat His Heavenly Food & to Drink His Divine Wines, prepared to perfection. He presents them ALL to us with HONOR, GLORY, & MAJESTY, according to His own Heavenly Nature & Character.
His Kingdom runs on Humility, so He will not boast, nor brag, nor try to sell us with a strong arm sales pitch. He wants us to be near Him, because we honestly desire to be part of His Kingdom Heritage & Inheritance. That's it. That's the sales pitch. "Come and be near me. For I long for you to be a member of my Family--Forever."
This message is repeated continually throughout OLD and NEW Covenant Bible Passages. He is not seeking the rich & famous, the gifted & the strong, like worldly weddings seem to do. In His Story, the rich & self-centered reject Him. They have better things to do.
So, He opens his home to the weak & hurting, the sorrowful & dejected, the sinful & poisoned.
The Door is Open because His Goodness and Mercy. They are able to cover our: sicknesses, fear of rejection, doubts, insecurities, darkness, including all our past bad actions with ignoble (evil) motives.
Matthew 22 does contain some solemn judgment, but verses 8–10 especially reveal God’s expansive mercy.
The King does not cancel the wedding because the first invitees reject Him.
The feast is still ready, the Son is still worthy of honor,
So the King sends servants farther out until “the wedding was furnished full with guests.”
The companion passage in Luke makes the social dimension explicit:
“Bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind,” followed by, “that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:21–23)
The central theme
The King’s table is not filled to make Him look important;
it is filled because He is good.
Earthly people often invite those who can improve their image, return the favor, enlarge their network, or make an occasion seem prestigious.
But God, who needs nothing, and cannot be enriched by us, sends His servants into the highways to gather those who have nothing to offer Him but their need.
The wedding feast displays not the worthiness of the guests, but the wealth, mercy, and glory of the King—and the honor of His Son.
God’s invitation to the marriage supper reveals a grace that seeks the needy, welcomes the unworthy, honors the Son, and desires that His house be full.
Matthew 22:6–10 summarized (see table below)
The contrast with worldly banquets
An important contrast that Jesus Himself makes very plainly in Luke 14.
In ordinary fallen human thinking, invitations can become transactions:
“Who will make me look important?”
“Who is influential enough to invite?”
“Who might invite me back?”
“Who can advance my social, political, or economic standing?”
“Who will make this event appear successful, elegant, or exclusive?”
Jesus addresses exactly this motive:
“When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
But when thou makest a feast:
call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee:
for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”
—Luke 14:12–14, KJVCan you see the heart of God in this instruction?
The issue is not that family, friends, or prosperous people are sinful to invite.
Rather, Jesus exposes the self-repaying motive:
Hospitality that is really an investment in one’s own social return.
Luke then immediately gives the parable of the great supper.
After the originally invited guests make excuses, to reject the invitation, the master says:
“Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.”
—Luke 14:21, KJV
And when there is still room:
“Go out into the highways and hedges,
and compel them to come in,
that my house may be filled.”
—Luke 14:23, KJV
That phrase—“that my house may be filled”—is one of the clearest windows into the generous heart we need to emphasize. The master is not embarrassed by humble guests. He actively seeks them. He does not need their repayment. He wants them at his table.
The public environment makes the offense of the original rejection even sharper: a wedding banquet involved costly preparation, and the later summons announced that what had been prepared was now ready.
Refusing at that point was a public insult to the host (especially because they had allegedly previously affirmed their confirmation to come to the wedding at the first invitation, more on this point later). Yet even after rejection, the King’s response is not to leave the hall vacant. His saving purpose moves outward in mercy.
Scriptures on God’s generous heart
God has no need of our status
“For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.”
—Psalm 50:10–12, KJV
God never invites people because He lacks resources, reputation, or glory.
The whole world is already His.
“Neither is [He] worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.”
—Acts 17:25, KJV
This is especially useful when you make this presentation to friends and family: God is not like an insecure earthly host, building His social standing through the prestige of His guest list. He “needeth” nothing. Therefore His grace is free, pure, and unbought.
God chooses what the world overlooks
“For ye see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;
and God hath chosen the weak things of the world
to confound the things which are mighty.”
—1 Corinthians 1:26–27, KJV“But ... God hath chosen the poor of this world [to be] rich in faith,
and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?”
—James 2:5
These verses do not glorify poverty as though it automatically saves anyone, nor do they condemn every wealthy person. Rather, they destroy the idea that worldly rank, education, power, beauty, celebrity, or wealth makes someone more welcome in God’s kingdom.
God’s kingdom reverses worldly rankings. The person whom society passes by may be rich in faith and precious before God.
“Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world [to be] rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? 6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? 7 Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?” —James 2:5-7 (KJV)
--How many rich men do you know that regularly blaspheme God's Names & Titles, multiplied times in one conversation?
“I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich)” —Revelation 2:9 (KJV)
God invites those who cannot pay
“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
—Isaiah 55:1, KJV
This is one of the finest Old Testament companions to Matthew 22. It is the language of a feast, but it is “without money and without price.” God supplies the provision; the needy are summoned to receive it.
“For when we were yet without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”
—Romans 5:6, KJV“But God commendeth his love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.”
—Romans 5:8, KJV
The guests do not arrive at the feast because they have earned a place.
They are called because the King is merciful.
God receives the needy
“The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion;
slow to anger, and of great mercy.
The LORD is good to all: and his tender
mercies are over all his works.”
—Psalm 145:8–9, KJV“A father of the fatherless,
and a judge of the widows,
is God in his holy habitation.
God setteth the solitary [the lonely] in families.”
—Psalm 68:5–6, KJV
“God setteth the solitary in families” fits the wedding-feast theme wonderfully. Those who may be socially isolated, neglected, or unwanted are not merely tolerated by God; He gives them belonging.
“Him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out.”
—John 6:37, KJV
The words “in no wise” are strong.
The one who truly comes to Christ is not refused because of background, failure, lack of status, or a past that looks too broken.
The final feast is for the redeemed
“And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.”
—Isaiah 25:6, KJV“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him:
for the marriage of the Lamb is come,
and his wife hath made herself ready.
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
And he saith unto me, Write,
Blessed are they which are called unto
the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
—Revelation 19:7–9, KJV
Matthew 22, points beyond an ordinary meal. The King’s feast anticipates the ultimate joy of the kingdom: the marriage supper of the Lamb. The guests are not ornaments for a prestigious event. They are redeemed people whom Christ has made ready and clothed in His righteousness.
What a Humble, Selfless, Gracious, Servant God we serve!
TPD
PS-- The Tables below are provided to assist those interested in doing their own personal study.
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