Answering God’s Call

It’s impossible to avoid the images and news that come with war. Our hearts break watching people’s suffering paired with mindless and chaotic violence. Our response to the world’s suffering defines specific parts of our personality. The reactions reflect our hearts and whether we reflect the name written on our hearts or if we mimic the reactionary violence of the world. Jesus came into a world full of violence, responded with compassion and mercy, and called out to us to have the same reaction. Will we answer that call and mimic Jesus?

We can examine our response to Jesus’ call by viewing the Parable of the Wedding Feast. The invitations went out to guests, but there were varied responses, some even violent reactions to the summons. The religious elite rejected the king’s call; their invitations were revoked and given to outsiders and outcasts. Read the parable in full below and examine our response to Jesus’s call to be agents of peace in the chaotic world.

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” ’ 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.” 

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 22:1–14.

Those chosen to come to the feast reject the messengers proclaiming about the time for celebration. This celebration ushers in the coming Kingdom of Heaven to us on Earth. Hope proclaimed, peace realized, and the Gospel embodied are all characteristics of the coming Kingdom. The king wants all of us chosen people who know of God’s Kingdom to participate and share the joy with the world. Jesus’ sacrifice invites us to join in the celebratory feast because, through Jesus, we can understand that amid darkness, a light has come to show us all how to love God better and love our neighbor. How do we respond?

Many people, when invited, ignore the joy-filled invitation to feast on hope, peace, joy, and grace. Instead, they continue in the environment in which they are most comfortable and keep themselves busy. When we don’t take time to stop and worship the Almighty God or claim that we are too busy to share the Gospel, we reject the invitation passively. There was a group that responded to the invitation by murdering the messengers. This type of defiant rejection of God’s calling is when we hear the calling of God, and we spread abuse, hatred, anger, and share a message antithetical to the Gospel. We become agents of darkness instead of sharing the light. This reaction is equivalent to the ugly spectacle of division and war. God wants nothing to do with those who respond in such a manner. The hardest part about this group is that they are often blind to their exclusion and would hear Jesus’ message in the parable and think He was talking about someone else. However, we need to heed the warning in this parable and consider our response.

God’s Kingdom is coming with or without us. In the parable, the king keeps inviting until the party fills up. The people that have been cast aside, outsiders, are among those now in the party. God’s working to fill the Kingdom with peacemakers and share the Gospel message proclaiming release to those entrapped by injustice. We need to be the people who embrace the invitation and also extend the invitation to others. In taking this role, we not only embrace the role of the outcast but also become God’s messenger, offering the invitation. The king called the messengers to go and invite everyone they encountered, and thus, the invitation to the Gospel must go to everyone.

The warning in the last part of this passage is a reminder that just because we are invited doesn’t mean we should take it for granted. The warning of the guest who came without wedding clothes instructs us that we need to be prepared to celebrate and share God’s joy, peace, and love. The Kingdom of Heaven requires us to be total participants and not just passive consumers. God calls us to participate in the Kingdom actively; thus, we need to answer the call to share the invitation; otherwise, we are not fulfilling God’s call on our lives.