Back in Time

Close your eyes and smell warm bread and roasted meat. Do you hear music? Somewhere a king is throwing the biggest party his kingdom has ever seen. This is a wedding feast for his son. Long tables are loaded with food. The best food, the kind you only eat on the happiest day of your life. Servants are running everywhere, straightening chairs, lighting lamps, waiting for the guests to arrive. There is just one problem. The people who were invited will not come.

Jesus is telling this story to a crowd. He tells stories like this often, stories with kings and servants and surprising twists, so people can understand something true about God's Kingdom.

The Story

The king had sent his servants out, not once but twice, to call the invited guests. "Come, the dinner is ready! The best cows are cooked! Everything is prepared!" But the guests just walked away. One went back to his farm. Another went to his shop. And some of them grabbed the king's servants, treated them terribly, and even killed them.

The king was furious. He sent his soldiers and dealt with those violent men. But look, the feast is still ready. The tables are still full of food. What will the king do now?

He turns to his servants and says something surprising. "The wedding is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go out to the street corners, out where the roads cross, and invite anyone you find."

Can you picture it? Servants running out of the palace gates, down every road, calling out to whoever they see. Farmers coming in from the field. Merchants closing their shops. Beggars sitting by the road. Tired travelers. Children playing in the dust. All of them hear the invitation and all of them are welcome.

"Those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. The wedding was filled with guests."

Both bad and good. Did you catch that? Not just the people who behaved well. Not just the tidy, polite ones. Bad people and good people, all invited, all welcome to come sit at the king's table. The palace hall, which was empty and silent a little while ago, is suddenly full of noise and laughter and people who never expected to be there.

Would you have believed it, if you were one of those people on the road corner? A servant runs up to you and says, "Come, the king wants you at his son's wedding." You look down at your dusty clothes and dirty hands and think, surely this is a mistake. But it is not a mistake. You are invited.

The Deep Dive

Let's think about that word highways. These were not smooth paved roads like we have today. They were the busy places where roads crossed, where all kinds of people passed by. Rich and poor, honest and dishonest, all mixed together. When the king told his servants to go there, he was not asking them to search only for good, deserving people. He told them to bring in everyone they found. That is why the feast ends up full of both bad and good.

This is important. The king is not throwing a party only for people who already earned a place there. He is throwing it wide open. The invitation is not based on how good you have been. It is based on the king's decision to invite you.

The Mirror

Here is something honest about us. None of us are naturally on the guest list because we behaved perfectly. The people gathered from the street corners were bad and good, just like the people you know, just like you and me on our different days. Some days you share kindly, some days you fight with your brother. God still says: come to my feast.

And here is something wonderful about God. He is like this king. He does not wait around for people who deserve an invitation. He sends his call out into every street corner of the world, to everyone, so that his house will be full. He wants his table crowded with guests. He wants you there.

Talk About It

Why do you think the king invited both bad and good people to the feast?

Have you ever been invited somewhere and felt surprised that you were welcome?

If a servant ran up to you right now with an invitation from the king, what do you think you would say?

The Challenge

This week, invite someone who might feel left out to do something with you. Maybe it is a game at recess, or sitting together at lunch, or asking them over to play. Remember how the king wanted his feast to be full, and no one was too unimportant to be invited.

Praying Together

Dear God, thank you that you invite all kinds of people to be with you, even bad days and good days, even me. Thank you that your table has room. Help me to invite others the way you invite me. Amen.