Sitting in Faith

You didn’t sneak into the Kingdom of Heaven. If you had, it would maybe be appropriate to be constantly on edge, wondering if you would be caught and pitched out as unworthy or unwelcome. In the parable about the wedding invitation, Jesus even described people who were compelled to come in being thrown back out because they didn’t have the right clothes on.
It takes faith to come into a place that seems to be for richer, or better dressed, or more educated, or having better connections than you have, and stay without feeling qualified. Staying without feeling like you belong, even though you were invited, is challenging – someone is looking for an excuse to throw you out.

When Jesus shared the parable about the wedding invitation (Matthew 22:1-14), He said that the first crowd who were invited were destroyed and their city burned as judgement for not valuing the invitation of the king. The second crowd were people who were out in public when the king’s messengers happened by them and invited them. He said that they gathered everyone they could find, both bad and good.

In the New Testament, when writings or quotes speak of bad people, there is a word for bad behavior and influence, and a couple of other words for a bad or corrupt nature. The bad people who were brought into the feast were described with the behavioral badness. The implication is that they didn’t have evil intentions, they simply had poor behavior.

One of the people who had come didn’t dress properly for being at a wedding feast. Unlike the people in the first crowd, who were murderers, he was tied up and thrown out of the party into the dark. It is a parable about the Kingdom, not about the body of Christ. The judgement received in terms of obedience and actions is not sentenced in life and death terms, but in advancement and reward terms. The identity judgement is simple: person’s name is in the book of life, or person is thrown in the lake of fire.

Even if you don’t feel qualified to be at what constitutes the wedding feast in your life, be encouraged that simply continuing to try obeying and pleasing the King is walking in righteousness. Love Him and obey all that you can sense He is instructing you about. Sit in your seat at the table with confidence that He called you and that your intention of serving Him in love is what qualifies you as one of those chosen to stay and celebrate!

But the seed in the good ground—these are the ones who, having heard the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it and by enduring, bear fruit.
(Luke 8:15 Holman Christian Standard Bible ®©)