“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So, go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’  So, the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

Matthew 22:8 – 10

The Jews loved to celebrate marriage.  I note the importance of the father of the bride in Jesus’ story.  Jesus did not even mention who is getting married, nor what their hopes and dreams are.  We read nothing of them, just the frustration of the father who has invested heavily in the marriage feast and all that goes with that. Custom demanded that the father of the bride spend huge amounts on the wedding events.  A successful wedding had nothing to do with the happiness of the couple, but the joy of the father.

So, the central figure of the marriage feast is the father!  I find that very interesting.  My wife’s father was involved in our wedding on December 24, 1949, but did not figure prominently as I recall.  Things were more or less in our hands – the couple to be married.

So, the father came to a decision.  Those invited did not deserve an invitation, but they got one.  He was a generous father, that is clear in the story.  Our sympathies go out to him, not to the people who spurned his kind and generous invitation.

We reenter the story. The meal is ready, hot.  Those for whom the feast was prepared turned their backs on the king himself.  So, the king, the father, who had invested so heavily in preparing the feast, sent out an invitation to everyone!  The first invitation was to the King’s circle.  The second one was for all who were hungry or who wanted to feast in the glad ceremony of the marriage of the son.  “So, go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’  So, the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.” Some, I notice, were good, some were bad, but all enjoyed the feast.  I responded to that invitation!

This, in a nutshell, is exactly what is happening in Jerusalem that day, and is the dominant story in the history of salvation, evermore.