Daily Lesson for December 8, 2017

Today’s Daily Lesson is the Parable of the Wedding Feast from Matthew 22:

Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying:2‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come.4Again he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” 5But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8Then he said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy.9Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” 10Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 ‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. 13Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”14For many are called, but few are chosen.’

Now here is a difficult story. It is one about sin and judgment and exile. When it rolls around in the Liturgical Calendar we conclude its public reading with these words: “This is the Gospel of grace.”  It could well be phrased as a question, “This is the Gospel of grace?”

It is. 

It is the white hot, searing truth of judgment and penalty that drives us to God’s grace. 

The grace is not cheap. It is costly.  It demands repentance. It demands change of heart and change of mind. It demands life change.

The man without the wedding robe was unwilling to change. He was unwilling to think or act differently. He was stuck in his ways. He still carried the same old prejudices inside hisself. He thought he could still behave with impunity and without consequence. He thought he could show up and act like boar at a wedding he either didn’t approve of or respect. He was wrong.

For these mistakes in judgment he now found himself in the outer darkness where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth —and also opportunity to think about a real change.