Today’s Devotion
Topic: The Wedding Banquet (Self Assessment)
Background: Many of us love social gatherings, especially those joyful ones that celebrate achievements and promises hope for better things to come. These include birthday parties, graduations, wedding and naming ceremonies. We do not only show up at such events to support the celebrants, we also do so to partake of the joy and probably learn from them what to do when it’s our turn to be celebrated.
Jesus talks one day about a wedding banquet that suffered a different fate. All the invited guests kept giving excuses. Why should this be happening to the groom? What did He do so wrong that none wants to share this joyous moment with Him? Let us delve deep into the passage below and see the answers the Holy Spirit will give us.
Text: Matthew 22: 1- 13
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ 5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 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.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. 13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him, hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ Amen
Questions
i. What do you think the wedding banquet signifies in the parable above? Who is the King organising this banquet for His Son and who will his servants represent?
ii. Who and who will comprise the invited guests who refused to come?
iii. Read verses 4- 6 again, instead of realising how great and wonderful the King’s banquet was going to be; what rather did the invited guests do to prove their disregard of the King and His banquet?
iv. In what ways do we show disregard towards the wonderful banquets that the Lord sets before us?
v. Read verses 8- 10 again. No one has ever invited just anyone to their banquet except this King. How will you describe such a man, and why is He so eager to get people to His Son’s wedding?
vi. According to vrs 10 & 11, the servants went to the streets and brought in anyone who was willing, both good and bad. But when the King came in to see the guests, one was without wedding clothes so He threw him out. How will you explain this and apply to our contemporary Christian life?
vii. What have you learnt from today’s Bible study?
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