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I was seven years old when I first heard the story of the golden calf (Exodus 32 v 1-14). It was not until I was grown up, however, and read the account for myself in the Bible, that I came across the shocking words, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” (v 3, 8). The Israelites imputed to this powerless lump of metal the powerful acts of the Lord on their behalf. The writer of Psalm 106 v 20-21, in writing of this event, expresses his dismay in the strongest possible terms - “They exchanged their Glory for an image of a bull, which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt.”
What could cause a people who had witnessed the power and might of a loving God, to betray him so completely? High on the list of possible reasons would be ingratitude, lack of appreciation and self-reliance. This is what is addressed in Jesus’ parable of the Wedding Banquet, in Matthew 22.
A king prepared a wedding feast for his son. When all was ready he sent his servants to bid the guests who had already been invited. They refused to come (v 3). He sent more servants, but the guests made excuses – they had fields and business to attend to (v 5) – and they abused and killed the servants (v 6). And so the king sent out yet more servants to invite anyone they could find (v 9). However, the king noticed one guest at the feast who was not wearing wedding clothes (v 11). When challenged, the man had no answer to give (v 12), and he was thrown “into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (v 13). Jesus ends his parable with the words, “For many are invited but few are chosen.” (v 14)
There is a great deal of hyperbole in this story; the original guests behave extremely ungraciously in refusing to come to the feast, they then over-react by killng those who come again to bid them attend; the king further over-reacts both to the original guests – he burns their city (v 7) – and to a guest for not wearing wedding clothes. Jesus is clearly driving home his meaning so that it will not be mistaken or forgotten.
It is a story of two-fold spurning of the king’s graciousness. The first guests disregard his invitation and one of the subsequent guests shows contempt for the customary wedding garments provided for him. We can see the parallels Jesus is drawing. The king is Almighty God, the son for whom the feast is held is Jesus, the first invitees are the Jews, the servants are the prophets, the second invitees are those on the fringe of Jewish society – and eventually, of course, the gentiles. The religious Jews did indeed refuse God’s gracious invitation when he sent Jesus to live among them; they rejected him, as they had rejected many of the prophets before him, and the invitation was subsequently extended to all who could be found.
That is not the end, though. There is a further warning which is particularly relevant to us. One man refused to wear wedding clothes. He wanted things on his terms. Perhaps he thought his own clothes were good enough. In doing so he not only showed contempt for his host, he revealed his own complacent attitude. That sounds horribly like us. There are times when each of us feels we know better than God, or that our efforts are winning salvation for us. And how often do we come across people who simply do not realise that to be Christians they have to repent – in effect, taking off their own ragged garments and putting on the wedding clothes that the Lord offers them? That brings us back to those foolish Israelites in the wilderness, making their own god out of earrings, believing they could survive quite well with a god they had made rather than with the God who had made them. They were in truth exchanging their Glory for a mere image.
God does not want to limit the number of those who will enter his feast in heaven, but Jesus’ words, “many are invited but few are chosen” should not be passed over lightly. He must surely mean that though indeed all are invited, only comparatively few show themselves, by their response, that they are chosen.
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