Daily bible reading 10/15/2023

  October 15, 2023

    Holy, holy sunday everyone!!! Today's reading jumped from the book of Luke to the book of Matthew, chapter 22, verse 1-14:

    "Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people in parables, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast."' Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.' The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests, he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. The king said to him, 'My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?' But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.' Many are invited, but few are chosen."

    Compared to yesterday's reading this reading is relatively big, but let's break it down. We're comparing the kingdom of heaven to the wedding banquet, so the key is to identify the characters of this wedding with the world that we live in. The king of this banquet is God himself, and the banquet is his salvation, we're celebrating the marriage of Jesus with the church. The king invites his guests but none of them want to show up, they're too busy to make time for the king and his wedding. These guests were chosen by the king and they didn't appreciate his invitation. If we read the old testament of the bible we quickly realize that these invites belonged to the Israelites. Israel was chosen by God and were the only ones allowed into God's salvation. Instead of being grateful they ignored him and completely disobeyed him, so instead God opened the doors for anyone and everyone.

    "Those who were invited were not worthy to come," The king opened the doors to us, the outsiders, the people on the main roads. It didn't matter if we were good or bad, male or female, we were all invited to this banquet. Some people declined the acceptance, many gladly accepted this invitation and came to this banquet. 

    When the king came to meet everyone he noticed one man who did not have his wedding robe on, he was approached but was speechless when asked how he got inside without his robe. Instead of telling him to leave the party, or saying that it was alright for him to stay at the party, the king instead ordered that he be tied up and cast into the darkness outside. Pretty cruel no? Let's think about what this robe represents. This is the kings party that we are talking about, and while yes, they are all people from the streets, we see that they did their best to clean up and dress to code for this party, but this man went to the wedding without making an effort to clean up, without asking a friend for a spare robe, he just went. If we go to heaven without cleaning our soul and making an effort to be presentable to God, do you really think he'll let you in with open arms. Heaven is a place without sin, a perfect kingdom of purity and happiness. There is no way sin will ever enter the palace of the Lord like that. So when it comes to us presenting ourselves with an impure soul, without the proper attire for this banquet, why should we expect to be let in at all. We can't, we simply can't get in without the proper measurements being taken. 

    This leads me to my last point, why did the king treat the man with such harshity? We are talking about the afterlife. When you die you have 3 places you could potentially go. 1. You could be accepted into heaven, (if you die without a single sin to your soul, both venial and mortal.), walk into the pearly gates and attend this wonderful banquet for the rest of eternity. 2. you could go into purgatory and be cleansed of your sins for an immeasurable amount of time. Only if you die with venial sins and no mortal sins. (We'll get deeper into it some other day.) Or 3. You'll be sent down to hell. A place where you'll be in constant pain and torture for all eternity. If we take a look at the reading we can see that the man who didn't have his robe was sent down to hell. He was bound and thrown into the darkness outside to be wailing and grinding his teeth. Now, what seemed like a harsh and unnecessary act of violence from the king makes sense. When we die, if we aren't prepared for the kingdom of God then we'll only be able to go to hell. We'll be sent down to suffer for all eternity with no way of escape. We will be binded by the devil and be left to wail and grind our teeth. 

    Everyone is invited to the banquet. Everyone is called to make their way into heaven. Here's the thing guys, if we don't wash up, if we don't take that robe and put it on before the banquet starts, then we will also be bound and thrown away. God is loving, and merciful, and forgiving. He called upon all of us to attend this banquet that was once reserved for his people, but now is open to the public. God is also just, and won't allow a single imperfection to attend this royal banquet. Not a single smudge of sin will be present in heaven. We must not present ourselves unprepared for this banquet. Live every day as if the banquet is about to start, and if your robe gets dirty take it to get cleaned via confession. The moment we are in front of the king, we will be judge, and were either getting in or being sent to eternal torture. It could be in 80 years, 20, 5, or even tomorrow. My question is, are you ready for this banquet, or do you need to take your robe and get it cleaned? I hope this was a good wake up call, stay safe out there everyone.