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Author: Stephen Weller
892 words, 5 minutes read time

The Second Invitation

Scripture: Matthew 22:7-10

In the previous lesson we learned about those who were invited by the king to his Son’s wedding feast but refused to come. In this lesson we will learn how the king responds to those who refused.

^{Mt 22:7} The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. ⁸ Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. ⁹ Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ ¹⁰ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So, the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Not only did those invited refuse to come, but some of them beat the king’s servants and others they killed. As expected, the king was angry with those he invited, and he retaliated by sending his troops to destroy those murderers and burn the cities in which they live. How those invited acted was seen as an act of treason and a revolt against the king and as a result they deserved severs punishment. This destruction the king’s troops produced may be an allusion to the forthcoming destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

Now that the king has dealt with those previously invited, he gives new instructions to his servants to go out to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as can be found. This most likely anticipates the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles. The instruction to the servants to go and invite is addressed to us in Matthew 28:18 – 20 ESV: ¹⁸ “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”’

Luke refers to this in Acts 1:8 ESV: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” In Romans 1:16 (ESV), Paul speaks of the Jew first (those first invited) and also the Greek (those gathered from the roads): “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

The servants did more than invite those they found on the roads, they gathered up all they found, both bad and good, and brought them to the wedding hall and filled it. I see a difference in the two invitations. The first was just an invitation and according to Romans 3:10 – 11 you would not expect anyone to accept the invitation and come because “no one understands; no one seeks for God.” In the second invitation, all that were found were gathered up and brought to the wedding feast. There is no indication that anyone refused the second invitation.

Because of our sinful nature and prideful desire to serve self, we will not humble ourselves before God unless God first does something to cause us to come. Ephesians 2:1 – 10 is one of the most important texts in the Bible about who we are and what God does. In verses 1 – 3, Paul describes what unbelievers are like: we were spiritually dead because of our trespasses and sins, we walked according to the world, we followed the devil who was at work in our lives, we lived in the passions of our flesh, and we carried out the desired of our body and mind. As a final punch, we are described to be by nature children of wrath. Dead people described like this don’t all of a sudden decide to come alive on their own and seek God. God has to do something in them to change the direction of their live.

The first two words of verse 4 are probably the two most important words in the Bible: “But God.” God looks at man and sees that they all deserve justice and remain spiritually dead, but he doesn’t. ⁴ “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” God made us alive; we were gathered up and through Jesus Christ we were clothed with his righteousness, but that is for the next lesson.

Conclusion

In this parable it is becoming clear that a simple invitation is not sufficient to wakeup spiritually dead people. God has to do something in the dead person for that person to want to come to God and accept the gift of salvation. We will look into this further in the next lesson.