For the past several months we have been thinking quite a bit about weddings since we learned that two of our sons plan to get married two weeks apart, and the places of their weddings will be over a thousand miles apart. It has been a time of joy for our family, but a very busy time as well—making all of the preparations and arrangements.

Over the course of those months we have often spoken of "the wedding" and soon realized that we must explain which wedding we were talking about! Our sons rejoice in each other's wedding, but there really is only one main wedding before each of the couples—their own. This made me wonder what wedding is the most special and most important of all weddings, and I have no doubt that it must be "the wedding" that God has before Him in the soon coming day in the glory—the wedding of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. No wedding could be more lavish, more beautiful, more orderly, more enjoyable than the wedding that God the Father has for the One who from eternity past was "daily His delight" (Proverbs 8:30).

Jesus uses a parable to tell of His own wedding in Matthew 22:1-14, beginning with the words, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son." God the Father is represented by the certain "king" who made the arrangements for the marriage, but notice that the responses to the king's invitation to His Son's wedding are absolutely astonishing!

The king sent His servants to call those who were invited to the wedding, and (1) "they would not come." He then sent out other servants, saying, "Tell them … Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage," but (2) "they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise." And the rest took his servants (3) "entreated them spitefully and slew them." It is no wonder that the king was very angry and sent his armies, killed those murderers, and destroyed their city. This is a picture of what God did down through the centuries, inviting His earthly people, the Jews, to the marriage of His Son. But they would not come, made light of it, and murdered His servants, so in A.D. 70 God had the Roman army come, kill the Jews, and destroy Jerusalem.

However, God, as the king in the story, still wanted to have his house full for the marriage of His Son! So the king sent out more servants saying, "The wedding is ready, but (4) they which were bidden were not worthy," because they did not count the king or his son worthy. So the king told his servants to "Go… into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage." And the servants invited (5) "both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests."

Like that king, God invites not only the Jewish people to come to the marriage of His beloved Son, but "whosoever will" may come (Revelation 22:17). God invites everyone to the wedding of His Son because He loves everyone: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Also, God puts no difference between the "bad and good" for His salvation is not by our merits or our works but only by His matchless grace. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation [satisfying sacrifice] for our sins" (1 John 4:10).

Dear reader friend, are you like the first group God has invited but so far you just "would not come," or the second group that "made light of" the invitation? You may not be like the third group who treated God's servants "spitefully and slew them," but are you like the fourth group who did not consider God and His Son Jesus Christ worthy of your presence at His time of rejoicing, so God counts you as "not worthy"? Or have you seen that God loves you and wants you just as you are, whether "bad or good" in man's eye, as long as you trust in His Son?

Consider what will happen to you if you do not trust Christ and the work He did for you on the cross of Calvary when He bore the punishment for your sins. This is illustrated in our story when the king saw a man at the wedding who "had not" a wedding garment. Evidently this man was offered a wedding garment but did not wear it. God provides a wedding garment for all who attend Christ's wedding. It is called "the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10), and represents God's righteousness which He credits to sinners the moment we trust in Christ as our Saviour. God made Christ "to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Have you received Christ as your Saviour from your sins and thus have the robe of God's righteousness that you need to stand in His presence at His Son's wedding in the soon coming day?

How serious it is to refuse to receive Christ and refuse God's righteousness: because the king said to his servants, "Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 22:13). Anyone who trusts in his own righteousness refuses God's righteousness in Christ and will be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity.

Dear reader friend, Jesus assures us that "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). I sincerely trust I will see you at "The Wedding" that is far more important than any other wedding—"The Wedding" of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Is He your Saviour and Lord? If not, come to Him, repent that you are a sinner, and trust in His work on the cross for you.

—Dave Johnson