AUGUST 31 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#27 “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?” (Matthew 22:12)

 AUGUST 31  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#27  “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?”  (Matthew 22:12)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord I give You all Praise, Glory, and Honor for the Great Sacrifice that You Planned and Executed on my behalf, Lord Jesus I know that I am undeserving and that makes Your Sacrifice even greater still. Lord, add to the simple truth that we are underserving and that You were perfectly innocent and did not need us in any way, it is incomprehensible that You would become flesh and endure the temptations of the world to be our Savior?!? Jesus, help me Lord to be more like You in everything I do that my old selfish desires will be crucified with You and that I will be a new glorified creature in Your Resurrection.  {{In 2004 I wrote the following prayer which I think is very appropriate and relative to today: “Jesus, Jesus, Immanuel, God IS with us! You Lord are here and now, You hear me EVERY TIME I call Your Name from my heart, Your Holy Spirit indwells us and leads us through our daily lives. Take me and make me to conform to Thy Will. Lord, let my lips and my mind praise You continually for in our praise we are drawn nearer to You and the closer we can get to You, the closer we are to one day leaving this sin-filled world and our sin-filled ways. You are the Way, the Truth and the Life — You are the Messiah, the Son of God Most High. Glory and Honor to Jesus the Christ, our Savior, our Lord and our friend.” }}   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is building His Lesson in this 3rd Parable on God’s Authority around a traditional “marriage” where the “father” arranges the “marriage for his son” and this Lesson is understood by all Israel. Jesus is able to hit at the core of the “traditions of men” by Teaching this “authority” issue because there is no questioning the “authority” of the “father”!!!. The accepted “tradition” in Israel of the father arranging marriages has literally been upheld by every Israelite for thousands of years. Jesus in using His 15 Phrases in His 3rd Parable to introduce the problem using the nations own “traditions” and once the problem is introduced, Jesus really drives the point home when He follows {Phrase 5} : “…[the certain king] sent out servants to call those who were invited to the wedding…” with {Phrase 6} “…the invited were not willing to come…”!!! Being invited to a marriage was understood on a very personal level by everyone listening to Jesus. It could also be for certain that everyone listening had been involved in a marriage, and many of the rulers had been in the position of arranging marriages for their own sons, and probably most everyone had at one time or another in their lifetime “excused” themselves from a wedding they had been invited to for some reason or another, so Jesus has again used a “Universal Experience” to Teach this most valuable of Lessons on “authority” in a way that could be understood by the entire nation of Israel using the “traditions of men” that all Israel had been living with for generations upon generations. Jesus places words in just the right order to Teach great Lessons with a single, perfectly placed word or phrase and {Phrase 7} “…again…” is one of those “Perfect” words for it Teaches the Truth of God that He is MERCIFUL, PATIENT, and GOES THE EXTRA MILE and will AGAIN and AGAIN do everything that He can to draw us to Himself!!! The word “…AGAIN…” placed at this point also points to the Message that John the Baptist and Jesus has been preaching and that is REPENT. By extending the invitation  “AGAIN”, God is saying that He is giving everyone a chance to “relent (repent)” from our unwillingness to accept His invitation as Jesus Taught in Parable 1 that “the son that had done the father’s will” was the one that “regretted [telling the father ‘no’] and went and worked [as the father had commanded]” (Matthew 21:29) Jesus is using all these 3 parables in a specific order and now He is using the 3rd Parable in a specific word/phrase order to Teach the Truth of God in a way that everyone can understand! {Phrase 8} “…sent out other servants…” and {Phrase 9} “…tell the invited…” makes me think of another description that Isaiah writes of God “…the LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth…His understanding is unsearchable…” (Isaiah 40:28) and if we think of all that God has done from Creation to the Crucifixion to “invite” everyone to the kingdom of God, we cannot deny that God has done more that any of us would have done to provide a Path of Repentance to Eternal Life — we are not able in the first place to “Provide” eternal life for ourself so how do we even consider we could be gracious enough to provide for those who reject our every invitation to “come”, we haven’t even “Prepared” a place for our guests — God continually proves Himself Faithful and Just, ——— why or why do we reject His Mercy and Grace?!?!?!?!