Partying Right

A few years back a lot of songs had the line - "Do you like to party??!!". Ofcourse, this is not a very bright question, everyone likes to party! Everyone wants to be in a celebration and be in a place which has happy people, great food, music and dancing. What if I told you God likes to party and in fact God's kingdom is a non-stop celebration. How do I know this? Because it is mentioned in the Bible - God’s kingdom, is like a king who threw a wedding banquet for his son.

Imagine the most powerful king of the universe throwing a party, now that would be something! Everything would be top class, in-fact it is hard to imagine how good this party would be. Let's continue and read the parable in full -

1-3 Jesus responded by telling still more stories.
“God’s kingdom,” he said, “is like a king who threw a wedding banquet for his son.
He sent out servants to call in all the invited guests. And they wouldn’t come!
4 “He sent out another round of servants, instructing them to tell the guests,
‘Look, everything is on the table, the prime rib is ready for carving. Come to the feast!’
5–7 “They only shrugged their shoulders and went off, one to weed his garden,
another to work in his shop.
The rest, with nothing better to do, beat up on the messengers and then killed them.
The king was outraged and sent his soldiers to destroy those thugs and level their city.
8–10 “Then he told his servants, ‘We have a wedding banquet all prepared but no guests.
The ones I invited weren’t up to it.
Go out into the busiest intersections in town and invite anyone you find to the banquet.’
The servants went out on the streets and rounded up everyone they laid eyes on,
good and bad, regardless. And so the banquet was on—every place filled.
11–13 “When the king entered and looked over the scene,
he spotted a man who wasn’t properly dressed.
He said to him, ‘Friend, how dare you come in here looking like that!’
The man was speechless. Then the king told his servants,
‘Get him out of here—fast. Tie him up and ship him to hell. And make sure he doesn’t get back in.’
14 “That’s what I mean when I say, ‘Many get invited; only a few make it.’ ”

On the one hand to me this always seemed like a happy parable, it involved a party and free invitations. What I failed to understand why would people not join the feast? Then I realized that it is the same with me, sometimes I am so busy in my day to day life and so worried or preoccupied that I forget about the party that is readily laid out for me. I lose my joy over trivial things. I forget to remember God who has already prepared a feast for me and instead of worrying I should just learn to enjoy in His love and presence.

The last part of the parable is also perplexing, what does it mean by "a man who wasn't properly dressed". Surely God does not mean that we have to be dressed in designer wear at all times, if this is the case I really need to do some shopping. What does God mean when He says - "Friend, how dare you come in here looking like that!"? It took me a while to realize (in my limited knowledge) that God wants us to change ourselves, we should not be the same when we come to this party. We need to take off our old, dirty clothes or attitudes that are like soiled rags and wear the clothes that Jesus gave us. To enjoy the party, we need to believe in Jesus, wrap ourselves in His love and righteousness and once we have worn these new clothes we should at all costs avoid soiling them again with things like hatred, anger, greed, pride and selfishness.

To summarize, it's easy to join God's party since it is a free invitation. We just need to accept the invite, get a change of heart and get ready to party non-stop!