Have you ever noticed that God is a lot more involved in the lives of the early Israelites then he is today? Perhaps “involved” isn’t the right word, since I can assure you God is deeply involved in your life right now. I guess what I mean to say is, He’s more specific. When you read the chapters in Exodus in-between the Ten Commandments and the golden calf (Yeah, there’s stuff in between them. Who knew?) you read about God describing to Moses the new tabernacle He wants. And he describes it. Where should we put it? What materials should we use? How long should it be? How tall? What direction should it face? What colors do you want? What types of decorations do you require? Who should build it? What days do we have off? How should it smell inside? Even your contractor who you talk with face to face is less specific, but God answered all of these questions in great detail. Man did Moses have it easy. To top it off, all these instructions came after the voice of God gave laws to the Hebrews. There can be little doubt that they knew exactly what God wanted from them.
Contrast that with this week’s New Testament reading. In Matthew 22 Jesus tells the parable of the wedding feast. WHAT? This parable raises more questions for me than it answers. Is Jesus the son who the wedding is for? So God sent out invitations? Who are those first recipients? The early Jews? Literally kings? And who’s the guy that gets thrown out at the end supposed to be? Is God going to be throwing people out of Heaven? What’s the deal? From this story the crowd was supposed to gleam some deep spiritual lesson about how God wants them to live their lives. Why wasn’t Jesus as specific with details as His Father was in Exodus? More importantly, where are these specifics now? How is plucking out my eyes going to help me decide which post-grad school to go to? What job offer to take? Where to relocate our church? Wouldn’t it be useful if God just spoke up and said, “Call 555-4897, ask for Jim, tell him you need a building. Say it’s a favor for me. The one he gives you is where I want you to be. You’ll have to repaint the walls when you get there. I like purple. Make Paul do it, he knows why.” Couldn’t He do that? What does everyone think? Anyone else a little perplexed?By Aaron Blackwell
4 comments:
Oh, it's completely rediculous. You'll get a message like "Help them," and that's it. Umm Who? Or a message like, "This is not the place for you." Well, that's great and fantastic, but where IS the place for me? Care to explain almighty knowing one?
I think he just likes to watch us go. It's like Lemmings. You dig here, you climb here, haha that one blew up!
Could it possibly be a free will thing? Like...He knows that if we have that kind of direct intervention in our lives we'll do whatever we're told. Or perhaps it is because Jesus' message was one of faith. Perhaps God has changed His standards since Jesus' coming?
OK, before I write on what you said, I will put in writing what I have told you numerous times in person - you really should consider a career in writing, or at least do me the honor of writing a short story so i can enjoy more of your words in black! I also think we should consider a professional blog sight for your thoughts - more for us to chat on tonight!
Ok my brief thought on your insightful words - in the Old Testament God was doing everything to point to Christ. One of the most crucial points he was trying to get across is what awful failurers we are when trying to uphold his desires, his rules, the life he wants us to live. So while he gave us all kinds of direction, we still contstantly screwed up. Man those guys must have really been needing a savior! So boom bodda bing, on the scene steps Jesus with a whole new idea of giving us direction. He puts his direction into our hearts, not our minds. In the old testament I see a ton of focus on the mind, basically trying to mentally wrap our selves around God. Today, if we only focus on winning over minds with intellectually sound arguements and discussions, we will be no better off than God was in the old testament. We'll basically drive ourselves crazy with a bunch of people who just don't get it. However when we focus on the heart, and bypass the mind like Jesus did, we see results. His narratives, metaphors, and parables did exactly this, they bypassed the mind and spoke to the heart. When we share Christ today, we need to do the same, stop trying to build sound arguments and intellectualize folks into knowing Christ and start thinking more about the heart!
I have to say this parable is perhaps the first and only I have ever been able to understand mostly on my own. I thiiink see all the correlations. The first invitees, perhaps the early people, God's people. The second invitees, God's invitation to all (good and bad - all offered salvation). The man w/out wedding clothes, those who hear the invitation and either ignore it or pretend to be a guest (pretend to have the faith). At this point, my brain wants to try to overload and make this into some complex thing. Parables do that to me... but then I want to take it in a different light. Why do people wear wedding clothes anyway? I mean, you couldn't really show up to your best friend's wedding in jeans and a tank, could you? You show honor and acceptance of the occasion by taking the part. It makes me think that's all I'm being asked... wear the clothes. Accept the invitation with an open heart, the rest will follow.
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