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THE MARRIAGE FEAST
INSTRUCTION and reproof generally irritate those who will not be reformed; but ministers must “speak plainly, whether men will hear or forbear.” They must present the same truths in various shapes, if by any means they may win the souls of their hearers; nor should they be intimidated even by the most imminent dangers. Jesus had spoken a parable that greatly offended the Pharisees: they even sought to take away his life on account of it: but he still persisted in his benevolent labours for their good, and repeated the same offensive truths in the parable before us. In the parable he compares the kingdom of heaven, or the Gospel dispensation, to a king who made a marriage for his son, and sent his servants to invite guests to the marriage-feast. This king was Jehovah: the wedding was between the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s only-begotten Son, and his spouse the Church: and the feast instituted in honour of it, contained all the blessings of grace and glory. The Prophets and Apostles were sent forth in Jehovah’s name to invite all the Jews to a participation of this feast: but their message was despised and their persons injured; so that God would now cease any more to call the Jews, and would send forth his invitations to the Gentiles, whom he would receive with all imaginable kindness, whilst he left the Jews to eat the bitter fruit of their folly.
Now, as we are the favoured people to whom these invitations are sent, I will more distinctly open to you the parable in its different parts, and then execute the commission which is here assigned me.
The union of Christ with his Church is often spoken of in the Scriptures under the figure of a marriage—
[By nature we are in the most deplorable condition. But he of his own sovereign grace sets his heart upon us, and prepares us for himself, and unites us to himself in the closest bonds [Note: Eze_16:4-12.]. The espousals take place now in this world [Note: Jer_2:2. 2Co_11:2.]; the consummation will be in the world to come [Note: Rom. 19:7.].]
In honour of this marriage God institutes a feast—
[But who shall declare how rich this feast is? Truly it is a feast worthy of God, the God of heaven, to provide, and worthy of his most favoured creatures to partake of in the heavenly world. Already, whatever can conduce to the enlightening of the mind, the rectifying of the will, the purifying of the affections, the strengthening, establishing, and comforting of the soul, is dispensed to us as a foretaste of that divine banquet. The love of the Father, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, are imparted to us in the richest abundance. Wine and strong meat are ministered to adults, and milk to the new-born babes, insomuch that there is not a person in the universe who may not find that very food which he most affects, and which his necessities more particularly require.]
And now are his servants sent forth to invite us all—
[As Prophets and Apostles were sent forth in former ages so are ministers appointed now to this very service, to call to the wedding all who have a wish to come; saying, “Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely.” This, brethren, has been my happy office, which I have most gladly performed from the first instant that I came amongst you. I have not set forth the Gospel as a work to be performed, or a labour to be sustained, but as a feast to be enjoyed, “a feast of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined [Note: Isa_25:6.],” “to satiate every weary soul, and to replenish, and exhilarate every sorrowful soul [Note: Jer_31:25.].” In calling you to be guests, we require of you no pre-requisites of goodness and worthiness for the meriting of this distinction: it is offered even to the very chief of sinners, provided they be willing to accept of mercy and all the other blessings of salvation as the free gift of God in Christ Jesus. All is offered to you freely “without money and without price.”]
But what reception has our message met with in the midst of you?
[Some, I am happy to say, have accepted the invitation, and are already partaking of the feast — — — But the generality amongst you have acted, as those in former days, who “made light of” the proffered mercy, and “went to their farm and merchandize” as an employment better suited to their taste. Some, like the Jews in former ages, have evil-entreated the servants of the Lord [Note: ver. 6.]. Others, who have treated the messengers with more respect, have yet shewn the same indifference to the message, satisfying themselves with vain excuses, which nevertheless they must know can never satisfy their God [Note: Luk_14:18-20.] — — — Almost all desire to put off the day of their intercourse with the heavenly Bridegroom, as though it were rather an evil to be dreaded, than a feast to be enjoyed. If the listening to our invitation would suffice, they would be contented to go thus far on the Sabbath-day: but if they must come to Christ and sit down with him at the wedding-feast, they desire to postpone it to some more convenient season, when the cares and pleasures of life shall have lost all their attraction.]
And what must be the issue of such conduct?
[Those who have reviled and persecuted the servants of the Most High, will meet with a suitable recompence at his hands [Note: ver. 7.]. And those who have “made light of” their labour, will never be admitted “so much as to taste of this supper [Note: Luk_14:24.].” It is a fact that they who come not now to this feast, know nothing of God’s pardoning love, nothing of the comforts of the Holy Ghost. They are utter strangers to all spiritual joy. They think all experience of heavenly communications, all manifestations of God’s love, and all foretastes of his glory, to be no better than the dreams of a heated imagination. What hope then can they have that they shall possess all the fulness of these blessings in the eternal world? In their present condition they have no capacity for the enjoyment of the heavenly feast, even if they were admitted to it. But they never can be admitted, nor to all eternity shall they ever “so much as taste” what the favoured guests shall feed upon in the presence of their God.]
But let me once more endeavour to execute my commission—
[Once more in the name of Almighty God I invite you, brethren, to come to the wedding-feast. And O, think who it is that invites you. It is God, and not man: the voice, though the voice of a feeble worm like yourselves, is as truly God’s, as if it came in thunder, or in audible sounds from heaven. And will you turn a deaf ear to him? to him who needs not you, and who invites you only that he may make you a partaker of his own blessedness and glory? Think also to what a feast you are called. In comparison of that, all that this world can give is but as the husks that the swine eat of — — — Think yet further, how vain all your excuses are. What have you to do that can be put in competition with the seeking and securing the salvation of the soul? — — — Think too how bitter your regrets will soon be. Soon you will behold the company that is set down at the marriage supper: but you will behold them at an unapproachable distance: and these reflections will then irresistibly force themselves upon your mind: ‘There I also might have been a happy guest, if only I would have accepted the invitations given me, and obeyed the call of Almighty God: but here am I, banished from the Saviour’s presence, and without a drop of water to cool my tongue. O! wretch that I am! I in vain look to rocks and mountains to fall upon me: they cannot perform for me that friendly office; they cannot hide me from the wrath of my offended God.’ Lastly, Think how painful must be both your state and mine in the day when I shall give up my account of my present labours. To save your souls alive is now the one object for which I minister, and for which I live. And in that day I must give an account of my ministry. But O! what an account will it be? ‘Did you deliver my message to them? Did you invite them to the wedding-feast? Did you press and urge them as it became you? Did you warn them of the consequences of declining my invitation?’ What answers must I give? I can say nothing which will not evince your guilt, and aggravate your condemnation. The Lord grant that such may never be the issue of my labours; but that I may have you all as “my joy and crown of rejoicing in that day!”]