{"id":9943,"date":"2021-10-24T06:37:43","date_gmt":"2021-10-24T11:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-22\/"},"modified":"2021-10-02T13:16:25","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T18:16:25","slug":"devotional-on-matthew-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-matthew-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2014 – Arches National Park, Utah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The undressed guest <\/p>\n

Matthew 22: How dare you come in here looking like that!<\/p>\n

I pretty much get the story of the wedding feast. Those who are invited but make excuses are the \u201cinsiders\u201d to the Kingdom, in the case of the parable, it\u2019s the religious leaders and the Jewish people in general who are the intended guests. They turn away, each more interested in doing their own thing than coming to the banquet prepared by the Lord. Upon their refusal to come the invitation list is broadened to what might be thought of as a \u201csecond tier.\u201d Then, when even these don\u2019t come, the king opens the doors for all who will come. That\u2019s good news for the \u201coutsiders\u201d like me. The one part I\u2019ve never grasped is the part about the \u201cundressed guest.\u201d That part of the story feels like an afterthought and I\u2019ve generally breezed on past it to the next event. Now, though, I\u2019ve done a bit of reading and I think I have a better handle on the \u201cclothes problem.\u201d A king, like the one in the story, would be well aware that people off the street wouldn\u2019t have the customary white robes to wear to a formal feast like this one. Common people of that day likely had only one set of clothing and even if they did have something more fancy whatever it was would come up far short of the dress code for big formal wedding feast at the palace. However, the king had a large supply of white robes for just such an occasion. As each guest arrived the servants would dress them for the feast. When the king looks at the crowd and spots one man who sticks out like a sore thumb it means that he refused to wear the robe that was supplied to him. With this in mind, I realize that the \u201cundressed guest\u201d part of the story is crucial to the parable. Not only has the Lord, in Jesus, invited outsiders to come, he also makes us worthy to come. Here I see that the Lord\u2019s invitation to me really is \u201cJust as I am\u201d but that when I do respond, he doesn\u2019t leave me as he finds me. Instantly, he goes to work remaking me into the person he calls me to be. If I refuse his work in my life, I\u2019m like the \u201cundressed guest\u201d who gets \u201cuninvited\u201d to the wedding feast.<\/p>\n

Take Away: The Lord not only forgives sins; he also transforms sinners.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The undressed guest Matthew 22: How dare you come in here looking like that! I pretty much get the story of the wedding feast. Those who are invited but make excuses are the \u201cinsiders\u201d to the Kingdom, in the case of the parable, it\u2019s the religious leaders and the Jewish people in general who are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1518,1428],"tags":[1188,604,1100],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9943"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9943"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15683,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9943\/revisions\/15683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}