Three Important Themes in the Parable of the Wedding Feast

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Part VI of our series on Sharing Your Bread

An astonishing amount of the Bible is devoted to the stories of people who reject the call of God. And now that we’re becoming disciples who extend the invitation of Christ to others, it’s important for us to re-read the Scripture through the lens of the God who says (in Romans 10:21), “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

The Scripture is the record of God holding out his hands to a disobedient and obstinate people known as the human race.

One of the central themes of the Scripture is that the people who need God, the people who should recognize him, the people to whom he has done nothing but good reject him, ignore him, and ultimately—in the case of Christ—side with the powers of darkness that oppress them in order to crucify him.

    • 2 Chronicles 24:19 (NKJV) says, “He sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the LORD; and they testified against them, but they would not listen.”
    • Isaiah 30:10 (NIV) says, “They say to the seers, ‘See no more visions!’ and to the prophets, ‘Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.'”
    • John 1:10-11 (NIV) says, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

Sometimes it’s so painful that all you can do is laugh.

You have these friends who are always sad and struggling and talking about how bad their life is. And then you invite them to join you in receiving the word of life and they come up with the silliest excuses. The meeting time is too early. Then, it’s too late. The gathering is too formal. Then, it’s too loose. They’re too busy to come to the gathering, but they’re never too busy to moan for hours about how much they’re struggling.

Jesus understood that all too well. In Matthew 17:19, he summarizes his generation this way:

17 “‘We played the pipe for you, 
and you did not dance; 
we sang a dirge, 
and you did not mourn.’

18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’”

If that were the end of the story, it would be a rather discouraging one, indeed. But fortunately there’s another theme that runs all the way through the Scripture. The Apostle Paul describes it this way in Romans 10:19-20:

“I will make you envious by those who are not a nation;
I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”[j]

20 … “I was found by those who did not seek me;
I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”

Never forget that the reason you’re here in the first place is because the people who should have believed, rejected the invitation of Christ.

But the Apostle Paul warns us in Romans 11 that that fact should make us humble, not proud:

17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

And this is what the story we’ll be learning about in next week’s blog posts is all about. It weaves together all three of those themes that we just mentioned:

    • God reaches out to the people who should respond to him, and they don’t; so
    • God reaches the people who no one thinks will respond to him, and they do; but
    • their response should lead to gratitude and humility, not pride.

The story is called the Parable of the Wedding Feast, and Jesus tells it to the chief priests and the Pharisees – those who should have responded to his invitation to feast –  but didn’t.

In what ways are you like those who mumble and groan about their circumstances but don’t accept help when it comes? Are you not responding to God in an area you should be?

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Why Sharing Your Bread Cannot Be About Satisfying Hunger

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Part V of our series on Sharing Your Bread

Why does God give food, according to our last post?  For fellowship with him.  In body, soul, and spirit.

So when the crowd begins to say in John 6:14, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world,” they misidentify him.

You can see that misidentification even more deeply in John 6:42, where they say,

Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I came down from heaven?”

They identify him in a completely physical way. They have a sense that he is giving them bread “from above” (that is, they understand the provision part) but they fail to see that this bread is designed to be a gift of fellowship with their heavenly Father, who wants to be their host at table and who wants to invite a whole lot of guests with whom they’d rather not eat.

In other words, they miss the worship part.

Instead (verse 15), they want to receive Jesus as a human bread factory designed to strengthen their bodies. This will enable them to focus even more completely on earthly things, like making a living, taking care of their families, breaking free from Roman rule, and avoiding fellowship with people with whom they’d rather not fellowship.

When our physical needs are met without attention to our spiritual needs, it’s a curse, not a blessing, because it puts us in worse bondage (to our flesh) than before we ate.

This is why the Work of Mercy of sharing your bread can’t be about simply providing food to those who don’t have it in order to satisfy human hunger.  When we do that, all that happens is that we help people to continue focusing on their physical needs and ignoring the Father. For God, physical food is provided for the heavenly feast. It is only one part of all he wants to provide. He wants to nourish every part of the human being–body, soul, and spirit—and that can only happen through his presence at every meal.

So the first step on our path of learning the Work of Mercy of sharing your bread this month is to examine from where we think our food comes, and to where we think it is pointing. When we eat breakfast or lunch or dinner, do we receive it like Isaiah 55 or like Genesis 3? Do we seek first the kingdom of God knowing that all these things (like physical bread) will be added? Or do we work for physical bread that spoils? And for what purpose do we eat? Do we stuff our face to fill our stomachs? Or do you see each meal as God’s invitation to fellowship with him and others in Jesus’ name?  As you share your bread, do you—and those with whom you share it—know from where it comes, and to where it is pointing? Or are you simply providing them with manna from heaven…that will spoil such that those who eat it will die (John 6:49)?

Remember: it’s not that physical food is the food that perishes and that Bible study is the food that endures.

The physical realm is not a mere analogy for Jesus. It is the place where God’s glory is manifested. So every meal—every time you break bread—is either an opportunity to manifest God’s glory and to eat with others in a way that what you eat never perishes but instead builds up the body, soul and spirit, or it becomes nothing more than a focus on the physical, leading you (and any to whom you give such bread) ultimately back to dust.

Here’s a challenge: Pray to God and ask yourself, “What does it look like to share my bread so that each meal I eat endures to eternal life?”

Start by eating one meal like that this week. I’d love to hear from you in the comment section of this post how the experience went for you.

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Why Does God Give Food?

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Part IV of our series on Sharing Your Bread

One of the key points we addressed in the last post, related to the Work of Mercy of Sharing Your Bread, is that we should work for food that “endures unto eternal life” which means using our meals for more than just feeding our bodies.

And from where does this food come?  John 6:27 says this:

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

This is a reversal of the curse of Genesis 3:19, which is the consequence of human sin:

“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Instead, what Jesus offers us is the invitation of Isaiah 55:1-3 (notice the word “buy” here, which is the word Jesus uses in John 6:5, “Where shall we buy bread?”):

1 “Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.

This means that we no longer work to make money to take care of our bodies! Instead, we work as our reasonable worship, and we trust him to provide food not only for our bodies but for our souls and spirits as well.

There is another verse in Scripture that makes the very same point as John 6:27, and that is Matthew 6:33:

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

This is why the main question related to the Work of Mercy of sharing your bread is not “With whom” or “How much do I spend?” but “From where?” From where does your physical food come?

Through Scripture we know that all food comes as a gift from God. As it says in James 1:17:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Does your food come from your own work? If so, it will spoil. If it comes from your own work and points to your own work (e.g., “I spent half a month’s wages on this meal!”) and it is used only to fuel your own work and the work of the others who eat it, then that food will spoil.

That is not why God gave food. God gave food for fellowship with him—fellowship in body, soul, and spirit.

So when we receive all food—meals, snacks, everything—as fellowship gifts given by the Son of Man, when we receive it as bread crumbs that lead us back to fellowship with God and then with God’s people, when we invest it in fellowship that strengthens body, soul, and spirit, then that physical food will endure to eternal life. It comes from heaven and it returns to heaven—God’s provision becoming our worship.

Eating is designed to be a form of worship.

Now let me ask you a question: Do you think you can eat a meal like that alone?

Do you think if you gulp down a Power Bar for lunch in front of your computer that that meal will strengthen body, soul, and spirit and endure to eternal life, spilling out into fellowship with the heavenly Father and all God’s people?

Honestly now.


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