March 1: “Go to the Highways and Invite Them to the Wedding Feast”
♫ Music:
Day 13 - Monday, March 1
Title: “GO TO THE HIGHWAYS AND INVITE THEM TO THE WEDDING FEAST”
Scripture: Matthew 22:1-14
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Poetry:
2008, XII
by Wendell Berry
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…
Hosea 4:6
We forget the land we stand on
and live from. We set ourselves
free in an economy founded
on nothing, on greed verified
by fantasy, on which we entirely
depend. We depend on fire
that consumes the world without
lighting it. To this dark blaze
driving the inert metal
of our most high desire
we offer our land as fuel,
thus offering ourselves at last
to be burned. This is our riddle
to which the answer is a life
that none of us has lived.
THE INVITATION SHOULD CHANGE US
As I read the scripture for today’s devotional, I thought of the last time I was invited to a wedding. It was a friend's wedding here in Southern California. When I received the invitation, I felt a sense of connectedness, of belonging. I was honored that my friend and her soon-to-be husband would want me at their big day. Part of my preparation to attend the wedding was choosing what to wear. It’s a wedding, after all. I wanted to be dressed for it!
The first takeaway from this parable is the invitation to the kingdom of heaven is for all. Jesus begins the parable of the wedding feast with a reminder that it is about the kingdom of heaven. He then explains that the king, throwing a wedding for his son, has extended invitations far and wide. When some didn’t respond to the initial invitation the king then instructed invitations to go out to “as many as you can find.” The king did not discriminate who would receive an invitation through prescribed parameters of any kind. The invitation was, and still is, for all.
The second takeaway is the king is preparing for his guests. In the time between sending out the first round of invitations and the wedding, the king prepared a lavish feast. He even mentioned the feast in the next round of invitations with a tone I read like this: “Oh, please come. I’ve got everything prepared. I really want you there.” I can just hear his longing for people to join him at the celebration. Like the king, God is also preparing for us and longs for us to be at the feast!
The next takeaway is the invitation should change us. The wedding garments are an external symbol of internal change. Read verses 11 to 12 again. Notice that the king didn’t ask the man anything: his name, what gifts he had brought, who he had come with. None of those things mattered. The same goes for us. While God certainly cares about every detail of our lives, what matters most is that God’s invitation changes us.
The final takeaway is this: The kingdom of God is a feast! Joining God is a celebration marked with joy and satisfaction. And God longs for you to be there.
Reflection Questions:
Who are you in the parable?
Are you one who has disregarded God’s invitation?
Have you accepted God’s invitation? How has it changed you? Is the change evident?
Are you faithfully extending invitations to others?
What is your response to God’s invitation for all?
Do you really believe that the invitation is for both “good and evil”?
Do you rejoice in God’s generosity of grace?
How do you extend God’s grace to others?
End today’s devotional by pairing today’s song with the art. The music almost makes the wedding guests in the painting move to the jubilant music. Just imagine how festive the feast that God has prepared will be!
Prayer:
God, I am humbled that you would invite me to join you at such a lavish celebration. I am grateful that your grace-filled invitation is for all. Remind me that it is Jesus alone that changes me. Show me how to live an abundant life of celebration with you and with others.
Amen.
Dr. Jamie N. Sanchez
Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies
Program Director, PhD Intercultural Studies
Chair, Doctoral Department
Cook School of Intercultural Studies
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
The Wedding Supper
Martin van Meytens
1763
Oil on canvas
300 x 400 cm
Schönbrunn Palace
Hietzing, Vienna, Austria
This painting is from the five-part Wedding Cycle depicting the 1760 festivities celebrating the nuptials of the heir to the Austrian throne, Joseph, and Isabella of Parma. In attendance are the nobility, musicians, and high-ranking officials. The scene shows tables set for dessert with porcelain and gold utensils, while a centerpiece in the form of a garden made of colored sugar paste decorates the table. How much more extravagant can we imagine the celebration of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, representing the joyful and eternal fellowship between Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,and his bride, his Church.
About the Artist:
Martin van Meytens (1695–1770) was a Dutch-Swedish painter who painted members of the Royal Court of Austria such as Marie Antoinette, Maria Theresa of Austria, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, the Emperor's family and members of the local aristocracy. Martin van Meytens was born and baptized in Stockholm, Sweden; he was the son of the painter Martin Meytens the Elder, who had moved around 1677 from The Hague to Sweden. At the beginning of his career he painted little enamel miniature portraits, and then changed to oil painting around 1730, having settled in Vienna. Here he became very popular as a portrait painter in the circles of the court and the aristocracy. In 1732 he became a court painter, and in 1759 the director of the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts. Meytens was one of the most significant Austrian painters of representative Baroque courtly portrait, and through his pupils and followers his influence remained alive and widespread for a long time throughout the whole Empire. His personal virtues, varied interests, erudition, and pleasant manners were highly appreciated by his contemporaries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_van_Meytens
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/wedding-supper/8wGaVfLW0exl6A
About the Music:
“Wedding Suite, Op. 126: V. Wedding Dance” from the album Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kije Suite
About the Composer:
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891–1953) was a Russian Soviet composer, pianist, and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the twentieth century. In the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, a symphony-concerto for cello and orchestra, and nine completed piano sonatas. A graduate of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Prokofiev initially made his name as an iconoclastic composer-pianist, achieving notoriety with a series of ferociously dissonant and virtuosic works. Prokofiev’s one operatic success during his lifetime was The Love for Three Oranges composed for the Chicago Opera. After the Revolution of 1917, Prokofiev left Russia to reside in the United States, then Germany, then Paris; making his living as a composer, pianist, and conductor. In 1936, he finally returned to his homeland with his family. He enjoyed some success there, notably with Lieutenant Kijé, Peter and the Wolf, Romeo and Juliet, and perhaps above all with a score he composed for Sergei Eisenstein’s 1938 film Alexander Nevsky. The Nazi invasion of the USSR spurred him to compose his most ambitious work, an operatic version of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Prokofiev
Performers:
Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), formed in 1891, is a Scottish orchestra based in Glasgow at the RSNO Centre which receives support from the Scottish Government. The RSNO performs throughout Scotland at such venues as Glasgow Royal Concert Hall; Usher Hall (Edinburgh); Caird Hall (Dundee); Aberdeen Music Hall; Perth Concert Hall; and Eden Court Inverness. Peter Oundjian has been the orchestra’s music director since 2012. The orchestra is joined for choral performances by the RSNO Chorus, which evolved from a choir formed in 1843 to sing the first performance of Handel’s Messiah in Scotland. The RSNO has a worldwide reputation for the quality of its recordings, receiving two Diapason d’Or de l’année Awards for Symphonic Music and eight Grammy Award nominations.
https://www.rsno.org.uk
Neeme Järvi (b. 1937) is an Estonian-American conductor. The head of a musical dynasty, Maestro Järvi is one of today’s most respected conductors. He conducts many of the world’s most prominent orchestras and works alongside soloists of the highest caliber. A prolific recording artist, he has amassed a discography of over 440 recordings. Over his long and highly successful career he has held positions with orchestras across the world. He is currently Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orkest (The Hague, Netherlands); Principal Conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra; and Conductor Laureate and Artistic Advisor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Many international accolades and awards have been bestowed upon him. Järvi’s children have made their mark on the musical world as well: son Paavo Järvi is gaining a reputation as a conductor and holds posts as principal guest conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra; Kristjan is the founder and conductor of the Absolut Ensemble of New York City; and daughter Maarika is principal flutist with the Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE in Madrid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neeme_J%C3%A4rvi
About the Poet:
Wendell Erdman Berry (b. 1934) is an American novelist, poet, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer who was educated at the University of Kentucky, where he became Distinguished Professor of English in 1971. The intensity of his writing’s involvement with the human and natural characters of his native locality has gained Berry recognition as one of the leading writers of the twentieth century. A prolific author, he has written many novels, short stories, poems, and essays. He is an advocate of Christian pacifism, as shown in his book Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Christ’s Teachings About Love, Compassion and Forgiveness. He states that the theme in his writing is “that all people in the society should be able to use the gifts that they have, their natural abilities, and they ought to use them responsibly for their benefit as individuals and as a community.” Berry was named the recipient of the 2013 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, an annual U.S. literary award recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wendell-Berry
About the Devotion Author:
Dr. Jamie Sanchez
Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies
Program Director, Ph.D. Intercultural Studies
Biola University
Dr. Jamie N. Sanchez has been at Biola University since 2016. She is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the Graduate Department in Cook School of Intercultural Studies. Her research interests include refugee studies. Outside of work, she can be found hiking her way through Southern California.