CHAPTER IV

THE WEDDING GARMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

HERE is a story that Jesus used to explain why men reject his invitations to share with him his fellowship with God. Such invitations were sent first to those who were bidden. Who were they? Evidently those who had been educated to expect the Kingdom of God, and who should have been first of all among men to enter into it. They were men of property and social position, those whose intelligence and supposed character should have resulted in their instant acceptance of the opportunity to enter into fellowship with Christ in God; but they would not enter. They did not desire the Kingdom that Christ offered them. Jesus said that their failure to enter the Kingdom was due to their lack of understanding of what a feast it contained, of what it would mean of satisfaction to their

souls to enter into a growing experience of it. "Tell them," Jesus said, "what I have prepared for all who join me in my experience of God. Tell them what the Kingdom of God contains that can be found only there. Tell them that I have killed my oxen and fatlings, that I have prepared for them my very best." This is Christ's command to all preachers. This is what he would have us do in presenting his gospel.

Does my reader know of God's spiritual feast that he is ready to share to the full with all who will abide in Him as a branch abides in a vine? As I write I seem to hear the voice of Christ say: "Tell your readers what I invite them to share with me in my experience of God, in His Kingdom of love." There is no feast like that to which God invites us, no love, righteousness, truth, peace, joy like His. There is nothing niggardly, nothing stinted and scant in his feast. God offers his good things in profuse abundance.

But those who were bidden made light of the feast to which they were invited; made light of Christ's experience of God, with all

the wealth of its everlasting treasures. Every man makes light of fellowship with God who does not value it above all other fellowships, who would not go and sell all that he hath rather than fail to enter into it, and abide therein forever. We make light of fellowship with God when we refuse to put ourselves to the expense of sacrificing everything that would prevent us from inheriting it! These men, of whom Jesus speaks as making light of the invitation of his gospel of the Kingdom of God, made light of its value comparatively, compared with their property. They would rather have their land and oxen without God than God without their land and oxen. Another would rather have fellowship with his wife without fellowship with God than fellowship with God without fellowship with his wife. These men asked to be excused from entering into fellowship with God because to do so would require that they sacrifice some things that they desire to retain, or to surrender some fellowships contradictory to the fellowship of God. They represent a multitude that no man can number, of those who wish

to use their property as they could not if they would fulfill the law of love, and of those who are not prepared to give up their social relationships that contradict their fellowship with the heavenly Father. "I cannot come at the expense of leaving my wife," one of these men said. He represents all those men who will not do the will of God when that will contradicts the wills of those with whom they are in close social relationships. These will not maintain a growing fellowship with God when it means loss of favor with sinful men. How many there are who are represented by this man of the parable who would not surrender his will to God at the expense of antagonizing the will of one with whom he was closely related.

In this connection, one thinks of the word of Jesus, "If a man hate not his wife and his property he cannot be my disciple." That word "hate" needs a word of explanation. It does not mean ill-will, for that is never justified by Christ in any of his disciples, under any circumstances, or toward any person. It is rather a word of antagonism. It

indicates an attitude of opposition, rather than one of consent. It finds its illustration in Christ's attitude toward Peter when Peter sought to prevent him from fulfilling the painful will of God. In that sense Jesus hated Peter when he came between him and the things of the heavenly Father of which he did not savour. With the same spirit of antagonism Jesus regarded his mother when she unwittingly tempted him to disobey the will of God. The greatest enemy a man has is that man who seeks to prevent him from fulfilling the will of God.

Those that came to the feast were for the most part from the by-ways and hedges, the poor, the halt, the lame. These were quickest to enter into fellowship with God through fulfillment of His will. They were not held back by wealth or by those with whom they were in social relationships. There was less to prevent them from doing the will of God. They more keenly felt their need of God. They came to the feast of fellowship from which those in better circumstances asked to be excused. I think it will be found that while the