The Inner-Circle

If there’s one thing social media teaches us, it’s that people love to be popular. I think for many celebrities, the chase for fame far outweighed the desire for even riches. And one way to climb the social ladder is of course by rubbing elbows with all the right people. As we’ve been told, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” And people who want social status know the first step to obtaining it is to get into the right person’s inner-circle.

If you’re lucky, you might start out by befriending someone from the popular crowd at school. And if you’re accepted you might begin to work your way up in college and eventually in your workplace or community. It makes a person feel very important to have such impressive friends. And who wouldn’t want to then make it into the inner-circle of their favorite celebrity or political figure? Perhaps even the President of the United States. Wow, that would be the pinnacle!

But if you think that’s impressive, you could bypass all that superficial nonsense and go straight to the top. The ruler over all of Creation invites us not only to be a part of his eternal Kingdom, to rule and reign with Him, but to be his BRIDE! You don’t get more intimate than that!

And yet, people reject this offer every day. But what’s more baffling to me, is that there are those who claim to know and understand and even worship the King, yet they don’t see the incredible honor of being His bride. They despise and resent his church, the body he created specifically for Himself. How can someone claim to understand the enormity of salvation through faith in Christ, yet completely turn their nose up at the invitation to join his inner-circle?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t ever want to take that privilege lightly. And apparently, neither does He…

Matthew 22:1-14
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”