Sometimes the Bible confuses me.

In my daily Bible reading, I recently covered Matthew 22. This parable of the marriage feast has always left me with questions. So I decided to dig into the meaning of it and figure out just what Jesus was trying to say.

Here’s the passage; Matthew 22:1-14:

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

“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.’

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

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

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

“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.’

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

This has always raised several questions in my mind. Why did the king get so angry? What caused the people to refuse his request? Why such destruction?

I came across this in my reading of the Psalms today. It’s found in Psalm 19:14.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

What an incredible idea to keep before myself daily.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites prayed often that their sacrifices would be acceptable to God. This Psalm uses similar language, and this verse uses a term that is often associated with God’s acceptace of properly offered, literal sacrifice. But here, David uses it, refering not to bulls and lambs, but to “lip and life” sacrifices.

This needs to be something I pray daily, and strive for daily. That my life, the things I do, and the things I say, are acceptable before God.

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to float down the Upper Jack’s Fork River in South-Central Missouri. That’s right. I went canoeing in January in Missouri. 

And it was awesome! 

I was a little nervous about the trip, to be honest. This may have been one of the more dangerous things I’ve ever attempted. Because if I’d taken a dip in the river, dry clothes and immediate warmth would be crucial for my health, perhaps even my survival. 

Fortunately, I didn’t go in. We had a couple of close calls; but we stayed dry. 

This float was actually a sort of youth minister’s retreat led by Joel and Ronnie from Discovery Ministries, near Eminence, MO. There were nine of us on the river together. I had the opportunity to share a canoe with my younger brother, Rick. We had a good time. 

The Upper Jack's Fork River

We put into the river at Blue Spring, just outside of Mountain View. Actually, Rick and I put in there. There rest of the group put in downstream a few hundred feet. The river was completely frozen over. Rick and I thought that if we got out into the middle of the river, the weight of our canoe, with us in it, would crack through the ice. So Joel gave us a big shove out onto the ice. 

It didn’t crack.