Possessions and Affections

By Greg Laurie, Op-ed contributor Wednesday, September 14, 2011

"The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!"
- Matthew 22:2-3

Jesus told a parable about a king who threw a great wedding feast for his son and invited many people he knew to come and participate in it. This was a royal wedding, and to be invited to an event like this would have been the greatest of honors.

The protocol of that time was to extend two invitations. The first invitation would request an RSVP, much like modern wedding invitations do today. A lot of money was being spent, so when the first invitation went out, invited guests would say so if they could not attend. But once they accepted the first invitation, it would have been very offensive not to accept the second one.

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A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, and Jesus told this story, the Bible says, to illustrate the kingdom of heaven (see Matthew 22:1–2). As the story unfolds, people begin declining the second invitation after accepting the first one. In fact, they began to make excuses for why they could be there. These excuses are also some of the same ones people use today for not following Christ.

One said he had bought a piece of land and needed to go see it. The second man said that he had bought five pairs of oxen and had to try them out. And the third said he had just gotten married, and therefore could not attend. (See Luke 14:18–20).

These first two excuses have to do with material possessions, while the third excuse has to do with affection. Possessions and affections cover virtually every reason people give for saying no to God. You will find that of all the excuses you have heard as to why people will not follow Jesus Christ, they probably will fall into these two categories.