Jesus once told a terrible story about a king who did some terrible things. The king had a good and a generous impulse that turned sour quickly. He wanted to throw a party and invite everyone he knew. That’s a wonderful idea! Trouble is he didn’t check with all his friends to see if they were available. They were not. This hurt the king's feelings. He sent out a second round of invites to make sure they knew what they were missing. They sent back their regrets laden with excuses. This really hurt the king and he started making up stories in his head about how awful all his friends and neighbors really are. Do you ever do that? Make up stories in your head grounded in unfounded assumptions about people you haven’t bothered to talk to? I do. The king went on a rampage in his mind and built a whole big burning pile of resentments. Then he sent out a third round of invitations. “This time, he said to his servants, invite anybody you see out in the streets. I don’t care who they are, good or bad, just fill this banquet hall! Someone’s got to eat all this cake!”
Finally, he got what he wanted. His party was wall to wall guests. But when the king walked into the room his heart sank. He was still angry. He felt unfilled. He took the toxic combo of his anger and his sorrow out on an innocent guest. He had his security team beat him up and throw him out.
I love this terrible parable because it’s a great mirror in which I can see my own propensity to focus on the wrong party. The king’s central point of reference is himself. He thinks (mistakenly) that he’ll feel okay, good, and whole if everyone does what he wants them to do, namely, come to his party. The king’s “thing” was the party; what’s yours?
All the while God is throwing a party in the king’s heart. What the king really wants is God. He wants, like all of us, to be seen and heard and held and loved by the God of endless love. But he can’t let go of his own petty attachments to all his hoped for outcomes. Darn it! So, God waits. God dwells within the king waiting on his arrival at the party He’s throwing in the king's heart.
If the king will finally accept that what he really wants and desperately needs is God he’ll go to the party God is throwing for him. Then a transformation will happen. The king won’t be waiting for people to come to his party, rather, the king will always be coming FROM a party. When you’re coming FROM the party God is throwing in the grand banquet hall of your own heart, then you’re finally positioned to love whoever is right in front of you With God.
The king was worried about the wrong party.
That’s what happened to me when I let the parable in Matthew 22 happen to me. What happens to you, when you let that parable stir you up?