Learning Grace from Lifts

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 22: 11 – 13)

For those without an experience with lifts, let me explain to get us on one page.

Assume you are intending to travel someplace and you do not have any means for the same. Then a friend with a car offers to take you there and back at no cost. That in simple terms is a lift though there are many variations to this.

Do you realize that you are held captive by this person who has given you that lift? You will go where he wants, eat what he offers, visit whoever he visits and reach according to his plans. In short you transfer all your plans to his fancies. He might even leave you to watch over his car as he goes to reconnect with family and friends.

Should a breakage occur, you will be the first to go and check what is wrong. You will change the wheel when there is a puncture. You will push when it gets stuck.

Let me even get to a very simple task. A matatu (public transport) gives you a lift, saving you twenty shillings (a quarter dollar).

Do you realize that nobody will remind you to stand when the vehicle gets full and a free seat is required? Again you will be the first to get out if something requiring an extra hand pops up. All for twenty bob! Yet the ones who have paid that little money will not even care to find out what is happening outside.

The one who offers the lift is the one who sets the rules. And he is not required to consult or even inform you of them.

That is what happened in this story Jesus gave. You realize that the qualified rejected the king’s offer. That is when he invited the rejects and the totally unqualified to his wedding party.

But it was the king’s party. He therefore was the one responsible for setting the rules.

Probably the character here thought he was dressed well enough to need the kings wedding uniform, if I may call it that. He may have thought that he was better than the layabouts who had been collected from the byways and trenches of the city that desperately needed to be made presentable.

He forgot that it was a lift he was enjoying. That is why he was punished for attending a wedding.

God calls us and offers salvation. How many now think that we receive it on our terms? How many preachers are so fluent on the fact that God requires nothing from us after saving us?

Could Jesus have talked about the strait road and door if salvation was as ‘free’ as these preachers are so fluent at teaching? Why did He not talk about the salvation highway?

Do verses like this make sense to these preachers?

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: (Hebrews 12:14)

Is claiming and grabbing and possessing all there is to our faith? Is the seed (whatever it is made to mean) all that God requires from His worshipers?

Does ‘go and sin no more’ mean anything to them?

God is the King, and the King of kings at that. It therefore means that everybody and everything is His subject, meaning that we are all completely subject to His rules.

Of course His rules are recorded in the scriptures. And they are the standards we are expected to abide by.

We are not the ones who have invited ourselves to the party (salvation). It means that we really have no business deciding how to live there.

In fact, even our preferences have no business there.

We have been offered a lift to heaven if I may call it that. We must go there according to the ne who has offered us that lift.

Abiding by different rules automatically means that we really are not on that lift and that if we are we will be banished like the smart invitee in our parable.

How are you walking in that lift?

Let me give an example.

I am involved in the writing ministry.

Among the things it involves is walking with new and unpublished writers to have their message in print as booklets, books or magazines. And I am brought very many of these.

The first thing many ask me is how much I will charge for my services (editing, layout, etc.). of course I do not charge for ministry. And that single fact has helped me through numerous challenges, the first being that God can order me out of a project. The second being that I can offer unflattering criticism as God leads without fearing.

There have been instances of headstrong writers insisting mainly on personal opinion against scripture (I am sure you know of the strain and flow of revelations nowadays). They then insist the same must be part of the publication.

I will simply pull out of the project.

Now suppose I was paid?

The reason I can be loyal to God is that I am not on any writer’s payroll. I am not enjoying any lifts in this ministry God has entrusted to me and so can comfortably turn down any offer that does not agree with revelation.

I have pulled out of a magazine I was part of because the managing editor doctored my article without consulting me yet I was in the editorial team. It would have been a disaster had I been being paid.

God sets the rules, all of them, when He offers grace.

It is deception to think that we can live as we will when we are still talking about grace. We are completely deluded when we speak grace with the same mouth we speak self-fulfillment and will.

It is a lift we are enjoying.