Matthew 22--Riddles

Called or Chosen?

Chapter 22 is taken up entirely with these tense exchanges between Jesus and the Pharisees.  The cross is looming, just ahead.  Their conversation seems to anticipate this and become increasingly focused, increasingly intense.

This chapter is a difficult one, full of pithy statements to ponder such as:

"For many are called, but few are chosen."  -Matthew 22:14

I know he is speaking to the Jews here, but it causes me concern as a thinking Christian as well.  The Jews were called, but then not all of them chosen because they lost themselves in the trappings and rules, while forgetting the heart of it all.

 My salvation experience is now almost 20 years old now, and it's certainly lost some of its freshness along the way.   It's a much stronger, mature faith after 20 years.  It has shed some assumptions that were not vital.  It has been tested by deep sadness--the loss of my father, my mother, miscarriages, and just the general loss of idealism that characterizes youth.   After 20 years, I have a much deeper and wider faith, but I do pray that I haven't lost my way as the Jews had.  It seems easier to lose one's way than to find it.

For this reason, I am all the more thankful that He is the author and perfecter of our faith, that He chose us first.  Knowing the verses behind that statement are solid and unequivocal, I rest easier.  Maybe the whole ""chosen thing settles the deal for Christians.  At a fundamental level, each Christian was chosen from the very get-go.  Yet many, like the Jews, lose their way regardless.  So for me, the warning of that verse lingers.

Maybe I am not clear enough on the words themselves.  Here's the information from Strongs:

called:

klētos
klay-tos'
From the same as G2821; invited, that is, appointed, or (specifically) a saint: - called.

chosen

eklektos
ek-lek-tos'
From G1586; select; by implication favorite: - chosen, elect.

Called implies more of an inviting, and chosen suggests a selection.  We can all be invited to the Kingdom, but few elected, selected?  In some sense this makes the verse both easier and harder to take.  It runs into one of those seemingly illogical pockets of Christian thought--that Christ wishes all to be saved and yet not all are.  Another is that we are chosen, but somehow have free will.

In my head, the only way to deal with these seemingly irresolvable nuances is to believe that I am seeing just the tip of a much larger something.  It is as if I am attempting to examine a 3 dimensional object with just one or two dimensions.

Called, chosen, invited, elected, this salvation, the great hope that we build our lives upon can be a slippery thing to examine.  It is real enough in our hearts, but harder to pull apart and understand.

Beseeching

Matthew Henry points out the gracious nature of God in the parable of the Wedding Feast:

"The guests are called upon; for in the gospel there are not only gracious proposals made, but gracious persuasives. We persuade men, we beseech them in Christ's stead, 2Co_5:11, 2Co_5:20. See how much Christ's heart is set upon the happiness of poor souls! He not only provides for them, in consideration of their want, but sends to them, in consideration of their weakness and forgetfulness."  -Matthew Henry

"Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences."  2 Corinthians 5:11

"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." -2 Corinthians 5:20

Here's another beseeching:

1Co 4:13  Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

Great summation by Matthew Henry:

"It is a kingdom prepared, ready to be revealed in the last time. Is all this ready; and shall we be unready?"

More M Henry to contemplate:

"The righteousness of saints, their real holiness and sanctification, and Christ, made Righteousness to them, is the clean linen, Rev_19:8. This man was not naked, or in rags; some raiment he had, but not a wedding garment. Those, and those only, who put on the Lord Jesus, that have a Christian temper of mind, and are adorned with Christian graces, who live by faith in Christ, and to whom he is all in all, have the wedding garment."

Distractions--"These lawful things..."

Mat 22:5  But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. 

Another good application point from Matthew Henry here.  In any era, we can make excuses as to why we have to do this or that FIRST before we get to God's business.  But, especially in this era where electronic media and pressing schedules bombard our senses by the minute, we need to be careful not to loose ourselves in the "good" but not "best" things in life:

 "The country people have their farms to look after, about which there is always something or other to do; the town's people must tend their shops, and be constant upon the exchange; they must buy, and sell, and get gain. It is true, that both farmers and merchants must be diligent in their business but not so as to keep them from making religion their main business. Licitis perimus omnes - These lawful things undo us, when they are unlawfully managed, when we are so careful and troubled about many things as to neglect the one thing needful. Observe, Both the city and the country have their temptations, the merchandise in the one, and the farms in the other; so that, whatever we have of the world in our hands, our care must be to keep it out of our hearts, lest it come between us and Christ."  -Matthew Henry

Such a good message--it's easy to let so many little (and big things) slowly grow in the cracks of our lives until they grow so large as to require a significant piece of our attention.