One of the “requirements” for becoming an International Training Specialist with LIFE International is to watch a movie that exemplifies cultural differences.  If you have ever seen “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” you know that the movie meets the requirements!  Most people have “been through a wedding” even if they are not married.  The drama, emotion and interplay between families and family members ranges from horrific to comic.   Our text for this coming Sunday once again portrays the brilliance of Jesus as a story teller to illustrate core human truths.  His story is about a royal wedding.  All the components are there.  Invitations, menus, guest lists and servants are mentioned in the unfolding drama.  This wedding story has a rather strange twist.  The people who had received the first “save the date” invitation decided to reject the king’s invitation on the day of the wedding.  Everything was already prepared!  Enter the story, imagine the scene—a royal wedding with no guests!  To make matters worse, some of the servants who delivered the invitations were killed in the line of duty.  The king did not tolerate that kind of behavior and on the day of his son’s wedding he sent his army to carry out swift retribution and burned down their city.  Since the king had a prepared place, a prepared son and a prepared banquet, he followed through and sent his remaining servants back out to find guests…any guests!  Imagine the surprise of the common laborer when he learned that a feast was waiting for him in the king’s palace.  Eventually the party started and the banquet venue was full!  There are stories of punishment in the parable but William Barclay points out that which is most sad in this story…people who could have had a “fat feast and celebration” missed it for indifference and rebellion.  We too often focus on the suffering of those who reject the king’s invitation.  Maybe the worst thing is to miss out on what we have always truly and deeply longed for in the complex recesses of our soul.  What if all the romance, celebration, love, beauty, friendship and royal ambiance that we long for is actually available through Jesus Christ our Lord?  Wouldn’t it be awful to miss the deepest longings of our soul for all of eternity?  To crave and search and long without resolve for all eternity sounds like hell to me.  The stories of Jesus were not intended to be the foundations for dogmatic theology; they are better than that.  These stories describe realities that are beyond words.  Are you ready for a big, fat, royal wedding feast?