Our Lord's parable has fulfilled itself again and again in history, and will fulfil itself as long as foolish and rebellious persons exist on earth. This is one of the laws of the kingdom of Heaven. It must be so, for it arises by necessity out of the character of Christ, the King of Heaven infinite bounty and generosity; but if that bounty be despised and insulted, or still more, if it be outraged by wanton tyranny or cruelty, then for the benefit of the rest of mankind awful severity. So it is, and so it must be, simply because God is good.
I. The king in the parable was very angry, as he had a right to be. Let us lay that to heart, and tremble, from the very worst of us all to the very best of us all. There is an anger in God. There is indignation in God. An awful thought, and yet a blessed thought. Under God's anger, or under God's love, we must be, whether we will or not. We cannot flee from His presence. We cannot go from His Spirit. If we are loving, and so rise up to heaven, God is there in love. If we are cruel and wrathful, and so go down to hell, God is there also in wrath. With the clean He will be clean; with the froward man He will be froward. On us, and us alone, it depends whether we shall live under God's anger or live under God's love.
II. We pride ourselves on our superior light and our improved civilization, and look down on the old Roman Catholic missionaries, who converted our forefathers from heathendom in the middle ages. These men made mistakes, and often worse than mistakes, for they were but men. But if they had not had a deep and sound belief that they were in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Heaven and that they and all men must obey the laws of the kingdom of Heaven; and that the first law of it was that wrong-doing would be punished, and right-doing rewarded in this life every day, and all day long, as sure as Christ, the living Lord, reigned in righteousness over all the earth: if they had not believed that and acted on it, we should probably have been heathen at this day. Let us lay this to heart with seriousness and godly fear. For so we shall look up with reverence, and yet with hope, to Christ the ascended King, to whom all power is given in heaven and earth.
C. Kingsley, All Saints' Day and other Sermons,p. 274.
References: Matthew 22:2. F. D. Maurice, Sermons in Country Churches,p. 62.Matthew 22:2; Matthew 22:3. C. Girdlestone, A Course of Sermons,vol. ii., p. 411; R. Heber, Parish Sermons,vol. ii., p. 235.Matthew 22:2-4. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvii., No. 975.Matthew 22:3. J. Keble, Sermons from Advent to Christmas Eve,p. 265.Matthew 22:4. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 208. Matthew 22:5. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ii., No. 98. Matthew 22:8. H. W. Beecher, Sermons,1st series, p. 245.Matthew 22:8-10. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts,p. 47. Matthew 22:10. E. H. Bradby, Sermons at Haileybury,p. 85.