Understanding Jesus is no slam dunk
I've been reading the Bible several times a week for a few decades. There are not too many times I'm surprised by someting I read at this point, because I've read it before, and many parts of the Bible I've studied in depth. But I have to admit that when I read the Bible, even though I'm very familiar with the words, the actual meaning and what I'm supposed to do with those words here in 2019 on North America can be difficult to discern. This hit me recently when I read "The Parable of the Wedding Banquet" in Matthew 22. This parable starts out with Jesus giving this introduction, "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son." So, as I get ready to read this familiar parable, I figure I'm going to receive some helpful information about how the Kingdom of Heaven - God's rule and reign, God's realm including God's interactions with God's creatures - works. Here's the parable: