Some quick facts on the recent royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton, now known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge:

• If you Google “Royal Wedding,” you’ll come up with about 790 million search results — more than twice as many results as if you Google “Jesus.”
• Approximately 3 billion people watched the royal wedding, give or take 500 million, according to the New York Times.
• 22.7 million Americans tuned in, according to Nielsen, compared to an average of 24 million who watch “American Idol” each week.
• About 1,900 guests entered Westminster Abbey, including 40 invited heads of state. Not invited: the U.S. President and First Lady; Sarah Ferguson, the ex-wife of Prince Andrew; and Joan Rivers.
• Estimated cost of the wedding varies widely, but most guesses come in at $16 million to $64 million; the cakes alone cost a cool $80,000.
• The negative impact on the British economy due to lost business because of a declared bank holiday: as much as $10 billion.

I share this trivia because it demonstrates our fascination with royalty — even in nations like the United States that shun the very concept of a monarchy. But our intense interest in such matters is nothing new. In the days of Jesus, the wedding of a king’s son was the focal point for one of the Messiah’s most telling parables about the kingdom of heaven.

Read about Jesus’ parable of the wedding for a king’s son.