October 15, 2023 Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost The text is Matthew 22:1-14.
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1Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ 5But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. 13Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14For many are called, but few are chosen.”
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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let’s just agree from the start that this particular passage from Matthew is difficult at best to interpret in the first-century context in which it was written. It’s harder still to make sense of when we look at it through the lens of 21st century culture, morality, and social customs. That said, we’re still tasked with making the effort to recognize who this parable was originally directed towards, what it meant then, and what its purpose is for us today.
This morning’s Parable of the Wedding Banquet is the third of three that Jesus has expressed in this section of Matthew’s gospel. The first, the Parable of the Two Sons was relatively easy to put into perspective; Jesus intended to reinforce the principle that, when it comes to discipleship that “actions speak louder than words”. What we say we will do in response to Jesus’ call to further the kingdom of heaven isn’t nearly as important as what we actually do to help bring about the kingdom’s emergence. The Parable of the Wicked Tenants teaches that those entrusted with responsibility for God’s resources are expected to steward them appropriately, whether material items or people.
The third, this morning’s parable of the king’s son’s wedding banquet is not quite as easily interpreted. We’ll come back to this parable in a moment, but first we ought to revisit just who Jesus was addressing with all three of these metaphorical accounts. They take place, one right after the other when the chief priests and scribes accost Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem and demand of him from where his authority to teach and preach comes. The parables are directed squarely at these temple authorities and Jesus uses them to rebuke the religious leaders for their failure to recognize him and his mission to initiate the coming of the kingdom.
Again, we will delve a bit into the meaning of this rather odd parable a little later, but first we should review some of the aspects of the story that may be challenging; in Jesus’ time, and even more so, in ours. Nearly every element of this parable addresses actions that clearly would not have taken place if the parable were intended to describe actual behaviors. A royal invitation from a king to attend his son’s wedding banquet would not have been refused under any circumstance; in Jesus’ Israel no one would dare snub a king’s invitation.
And the king would not lower himself to offer a second invite, almost pleading for his guests to attend; going so far as to tempt them with a description of the tasty banquet that has already been prepared. And the violence of the invited guests toward the king’s servants, going so far to murder many of them, is unthinkable, as is the king’s response; sending soldiers to kill the ones who perpetrated the original murders and then burning his own city.
After all this, the banquet is still going to happen and the king sends his servants into the streets to invite whoever they run in to, to come to the wedding feast. They find enough guests to fill the celebration hall and the lavish banquet proceeds as planned. In the meantime, there have been invitations declined, servants killed, those who murdered them were also put to death, and a celebration held with people serving as guests who would under no other circumstances ever been invited. And if all this isn’t bizarre enough, the strangest element of the story now unfolds. The king who is hosting the banquet encounters a guest who is not clothed in a fancy wedding robe and has him tied up and thrown out of the party. What did the king expect? He had just ordered his servants to gather in from the streets; you remember, the ones he had just set ablaze, whatever commoners they could round up. There was no way all the last-minute guests would have been dressed in their finest party clothes just standing around in the burning city, waiting to be invited to the royal wedding. As I said, this parable really borders on the improbable.
That said, it’s likely that Matthew has written about Jesus telling this peculiar parable, directed toward the temple authorities, to illustrate the importance of worthiness and the result of the decision to either accept or reject the invitation to enter into the kingdom of God. And some sources familiar with the cultural and social customs of Jesus’ time may have shed some light on the otherwise oddest piece of the story. It is thought that many hosts of fancy banquets would provide a fine robe for their guests to wear during the event; not all that different from renting a tuxedo if one is part of a bridal party in our time. If that is the case, then the refusal to wear the offered robe may be an expression of rejection; Jesus may be cautioning the scribes and temple priests against rejecting his invitation to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
The original invitations to the wedding banquet were ostensibly made to the elites living in the king’s city, and these were the ones who spurned the offer to join in the celebration. This part of the parable was directed fully toward the temple authorities and the priests, as they were ones that Jesus expected to rush to embrace his message of the coming of God’s kingdom. And with their refusal to “come to the party” as it were, the offer was then extended to all who were found in the streets of the city; effectively everyone whom the king’s servants encountered. Note that this invitation to inclusion in the kingdom; God’s, not the king’s, was made to everyone, those referred to as “good” and “bad”.
And while the parable strongly denounces the religious leaders for their refusal to embrace the coming of the kingdom, the significance of inviting everyone found in the streets is Jesus’ way of telling us that the invitation to God’s kingdom is open to all. While the chief priests and scribes have been judged harshly for their resistance to the Good News of Jesus’ offer of salvation, there is no distinction made as to the worthiness or unworthiness of the people; the ones in the king’s city…and us. We have all received the open invitation to “come to the party”, to enter into the celebration that is the redemption offered by Christ. There is no prior judgement, we have been deemed worthy in spite of our innate unworthiness. The doors to the banquet hall are thrown wide open, the table is set, and the meal has been prepared. We can walk in and take our place alongside Jesus and join the celebration for the salvation we are promised.
We then become like the ordinary citizens from the streets that have been invited and have accepted the offer to attend. But we must be cautioned that, although we are not required to do anything in addition to simply showing up, there must be a willingness to enter into full discipleship, out of thanksgiving for the gift of the invitation. We have to be sure that we don’t find ourselves behaving as the one who, even though the invitation has been accepted and we find ourselves present in God’s kingdom, that we don’t refuse to go “all in”; we can’t snub the wearing of the robe. The willingness to clothe ourselves in the celebratory garment indicates our intention to be full participants in Jesus’ mission, not simply observers as his ministry unfolds.
Discipleship acknowledges that we are called to serve all those in need, whether they have accepted the invitation to the banquet, or they remain on the outside; looking in. And the wearing of the robe of servanthood will not inhibit our ability to serve in any way; for while the robe may be long and flowing, it still allows us to fully use our hands and feet in service to our neighbors. Welcome to the party!
Will you pray with me? Good, and gracious, and holy God, remind us that although we have been judged worthy to enter your kingdom, we remain sinful, broken people. Christ has ensured that we are granted entrance by his redeeming work on our behalf. Help us to be fully engaged as participants in the mission he began and we are called to continue. And we pray these things the name of Jesus Christ, the One who offers us the robe of discipleship and servanthood in his name. Amen.
God is Good, all the time. All the time, God is Good. Amen.