In Matthew’s gospel, we are in Holy Week. A day or so after Jesus entered Jerusalem heralded as the Messiah, he is talking to the crowd, including religious leaders, in parables.
Remember parables are like short stories that tell us about God and God’s kingdom. Jesus uses familiar images like kings and rulers, weddings, families, crops and vineyards to teach his audience.
In this week’s parable, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who has thrown a wedding banquet for his son. Imagine the elaborate preparations that a royal wedding would involve. And then consider that, in ancient Israel, weddings were joyful celebrations that took place over days of festivities. Remember the story of the wedding at Cana in John’s gospel? There were vats of wine. And here the king says he has slaughtered his oxen and fatted calves.
This would be the party to end all parties. And, everyone loves a party, right?
But when the king sends his slaves out to invite the guests, the guests don’t respond with enthusiasm, gratitude, or joy.
Instead, some of them are dismissive and others are murderous, killing the messengers who had brought their invitations. And in the spirit of “taking an eye for an eye” (Leviticus 4:19-21), the king responds to their violence with his own vengeance, ordering his army to kill the murderers and burn their city to the ground.
Now, Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience sometime after 80 CE, after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE. Living under Roman occupation, his listeners would have known about rulers who destroy cities and oppress people.
They also would have known the Isaiah text we heard earlier. We divide the writings of the prophet Isaiah into three parts, and that text is in what we call First Isaiah. It is set in the time before the destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem, and before the exile under the Babylonian empire.
In the text, the prophet describes a city that has been destroyed, a place where ruthless nations had ruled. And then he acknowledges how God has responded to God’s people, providing refuge to the poor and to the needy. And he makes a promise that eventually there will be a great banquet or feast for all people. And that the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, will save his people.
So, returning to our gospel, we have heard how the city was destroyed and we have heard how the ruthless murderers have been killed. So we are ready to hear about the great banquet or feast for all people.
And in the parable, that is what comes next. The king sends out more slaves, and this time they are told to invite everyone they find to the wedding banquet. The invitation is no longer limited; it is wide open and all are invited. And the slaves do what they’re told, and the wedding hall is filled with people.
But then we get a twist. And this appears to be Matthew’s addition because the same parable appears in Luke, but Luke ends it after the slaves go out a second time, with the king saying, “For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.” (Luke 4:24)
Matthew concludes the parable with an encounter between the king and a wedding guest. Apparently, the guest, whom the king calls “friend”, isn’t clothed appropriately. We may be curious about the word “friend”, because it’s the same word used by the vineyard owner when he speaks to the laborers who complained about their wages (Matthew 20) and it’s the same word that Jesus uses when he addresses Judas Iscariot in Gesthemane when Judas arrives to betray him. (Matthew 26)
Although the king had told the slaves to invite everyone, he has a problem with this guest. After questioning the wedding guest about how he got into the banquet, the king orders him bound and thrown into the outer darkness where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (v. 14).
This is a phrase Matthew uses six times and Luke only uses once, and it doesn’t appear anywhere else in Scripture. It reflects the theme of judgment that we hear in Matthew’s gospel alongside the call to discipleship and bearing fruit. However, the judgment isn’t about who gets to come to the banquet. Everyone is invited.
Instead, Matthew “repeatedly calls his community to responsible obedience.”[i] When we become disciples and follow Jesus, we have a responsibility to our neighbors and the world, and we are accountable for how we bear witness to who God is.
As we remember in our thanksgiving for baptism, when we are joined to Christ in the waters of baptism, we are clothed with God's mercy and forgiveness. As Paul writes in Ephesians, Galatians and Colossians, we are transformed when we put on Christ, a new self. I understand that the wedding guest who is cast out of the banquet in Matthew’s parable illustrates that discipleship is not only showing up, but living out our faith in our actions and words throughout our lives.
Echoing his message about the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13; Luke 13:23) and the difficulty of a rich person entering the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24), Matthew ends his parable saying, “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
So where is the good news? And what is Jesus telling
us about God and the kingdom of heaven?
The text has several problems, and it challenges us and in places, it makes us uncomfortable. It’s ok for us to admit that.
First, if we have been thinking that the king represents God, we have a vengeful and violent God. And that isn’t good news.
A second problem comes from our tendency to see ourselves in the role of the hero in the parables that Jesus tells. Honestly, we usually aren’t. Instead, we are much more likely to be the ones who respond with stubborn and hardened hearts and the ones who ignore the generosity we witness. So in this parable, that would make us the ones whom the king destroys. Still no good news.
And third, it’s important to say aloud that anti-Semitic interpretations of this parable that see the two groups of guests as plan A and plan B, the Jews and the Gentiles, is also problematic. Christians do not replace the Jewish people; we are included in the invitation.
I think Martin Luther is helpful for our understanding of this parable. Referring to Christ’s return, Luther is quoted as saying, “There are two days in my calendar: This day and that Day.”
“This day” is today.
And “that Day” is the day or the messianic banquet or the great feast for all people when God will wipe away the tears from all faces. (Isaiah 25:8) It is the wedding banquet where everyone is invited.
Luther recognized that what is important is today ̶ not dwelling in the past or worrying about the unknown future. Today, we can follow Christ and today we can love our neighbor.
And meanwhile, with those listening to Jesus tell this parable, we trust that Isaiah’s words will be fulfilled and there will be a great feast for all people when the Lord God will swallow up death forever and wipe away the tears from all faces. (Isaiah 25:8-9) And our expectation of that Day shapes how we live This day. “We live today, as those who are waiting for Jesus’ return.”[ii]
Let us pray.
Good and gracious God,
Thank you for your grace and mercy and the invitation
to live in your kingdom.
Thank you for clothing us in righteousness at our
baptism and teaching us how to live our lives in Christ, as disciples
transformed by your generous love.
Help us put on Christ daily, bearing fruit and
preparing for the great feast that is to come.
We pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
[i] James
Boyce. “Theological Themes in Matthew.” Enter the Bible. Luther Seminary.. https://enterthebible.org/courses/matthew/lessons/theological-themes-in-matthew,
accessed 10/12/23.
[ii] Lewis Guest IV. “This Day and That Day: The Pressures of Today and the Returning King. “ DesiringGod.org. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/this-day-and-that-day, accessed 10/12/23.
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