The Rev. Kathi Johnson
Lectionary 28, Year A – 12 October 2014
Text: Matthew 22:1-14
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas
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Grace and peace are with you, from
God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today’s Parable of the Wedding
Banquet follows the parable that we read last week, about the landowner and the
vineyard, and it’s another parable that Jesus is telling to the Jewish
religious leaders. Today’s parable is a weird story. This king invites a bunch
of people over for his son’s big wedding celebration, but the people refuse to
come to the party. So the king sends his slaves back out, to offer the
invitation a second time – this time, the people respond by mistreating and
killing the slaves (does this sound familiar?!). Unlike the landowner in last
week’s parable, the king is enraged and he wipes the people out and he burns
their city.
This is where the story gets really
weird. The king then tells his slaves to go back through the streets to invite
anyone they find to the wedding banquet. (But, are they walking through the
streets of the same city that’s just been burned down?) The slaves find all
these people, and they all come to the party – “good and bad” together – and
they fill the banquet hall to the brim. The king walks through the party, and
notices this one guy who isn’t dressed for the party. The king asks him why
he’s not dressed for the party. When the guy has no answer, the king kicks him
out.
Like so many other parts of
Scripture, there are a few things we must look at in order to understand the
context of the parable. Then, there are things to consider before we start to
apply this story to our own lives.
Part of why this parable is so
mysterious to us is because it was written so very long ago, in a very different
context. Scholars believe that the Gospel of Matthew was written around the
year 85 AD, so actually fairly late in the First Century. At this point in the
First Century, the followers of Jesus are considered a splinter group of
Judaism. The Gospel of Matthew is likely addressing the followers of Jesus who
are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus – but this isn’t Jewish and
Christian conflict yet, this is all still inter-Jewish conflict.
And remember – this is Matthew
writing about all of these things – so what we are reading is Matthew’s view of
them. You might’ve heard this explanation before: if there were to be an
accident out here at South Carrier Parkway and Polo Road, and we had four of us
on the four corners watching the wreck, we’d probably each have a different
perspective and tell the story slightly differently. So it is with the four
gospel writers who tell us about Jesus – and Matthew’s perspective is different
than the other three gospel writers.
This is Matthew’s version of a
parable about airing the community’s dirty laundry for all to see. This is
another allegory, and there are all sorts of interpretations of who represents
whom. Here are mine: the king is God; his son is Jesus; the slaves of the king are
the prophets sent by God; those who refuse to come to the party are those
religious leaders; and those who show up at the party are those who have come
to follow Jesus as the true Messiah. The invitation to the banquet represents
the invitation that God extends to be in relationship with him.
Another detail may be found in this
allegory: the burning of the city by the king in the story is most likely meant
to represent the burning of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. In Matthew’s
view, the Jewish religious leaders who have rejected Jesus as the Messiah are
visited with the misery of their Temple being destroyed. In Matthew’s view, it
is the followers of Jesus who are then invited into the banquet – or invited
into relationship with God.
What are we to do with this poor
guy who comes to the party in the wrong clothes, and then gets kicked out?
Using Matthew’s viewpoint yet again, this guy possibly represents someone who wants
to follow Jesus as the Messiah, but for whatever reason, doesn’t completely buy
into it.
At this time in history, to follow
Jesus was – quite literally – a life-changing decision, and followers of Jesus
were often cut off from their families, friends, and business associates. There
was a lot at stake for those who chose to follow Jesus, and maybe this guy was
waffling a little bit. Matthew here might be expressing some of his own
judgment of someone who didn’t follow Jesus completely.
In light of this difficult parable,
what are we to do with it for ourselves and our own lives, both as individual
followers of Jesus, and as a community of followers of Jesus?
First, I believe that this parable
can teach us about receiving God’s gracious invitation to relationship with
him. God reaches out to bring us to himself. We are washed in the waters of
baptism – we are clothed with Christ. We are then called to do as Paul told the
Colossians to do:
“…clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another
and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the
Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves
with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”[1]
When we put on Christ, we are
clothing ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and
love. These are what we wear – what we show – to others in the name of Jesus.
For I also think that this parable
has a lot to say about our hospitality, and our attitudes toward others. In the
parable, all are welcome to the banquet. When God gathers us together, there
are some whom we might see as being “good” people, and some whom we might see
as being “bad” people – and a lot of us in between. But, here we all are,
gathered as holy and beloved ones of God.
As holy and beloved ones, “…let the
peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one
body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…And whatever
you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God the Father through him.”[2]
Amen.
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