The King's Wedding Feast
Preaching
Preaching the Parables
Series II, Cycle A
Object:
Once 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."
Context
Context of the Lectionary
The First Lesson. (Exodus 32:1-14) The passage recounts the experience of the people of Israel in the wilderness when Moses had gone up the mountain of Sinai. They assumed that he was not returning. They appealed to Aaron for a god to lead them. He got from the people all the gold of their jewelry and from that produced the golden calf. The people proceeded with an orgy of worship. Moses came down and discovered what was happening. In his anger he shattered the tablets which contained the ten commandments. Moses then had to forestall the wrath of God who was inclined to blot out the people for their idolatry. Only Moses' pleading and willingness also to be blotted out turned aside the judgment upon the people.
The Second Lesson. (Philippians 4:1-9) Paul in his concluding message to the Philippians gives some specific instructions for members of the church. He also admonishes the church to continued faithfulness. He urges them to think on the things that will edify and strengthen them in such faithfulness. He assures them that it will bring genuine personal peace.
Gospel. (Matthew 22:1-14) The kingdom of heaven is compared to a wedding feast. Many are invited but refuse the invitation. Finally all kinds of guests are gathered to celebrate the great event.
Psalm. (Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23) The psalm begins with the call to praise the Lord, affirming his goodness and appealing to the Lord for deliverance and prosperity. It then goes on to acknowledge the sins of ancestors and recounts the episode of the golden calf as given in the first lesson.
Context of the Scriptures
The parable is part of the opposition which Jesus experienced after the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and leading up to his crucifixion. It is part of several parables which explain the opposition and the meaning of it. The opposition was primarily centered in the officials of both the religious and the political community of the time.
Matthew in writing the parable probably took some liberties by embellishing it in light of some developments which make the consequences of the opposition even more graphic, such as the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 A.D. (See verse 7 about the burning of the city.)
The parable may be compared to a somewhat similar passage in Luke 14:16-24.
Matthew
22:2 The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.
22:3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding, but they would not come.
22:4 Again 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."
22:5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business,
22:6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.
22:7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
22:8 Then he said to his slaves, "The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy.
22:9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet."
22:10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Luke
14:16 Someone gave a great dinner and invited many.
14:17 At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, "Come; for everything is ready now."
14:18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, "I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets."
14:19 Another said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets."
14:20 Another said, "I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come."
14:21 So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, "Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame."
14:22 And the slave said, "Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room."
14:23 Then the master said to the slave, "Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.
14:24 For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner."
In the Matthean form we really have two parables (The Wedding Feast in 22:1-10 and The Wedding Robe in 22:11-14), whereas in Luke we have only one. If, as is generally assumed, parables in their original form had a single message, then the form recorded in Matthew has added features which allow for more than one message. One message deals with the rejection of the invitation to be part of the kingdom of heaven. The other is the rejection of those who are in the institutional expression of the kingdom of heaven, but are not worthy of it because of their impurities. Luke, on the other hand, is much simpler. It deals only with the excuses that persons make and the alternative offering of the kingdom when those most expected to respond do not accept the invitation. He does elaborate more fully on the excuses which persons make. Luke apparently was not aware of the parable of the wedding robe. No parallels to Matthew's parable of the wedding robe exist elsewhere in the Gospels.
A feast figures as an expression elsewhere in the New Testament. John uses Jesus' participation in the wedding at Cana as a frontice piece for his gospel (John 2:1-11). Jesus was known and criticized for his feasting with sinners and tax collectors. Matthew 25:1-24 has the parable of the wise and unwise virgins who are included or excluded from the wedding due to their foresight or lack of preparation for it. A wedding feast is also one of the figures used in Revelation 14:7-9.
Content
Precis of the Pericope
Jesus' initial message was an invitation to enter the kingdom of heaven. He experienced repeated rejection of the invitation, particularly among the leaders of the spiritual community who should have been most receptive to it. Instead they were the ones who most opposed his ministry. The parable suggests that the invitation to enter the kingdom of heaven is similar to a king who holds a wedding feast. It was customary at the time to send a preliminary announcement of the approaching wedding to allow time to prepare for it. The parable suggests that God's earlier messengers, the prophets and probably also John the Baptist, were not received. Instead they were harassed and sometimes murdered. People continued "business as usual" despite the invitation to the great opportunity offered them. When the spiritual leaders reject the message and eliminate the messengers, the invitation is extended to others. Jesus probably referred to the sinners and tax collectors who responded readily. Matthew, writing some 40 years later, would have also understood it to apply to the Gentiles who were now part of the Christian church.
The second parable, Matthew 22:11-14, deals with a different problem that no doubt existed within the church. While the kingdom was open to the good and bad alike, persons who came into the church needed to lead lives worthy of the grace offered in the invitation. Membership in the church was not sufficient guarantee of salvation. A life had to conform to the demands of the kingdom once a person responded and claimed to be part of the kingdom.
Key Words in the Parable
1. "King." (v. 2) If the message is about the kingdom of heaven, then God is the King. It is reminiscent of the time in the Old Testament when Israel had no king but Yahweh, before the anointing of Saul as king under Samuel. Thus the wedding feast is no ordinary occasion. It would be a great honor to be invited to such a feast.
2. "Slaves." (v. 3) God uses servants to announce the invitation to accept his lordship and to enjoy the privileges and pleasures of honored guests. The prophets and preachers of former times would be those who had issued the invitation on behalf of God. Jesus took upon himself the role of the slave or servant (see Philippians 2:6, 7). In retrospect Matthew would also identify Jesus as among the slaves or servants who were slaughtered for carrying the message of invitation which was rejected.
3. "Invite Everyone ... to the Banquet." (v. 9) Jesus turned to the sinners and tax collectors with the invitation. He increasingly found receptivity among those persons while the spiritual leadership rejected his claims and his message. Again, Matthew, writing much later, would also recognize that Gentiles were responding in greater numbers than the Jews. Birthright did not guarantee being worthy of inclusion in the kingdom. The invitation has become universal, breaking the bounds of any national or ethnic particularism.
4. "Wearing a Wedding Robe." (v. 11) According to reports, the custom of the time was that persons waited around the king's palace, hoping to be invited into a feast. That would be especially true when a wedding feast was expected. Most persons would come in their finery, prepared for a wedding. Some, while waiting, apparently soiled their garments and did not have time to get them to the fuller to have them cleansed. By the time the gospel was composed, the church would have existed long enough that some would have slipped back into practices that were not proper for the kingdom. The parable warns that response to the invitation requires a proper life to accord with the participation in the kingdom. While the invitation is given without regard to whether one deserves it -- "they found, both good and bad" (v. 10) -- the joys of life in the kingdom are canceled if one does not prove worthy of being in the presence of the king.
5. "Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth." (v. 13) This expression is symbolic of the distress of those who have missed the meaning of real life in the kingdom. To be out of the presence of the king who is the source of life leaves persons in darkness. They then experience deep sorrow and regret at having missed the point of what life is all about.
Contemplation
The parable of the wedding feast has some problems associated with it. A danger which many face is to try to press every detail of the parable for meaning. It is best to keep in mind that a parable has a single point generally.
Question 1 -- Is life in the kingdom of heaven one of joy? Too often persons view religion as negative and repressive. They know about the ten commandments with "Thou shalt not." They have probably been more impressed with the woes and threats of the gospel accounts than they are with the blessings. Jesus uses the image of the wedding feast to suggest the joy of life in the kingdom. It is contrasted with life outside the kingdom.
Question 2 -- Who are the slaves sent by the King today? How can you discern who bears an authentic message of invitation? Do we still reject the messengers? David Koresh of Waco notoriety claimed to be a messiah, a chosen messenger of God. He attracted a number of dedicated followers. The federal government denied his claim. Earlier the Jonestown episode had a similar gathering that followed the leader from California to Guiana. Both of these situations ended in major tragedies. How do you validate who is an authentic messenger? Does the assassination of persons such as Martin Luther King, Jr., or Oscar Romero in El Salvador show that we still slaughter the bearers of God's invitation to the wedding feast? Some thought they were also false messengers who had to be eliminated.
Question 3 -- To what extent does the parable justify an understanding of the anger and wrath of God? The destruction of Jerusalem was probably understood by Matthew and the early church as a consequence of the anger of God for the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus. Does God bring catastrophe on both the good and evil in a city such as Jerusalem as a manifestation of his anger? Someone suggested that the so-called "500 year flood" of the Mississippi might be related to the presence of increasing numbers of gambling boats on the river. Would God impose the suffering on such a wide area to make people aware of the consequence of such an evil?
How do you deal with the wrath of God in consigning the unrighteous to outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth? Jesus seems to have presented both a loving, gracious, and forgiving God and an angry, wrathful God. How do you harmonize the two understandings of God's nature?
Question 4 -- Is Christianity exclusive or inclusive? The conclusion of the double parable is "For many are called, but few are chosen" (v. 14). The invitation seems to be wide open and inclusive. Both the good and the bad are brought into the feast (v. 10). The one who is improperly attired is cast out to darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth (v. 13). The kingdom has its demands. In that sense it is exclusive. But the invitation is universal. The choice is left open to the person who may respond positively or negatively. While persons cannot earn entrance into the kingdom, they can prove themselves unworthy by their rejection of its demands once they have entered into it.
Question 5 -- What is the relationship between the kingdom and the church? In contemporary society the church primarily enjoys acceptance and status. Not many Christians in democratic societies are suffering persecution. Rarely are preachers who proclaim the kingdom message slaughtered. Is it because the church has leavened the society, or is it because the church no longer presents the radical invitation to kingdom living? Has the church as it lives today made too easy an accommodation with the world around it? To be in the church do people not have to make real choices between the values of the kingdom and the values found in their work on the farm, in the factory, in business, in marrying and divorcing? Does the church no longer represent the coming of the kingdom, the wedding feast of God?
Question 6 -- Is it true that many are called but few are chosen? (v. 14) Is Christianity only for the minority? Lawrence Kohlberg proposes that persons go through various stages of moral development: they begin with deference to superior power, obeying rules to avoid punishment; they move to self-gratification, proceed to mutual relationships, then to maintaining the social order, on to a social contract legalism, and finally orient to universal principles where they act according to what everyone everywhere should do at all times. Kohlberg suggests that most people operate at two levels, a lower and the next higher level.
Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist, disagrees with Kohlberg's proposal that movement from a lower level to the next higher is dependent upon stages of development that are age related. Coles does accept the general idea of the order of levels of moral action. Did Jesus recognize that few reach the highest stage of moral and spiritual development? All are confronted in life with the call for the highest level of moral and spiritual response, but in reality only few accept the responsibility to act according to universal principles, that is to live in the kingdom of heaven.
Permanent Preaching Values of the Parable
1. The character of the King tells us something about the nature of the kingdom. It is in dealing with the character of the king as described in the parable that one should be careful about pressing the details of the story too far.
A. The character of the king. The character of the king is more correctly portrayed in his readiness to offer the invitation to all, regardless of how worthy they are initially. The rage of the king is more a human characteristic than one of God. Nevertheless, God operates within a moral order which he created and life has consequences as suggested in the second part of the two parables.
B. Who is eligible for citizenship in the kingdom? Here the grace of God is manifested in the openness of the invitation. It is not a privileged few determined by some arbitrary standard of wealth, power, ethnicity, or other human measures which decides who may come to the feast. All are welcome if they are willing to submit to God's gracious rule.
C. Requirements of citizenship? Once in the kingdom, certain demands are placed upon its members. They live in obedience to the King whom they have accepted as Lord over their lives. Some have suggested, for example, that the Sermon on the Mount, especially the beatitudes, gives the qualifications of citizens in the kingdom.
D. The benefits of citizenship. Enjoying the presence of the King and the largess of his grace is a primary benefit. One lives the festive life in the kingdom.
2. Who has been invited? The parable suggests who may be offered entrance into the kingdom and how the invitation is extended.
A. The Gracious Invitation. It is freely offered to all so that they may enter by grace.
B. The Mediated Message. The task of the messenger is to make the invitation to be attractive.
C. Membership is Self-Selected. While the offer is freely given and all are invited, persons must respond and be ready to participate in accordance with the nature of the wedding feast.
3. The Danger of Doing Good. The good may be an obstacle to the best. Persons should establish life priorities. The kingdom defines those priorities for true living.
A. The obstacle of work and family.
B. The obstacle of seeking results above all.
C. The obstacle of wrong means for good ends.
4. The Divine Diversity. God seeks to bring into union all manner of persons. The church should unite all people in a colorful array of diversity.
A. The church shatters economic barriers.
B. The church shatters racial barriers.
C. The church shatters gender barriers.
D. The church shatters cultural barriers.
Contact
The customs for a wedding feast in Jesus' day are different from our own. The preacher will need to translate the parable in a fashion that makes sense to people today. In a time when religious tolerance is generally promoted in western society the preacher will need to distinguish between tolerance of other persons and the recognition that the kingdom has demands that not everyone is willing to accept.
Two invitations were sent by the king. To the first invitation people declined because they were too preoccupied with the daily affairs of life. They were too busy with their routines to give heed to their spiritual lives. They were so concerned with making a living that they failed to make a life.
The people who were given the second invitation were not simply indifferent. They were in active rebellion against the king. They did not like the message so they killed the messengers.
The question to be posed is whether we miss the opportunity to enjoy the blessings of the kingdom because of indifference and neglect or are we engaged in active rebellion against the claims of the King on our life.
Illustrative Material
1. Religion a burden? An elderly Dutch couple toured American churches with a group. Toward the end of the trip as they sat resting while the other members looked at an impressive government building, the couple mused about their observations of churches of the same denomination in two different areas. They wondered why the members of the churches in one area seemed to be carried by their religion while the members of the same denomination in another area seemed to be carrying their religion as a burden.
2. Is joy excluded? A snowbound minister of a New England church decided that the only way he could get to the church on Sunday morning was to skate along a frozen river. He did so. After the morning service the elders asked him to wait while they had a consultation. Eventually they asked him to join them. The head of the session said they had some concern about his skating to church. He then told the pastor that they really had only one question, "Did you or did you not enjoy it?"
3. Doing wrong to do good. George DuPre of Calgary, Canada, reported that he had been a British agent in France during World War II. He was captured by the German Gestapo and underwent cruel torture. He refused to disclose the names of his colleagues in the French underground resistance movement. But the story proved to be a hoax. He confessed that it was not true but explained that he invented the story and others so that the Boy Scouts and other groups would listen to him with respect. He thought that by so doing he would be more able to influence them for good.
__________________
A woman who worked for an institution embezzled large sums of money. She never benefitted personally from the funds she took. She gave all the money to charitable organizations with whose purposes she had sympathy, but she did not have the resources to support them from her salary. Eventually she was discovered and had to pay the price for misuse of other's money.
4. Doing good for the wrong reason.
Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain.
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
T.S. Eliot, "Murder In The Cathedral"
Context
Context of the Lectionary
The First Lesson. (Exodus 32:1-14) The passage recounts the experience of the people of Israel in the wilderness when Moses had gone up the mountain of Sinai. They assumed that he was not returning. They appealed to Aaron for a god to lead them. He got from the people all the gold of their jewelry and from that produced the golden calf. The people proceeded with an orgy of worship. Moses came down and discovered what was happening. In his anger he shattered the tablets which contained the ten commandments. Moses then had to forestall the wrath of God who was inclined to blot out the people for their idolatry. Only Moses' pleading and willingness also to be blotted out turned aside the judgment upon the people.
The Second Lesson. (Philippians 4:1-9) Paul in his concluding message to the Philippians gives some specific instructions for members of the church. He also admonishes the church to continued faithfulness. He urges them to think on the things that will edify and strengthen them in such faithfulness. He assures them that it will bring genuine personal peace.
Gospel. (Matthew 22:1-14) The kingdom of heaven is compared to a wedding feast. Many are invited but refuse the invitation. Finally all kinds of guests are gathered to celebrate the great event.
Psalm. (Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23) The psalm begins with the call to praise the Lord, affirming his goodness and appealing to the Lord for deliverance and prosperity. It then goes on to acknowledge the sins of ancestors and recounts the episode of the golden calf as given in the first lesson.
Context of the Scriptures
The parable is part of the opposition which Jesus experienced after the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and leading up to his crucifixion. It is part of several parables which explain the opposition and the meaning of it. The opposition was primarily centered in the officials of both the religious and the political community of the time.
Matthew in writing the parable probably took some liberties by embellishing it in light of some developments which make the consequences of the opposition even more graphic, such as the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 A.D. (See verse 7 about the burning of the city.)
The parable may be compared to a somewhat similar passage in Luke 14:16-24.
Matthew
22:2 The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.
22:3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding, but they would not come.
22:4 Again 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."
22:5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business,
22:6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.
22:7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
22:8 Then he said to his slaves, "The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy.
22:9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet."
22:10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Luke
14:16 Someone gave a great dinner and invited many.
14:17 At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, "Come; for everything is ready now."
14:18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, "I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets."
14:19 Another said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets."
14:20 Another said, "I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come."
14:21 So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, "Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame."
14:22 And the slave said, "Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room."
14:23 Then the master said to the slave, "Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.
14:24 For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner."
In the Matthean form we really have two parables (The Wedding Feast in 22:1-10 and The Wedding Robe in 22:11-14), whereas in Luke we have only one. If, as is generally assumed, parables in their original form had a single message, then the form recorded in Matthew has added features which allow for more than one message. One message deals with the rejection of the invitation to be part of the kingdom of heaven. The other is the rejection of those who are in the institutional expression of the kingdom of heaven, but are not worthy of it because of their impurities. Luke, on the other hand, is much simpler. It deals only with the excuses that persons make and the alternative offering of the kingdom when those most expected to respond do not accept the invitation. He does elaborate more fully on the excuses which persons make. Luke apparently was not aware of the parable of the wedding robe. No parallels to Matthew's parable of the wedding robe exist elsewhere in the Gospels.
A feast figures as an expression elsewhere in the New Testament. John uses Jesus' participation in the wedding at Cana as a frontice piece for his gospel (John 2:1-11). Jesus was known and criticized for his feasting with sinners and tax collectors. Matthew 25:1-24 has the parable of the wise and unwise virgins who are included or excluded from the wedding due to their foresight or lack of preparation for it. A wedding feast is also one of the figures used in Revelation 14:7-9.
Content
Precis of the Pericope
Jesus' initial message was an invitation to enter the kingdom of heaven. He experienced repeated rejection of the invitation, particularly among the leaders of the spiritual community who should have been most receptive to it. Instead they were the ones who most opposed his ministry. The parable suggests that the invitation to enter the kingdom of heaven is similar to a king who holds a wedding feast. It was customary at the time to send a preliminary announcement of the approaching wedding to allow time to prepare for it. The parable suggests that God's earlier messengers, the prophets and probably also John the Baptist, were not received. Instead they were harassed and sometimes murdered. People continued "business as usual" despite the invitation to the great opportunity offered them. When the spiritual leaders reject the message and eliminate the messengers, the invitation is extended to others. Jesus probably referred to the sinners and tax collectors who responded readily. Matthew, writing some 40 years later, would have also understood it to apply to the Gentiles who were now part of the Christian church.
The second parable, Matthew 22:11-14, deals with a different problem that no doubt existed within the church. While the kingdom was open to the good and bad alike, persons who came into the church needed to lead lives worthy of the grace offered in the invitation. Membership in the church was not sufficient guarantee of salvation. A life had to conform to the demands of the kingdom once a person responded and claimed to be part of the kingdom.
Key Words in the Parable
1. "King." (v. 2) If the message is about the kingdom of heaven, then God is the King. It is reminiscent of the time in the Old Testament when Israel had no king but Yahweh, before the anointing of Saul as king under Samuel. Thus the wedding feast is no ordinary occasion. It would be a great honor to be invited to such a feast.
2. "Slaves." (v. 3) God uses servants to announce the invitation to accept his lordship and to enjoy the privileges and pleasures of honored guests. The prophets and preachers of former times would be those who had issued the invitation on behalf of God. Jesus took upon himself the role of the slave or servant (see Philippians 2:6, 7). In retrospect Matthew would also identify Jesus as among the slaves or servants who were slaughtered for carrying the message of invitation which was rejected.
3. "Invite Everyone ... to the Banquet." (v. 9) Jesus turned to the sinners and tax collectors with the invitation. He increasingly found receptivity among those persons while the spiritual leadership rejected his claims and his message. Again, Matthew, writing much later, would also recognize that Gentiles were responding in greater numbers than the Jews. Birthright did not guarantee being worthy of inclusion in the kingdom. The invitation has become universal, breaking the bounds of any national or ethnic particularism.
4. "Wearing a Wedding Robe." (v. 11) According to reports, the custom of the time was that persons waited around the king's palace, hoping to be invited into a feast. That would be especially true when a wedding feast was expected. Most persons would come in their finery, prepared for a wedding. Some, while waiting, apparently soiled their garments and did not have time to get them to the fuller to have them cleansed. By the time the gospel was composed, the church would have existed long enough that some would have slipped back into practices that were not proper for the kingdom. The parable warns that response to the invitation requires a proper life to accord with the participation in the kingdom. While the invitation is given without regard to whether one deserves it -- "they found, both good and bad" (v. 10) -- the joys of life in the kingdom are canceled if one does not prove worthy of being in the presence of the king.
5. "Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth." (v. 13) This expression is symbolic of the distress of those who have missed the meaning of real life in the kingdom. To be out of the presence of the king who is the source of life leaves persons in darkness. They then experience deep sorrow and regret at having missed the point of what life is all about.
Contemplation
The parable of the wedding feast has some problems associated with it. A danger which many face is to try to press every detail of the parable for meaning. It is best to keep in mind that a parable has a single point generally.
Question 1 -- Is life in the kingdom of heaven one of joy? Too often persons view religion as negative and repressive. They know about the ten commandments with "Thou shalt not." They have probably been more impressed with the woes and threats of the gospel accounts than they are with the blessings. Jesus uses the image of the wedding feast to suggest the joy of life in the kingdom. It is contrasted with life outside the kingdom.
Question 2 -- Who are the slaves sent by the King today? How can you discern who bears an authentic message of invitation? Do we still reject the messengers? David Koresh of Waco notoriety claimed to be a messiah, a chosen messenger of God. He attracted a number of dedicated followers. The federal government denied his claim. Earlier the Jonestown episode had a similar gathering that followed the leader from California to Guiana. Both of these situations ended in major tragedies. How do you validate who is an authentic messenger? Does the assassination of persons such as Martin Luther King, Jr., or Oscar Romero in El Salvador show that we still slaughter the bearers of God's invitation to the wedding feast? Some thought they were also false messengers who had to be eliminated.
Question 3 -- To what extent does the parable justify an understanding of the anger and wrath of God? The destruction of Jerusalem was probably understood by Matthew and the early church as a consequence of the anger of God for the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus. Does God bring catastrophe on both the good and evil in a city such as Jerusalem as a manifestation of his anger? Someone suggested that the so-called "500 year flood" of the Mississippi might be related to the presence of increasing numbers of gambling boats on the river. Would God impose the suffering on such a wide area to make people aware of the consequence of such an evil?
How do you deal with the wrath of God in consigning the unrighteous to outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth? Jesus seems to have presented both a loving, gracious, and forgiving God and an angry, wrathful God. How do you harmonize the two understandings of God's nature?
Question 4 -- Is Christianity exclusive or inclusive? The conclusion of the double parable is "For many are called, but few are chosen" (v. 14). The invitation seems to be wide open and inclusive. Both the good and the bad are brought into the feast (v. 10). The one who is improperly attired is cast out to darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth (v. 13). The kingdom has its demands. In that sense it is exclusive. But the invitation is universal. The choice is left open to the person who may respond positively or negatively. While persons cannot earn entrance into the kingdom, they can prove themselves unworthy by their rejection of its demands once they have entered into it.
Question 5 -- What is the relationship between the kingdom and the church? In contemporary society the church primarily enjoys acceptance and status. Not many Christians in democratic societies are suffering persecution. Rarely are preachers who proclaim the kingdom message slaughtered. Is it because the church has leavened the society, or is it because the church no longer presents the radical invitation to kingdom living? Has the church as it lives today made too easy an accommodation with the world around it? To be in the church do people not have to make real choices between the values of the kingdom and the values found in their work on the farm, in the factory, in business, in marrying and divorcing? Does the church no longer represent the coming of the kingdom, the wedding feast of God?
Question 6 -- Is it true that many are called but few are chosen? (v. 14) Is Christianity only for the minority? Lawrence Kohlberg proposes that persons go through various stages of moral development: they begin with deference to superior power, obeying rules to avoid punishment; they move to self-gratification, proceed to mutual relationships, then to maintaining the social order, on to a social contract legalism, and finally orient to universal principles where they act according to what everyone everywhere should do at all times. Kohlberg suggests that most people operate at two levels, a lower and the next higher level.
Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist, disagrees with Kohlberg's proposal that movement from a lower level to the next higher is dependent upon stages of development that are age related. Coles does accept the general idea of the order of levels of moral action. Did Jesus recognize that few reach the highest stage of moral and spiritual development? All are confronted in life with the call for the highest level of moral and spiritual response, but in reality only few accept the responsibility to act according to universal principles, that is to live in the kingdom of heaven.
Permanent Preaching Values of the Parable
1. The character of the King tells us something about the nature of the kingdom. It is in dealing with the character of the king as described in the parable that one should be careful about pressing the details of the story too far.
A. The character of the king. The character of the king is more correctly portrayed in his readiness to offer the invitation to all, regardless of how worthy they are initially. The rage of the king is more a human characteristic than one of God. Nevertheless, God operates within a moral order which he created and life has consequences as suggested in the second part of the two parables.
B. Who is eligible for citizenship in the kingdom? Here the grace of God is manifested in the openness of the invitation. It is not a privileged few determined by some arbitrary standard of wealth, power, ethnicity, or other human measures which decides who may come to the feast. All are welcome if they are willing to submit to God's gracious rule.
C. Requirements of citizenship? Once in the kingdom, certain demands are placed upon its members. They live in obedience to the King whom they have accepted as Lord over their lives. Some have suggested, for example, that the Sermon on the Mount, especially the beatitudes, gives the qualifications of citizens in the kingdom.
D. The benefits of citizenship. Enjoying the presence of the King and the largess of his grace is a primary benefit. One lives the festive life in the kingdom.
2. Who has been invited? The parable suggests who may be offered entrance into the kingdom and how the invitation is extended.
A. The Gracious Invitation. It is freely offered to all so that they may enter by grace.
B. The Mediated Message. The task of the messenger is to make the invitation to be attractive.
C. Membership is Self-Selected. While the offer is freely given and all are invited, persons must respond and be ready to participate in accordance with the nature of the wedding feast.
3. The Danger of Doing Good. The good may be an obstacle to the best. Persons should establish life priorities. The kingdom defines those priorities for true living.
A. The obstacle of work and family.
B. The obstacle of seeking results above all.
C. The obstacle of wrong means for good ends.
4. The Divine Diversity. God seeks to bring into union all manner of persons. The church should unite all people in a colorful array of diversity.
A. The church shatters economic barriers.
B. The church shatters racial barriers.
C. The church shatters gender barriers.
D. The church shatters cultural barriers.
Contact
The customs for a wedding feast in Jesus' day are different from our own. The preacher will need to translate the parable in a fashion that makes sense to people today. In a time when religious tolerance is generally promoted in western society the preacher will need to distinguish between tolerance of other persons and the recognition that the kingdom has demands that not everyone is willing to accept.
Two invitations were sent by the king. To the first invitation people declined because they were too preoccupied with the daily affairs of life. They were too busy with their routines to give heed to their spiritual lives. They were so concerned with making a living that they failed to make a life.
The people who were given the second invitation were not simply indifferent. They were in active rebellion against the king. They did not like the message so they killed the messengers.
The question to be posed is whether we miss the opportunity to enjoy the blessings of the kingdom because of indifference and neglect or are we engaged in active rebellion against the claims of the King on our life.
Illustrative Material
1. Religion a burden? An elderly Dutch couple toured American churches with a group. Toward the end of the trip as they sat resting while the other members looked at an impressive government building, the couple mused about their observations of churches of the same denomination in two different areas. They wondered why the members of the churches in one area seemed to be carried by their religion while the members of the same denomination in another area seemed to be carrying their religion as a burden.
2. Is joy excluded? A snowbound minister of a New England church decided that the only way he could get to the church on Sunday morning was to skate along a frozen river. He did so. After the morning service the elders asked him to wait while they had a consultation. Eventually they asked him to join them. The head of the session said they had some concern about his skating to church. He then told the pastor that they really had only one question, "Did you or did you not enjoy it?"
3. Doing wrong to do good. George DuPre of Calgary, Canada, reported that he had been a British agent in France during World War II. He was captured by the German Gestapo and underwent cruel torture. He refused to disclose the names of his colleagues in the French underground resistance movement. But the story proved to be a hoax. He confessed that it was not true but explained that he invented the story and others so that the Boy Scouts and other groups would listen to him with respect. He thought that by so doing he would be more able to influence them for good.
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A woman who worked for an institution embezzled large sums of money. She never benefitted personally from the funds she took. She gave all the money to charitable organizations with whose purposes she had sympathy, but she did not have the resources to support them from her salary. Eventually she was discovered and had to pay the price for misuse of other's money.
4. Doing good for the wrong reason.
Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain.
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
T.S. Eliot, "Murder In The Cathedral"
