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The Invitation
- This scripture includes a pair of parables (Matthew 22:1-10 and Matthew 22:11-14). They are often treated as a single parable because the setting for both is a wedding banquet. However, they make two related but somewhat different points. Both are allegories—"stories in which the various elements (people, things, happenings) have a hidden or symbolic meaning."
- When dealing with allegories, we need to be careful not to push interpretations too far. Allegories are generally intended to make a single point. We will profit by focusing on the overall intended meaning rather than trying to find significance in every verse or portion thereof.
MATTHEW 22:1-10 - THE PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST Jesus spoke again in parables to them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who arranged a marriage feast for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast, but they would not come. Again he sent out other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, "Behold, I have prepared my banquet. My cattle and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the marriage feast!" But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise, and the rest grabbed the King's servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them. When the king heard this, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. "Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were invited weren't worthy. Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the marriage feast.' The servants went out into the highways, and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. The wedding was filled with guests."
- The code for understanding this parable is as follows: The king is God. The son is Jesus. The invited guests are the people of Israel, the Jews. The first servants are the prophets throughout the past who invited the Jews to partake of God's banquet. The second set of servants would be those in more recent history. The third are the 'current servants' who are calling for a pending banquet and may have represented John the Baptist.
- This is, obviously, more than a story about a king and a banquet. It is the story of God's intent, and attempt, to establish His Kingdom on earth. Therefore, each and all the guests were being invited to share in the banquet; God's full intended celebration of the presence of His Son and all the pleasures that could be gleaned from the establishing of His Kingdom on earth. God had sent prophets and evangelists to announce His plans. A few were accepted but most were rejected.
- The wedding banquet is a metaphor for the messianic banquet that we may enjoy, in, with, and from Christ It is 'the kingdom of heaven' coming to earth. Isaiah 25:6-9 both foretells and describes this event. "The LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine. The Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and take away the reproach of his people from all the earth. It will be said on that day, "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him that He might save us. Let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation"
- The king (God) takes the initiative to organize this marriage feast and to invite the guests. The point is that our relationship with God depends on what God has done for us combined with our response to His invitation.
- Preparing for a banquet is expensive and requires time, so the custom is to send and accept invitations well in advance. The host then prepares food for the people who accept the invitation. The extension of an invitation first obligates the host to plan, prepare, and pay for the banquet. But consider how the acceptance of an invitation then obligates the guest to appear!
- Once the banquet is ready, the host then sends a second notice. We can assume that the first invitation was issued earlier, and this is now the second invitation.
- I don't know about you but my experience is that it has become the custom that once we have scheduled a medical appointment, we will receive a reminder call a day ahead. Our dentist sorta goes over the top! We get a reminder a month ahead, again a week ahead, then the day before which is then accompanied by a note that failure to arrive will cost us if we don't show.
- The king in Jesus parable sent a servant to those who must have replied that they were coming. The servant said, "Behold, the King has prepared the banquet and all things are now ready. Come to the marriage feast!"' But they made light of it, and went their ways!"
- A guest who fails to attend not only causes food to be wasted, and dishonors the host; but also, now displays a total disrespect for the king and an indifference to their assumed relationship. Middle East scholar, Kenneth Bailey notes that this would have been especially true in the culture of that time and place.
- The invited guests offer no excuses, but simply refuse to honor the invitation. It was one thing to accept an invitation for a dinner to be held sometime in the future. Such acceptance did not inconvenience the guest in any way, and it was an honor to be invited. It is something entirely different however, now when it is time to drop what they are doing, to change clothes, and to go to the banquet! Suddenly the invitation then calls for action! Imagine what type of person would then treat such a commitment as becoming simply an inconvenience!
- The story then becomes exaggerated! A real-life king would not try to persuade people to attend his banquet, but may likely punish those who have committed to come and now refused to come. To make light of a king's invitation was to insult the king and to court real trouble. A king dishonored in this fashion must punish the offenders to salvage his honor. However, this is a story of our God who's loving, forgiving grace, is unlike the angry king's response in this parable.
- Jesus then extended the exaggeration to make what the listener would hear as an even more absurd point. Some of these guests, who had responded to the invitation and committed to attend, then grabbed the King's servants, treating them shamefully, killing them." But this had a real-life connection. This is an allusion to the prophets—God's messengers—who were often murdered by leaders of the Nation of Israel. It was bad enough that some invitees made light of the king's invitation. This group did much worse, invoking and provoking a violent rebellion. Jesus asserted, that was a response to a loving God who offered a bountiful banquet.
- "When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city" Matthew may well have been referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. that he witnessed. He makes it clear that, in his opinion, this destruction was the judgment of God upon the people of Israel for the rejection of his banquet honoring His son.
- "Then the king said to his servants, 'The banquet is ready, but those who were invited are not worthy'" Keep in mind that Matthew is writing to Jewish-Christian readers. They would understand "those invited" to mean Israel. The Apostle Paul addresses this issue in Romans 1:16, where he says that the Gospel "is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and then also for the Greek."
- The king sent a third set of servants to "go therefore and invite all who may respond, to come to the marriage feast." The king has partially redeemed his honor by punishing those who spurned his invitation, but his honor is still in jeopardy unless he can present the banquet. That requires guests, lots of guests. If the king can't fill the hall with his selected people, he will fill it with "as many as may be found"—anyone who will come to the celebration!
- Note that the servants then gathered in both those who were "bad and good". Matthew interprets this as God's outreach to all humankind. He records Jesus as saying: "I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 5:20).
- However, then in (Matthew 7:21) we read; "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven". And then in (Matthew 21:43) "I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to people who bring forth its fruit". Now the seats are filled and the banquet commences.
MATTHEW 22:11-14. THE PARABLE OF THE WEDDING CLOTHING "But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn't have on wedding clothing, and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?' He was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness; there is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.' 14For many are called but few chosen".
- Professor William Barclay explains that Jesus had just said that the king, to supply his feast with guests, sent his messengers out into the highways and byways to gather all in. That is God's 'open door' policy'! "It tells how the Gentiles and the sinners would be gathered in. It is true that the door is open to all, but when they come, they must bring a life which seeks to reflect the love which has been given to them! God's grace is not only a gift, it is an extraordinary responsibility! One cannot go on living the life one lived before meeting Christ. They must grow in Christ; increasingly clothed in a new purity, a new holiness, and a new goodness."
- The clothing issue would appear then, to be growth in holiness through the power of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 3:27 reads; "all you who were baptized into Christ have now clothed yourselves with Christ".
- We have the story, in the book of Acts, about Cornelius a Roman Centurion. He was a Gentile who received the Gospel. The Jewish church in Jerusalem began to recognize that God granted the Gentiles an invitation to his kingdom. The Jews had rejected God's invitation to his kingdom so He invited the Gentiles. The shocking reality that confronts us is that not everyone who has externally responded to God's invitation to his kingdom is going to be accepted by the King. Because we see, in the last four verses of this parable, that not all who are called (invited) to God's kingdom are actually chosen, or accepted, by the King.
- To summarize the point of the Parable of the Wedding Feast; God sent His Son into the world, and the very people who should have celebrated His coming rejected Him, bringing judgment upon themselves. As a result, the kingdom of heaven was opened up to anyone who will set aside his own righteousness and by faith accept the righteousness God provides in Christ.
- In the Bern Blast summary of today's sermon, I told a true story of two children invited to the dinner table. Their places at the table are provided with utensils and glasses are filled with their favorite chilled beverages. A nourishing, steaming hot, meal casts its fragrant aroma. However, preoccupied with their electronic entertainments, they ignore the invitation.
- A second invitation, now with more urgency and a bit more of a demanding tone, issues from the parents. The children, reluctantly, respond. The scene then shifts to the family at the dinner table. The two children commence a display of disrespect for one another, and for their parents, with an uncontrolled bantering that disrupts the dinner fellowship. The children reject the parents call for self-control. "But she said" was each child's justification for the growing hostilities.
- What does a parent now do to restore decorum and simultaneously create an instructional moment for respect? What if God is the Father (parent) and we are the children? Might we be the disrespectful children? Might we be the those invited to the banquet while not wearing the wedding clothes, not clothed in Christ, not matured in the Holy Spirit?
- Listen to the children seated around God's table of fellowship. The same justification, like that raised by these two children, can be heard. "But he said, or But she said!" We believe that somehow, we have a right, a privilege, and perhaps even a responsibility to retaliate. We call this bantering by many names like Republican and Democrat, rich and poor, native and foreigner, black and white, or any of many terms of differentiation.
- We have been given an invitation! We are invited to an extraordinary banquet God has prepared just for us and we may ignore Him! We may ignore His Invitation! Why? Perhaps because we are too self-involved, undisciplined children, and our indolent behaviors simply prevail over His invitation! God's intent is to create and maintain the potential banquet that He has designed and provided for all humankind! Remember in Jesus' parable; though they were invited and replied to the invitation, they then "made light of it, and went their ways".
- Jesus explained that at God's banquet, all are seated around a common table created by God for the nurturing of love, civility, and a joint interest in one another's well-being.
- Now, back to the episode of the indolent children! What can, and what should, the wise parent now do to restore decorum and simultaneously create an instructional moment for respect of one another? This wise parent is a resource we all have that dwells within us! We can hear the invitation of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit calling us (His children) toward such maturity!
- I INVITE you to contemplate this. I hope, pray and trust that you may reflect upon how we, you and I, may accept GOD'S INVITATION TO HIS BANQUET. You may be seated across from people you disagree with, perhaps even people you don't like. In Jesus' parable there is a growing urgency about our response. God is the Father, and the Preparer of the banquet. He is patiently waiting, but meanwhile the steaming hot dish and the chilled beverages are growing tepid! What will God do?
- By the way, the two children in the above true story, stopped arguing and enjoyed their meal. After dinner they went out to play together, showing kindness and respect for one another!