Traditional Persian wedding feast
I was looking over yesterday’s reading from Matthew 22 and got seriously distracted, so I’ll finish that post now….
Jesus tells a kingdom parable. The set up is immediately recognized not only by his original audience, but by us. Who hasn’t been invited to a wedding where there is a huge spread and people are impressed by the opulence? Imagine the nicest food, the best table linens, the most tastefully expensive decorations, and a nice soundtrack. That’s pretty much it. The host sends out invitations in advance and everyone knew the party was in the works but when the actual day arrived, people started sending in regrets. No one came.
It doesn’t take much imagination to feel the emotions underlying the story; humiliation, anger, frustration. Rather than throw in the towel and admit failure, the host sends servants out into the byways and invites people who weren’t on the original guest list. They all accept the invitation and have a great time, except for one dude who didn’t bother to dress for the occasion. He is bound and thrown out into the dark night to weep and wail with the other outsiders.
Scholars point to Jesus’ own frustration with resistance shown to his message as the basis for this story. Matthew shows clearly that Jesus’ initial ministry on earth was to “the lost sheep of Israel”. By the time we get to this point in Matthew’s gospel, the lost sheep have shown themselves very reluctant to be found. Jesus turns instead to the outsiders, the Gentiles with the message of righteousness and salvation. Some traditions have used this reluctance and acceptance as an excuse to excoriate Jews and even today, this passage can be used as a prop for one’s own prejudices as to who is “in” and who is “out” in the church.
Yet, Jesus does not give us any easy tools for discrimination here. Yes, the invited guests were excluded by their own choice and yes, the uninvited were given access at the last minute but even they were subject to some standards. William Loader, former professor of New Testament at Murdoch University in Australia writes:
Just when hearers might have been tempted to retreat into a self-righteous sectarian huddle, bemoaning how evil the world is out there, Matthew expands the parable to bring the spotlight on those who turn up at the feast. ‘Where’s your suit and tie?’ Whatever the expectation, someone came wrongly dressed. The breech of this cultural norm may mean little for those who know God looks on the heart (although it is fascinating how it persists in various forms today), but it serves Matthew as a vehicle for challenging his hearers about clothing one’s life in righteousness, a familiar image. It is Matthew’s theme (Jesus’ theme, John the Baptist’s theme) returning: no privilege on the basis of status, not even the status of having joined the Christian community. Only a life of transformed attitude and performance counts. Matthew undermines the ‘them and us’ approach. There can be no sectarian righteous elite.
It never ceases to amaze me how Christians can affect an exclusive attitude toward the Gospel. This parable makes crystal clear to me who “owns” the good news of God in Jesus Christ — Jesus Christ. Not us. We have been given the responsibility to be gate keepers but our work at that gate is to preach good news given by grace to us and to others. It is our responsibility to give tools for transformation and dinner jackets to those coming to the feast unprepared. But notice who it was that had the authority to eject the guest — the host Himself.
Our work is to preach and teach and sometimes even use words to show grace and mercy and offer times and places where the lost can be found and meet face to face the Host of the party. If we turn our minds at all to the question of who “deserves” to be in the dining hall, we would do well to look in a mirror.
