by Rev. Canon David B. Tabo-oy
v8Then he called his servants and said to them, ‘My wedding feast is ready, but the people I invited did not deserve it. v9Now go to the main streets and invite to the feast as many people as you find.’ v10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, good and bad alike; and the wedding hall was filled with people. v11″The king went in to look at the guests and saw a man who was not wearing wedding clothes. v12’Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ the king asked him. But the man said nothing. v13Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him outside in the dark. There he will cry and gnash his teeth.’” v14And Jesus concluded, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” – Read: Matthew 22:1-14
Marriage as a practice is as old as human civilization itself. It has been an ever-evolving institution, with different societies, cultures, and religions attributing their unique meanings and practices to it. It is commonly celebrated with a wedding celebration. Last August my wife and I attended the wedding of a niece in the States. Although this is the third wedding we have attended in the States through the years, this was a unique one. It was ‘officiated’ by the groom’s best friend who was authorized by the court to perform the ceremony. The couple had a civil marriage prior to the wedding celebration. It was also a unique experience to witness the groom who is Korean wearing a barong tagalog and our niece donning the traditional Korean wedding dress. Weddings can be occasions for elaborate and costly exchanges between a couple and members of their families; the rituals provide opportunities to do things in a way that is similar to how they were done in the past, but also opportunities for innovation; they connect people to new sets of relatives, and to different cultures and generations of their families. It is a great honor to be invited to a wedding ceremony simple or elaborate.
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There was a king who gave a wedding banquet and the invitations to the chosen guests were rejected. This was troubling then, more than twenty centuries ago, when Jesus told this parable about an invitation to a joyous occasion that is rejected by the honored guests and offered to those who are on the margins of society. It is true today. The parable which is in this particular an allegory is about the kingdom of heaven. That means that the king in the story stands for God. The people found in the highways and byways are probably the Gentiles, the invited guests are the children of Israel, and “the king’s troops” is probably a reference to the Romans who burned Jerusalem in AD 70.
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So, here we are. The wedding hall is filled with all sorts of guests. This precise moment in the story is Matthew’s present, the world, right then, as he knew it. It is also the world as we know it: the present age of the church. Matthew is expressing the early Christian belief that, despite the words of the prophets and of John the Baptist, Israel, especially Israel’s leaders, had repeatedly ignored God’s invitation to his great messianic banquet for his son Jesus. So, they are rejected, and the church is formed by the apostles. Remember, the apostles are represented in this allegory by the slaves who are sent to everybody else, to the lower classes, to women, to the gentiles, to the ones who had been ignored. And the apostles are told not to judge, but to invite. That was the way things were when Matthew used this parable of Jesus to tell the story of salvation history. At the end of times, the final judgment, the King arrives and finds to see his guests. And there was one who does not belong: “The king went in to look at the guests and saw a man who was not wearing wedding clothes. v12’Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ the king asked him. But the man said nothing. v13Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him outside in the dark. There he will cry and gnash his teeth.’” (Matthew 22:11-13).
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We can only sympathize with the poor man in the story who has been hauled off the street into the wedding reception where his is a complete stranger, and immediately finds himself in serious trouble because he is not suitably dressed for the occasion. How could he be expected to have the necessary clothes at such a notice? The message goes beyond wearing the right outfit. The message goes much deeper about the right outfit at a wedding. The banquet referred to is eternal life in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is saying that, while God the Father has opened wide the doors of heaven and invited everybody into his kingdom, entrance is not automatic and should not be taken for granted. If we are to gain entrance, we should be spiritually prepared and prove ourselves worthy of the invitation. Moreover, there is no room for complacency because membership of the church does not guarantee salvation.
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One preacher says that our invitation to God’s kingdom was issued for the first time as we wore our christening robe. The priest pronounced that we were clothed in Christ. “You have put on Christ. Alleluia. In him you have been baptized. Alleluia, alleluia.” (ECP-BCP p.225). Yet baptism was only the beginning of that call to spend our lives like Christ. We are invited everyday to follow God more closely and our response is the work of a lifetime. The wedding garment is a symbol of a life in the footsteps of Christ. The question we must ask ourselves is: how are we living that life? The Jews made the fatal mistake of banking too much on their special role as God’s chosen people and failed to take the offer seriously. This can be our story if we think that because we are baptized and are regular church goers that we have done enough. As we go about our daily struggle of trying to make ends meet it’s so easy to leave God out of the picture. (Desmond Knowles).
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The story is mainly about invitations, about God’s constant, persistent, and repeated invitation to God’s great party, the kingdom of heaven. How are we going to respond to God’s invitation to his banquet?
Some fail to make it because they come with the wrong attitude – they want to come to God’s feast in their own righteousness. But others fail to respond to God’s invitation because they don’t really believe that they are invited. There is this story about an old woman who lives in the late 19th Century in Scotland. She lived in great poverty. Her one and only son had gone to the US many years earlier. One day a friend seeing her poverty asked: Doesn’t your son ever help you? “No” she replied “but he does send me interesting pictures.” The friend was about to say harsh words about the son but instead asked if he could see the pictures. The woman went to her drawer and showed him “the pictures” – hundreds of dollars of bank notes. She had been living in poverty for many years without any need for it.
Many do not cash in the treasure that God offers to us. Simply because we do not value the gift that God extends to us. Let us not be unwise – by failing to respond to His invitation to take part in that Great Wedding Feast.
Let us pray.
Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and for ever. Amen.**
