19th SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
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Readings: Isaiah 25: 1-9 and Matthew 22: 1-14
Both readings today tell of feasts. Last week we were in vineyards; today we are at feasts. In the reading from Isaiah our imagination is stirred by the description of a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear. This passage is a song of praise for deliverance from oppression. We don’t know who or what it is a deliverance from, but ‘the palace of aliens is a city no more’, and opposition has been brushed aside. The feast seems to be described in both present and future terms, and the writer looks forward to the time when ‘death will be swallowed up for ever.’ The triumph of God marks the end of history – a theme New Testament writers later developed in the light of Jesus’ resurrection.
We’ve been hearing several of the parables of Jesus in recent weeks, but the sequence ends today, and with a far-from-straightforward passage about a wedding banquet. Today’s parable is really an allegory. A parable tends to make one basic point, but in an allegory there are several points of correspondence important to the understanding. Before we get immersed in the detail, it may be pertinent to hang on to the final sentence of the gospel, to get the message – Jesus saying “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
To add to the puzzle about this passage, it seems that today’s gospel is a mixture of stories, maybe written down at different times. We tend to think of the bible as a very orderly and well-printed book, but of course, it didn’t start off like that. For a long time, the stories of Jesus were passed on by word of mouth, and as with anything passed on in that way, there is a danger that the exact words will be altered in the telling.
So, in the story we heard, which is full of urgency and anger, it seems patently unfair, not to say absurd to our way of thinking, that one of the guests for the marriage, picked–up off the streets, should be thrown out because he wasn’t wearing a wedding-garment. Not many of us go out in the morning wearing our finery just in case we get invited to an impromptu wedding! It also seems extreme that those who refused to attend the marriage should have their city burned down. It doesn’t sound exactly the sort of wedding one might want to go to!
The whole point of the story Jesus tells, rather like last week’s parable of the vineyard, is that the very people to whom Jesus was sent rejected him and his message, so others, who didn’t originally feature in God’s plan of salvation, take their place. The servants sent out by the king to invite people to the marriage are the old testament prophets and messengers. These envoys are either ignored or dismissed, and even killed. In this way the Jewish people persistently rejected God’s claims on their lives. In the story the King is throwing this wedding party for his son. It should be a great occasion for rejoicing, and most people would be delighted to be invited. But the people who turn down the invitation don’t care enough about the king’s son. ‘What’s he got to do with us?’ they might say. They reject not just him, but also their share in the future of the nation that he represents.
That attitude heralded big trouble for the nation. The burning down of the city of those who refused the invitation may reflect the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Romans in AD 70. It could be that this part of the story was added later than the time of Jesus, though, of course, he predicted the fate of Jerusalem several times.
Then we come to the rejection of the person not wearing wedding clothes. This would also appear to be an addition to the original story because, as we have said, it makes little sense otherwise. The message here is that those who have been invited or called by God to share the life of his kingdom have to make themselves fit and ready for it. It is not enough simply to accept an invitation and‘turn up’. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time believed that they knew it all and there was nothing further to learn; they had ‘turned up’. Jesus’ words act as a warning to Christian readers not to fall into the same trap. In early Christian baptisms, the person baptised put on new clothes when coming up out of the water. We have seen the tradition continued in baptising infants in white. The Christian must put on the clean clothes of new life in Christ. A verse in the Book of Revelation says “The fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”
Notice that when the king asks the guest pulled off the streets why he is not wearing suitable attire, he was speechless. He shouldn’t have been. He could have said, “I don’t own a wedding gown, but I’d love to borrow one” or “I could see how urgent it was to come so I came without changing.” Instead, he is silent, and he loses his chance. Like the people who rejected the initial invitation, this guest is not interested in his relationship with the king. He never expected or wanted to meet him or speak to him, and he doesn’t care what the banquet is for. This is Matthew’s sombre warning: unless we have come to rejoice with the Son, there is nothing for us here.
What might we take from the parable? We have been invited to God’s banquet, and although we are guests, there is an expectation that we will make ourselves presentable. So, to develop the analogy of the parable – When the king comes in to inspect the wedding guests, what does he find? If the world were to come to an end today, and we found ourselves face-to-face before our Maker, what clean clothes would we display; what answer would we give?
It’s noteworthy that the people who refused the king’s invitation to the wedding banquet all had reasonable everyday excuses. One went off to his farm, and another to his business. It’s so easy to get pre-occupied with the things which are seen and to forget the things that are unseen. It is so often the second best that shuts out the best. William Barclay points out that people can be so busy making a living that they fail to make a life. Or to put it another way – we are in danger of seeing to our bodies and neglecting our souls. Because God does not force himself on us, it is easy to put him low on our agenda. But if so, it is we who miss out.
But if all this sounds a little discouraging, amidst threats of cities being burnt and people thrown out into the streets, we shouldn’t overlook the fact that it was a party that people were being invited to. In fact, there is much partying in the teachings of Jesus about the kingdom of heaven. To be invited to come to God, or to be a Christian is not a gloomy life-restricting affair as some suppose; it is life-extending and joyful. God wants us to enjoy his company and to gather everybody to join in that party. May people be so attracted by what they see in us, living out what is pure, honourable, just and commendable, that they want to join the party too.