This morning’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew (22:1-14) contains a parable which I find disturbing on multiple levels. Jesus is telling those who are gathered about him that God could be compared to an earthly king who has thrown a big pre-wedding party for his son, and that the invited guests – the chosen ones from society – would not come. Not only would they insult the king by not coming to the banquet, but when the servants where sent to remind them that they were invited by the king – those elite ones made excuses that they had more important “worldly” things to do. Some of the chosen ones even decided that they had the right to seize the king’s servants – beating them and even killing them!
This kind of conduct does not really surprise me. The actions of any society’s elite over the course of centuries has taught many of us that their “self-centeredness” and their “sense of entitlement” can blind them to the reality of almost any situation. A mob of poor people are in the streets crying out in desperate hunger for bread to eat, and the elite respond, “Let them eat cake.” Those individuals whose loved ones have been arrested, beaten, or killed because of their race are walking in the streets in protest, and the elite of the society call for them to be washed away with fire hoses.
The king’s reaction in this morning’s parable was to send out his troops to destroy all of those who had murdered his servants and refused to come to his son’s party. The king even had his servants burn their city to the ground. But what of his son’s wedding party? Who would now be attending this event? The king sent his servants into the streets to gather all that they could find. Everyone, the bad and the good, were gathered so that the wedding hall would be filled to the brim with guests to honor his son.
And now comes for me a very disturbing thought. The king discovers an individual within the hall who is not dressed in the proper clothing to celebrate the wedding of his son. The man is directly questioned, but he is speechless, and so the king has this man bound and thrown into the outer darkness. For some this is a disturbing thought, and it may even appear that the king is merciless, but we should remember that this is a parable being told by Jesus. I believe that the issue is not the type of physical clothing that the individual wore. Rather the type of clothing is a metaphor for the individual’s attitude toward being at the event.
We are all called by the Creator to a time of celebration. Some will come to truly celebrate, they express their unbridled joy for all that God has created and shared. Some will come out of fear; fear of being punished by God or by others for ignoring the call, and so they come only out of a sense of “social duty” to be observed and not to truly celebrate.
Others will not come to join in the time of celebration. But we must be very careful of becoming judgmental for they have many reasons. True, there are those who do not believe in the Creator, but there are also others. A few of them may have “pressing responsibilities” that MUST be attended to: some may have an ill loved one for whom they are responsible for, another has finally – after many years of struggle – gotten a chance to become gainfully employed, and yet another is being held against their will. And yet there are those who have become so lost that they can not even remember how to celebrate.
I hope I have not put any of you to sleep, for it is possible that these thoughts can also be applied to those of us who for years have been attending these gatherings of celebrations. May be they are the ones who are sitting next to us, or may be it is we who have forgotten how to celebrate.
Paul is writing to each one of us as well as to the faithful worshiping community found within the church at Philippi, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. … the God of peace will be with you.”[1]
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