A Very Confusing Parable And Some Reflections on the Church

A Very Confusing Parable

And Some Reflections on the Church

Sometimes I read, and re-read, Jesus’ parables and think to myself, “What in the world was he thinking?” One of these is Matthew 22:1-14 which chronicles the story of a king giving a wedding banquet for his son.  When none of the guests agree to come, the king sends his slaves to invite people from the highways and byways to celebrate with him and his son:  all well and good, so far.  But then one man shows up without a “wedding garment” and the king “bound him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Now I am confused! 

After reading the passage and doing some research, I believe that the writer of Matthew has pushed two of Jesus’ parables together, giving us an unrealistic story.  The “Great Banquet” tells of an invitation into the kingdom, which many ignore, while the second story, “the man without a wedding garment,” speaks of the importance of being prepared to enter the kingdom of God.  Both important lessons, but when pushed together into one risks our missing both lessons.

The important point to note about Jesus’ parables is that they are lifelike, whereas Matthew tends to allegorize many of Jesus’ parables, thus giving them at times unrealistic features such as killing reluctant guests killing the king’s slaves and the king burning their city to the ground.

Looking at Jesus’ original parables I see in the first one a judgment on some of His contemporaries who reject the coming kingdom; an assurance to the outcasts by Jesus that they will be invited to the great banquet and a reminder to be ready.  In the second parable I hear a message to be prepared when the Lord shows up, a very similar invitation to the Parable of the 10 Brides Maids which shows up later in Matthew.  Through both of these parables Jesus invites us to be prepared, to be ready to enter into the kingdom, to take the place that has been prepared for us.

The invitation to the banquet of those not originally invited, of those perhaps unworthy, is how Jesus lived his life.  It is also part of the reason he was often in trouble with the religious and civil authorities of his time.  Jesus made a practice of eating with those he should not have eaten with, Zacchaeus; of healing those whom he should not heal, the Phoenician woman’s daughter; of talking with those with whom he should not talk, the Samaritan woman at the well.  Jesus believed that even Tax Collectors and Prostitutes were invited into and welcome in the Kingdom of God. 

How are we as Christians to hear and live into these two individual parables?  How can they help us follow Jesus in the way that leads to fullness of life?  I believe the answer lies in learning who we are called to invite to the banquet, to worship, to the fellowship in the body of Christ.  With whom do we share the Holy Meal?

We invite those who are searching for meaning, those who have suffered loss, those who have experienced profound joy and the presence of God in their lives.  Some of these people will be like us in dress and background and nationality.  Others will be very different.  They may be a different race, speak a different language.  They may have a different legal status or a different sexual orientation.  Some people God puts in our way may not understand us and our situations any more than we understand them and their situations.  I learned over forty years ago when I lived and studied and worked in a country with different customs and a different language that “understanding would come later, or not at all.”  I chose not to let that keep me from meeting and getting to know the people around me nor keep them from getting to know me.

God does not ask us to change people.  God does not even ask us to understand them. God simply asks us to “invite them to the banquet.”  God will take care of the change, the transformation.  Oh, and if some of them happen to be sinners or hypocrites as we ourselves often are, then God asks us to forgive them just as God forgives us.