Everyone You Find
Sunday, October 9th, 2005
Pentecost + 21
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 22:1-14
Last night, we ate supper with a friend of ours and her family. We’ve been trying to get together for almost a month, but schedules had not permitted, and although we had everything worked out last week to get together, towards the middle of the week we realized that our friends Doug and Lea and their daughter Karen were fast running out of time available to visit with friends and family before flying out today to return to Hungary, so I sent our friend an email asking if it would be possible to postpone our dinner until last night. Her response was quick and easy. There was no problem. Having explained the reason for the request, she fully understood, and would have done the same thing had she been in our situation. It was an understanding among equals that there was no intention to show disrespect or belittle the person making the invitation; it was simply a matter of time constraints and encroaching separation. Our dinner last night was as enjoyable as it might have been earlier, with no repercussions from having postponed it twice before it actually took place.
The parable Jesus presents us with today does involve an invitation to a banquet, but the similarities stop there.
The invitation is offered, in the story, by a King. And the folks receiving the invitation reject it for a number of reasons. Remember, Jesus is facing down the Pharisees and Sadducees in Jerusalem in his last week of mortal life on earth, and following the previous two passages we’ve gone over the last two weeks, this one in some ways is a culmination of a progression of indictments that Jesus is leveling at the leaders of the religious establishment of his day.
As we move through these passages towards the end of the Gospel according to Matthew, we are faced with Jesus telling everyone around him what is about to happen to him and trying to describe to them how God is going to respond. Always in human terms, familiar terms, regular day-to-day images, but with outcomes or events being described that strain the imagination. The depth of the depravity, the coldness and arrogance and defiance described is one that just cannot seem to BE real. It can’t POSSIBLY exist, can it?
The sad truth is that it does and always has, since nearly the beginning, existed within the human spirit. It is one of the aspects of having a free will that makes for horror stories of atrocities committed in the name of race, religion, ethnicity, class, age, sex, and any number of other distinguishing factors. And the scary truth is that we find it not ONLY in a society that generally ignores the fact that there is a God who loves all of humanity and longs to be in relationship with all of us, but that we also find it hidden away – and sometimes not so hidden – within our own psyches, within our own hearts. settled in and making a home for itself as though everything it believes is normal, understood, and obvious, and not totally contrary to the teaching of the gospel.
There’s something wrenching in reading of the offer to attend a wedding banquet. The offer comes from not just anyone, but from a KING. It is understood that the party will not be a run-of-the-mill one. Royalty are expected to have more, do more, and be more… They can do, be and have because they are ROYALTY, by virtue of their position they have access to so much more than a regular person would have.
This would’ve been an obvious understanding to the hearers of the parable in the temple that day. They lived in a society where the King lived a life so far removed from the daily, desperate struggle of the men and women in the streets that they were practically a different species.
One of the professors at Southern, a New Testament Scholar who has since passed away, was in the process of writing a book about a singular aspect of the parables of Jesus. That is, the fact that in most all of Jesus’ parables, there is a predictability to the story that draws the listener into the story, but at a certain point, something happens in the story, either a character is introduced, or an action is taken, or a response is given, that causes that listener to rear back and go “WHAT??!!” … or more accurately, “HUH??!!” in reply.
That happens in this parable. Note that this one is different from the last few parables we’ve been studying over the last couple of weeks. Those didn’t have “the kingdom is like” at the front of them, remember? Jesus was presenting situations that were antithetical – completely opposed – to what the Kingdom was supposed to be like. Here, AFTER having gone through those, he comes back and introduces this parable with the familiar formula: “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to …”
The wrenching comes in at the same point where the listeners would have reared back with the shocked look on their faces: in verse 5, we read that in response to the King’s second attempt to invite the people to his wedding feast, “they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.”
They are not exactly up on Emily Post’s book of etiquette, are they? To reject a King’s invitation is to not only be rude, but it is an affront to the King’s authority. Jesus has been dwelling on that theme for the last three weeks, since that was the issue that the religious establishment was challenging him on.
It was becoming increasingly obvious to both the regular people as well as the temple leadership that was listening to him that the characters in the parables that were either mistreating or outright killing those sent from or by the king – whether in this passage or in the previous passages we’ve read – were the folks who more than anyone else considered themselves deserving of a place in the Kingdom of God. After all, they were the best of the best, the purest of the pure, and the most obedient of all.
Jesus’ whole thrust with them was to try to make them realize that it wasn’t about what you looked like or said on the outside – it was who and what you were like on the inside that TRULY determined what your relationship to God would be.
So we have Jesus declaring that those invited to the wedding feast are turning the invitation away. On a larger scale, Jesus isn’t talking only of the temple leadership; he is speaking of the people of Israel. They have been tested and found wanting. Their response to Jesus himself has been mixed at best. Though there are those who have committed themselves to him, there are more who have pitted themselves against him – not JUST the temple leadership, but the population as a whole. From history – and we’ve seen this to some degree in our studies on Wednesday nights through the book of Acts – there was almost from the beginning of the church a growing tension between the Hellenist and Judaist branches, if you will, of the emerging Christian faith – those who came from a Gentile background and those who came from a Jewish one. We also know from history that the same people who welcomed Jesus at the beginning of this week during which he told these parables with shouts of ‘blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’, ended the week with shouts of ‘give us Barabbas!’
Calling and election (or chosen, in the words of verse 14) … roots in God’s grace, not in a person’s merit. The wedding hall will be filled, whether or not those most privileged respond. The picture is one of a generous grace that opens and spills beyond the accepted bounds of society and seeks to include EVERYONE YOU MEET in the invitation. It is both a blessing and warning. It is a blessing to the newly invited, since they would have otherwise had no chance, perhaps, of BEING invited, had those first invitees accepted the invitation, and a warning to the originally invited – to be aware that the invitation does not last forever.
We find a parable within a parable in verses 11-14.
A man is found at the party not wearing a wedding robe. At first reading, it would seem somewhat arbitrary for the King to have this man bound and gagged and tossed out just because he’s not wearing appropriate dress. The truth goes deeper than simple clothing.
The Wedding robe referred to was probably not so much a particular piece of clothing, but it had more to do with the condition of the clothes being worn. God’s free gift of salvation is often pictured as ‘garments of salvation’, or ‘a robe of righteousness’ (Isaiah 61:10) In rabbinical interpretation of Ecclesiastes 9:8, “let your garments be always white,” the robe stands for repentance. In Revelation, a white robe is symbolic of purity or repentance (3:4, 5, 18; 19:8). So here, the wedding robe may symbolize God’s gift of salvation, or specifically, repentance and righteousness. Salvation is offered to Tax collectors, prostitutes, and Gentiles, but it is not indulgence. It is gift and demand.
When asked to explain what right he had to enter (not HOW he got in) without the garment, the man was speechless. Presumably he had no excuse. The point may be that his defiance of authority was greater even than that of those first invited who spurned the invitation. They defied the King’s authority by refusing to attend the feast. This man defied that authority in a more arrogant way, by trying to attend on his own terms.
God is inviting us, yes, and always. And we are free to accept or reject that invitation. The issue is that when we accept it, the invitation is on God’s terms, not ours. Yes, Jesus meets us where we are, but he doesn’t leave us there. His call on our lives is to a life of commitment, of service, of love, of giving, of sacrifice, of care, and of reconciliation.
And that is what the invitation is this morning. To the table that represents Christ’s own sacrifice in our place. It is for all who would come. But it comes with a price. That price is your life for Christ, as was Christ’s life for yours.
(communion, prayer)
Sunday, October 9th, 2005
Pentecost + 21
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 22:1-14
Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” 5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 ‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.’
Last night, we ate supper with a friend of ours and her family. We’ve been trying to get together for almost a month, but schedules had not permitted, and although we had everything worked out last week to get together, towards the middle of the week we realized that our friends Doug and Lea and their daughter Karen were fast running out of time available to visit with friends and family before flying out today to return to Hungary, so I sent our friend an email asking if it would be possible to postpone our dinner until last night. Her response was quick and easy. There was no problem. Having explained the reason for the request, she fully understood, and would have done the same thing had she been in our situation. It was an understanding among equals that there was no intention to show disrespect or belittle the person making the invitation; it was simply a matter of time constraints and encroaching separation. Our dinner last night was as enjoyable as it might have been earlier, with no repercussions from having postponed it twice before it actually took place.
The parable Jesus presents us with today does involve an invitation to a banquet, but the similarities stop there.
The invitation is offered, in the story, by a King. And the folks receiving the invitation reject it for a number of reasons. Remember, Jesus is facing down the Pharisees and Sadducees in Jerusalem in his last week of mortal life on earth, and following the previous two passages we’ve gone over the last two weeks, this one in some ways is a culmination of a progression of indictments that Jesus is leveling at the leaders of the religious establishment of his day.
As we move through these passages towards the end of the Gospel according to Matthew, we are faced with Jesus telling everyone around him what is about to happen to him and trying to describe to them how God is going to respond. Always in human terms, familiar terms, regular day-to-day images, but with outcomes or events being described that strain the imagination. The depth of the depravity, the coldness and arrogance and defiance described is one that just cannot seem to BE real. It can’t POSSIBLY exist, can it?
The sad truth is that it does and always has, since nearly the beginning, existed within the human spirit. It is one of the aspects of having a free will that makes for horror stories of atrocities committed in the name of race, religion, ethnicity, class, age, sex, and any number of other distinguishing factors. And the scary truth is that we find it not ONLY in a society that generally ignores the fact that there is a God who loves all of humanity and longs to be in relationship with all of us, but that we also find it hidden away – and sometimes not so hidden – within our own psyches, within our own hearts. settled in and making a home for itself as though everything it believes is normal, understood, and obvious, and not totally contrary to the teaching of the gospel.
There’s something wrenching in reading of the offer to attend a wedding banquet. The offer comes from not just anyone, but from a KING. It is understood that the party will not be a run-of-the-mill one. Royalty are expected to have more, do more, and be more… They can do, be and have because they are ROYALTY, by virtue of their position they have access to so much more than a regular person would have.
This would’ve been an obvious understanding to the hearers of the parable in the temple that day. They lived in a society where the King lived a life so far removed from the daily, desperate struggle of the men and women in the streets that they were practically a different species.
One of the professors at Southern, a New Testament Scholar who has since passed away, was in the process of writing a book about a singular aspect of the parables of Jesus. That is, the fact that in most all of Jesus’ parables, there is a predictability to the story that draws the listener into the story, but at a certain point, something happens in the story, either a character is introduced, or an action is taken, or a response is given, that causes that listener to rear back and go “WHAT??!!” … or more accurately, “HUH??!!” in reply.
That happens in this parable. Note that this one is different from the last few parables we’ve been studying over the last couple of weeks. Those didn’t have “the kingdom is like” at the front of them, remember? Jesus was presenting situations that were antithetical – completely opposed – to what the Kingdom was supposed to be like. Here, AFTER having gone through those, he comes back and introduces this parable with the familiar formula: “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to …”
The wrenching comes in at the same point where the listeners would have reared back with the shocked look on their faces: in verse 5, we read that in response to the King’s second attempt to invite the people to his wedding feast, “they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.”
They are not exactly up on Emily Post’s book of etiquette, are they? To reject a King’s invitation is to not only be rude, but it is an affront to the King’s authority. Jesus has been dwelling on that theme for the last three weeks, since that was the issue that the religious establishment was challenging him on.
It was becoming increasingly obvious to both the regular people as well as the temple leadership that was listening to him that the characters in the parables that were either mistreating or outright killing those sent from or by the king – whether in this passage or in the previous passages we’ve read – were the folks who more than anyone else considered themselves deserving of a place in the Kingdom of God. After all, they were the best of the best, the purest of the pure, and the most obedient of all.
Jesus’ whole thrust with them was to try to make them realize that it wasn’t about what you looked like or said on the outside – it was who and what you were like on the inside that TRULY determined what your relationship to God would be.
So we have Jesus declaring that those invited to the wedding feast are turning the invitation away. On a larger scale, Jesus isn’t talking only of the temple leadership; he is speaking of the people of Israel. They have been tested and found wanting. Their response to Jesus himself has been mixed at best. Though there are those who have committed themselves to him, there are more who have pitted themselves against him – not JUST the temple leadership, but the population as a whole. From history – and we’ve seen this to some degree in our studies on Wednesday nights through the book of Acts – there was almost from the beginning of the church a growing tension between the Hellenist and Judaist branches, if you will, of the emerging Christian faith – those who came from a Gentile background and those who came from a Jewish one. We also know from history that the same people who welcomed Jesus at the beginning of this week during which he told these parables with shouts of ‘blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’, ended the week with shouts of ‘give us Barabbas!’
Calling and election (or chosen, in the words of verse 14) … roots in God’s grace, not in a person’s merit. The wedding hall will be filled, whether or not those most privileged respond. The picture is one of a generous grace that opens and spills beyond the accepted bounds of society and seeks to include EVERYONE YOU MEET in the invitation. It is both a blessing and warning. It is a blessing to the newly invited, since they would have otherwise had no chance, perhaps, of BEING invited, had those first invitees accepted the invitation, and a warning to the originally invited – to be aware that the invitation does not last forever.
We find a parable within a parable in verses 11-14.
A man is found at the party not wearing a wedding robe. At first reading, it would seem somewhat arbitrary for the King to have this man bound and gagged and tossed out just because he’s not wearing appropriate dress. The truth goes deeper than simple clothing.
The Wedding robe referred to was probably not so much a particular piece of clothing, but it had more to do with the condition of the clothes being worn. God’s free gift of salvation is often pictured as ‘garments of salvation’, or ‘a robe of righteousness’ (Isaiah 61:10) In rabbinical interpretation of Ecclesiastes 9:8, “let your garments be always white,” the robe stands for repentance. In Revelation, a white robe is symbolic of purity or repentance (3:4, 5, 18; 19:8). So here, the wedding robe may symbolize God’s gift of salvation, or specifically, repentance and righteousness. Salvation is offered to Tax collectors, prostitutes, and Gentiles, but it is not indulgence. It is gift and demand.
When asked to explain what right he had to enter (not HOW he got in) without the garment, the man was speechless. Presumably he had no excuse. The point may be that his defiance of authority was greater even than that of those first invited who spurned the invitation. They defied the King’s authority by refusing to attend the feast. This man defied that authority in a more arrogant way, by trying to attend on his own terms.
God is inviting us, yes, and always. And we are free to accept or reject that invitation. The issue is that when we accept it, the invitation is on God’s terms, not ours. Yes, Jesus meets us where we are, but he doesn’t leave us there. His call on our lives is to a life of commitment, of service, of love, of giving, of sacrifice, of care, and of reconciliation.
And that is what the invitation is this morning. To the table that represents Christ’s own sacrifice in our place. It is for all who would come. But it comes with a price. That price is your life for Christ, as was Christ’s life for yours.
(communion, prayer)
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