ungrateful guests, 10.9.11

Matthew 22:1-14
1Once 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. 3He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4Again 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.’

5But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10Those 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, 12and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. 13Then 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.’ 14For many are called, but few are chosen.”
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Before we dig into today’s parable, would someone remind us of the parable we talked about last week?

We talked last week about how the Bible pictures the church as the bride of Jesus, so it fits that the wedding of the king’s son would be a good image for the coming of God’s Kingdom.

This parable follows last week’s parables that show Israel’s leaders rejecting God’s calling. Here, instead of abusing the landlord’s servants who came to collect rent, the invited guests reject, beat and kill the servants who come to tell them that the wedding feast is ready.

We recognize why the tenants might act how they do. Greed makes sense as a motivation and we can see how the story fits together, even though we share the landlord’s anger when his servants suffer injustice. The “bad guys” in today’s parable don’t make sense to me. Their violence towards the king’s servants doesn’t get them anything. It seems impulsive, almost sadistic. They not only don’t care about being invited to the wedding feast; they seem to have something against the king who invited them and go out of their way to reject his message.

Like last week’s parable Jesus tells this parable because of the situation around him. Let’s start with the easy part: who is the king in the story? Right, God is the king and we’re talking about God’s kingdom as a wedding feast. Who are the guests who were invited but refuse to come?

Why do you think they refuse?

Who are the people the servants finally gather into the feast?

How do you imagine they feel about being there? What would it be like to be invited into God’s wedding feast?

The amazing thing about our faith is that every day we are invited into God’s kingdom, God’s feast. Whenever we read scripture or come to the communion table or spend time with God in prayer we hear that invitation again.

We’ve been invited to the feast not because of anything we’ve done right or wrong; remember, the servants bring good and bad people in off the streets. We are all invited to the feast of God’s kingdom and because we hear that invitation and enjoy the banquet we also become servants and invite others to the feast as well. That’s an amazing opportunity, a grace-filled invitation.