“Wedding Banquet” Matthew 22:1-14

 Friends, this is a hard parable. It’s a parable that has been misunderstood, twisted out of context, and abused. I just want to start out time together this day acknowledging this. My hope and prayer is that as be dig into it together this day that there would be clarity and illumination that can only come from the Holy Spirit. 

If we are honest, part of the reason that this parable is hard is because it is different than any wedding we have been invited to. I still remember the first wedding I was invited to as an adult - not as a plus one on my family’s invitation. My friends and I drove to upstate New York to bear witness to two of our scrabble-playing friends get wed at a place that was equal parts rustic and fancy. It was a wonderful experience!

Now, I also know that not all weddings are that wonderful. You do not need to tell me that as a pastor. But even in some of the worst moments of weddings that went sideways that I’ve witnessed as a pastor, nothing has come close that what we find in the Gospel of Matthew - a tale of folks who do not even want to come. 

Jesus starts out telling about a king whose son was to bed wed in a grand celebration. The king had prepared the most lavish of wedding banquets for his son - so lavish that he apparently didn’t have a concrete guest list in mind. So he starts sending out his servants into the streets of the land to tell folks that they had been invited to the wedding feast. 

Only they would not come. 

So the king tries again, this time though the invitation was to be explained - hey you, you who’ve been invited, don’t you know that the King has prepared a dinner to honor his son. The best of the best has been prepared. It’s ready! You’re invited! Come.

But the people who were invited actually laughed it off and went about the rest of their day.

By now the king is mad. Mad that folks weren’t honoring his son and his hard work celebrating this marriage. Mad that he is being dismissed and dishonored as king of the land. But before his anger could get out of plan, he was able to step back and come up with a new plan. If the folks who were invited didn’t want to come and then why don’t we just invite other people. People who will listen. People who will come. So now the servants went out with a new message - everyone is invited. And soon the banquet hall was filled. 

At first the invitation fell on deaf ears and busy lives, so the king continued to the host the banquet just for unexpected guests. 

This is the last of three parables that Jesus gives to engage the temple authorities. They had been confronting Jesus, day in and day out, about where his authority came from. So Jesus responds with a story. A harsh tale of hostility and people not showing honor.

But that’s not the most confusing part of the story. Its that it simultaneously shows judgment for all and grace for all. 

That moment when the king was mad - he was actually beyond angry; he was enraged. He wanted to send out troops to burn the city down. That, my friends, is judgment for all. The king didn’t start out by inviting the whole town, yet the whole town was to be judged and to suffer harshly. But the king seemed to realize that would leave zero people to come to this momentous occasion, so instead he shows lavish grace. Invite everyone. Every last person. All are welcome to come. 

This uncomfortable parable isn’t just because of the staunch judgment and lavish grace. It’s uncomfortable because we are meant to find our place in it. Who are we? Where are we in this parable? How would we have responded to the king?

Throughout the centuries, in wrestling with this parable it has been assumed that the King is God, the son is Christ, but what about the banquet hall. Well the banquet hall, friends, is the church. Not just the physical building, but the people who make up the church. 

The parable continues… the servants found people both good and bad, and invited them to come. To come and celebrate. To come and fill the banquet hall. 

The truth is we don’t know what folks reasons are for coming to church. I once heard it said that if you have a hundred people in worship, you have a hundred and fifty different reasons that people came. Everyone has a different reason to worship. We are not those in the place to judge folks reasons - we simply exist to invite people to come and experience the lavishness of grace. To have the opportunity and to let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

But if all are invited then what do we make of this last part that makes an already confusing parable even more confusing. What is up with this person who wasn’t dressed right so they were kicked out?

Does that really mean that we are to displace people who don’t dress to the nines or look like us? Absolutely not. That is not stated to be a model for our Christian behavior. Instead, it is to say that the king and the king alone saw into this persons heart and still exacted judgment on the fact that his demeanor made him just as ungrateful to the response to come as those who decided not to come in the first place. 

Did you catch that, Church. It is the king that sees into folks hearts and motives, not us. 

The religious leaders of the time were judging Jesus, thinking that they could see into his heart and he reminds them that isn’t their job. Their job was to invite folks to come to God and they weren’t even really doing that. 

So what about us? How are we doing today when it comes to inviting folks to come. To come and hear the good news. To just come and trust God to do the rest? 

I think a lot of us are probably afraid that if we go out with this message as the servants did that we will be laughed at. Or dismissed. But friends, its not about us. Its not someone rejecting us if they reject the offer that God has sent us out to communicate to come. 

We are also not to be the ones who limit the invitation. By the third time with the servants going out with the invitation it is scandalously large. Everyone. Don’t prejudge who is worthy. Just tell them to come. 

What about us, church? Are we prejudging that people will say no? Or that they won’t fit in? Or that they don’t deserve to hear the good news? Because that isn’t our judgment to make. 

Ultimately, this parable in all of its cutting rawness is a reminder that we have received unmerited grace. And then asks us how we are going to respond. With humility? With gratitude? With obedience? Or with judgment that is not ours to hold? 

What about us church? 

What about you and me?

Amen.