Lesson Focus:
It
is not enough to merely respond to the invitation of God’s salvation; we must
ensure that we are growing in grace and holiness.
Catch up on the story:
Jesus
is still in the Temple confronting the Jewish religious leaders of the
day. They have asked Jesus questions
that challenge his authority to teach and preach. In many ways, they are challenging Jesus'
claim that he is the Son of God. Jesus,
by way of response, launches into a set of three parables, all of which are
connected thematically. The first
parable was the parable of the two sons.
One son is asked to go and work in the field. He says that he will but then doesn't
go. The next son says he won't go, but
then does. The second son is the
faithful one. The Jewish religious
leaders are like the first son.
The
second parable is about a landowner who buys some land and plants a
vineyard. He hires some farmers to work
the land for him and then goes away.
When harvest time comes, the owner sends a servant to collect the
fruit. The farmers mistreat the servant
and kill other servants that are sent.
Finally, the owner sends his own son thinking that he would be respected. The farmers kill the son too. Jesus asks the religious leaders what the
owner will do when he comes back to his vineyard. The religious leaders pronounce judgment on
themselves by saying that the owner will do away with those wicked servants and
will give the land to others who will bring forth the fruit when it is harvest
time.
This
final parable, the parable of the wedding banquet, shares similar themes and
outcomes with the previous two parables.
The Text:
Before we begin it would probably be best to keep in mind
that this parable is most likely intended to be an allegory representing the
history of God’s working of salvation for Israel and the world. As such, some of the details will strain its
credibility as a story of something that actually happened. For instance, it would seem preposterous for
a king to wage a war on his own people all the while keeping the food warm for
a wedding banquet. In a sense, though,
this story really did and is happening for Israel and for us. The table is set, the food is prepared and we
are invited. How will we respond?
Once again, Jesus begins this parable with the familiar
phase, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to..." Remember, when we see this phrase Jesus is
making comparisons between a known world and rule to living in the reign of
God. In other words, Jesus is painting a
picture of life as it should and will be when Jesus' kingdom is fully
established.
To what is Jesus comparing the kingdom of heaven this
time? The kingdom of heaven is compared
to a king who had a son who was getting married. The king planned to hold a great feast to
celebrate this joyous occasion.
Two things need to be noted here. In the previous parable the son in the story
was obviously Jesus. In this parable,
Jesus will once again be making a case for his sonship. God is his Father and he is the Son, the
messiah for which Israel has been waiting.
Which leads us to the second thing that needs to be noted, the image of
the wedding banquet was a common image in Jewish thought. It became the dominant image for the time
when the messiah would come and finally establish his kingdom fully and
completely in Israel. Israel would live
in perfect unity and harmony with God forever, always feasting at his
table. The image maintains a prominent
place in Christian theology moving forward.
The messianic wedding banquet will occur when Christ has returned and has
gathered his followers for eternity.
Those who have not responded to the invitation, or have not properly
prepared themselves for the banquet will be left out.
So, the day of the banquet came and the king sent out his
servants to call in those who had been invited to the banquet. It was common, in this time, for two
invitations to be sent. A first
invitation was sent to let guests know that a banquet was being thrown. It would have not have included a specific
time for the event, rather it was a general call to be ready when the time
came. Then, when the time had come, when
all of the food was ready and the table had been set, a second invitation would
be made. Guests would be summoned to
respond to the initial call because the time for the party had come.[1]
The guests in this parable are obviously Israel and her
religious leaders. Israel has been
called to be God's people, to join God in the time of fulfillment when the
world would be restored to all that it was created to be and there would be abundance,
peace, joy and celebration forever.
Israel had accepted the general call.
"Yes, we will be ready when it comes time for the party!" This initial call works not just for Israel, but
also for those of us in the church. We
have been issued an invitation of our own to God's end time banquet. As the church, we have responded that, yes we
will be ready to join the party when it begins.
In some sense, with the coming of Jesus the messianic wedding banquet
has begun. Jesus is ushering in the
kingdom of heaven and he is calling Israel and us to the party.
The first set of servants goes out. They are met, not with a joyous reception
from those who have been called but with excuses. In verse three, the phrase, "but they
would not come" is in the imperfect tense, conveying repeated and
continual rejection of the invitation.[2] The first servants were persistent, but to no
avail.
The servants come back and report that those who have been
called are not willing to respond. So,
the king instructs his servants to tell his guests that everything is ready and
the time is now. The food is on the table
and the party is beginning! The second
batch of servants met with no greater success than the first. In fact, this time the called guests made fun
of the situation and provided more excuses.
It’s important to note that these excuses were legitimate
activities. They were not refusing to
come to the banquet to engage in shady or immoral activities. Some of the servants met worse fates than
being rejected; some of them were beaten and killed.
As with the previous parable, the king in this parable
exercises great patience by offering multiple invitations. If Israel and her religious leaders are the
guests in this parable, what emerges is a picture of God's faithfulness to
Israel even after repeated rejections of God's invitation. Many of Matthew's first readers would have
been familiar with Israel's history, especially the history of the
prophets.
While Matthew continues to paint a picture of God's patience
and faithfulness, even to those who reject him, he also warns us of the reality
of God's judgment. While God's
forgiveness and grace are unimaginable (The parable of the Merciful Master,
Matthew 18) there comes a time when the call must be either finally and fully
accepted or rejected. For Israel and her
religious leaders that time has come.
Jesus is issuing the invitation now: the time has come, the food is
ready, the table is set.
When the king in the parable learns that his servants have
been mistreated and some even killed he reacts with judgment. He sends his army into the streets to bring
justice to those who killed his servants.
The murders are dealt with and the city is burned. Some commentators believe that this is a
reference to the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. Others think it is merely a part of the story
with no correspondence outside the story itself. Although, it might have been impossible for
the readers of Matthew’s gospel who lived after 70 CE to not see in this
statement the destruction of Jerusalem.
I think a word of warning is due at this point. Our sense of justice almost always desires
that those who are evil or unfaithful deserve their judgment here and now. We call for justice, which often looks like
revenge. The point, in this parable and
the previous one, is that God exercises great restraint, continually pursuing
those who reject him. Judgment finally
comes when the time is right and wicked have finally and fully rejected God's
invitation. The judgment often takes the
form of self-destruction. After repeated rejections of God, Israel brought
destruction upon themselves (in the Babylonian exile). God is always seeking out and pursuing those
who reject him.
The king in the parable is not done calling or inviting
those who would respond to his wedding banquet.
He gathers his remaining servants and, once again, reiterates that
everything is ready. The time is now,
the food is ready and the table is set.
The servants are to go out into the streets to invite anyone they can
find. The stress here is on the “anyone.”
So the servants make their way out into the city streets,
even leaving the city to invite the poor and outcast that live outside of the
city. The good and the bad were invited
and all sorts of people responded to the invitation. The wedding banquet hall is finally
filled.
As with the previous parable of the vineyard, Israel's
religious leaders are found unworthy and left on the outside. In the parable of the vineyard, the land is
given to another people who will faithfully bring the fruit to the owner. In this parable, however, while Israel is
left on the outside, the summons is to anyone who will respond, the good and
the bad alike. This points to the mixed
nature of the church for Matthew. Israel
has not been completely rejected, only those, like the religious leaders, who
fail to properly respond to the invitation, will be rejected. For Matthew, the church and the kingdom of
heaven will be filled with Jews and Gentiles alike.
Jesus could have stopped the story right here. It would be enough good news to know that God
relentlessly pursues those whom he calls even when they reject him. It would be enough good news to know that the
invitation to participate in God's kingdom is extended to everyone. But the parable raises another question, one
for Israel's leaders and for us as the church today. What does it mean to respond to God's
invitation now that the time has come?
The king is now mingling with his guests, rejoicing in the
fact that so many responded to his invitation.
He looks across the room and sees a man who is not properly dressed for
the occasion. The king wanders over to
the man and asks him how he got in without being properly dressed. The man is speechless in the face of this
question. The king, seeing that the man
has no response, has his servants bind the man and throw him out of the party
into the darkness.
Jesus ends the parable with a warning, “For many are called,
but few are chosen.” We need not have a
conversation here about predestination, the understanding that God chooses who
is able to respond, electing some to an eternity with him. The inclusive nature of the parable will not
allow that kind of reading of Jesus’ final saying. Rather, the point of the parable stresses the
response of those who have been called.
All have been called, only some have responded in an appropriate
way.
This one that the king has thrown out into the streets,
where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, has not properly responded to the
king’s call. Sure, he has come to the
party, but he has not made himself presentable.
Much could be said about the nature of the “wedding robe” mentioned in
verses 11 and 12. The wedding robe
represents the inner and outer transformation of those who have been called and
invited to participate in God’s kingdom.
At the heart of our Wesleyan theology is that we cannot be
saved apart from God’s grace (the invitation and call). At the same time, God’s grace will not save
us without our “grace empowered, but uncoerced” participation.[3] In other words the wedding robe that we can
choose to put on is our Spirit-guided growth in holiness. To try and put it plainly, the man in the
parable had accepted God’s salvation but refused to grow in the likeness of
Christ.
So What?
Israel’s
religious leaders had accepted the initial call but were not interested when
the second invitation came. Their own
understanding of what it meant to be a recipient and participant with God and
his kingdom had blinded them. Jesus
clearly states that they were given many chances to respond. As the parable ends, it is clear that some
did respond to the final invitation but had not allowed themselves to be
properly transformed so as to be prepared for participation in God’s kingdom.
The
warning in Jesus parable stands for us as well.
We have heard and responded to Christ’s initial call of salvation. We have received God’s grace and have
promised that we will be ready when the second and final invitation comes. It’s easy, I believe, to not press forward in
our growth and transformation into the image of Christ. We get complacent. We’ve said a prayer, perhaps we even read our
bible, but we have not sufficiently made ourselves available to the Spirit’s
attempts to transform us. Or, worse yet,
we have felt the nudges, some subtle and some not so subtle, but have not
exercised the self-discipline necessary to cooperate with the Spirit’s work in
our lives.
The
work of being a Christian is hard. We do
not work to earn our salvation, but we do need to work to ensure that we are
properly dressed for the wedding. Or,
perhaps to change the image a bit, as the Apostle Paul says, “So I do
not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body
and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be
disqualified.” (1 Corinthians
9:27-28) May we, after responding to the
initial call and invitation of Christ, allow the Spirit to empower us to do the
hard work of growing in holiness and Christ likeness.
Critical Questions:
1.
How
does this text reveal to us the nature and character of God/What is God doing
in this text?
a.
God
is gracious and persistent in his calling of us. The nature of God’s kingdom is inclusive,
calling all those who would respond to dine with him for all of eternity.
b.
At
the same time God is gracious and persistent, God desires that we properly
respond with our lives and actions to the call we have received. It is not enough to merely show up to the
party, we must be rightly dressed in holiness.
- What does holiness look like in this text?
- Holiness is hard work. We embark on the way of holiness with the power of the Spirit. We are urged to love God with all our heart and all our strength all the while loving our neighbor as ourselves.
- How does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
- We are called to be persons who don’t understand Christianity as something that is static. We are not done when receive salvation. We are called to seek holiness through the power of Spirit.
Specific Discussion
Questions:
Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself
quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were
very unfamiliar with the story.
1.
Who is the king in the parable? Who are the initial wedding guests? Who are the servants? Who are the guests who actually respond to
the invitation?
2.
Why do the initial guests refuse to come to the
wedding? Why does the king say they are
“not worthy” (v. 8) to attend the party?
3.
Why is it important that both the good and the bad get
invited?
4.
In verse 11, the king notices a man at the banquet who
was not properly dressed. Why does the
king throw him out of the party? Can he
be blamed for not being properly dressed?
5.
Since the man needed a wedding robe to attend the
party, what do you think the wedding robe represents?
6.
Jesus ends the parable with this warning, “For many are
called, but few are chosen.” What do you
think this means?
7.
As a church, do you think we belong to the first group
of invitees? Do we belong to the second
set? How do we ensure that we are
properly dressed for God’s end time wedding banquet?
[1] Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew:
A Commentary: The Churchbook, Matthew 13-28, Revised & enlarged edition
(Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004), 386.
[2] Donald A Hagner, Matthew.
14-28, (Dallas, Tex.: Word Books, 1995), 629.
[3] Randy Maddox, Responsible
Grace: John Wesley’s Practical Theology (Nashville, Tenn: Kingswood Books,
1994), 19.
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