"Dressing Up for the Banquet"
Matthew 22:1-14; Isaiah 58:1-12
“This is the
good news of Jesus Christ!”
Is it? Is that what you heard in the gospel lesson? Good news?
This is a difficult parable to hear…and
difficult to understand and interpret.
We spent some time studying this parable at Evangelism Committee meeting
a few days ago, knowing it was the lectionary passage for Sunday. After we heard it, someone looked at me and
said, “Good luck!”
Some of the commentaries I consulted
this week describe this passage as a “bizarre little story”[1] and “one
strange parable.” Some scholars suggest that Matthew may have combined several
parables into one, which may explain why the story seems disjointed.
The wedding party in the story
begins as custom in that culture dictates. A first invitation notice had gone
out-- a kind of “Save the date!” that has become common again in our time.
Then, when the banquet is ready, the host’s servants go out to summon the
guests to come. That’s when things start to fall apart.
First, the invited guests seem to
treat the invitation as a joke
and refuse to come. Some of the invitees even assault and kill the king’s servants.
What happens in these verses is troubling. And so, I wondered: Does this sound like Jesus talking in
these verses? I don’t think so.
So, it makes sense to me that many biblical
scholars think that the original parable that Jesus told can be seen by
deleting verses 6-7 and that Matthew
or his source added the extra verses--the ones about how the invitees seized
the king’s slaves and killed them and how
the enraged king destroyed the murderers and burned their city--to turn Jesus’
parable into an allegory of Christian history.
Tom Long suggests that the
implausible details-- like people killing other people and a military action
that destroys the city over a rejected party invitation-- highlight the fact
that Matthew intends this story to be read as an allegory, and that his first
readers would have known how to decode the details.[2]
At the close of the first part of
the story, we have a symbolic picture of Matthew’s church. His readers could
have recognized themselves in the story, gathered at the banquet as last-minute
replacements, both “good and bad” people.
The story gets puzzling again when a
wedding guest shows up dressed inappropriately for a wedding celebration at the
palace. The king reacts harshly. “Friend, how did you get in here without a
wedding robe?”
If you think about it-- if the guest
wasn’t expecting to attend a fancy party when he left in the morning to work in
the field or tend his shop-- he wouldn’t have packed a wedding robe. But,
again, this isn’t an ordinary story, but an allegory, and the wedding robe
stands for something else.
John Calvin, in his commentary on this
text, suggests that two passages from the apostle Paul help to explain the
meaning. In Romans 13:14 we read that we must “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,”
and in Galatians 3:27 that because we are baptized into Christ, we are clothed
with Christ.”
The wedding garment is a symbol for putting on the baptismal garment of
Christ… being attired in the new self,
created in God’s own likeness… clothing
oneself with the compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience of one
who belongs to the kingdom of God.[3]
So, what’s going on in this strange
parable? More importantly: what was Matthew’s-- and Jesus’-- main point?
I think it’s mainly about responding
to an invitation. More importantly, it’s
about how we respond. The parable reminds us that being a part of the Christian
community should make a discernible difference in who we are and how we live.
We know Jesus’ invitation into the
reign of God. All are invited. But that invitation requires us to do something.
It requires us to put Jesus’ words into action.
You need to come to the feast and wear the right garment-- clothed with
Christ-- to show that you’ve accepted the invitation.[4]
What does that look like?
We find one answer three chapters
later, in the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. There Jesus tells us how we will be judged.
It depends on how we treat the “least” of his brothers and sisters. Do we feed
the hungry? Clothe the naked? Welcome the stranger? As we do it unto the “least” of these, we do
it unto Jesus.
Bread for the World Sunday is an
opportunity to join others in praying for those who struggle with hunger and
food insecurity-- and to re-dedicate ourselves to efforts that help end hunger.
Our prayerful work to end hunger is a response to the Gospel’s invitation to
take part in the banquet of God’s mercy and abundance that is ours through
Jesus Christ.
Our prayers are especially urgent at
this time. South Sudan is suffering from a devastating famine, and famine
threatens Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen. Drought is spreading throughout other
parts of Africa. Humanitarian assistance and long-term solutions to hunger are
more important than ever.
Bread for the World
reminds us that nearly 16 million children in the United States, in one of the
richest countries in the world — that’s almost one in five — live in
households that struggle to put food on the table. Many of these children have
parents who have jobs and work hard, but whose wages aren’t high enough to
cover the high costs of rent, transportation, and utilities — and daily meals.So, our federal government’s feeding programs serve as a lifeline for vulnerable children and families. Because children are hit especially hard by the effects of hunger and malnutrition, nutrition programs aimed at children are particularly important. A healthy start in life — even before a child is born — pays off for years, in terms of intellectual development --not only for individual children and families, but for communities and our nation as a whole.
Only one out of every 20 grocery bags that feed people who are hungry come from church food pantries and other private charities. Federal nutrition programs, from school meals to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), provide the rest. Our government’s child nutrition programs serve millions of children each year.
Locally, and in the short term, we are
helping to alleviate hunger when we give to the Presbyterian Hunger Program
through our Two Cents a Meal or Cents-ability offering… when we support Church
World Service…when we support the mission of the Open Door or Focus Hope or
volunteer at Gleaners or support Blessings in a Backpack.
But we also need to work on the
systemic causes of hunger. For a lot of
us, hunger and poverty seem overwhelming.
We don’t have to do it alone.
Bread for the World is a faith-based
education and advocacy organization that I’ve belonged to for some years. The reason I personally support Bread for the
World is because they have a remarkable record of helping to win passage of bipartisan legislation
that addresses hunger. As a result of
this advocacy, children in the United States receive vital nutrition. Emergency food reaches refugees from famine
and conflict in Africa and
elsewhere. Agricultural
development is enabling hungry people in various parts of the world to grow
enough food to feed their families.
If you want to help
Bread for the World with this important, persistent advocacy work, you are
invited to give them a donation. Or you
could commit yourself to sending letters to your elected representatives in
Congress. I’ll post a link on the church
Facebook page and send one in an email to help you do this advocacy work, if
you feel led to do so.
It took me between five
and ten minutes to personalize the form letter at the website, which was then
automatically sent to my congressional representatives. It’s a small thing, but it’s important. It’s a way to act prayerfully and faithfully.
As Teresa of Avila famously put it,
"Christ has no body now on earth but yours… no hands but yours… no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which God’s
compassion will look upon the world.
Yours are the feet with which God will go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which God will bless
others now."
When we put on Christ, we are called to serve—to be
Christ’s hands and feet in the world. When
we respond to Christ’s call and work together, we can help to change the
conditions and the policies that allow hunger to persist.
We are called to share our bread with the hungry, to
bring the homeless poor into our house… to care for basic needs of those who
are marginalized.
Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God promises us that
we will not have to do this alone. When
we call, the LORD will answer. When we
cry for help, God will say, “Here I am.”[5]
If we remove the yoke, the speaking of evil, if we offer our food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, Then our light shall rise in the
darkness.
This is a blessed promise and vision:
The LORD will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places…
you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt…
you shall be called the repairer of the breach.
the restorer of streets to live in.
So be it! Amen!
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian
Church
Dearborn, Michigan
October 15, 2017
[1]
Lance Pape, at Working Preacher.
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2204
[2]
Thomas G. Long, Matthew. (Westminster
John Knox Press, 1997), p. 246.
[3]
Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10-12;
[4]
James Martin, SJ, “Will You Accept Jesus’ Invitation?” A reflection on Matthew
22:1-14, in Bread for the World Sunday 2017. http://www.bread.org/sites/default/files/bread-for-the-world-sunday-2017-guide.pdf
[5]
Isaiah 58
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