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Looking up content for: Matthew 22:1-14 (posted on 10/2/2005)
Comments and Observations
- Many of us as both readers of the text and preachers on the text would prefer to stop this reading at verse10. One is tempted to grab the bottle of White-Out and paint over verses 11-14. Because up until verse 10, we had an unalloyed parable of grace. True, there was more than a small note of judgment sounded already in verse 7, but at least verse 10 ended with a nice portrait of God’s surprising grace catching up the least likely of people.
- If we are tempted to stop prior to verse 11, we’re not alone. The evangelist Luke did, too, in his own telling of this parable in Luke 14. But as some commentators point out, we need Matthew’s fuller, longer version of the story to appreciate the story’s real punch and meaning.
- Some think that we have here not one parable but two. However, it’s difficult to separate verses 11-14 from the foregoing. These verses clearly go together with verses 1-10 to form a single story. Perhaps instead of regarding this as two parables we can see it as one parable with two lessons.
- It’s not difficult to see the connection between the Parable of the Wedding Banquet and the prior story about the Tenants. As has been noted in other articles here on the Center for Excellence in Preaching website, this entire section of Matthew (chapters 21-23) is about Israel’s rejection of God’s Christ and what that implies. However, nowhere in this part of Matthew’s gospel is there the conclusion that all Israel is lost. Only those who are unbelieving, who will not follow God’s chosen Messiah, are left out. Indeed, as this parable tells us, even the Gentiles who are invited in can get ejected if they do not come fully embracing Christ (more on that below).
Questions to Ponder/Issues to Address
- It should not go unnoticed here that the grace of this parable begins immediately at the outset when we see that the banquet is fully prepared by the king. Those invited did not have to contribute anything, pay anything, peel the potatoes, or wash the dishes afterwards—this feast was 100% the work of the king alone. All that was required of the guests was to show up hungry at the appointed hour!
- A key question to ponder in this otherwise uncomplicated story is the identity of the person tossed out of the party in verse 13. At least part of the puzzle here is the fact that prior to our being told that this man was not wearing “wedding clothes,” there had been here no mention of anyone else’s being dressed up in any particular attire, either. We’re told that “both good and bad” people were invited into the feast once the other guests begged off, but nowhere were we told that wedding costumes or any kind of fancy attire had been given to these people.
- We have to assume from the story, however, that these latecomers to the feast had been so outfitted because the uniformity of everyone else’s clothing is what made this hapless fellow stick out like the proverbial sore thumb.
- There is always a danger with parables of over-interpreting them or of allegorizing them to the point that we insist on finding a real-life or theological parallel for every jot and tittle of the parable’s details. However, one cannot but help ponder what the “wedding clothes” symbolize. Since being properly clothed is the make-or-break difference here, we must assume that something of significance is attached to this.
- It could be, as has been widely theorized, that the clothing here is Christ and all his benefits. Certainly in the balance of the New Testament (particularly in the writings of Paul) the image of being “clothed with Christ” and of our need to “put on” the virtues of the Holy Spirit becomes a favorite metaphor. We are saved when we are clothed with Christ, when his garment of righteousness becomes, by grace, our own attire.
- But what might it mean to somehow get into the banquet and take a seat at the dining table and yet still not be so clothed? This may be a point where we don’t want to go beyond the parable itself so as to speculate on the how and wherefore of this person’s getting in the door in the first place. However, it may be warranted to wonder what it means to be at Christ’s table but without being arrayed in Christ. Could this mean someone whose commitment to the gospel (and eventually to Christ’s Church) is lukewarm? Could this be someone who tries to keep one foot in both the world of “fields and business” (verse 5) and the world of the gospel, dabbling in spiritual matters but not being fully committed to them?
Textual Points
- Notice in Matthew 22:1 that the Greek text can be literally translated as “And Jesus replied to them . . .” instead of the more common translation “Jesus spoke.” The presence of the Greek verb apokritheis may connect us to the last verse of Matthew 21, which showed the religious leaders fuming as they realized Jesus had just told the Parable of the Tenants about them (and, by the way, against them at that). If Jesus is replying or answering back to these people as he opens yet another parable, then we can see the Parable of the Wedding Banquet as a further elaboration of—and a further extension of—what had transpired in chapter 21.
- Verse 10 uses a form of the Greek word porneia to describe some of those who came into the feast. In Matthew 6, where Jesus presents what we now call The Lord’s Prayer, he used this same word for the line “deliver us from evil.” Matthew also employs here and there a less harsh Greek word to describe bad things, and that is the Greek word kakia. But here when Jesus says that “both the good and the bad” were included among those whom the servants ultimately rounded up to come into the feast, the raw word for “evil” gets used. It may be that we should not attach too much significance to this vocabulary choice but, on the other hand, this may point to the sheer power of God’s grace in Christ. Grace does not clean up those who have little problems or a few issues to deal with. Grace can come, as Paul will later say of himself, to even the worst of sinners and nevertheless clothe them in Christ and in the gospel.
Illustration Idea
Some while ago the local newspaper reported on a story that bears some resemblance to the parable in Matthew 22. Apparently someone came up with the idea that students of a nearby culinary institute could practice their gourmet cooking by preparing meals one night a week at an innercity ministry that provides food and drink to homeless and impoverished residents of the area. The program gave the students the hands-on training they needed while having the added benefit of giving excellent food to people who otherwise would never in their lives have the chance to sample such haute cuisine fare. People whose Monday evening meal used to rise no higher than tomato soup out of a can now feast on roasted rack of lamb with a pinot noir pan sauce, medallions of veal with braised morel mushrooms, composed salads with truffle oil, and dense chocolate cakes with a molten center. In the newspaper article, most of the dinner guests admitted they could not even pronounce what they were eating. But the beaming faces in the photo accompanying the article displayed nicely that your tongue can surely savor that which that same tongue can’t pronounce!
Of course, in Jesus’ day as now, some would question laying on such extravagant fare before people who perhaps cannot fully appreciate it. But that is the gospel in a nutshell: God is extravagant in ways none of us fully appreciates. And make no mistake: Matthew 22 presents an extravagant scene. God does not scrimp! Remember when Jesus created wine at the wedding in Cana? The guests at that wedding had already had a few, and yet to save the host a social embarrassment Jesus creates not just the finest vintage ever but 150 gallons of it! The host was maybe hoping for a case or two and Jesus creates a whole winery! There seems to be a certain amount of "waste" in it all. Why squander good wine on people whose palates have already been sullied by cheaper stuff? Why present gourmet delights to street people who maybe could not even begin to appreciate the cost and work involved in creating such a feast?
But that seems to be God's way: he squanders his goodness freely on the people who seem to deserve it least. Indeed, the ones who seemed like the natural candidates for such a banquet are the ones who decline the invitation in favor of working. These are folks who would rather work than play, rather keep busy than waste precious time at a formal dinner party. Time is money, after all. Somebody has to make a living!
But the gospel is about raising the dead, not rewarding the living. Perhaps that is why it is the economically, socially, and religiously dead who end up at this feast. They had nothing better to do! No urgent phone calls from the coast were vying for their attention! No preconceived notions of social propriety prevented them from whooping it up, licking their fingers in unalloyed delight. They were so thrilled to be invited that they didn't mind wearing funny party hats or anything else the king asked them to wear for this festive occasion. People like this perhaps appreciated what the king offered far more than those who were used to getting such invitations. They figured they could afford to skip this one meal as there would be other meals just like it later.
You've got to know that you are spiritually dead to be a candidate for the new life of resurrection. But so long as you think you can still "make a life" for yourself, so long as your days are clotted with the delicacies of the "good life" as the world defines it, you have no time or desire to lay down and die.
It is instructive to drive through ritzy developments and notice that everything a person could possibly want was thought of by the real estate developers. I thought of this last summer when driving through a Michigan town that has recently seen an explosion of multi-million dollar homes on the choicest lakefront lots. As that area has seen a sharp spike in wealthy residents, lots of things expanded accordingly. Malls needed to be built or upgraded, more movie screens and golf courses were required, lush horse stables were erected, world-class restaurants opened and flourished, and even supermarkets needed to add gourmet sections so that all the ingredients for truly high-end cooking could be found.
About the only thing in this town that did not change was worship space. Despite a huge influx of new residents somehow or another the same old white clapboard country church that has been there for years continues to suffice. Curious, isn't it? But for those busy making a life in this world it is often the case. So also in this parable such folks received the king's engraved invitation and responded, "Sounds great but I really need to keep an eye on the market today. Can I take a rain check?"