As a birthday gift Jane and I are planning on going to ‘A
Night at the Opera’ by candlelight at Coventry Cathedral.
Is anyone else here planning on going?
If you are, then you will need tickets.
This is not me saying this, it is those who have organised
the event have made those rules.
If you don’t have a ticket, you are not welcome!
Now we are all very familiar with events where we need a
ticket or a specific invitation. Sometimes this is coupled with a dress code.
I would like us to keep this picture in mind as we explore
this parable of the wedding feast.
But before we dive into the parable let us set the
context, remembering as we learned, that Matthew didn’t have chapter and verses
and that Matthew has a very careful structure to his narrative.
We are in Jerusalem for the final week before the
crucifixion.
And if you want to take a deep dive into this then I can
highly recommend ‘The Longest Week’ by Nick Page.
If you have a Bible then turn to chapter 21 and the
triumphal entry, what we call Palm Sunday. Worth remembering here that as Jesus
entered the city from the east…
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion. Sing aloud,
Daughter Jerusalem. Look, your king will come to you. He is righteous and
victorious. He is humble and riding on an ass, on a colt, the offspring of a
donkey. Zechariah 9.9
…another procession was taking place over in the west of
the city.
This was Pontious Pilate coming in with soldiers to
augment the small garrison stationed at the Antonia Fortress that overlooked
the Temple. One of the things Pilate would have is the key to the place where
the High Priest’s Robe were kept, necessary for the forthcoming Festival.
Jesus then cleanses the Temple. The next day Jesus is
confronted and asked by what authority did he assume to act in this way. Jesus
responds with an enigmatic answer.
This is followed by a story of two sons which highlights
obedience and doing the right thing, not merely saying the right thing.
Then another parable about a vineyard and unworthy tenants
which in some way sets us up for the parable we are considering, the parable of
the wedding feast.
Before we move on into this parable note that this debate
in the temple continues with the Sadducees try to best Jesus and other cryptic
sayings that reminds us that the author of the Matthew’s Gospel is a Jew,
writing to Jews about a Jew – Jesus.
And then, also important for us to note, in chapter 23
Jesus has a major rant. This is really some serious stuff here. For me this is
angry Jesus, even outraged Jesus.
This is useful to note because we might look at the
parable of the wedding feast from our perspective and deduce that this is very
straightforward. The people of Israel were invited to be God’s special people,
but they messed up and now God invites in the Gentiles.
Which does happen – but I don’t think that’s the import of
this parable.
Therefore, we ought to be very cautious and note the
fuller context of this exchange in the temple.
And with this exchange I have in mind something like
Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. There a speaker will often be heckled and
challenged on what they are saying. And then there will be a back and forth
while others watch on to see how this all might work out.
If this was a pantomime every time we hear Pharisee,
Scribe, Chief Priest, we might boo and hiss. From there it is only a very short
step to put all Jews into a similar place. Fully worthy of our opprobrium
because they did not know the time of their visitation to quote from Luke
19.44.
We have seen how that has played out over the centuries,
sadly sometimes with the Church leading the way. We still see it today.
Therefore, we need to tread carefully and have a more
expansive view of those gathered up from the highways and byways.
Now having set the framework let us look at this parable
itself.
We begin with a king giving a wedding banquet. Isaiah spoke of a ‘heavenly banquet’ Isaiah 25. 6-8. We see this picked and developed in Revelation 19…
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.”
Note that fine linen was given for her to wear – that’s
going to be important later towards the end of this parable.
The king sends out a message, an invitation now that
everything is ready and prepared.
‘But they paid no attention and went off – one
to his field, another to his business.’
Remember the thorns and briars of the parable of the Sower
we explored last week!
The servants dispatched with the invitation are given a
hard time, in some cases a very hard time, being killed.
If you want a good summation of this then I suggest you
read the Gallery of the Faithfull in Hebrews 11.
And we recall what happened to John the Baptizer and where
this story Matthew is telling us leads to for Jesus.
The king was enraged. Verse
7 may be a reference to what befell Jerusalem in AD 70 and the total
destruction of the Temple.
The servants are dispatched a second time, but this time
they were sent out into the streets to find whomever they could and invite them
to the banquet.
And who would be on the streets. Those who didn’t have a
nice home with a walled enclosure, living in the upper city. It would be those
those who lived in the lower city, teaming with tenement blocks. Life was lived
for the most part out on the street and home was for sleeping, although for
many the streets would also be the place for sleeping.
Not very hard to see this picture still being played out
across the world and even in the UK.
And remembering the Sermon on the Mount, it is these
people whom Jesus says time and time again, they are welcome, they are to be
included, they are invited to the banquet, they are welcomed into the kingdom
of God.
Jesus engages with and gives a voice and place to those
who find themselves marginalised and outcast. The weak, the poor, the leper,
the blind, the prostitute – these are the kind of people Jesus associated with.
Jesus’ anger is targeted against the temple ticket
keepers.
Read chapter 23 and you will see Jesus’ anger at the
gatekeepers.
Verse 4 - They crush people with unbearable religious
demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.
Verse 15 - “Woe to you, teachers of the law and
Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single
convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of
hell as you are.
Making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem was an obligation
placed on all male Jews.
Although it is not easy to make like for like comparisons,
in his book the ‘Longest Week,’ Nick Page estimates that the temple tax would
be two days’ wages, a pair of pigeons, the offering of the poor, approximately
£40.00 and a Passover lamb at around £80.00.
And these animals had to pass muster, they had to be
unblemished. Therefore, you may well have brought your animal with you but only
to find it rejected and you either must abandon the idea of making a sacrifice
or buy an animal in the Temple or in one of the local markets.
Remember, remember, remember, for the Jews at this time
the Temple was where God resided, this was a heaven on earth spot, this is
where the kingdom of heaven was physically located.
And Jesus said, ‘The Kingdom of heaven is like…’
Do you see the challenge Jesus is making here?
These Temple Ticket gatekeepers are making it nigh on
impossible for the poor to engage meaningfully with the kingdom of heaven. They
are making it nigh on impossible for them to engage with Yahweh, to make a
sacrifice.
No, no, no screams Jesus – this will not do, this is not
true, this is not how it should be, everyone is welcome as God offers
scandalous grace, love, and forgiveness.
Or does he?
What are we to make of Matthew’s telling of this parable
with this rather odd ending, omitted from Luke’s version of this parable.
This person who having been invited, with no prior notice
and nothing said about a dress code, maybe sitting in his beggars’ rags outside
the Temple, finds himself cast out in a rather brutal fashion because he isn’t
wearing a wedding garment.
We might be forgiven for saying, now hang on a minute I
thought this story was about being inclusive, that there is no barring of
anyone from entering God’s kingdom. Isn’t that the Good News Jesus has been
sharing and showing. Hasn’t Jesus been partying with all the supposedly wrong
kind of people?
What’s this wrong dress code all about.
Remember the Wedding Banquet from Revelation 19…
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.”
I am not a scholar of 1st century Jewish
wedding customs. However, what I have read on this is the that often a host
would provide garments for all their guests.
We have a legacy of that today with the provision of
outfits for the Grooms party and the brides party – and in a time and place
where you might well no have more than one set of clothes, only the very rich
had a wardrobe, then this does make sense.
And here I am reminded of a Max Lucado in his book, You!:
God's Brand New Idea, Made to Be Amazing. He said, ‘God loves us just as we
are, but loves us enough not to leave us that way.’
Understood this way, this ending makes perfect sense. Yes,
everyone is invited. I would hope we would want to say that everyone is invited
to become part of St Oswald’s community of faith. But I would also hope we make
it clear that we are on a journey to become more like Christ.
Following Jesus, becoming like Jesus and doing the things
that Jesus did.
…until we all reach unity in the faith and in
the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole
measure of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4.13
‘… putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, and making
no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.’
Romans 13:14
And then we have this puzzling verse as a conclusion…
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.’
I am reminded of a thrust of Matthew’s Gospel summarised
by James in his Epistle, 2.18
‘Someone might claim, “You have faith and I
have action.” But how can I see your faith apart from your actions? Instead,
I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice in faithful action.’
Also, the ‘sheep and goats’ in Matthew 25. 31-46.
Right words and right actions go together.
Let me conclude with three takeaways...
One) It’s important that we
respond to the invitation – in fact nothing else is as important as responding
to the invitation.
Two) We need to be careful
that we don’t become gatekeepers who exclude people. That can happen in both an
overt and a covert way.
I would like to think that we are welcoming and open at
the overt level – but we need to be cautious about the covert level.
That can happen in several ways, by the language we use,
the type of songs we sing, by the way we are and who are. It’s good to check
out any covert messages we might be sending out that might make it difficult
for people to engage with us.
If you are relatively new to our Church family and you
struggled to engage or are struggling, then we would love to know because these
hidden barriers need to be addressed.
Three) We need to allow God
to clothe us with a robe of right living, sometimes referred to as a ‘robe of
righteousness.’ And as we explored in ‘Practising the Way’ by John Mark Comer…
We are called to follow Jesus, become like Jesus, and do
the things that Jesus did.
Now, let us rise if you are able, as together we recognise
our need to respond to Christ’s call, to accept Christ’s clothing, and to take
up Christ’s commission – to invite others to the party!
Singing – ‘Lord, I need you.’
https://youtu.be/LuvfMDhTyMA?si=KW7pxTStf2TNcv9A
And if you want to see it in the context of the Service...
https://youtu.be/Rij226iWTio
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