The parable at which we are looking today comes after a series of confrontations Jesus has had with the Pharisees — the religious leaders of the day. They question whether he has the right to do the things he does and by what authority he speaks. They do not want to be a part of his following, and they do not want others to follow him either. In response, Jesus tells several stories, and this is one of them. He describes the kingdom of heaven as being like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. The story is more than a story; it is an allegory. The characters of the story represent real people. In this case, the king represents God the Father, and the son represents Jesus. The servants represent the prophets who called the people to God throughout history. And the banquet represents the marriage feast of the Lamb at the end of the age which was spoken of in the book of Revelation: “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: ‘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....’ Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”’” (Revelation 19:6-9).
The truth that the parable is relating to us is that God is going to throw a huge party at the end of the age. In fact, the preparations have already begun and drinks and hors d’oeuvres are being served. It is going to be a party in honor of his Son and his bride — all those who love and belong to him. So the first thing we notice about this parable is that: God’s invitation is a summons to joy. God’s call is an invitation to a party! There will be feasting, dancing and great joy. There will be nothing lacking at this party. The food and drink will never run out. There will be friends and loved ones there, and best of all the King and his Son will be present. Jesus’ hearers were probably shocked at this story, because those who were invited did not want to come. In the parable, people found excuses. They had other things to do. More than that, they did not want to be invited to the king’s party and became angry at those who were inviting them. Jesus’ audience could not imagine people failing to accept the invitation to a king’s banquet. The story bordered on the absurd, because no one would turn down such an invitation. The parable points to the staggering sin of indifference. Some of the people ignored the invitation. They had other things on their minds. They wanted to get caught up on their work or take a walk, and the invitation was interfering with their plans. What Jesus was doing in this parable was attacking the appalling apathy that looks at God’s gracious invitation to life and joy, and merely sighs with indifference. Not to mention the hostile reaction of those who were invited. It is an unbelievable response — a gross discourtesy!
But the call of God is always an invitation to ecstasy and life. Jesus said, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). He also said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). How is it then that the world looks at God’s invitation to a party like it is an invitation to a funeral? This is a King’s feast, a once-in-a-lifetime experience! How can God’s good news be thought of as bad news? Worse yet, how is it that it is treated as no news at all. The response of indifference is sickening. Remember the words of God to the church at Laodicea in the book of Revelation: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16). God responds to apathy with nausea.
G. Studdert Kennedy’s famous poem seems to be written in response to this parable:
“When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged
him on a tree.
They drove great nails through hands and
feet, and made a Calvary.
They crowned him with a crown of thorns,
red were his wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days
and human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to Birmingham
they simply passed him by,
They never hurt a hair of him,
they only let him die;
For men had grown more tender,
and they would not give him pain,
They only just passed down the street,
and left him in the rain.
Still Jesus cried, ‘Forgive them,
for they know not what they do,’
And still it rained the wintry rain that
drenched him through and through;
The crowds went home and left the streets
without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall
and cried for Calvary.”
The mystery of the ages is how the human race can look at the Son of God and not see anything which appeals to them. Some have suggested that part of the problem is that the people who are supposed to be feasting at this table of joy seem to be so little affected by it themselves. Their attitudes are sour and their expressions dour. It all seems like such serious business, instead of a celebration. Nietzsche, the famous atheist, said, “If you want me to believe in your Redeemer, you’re going to have to look a lot more redeemed.” As someone said, "If you have the joy down in your heart, notify your face." It is amazing how people who are supposed to be feasting at a banquet of joy can be so joyless! We can curse the world for all that is wrong, or we can celebrate with God.
The second point of the parable which we will consider today is the obvious point that: The guests had their priorities all wrong. I believe Jesus is saying that there is a huge difference between someone who has the form of religion and a true disciple of Jesus Christ. One of the things we notice is that the people did not turn away from the King’s banquet to indulge in wild immorality; they simply went off to continue the ordinary things of their mundane existence. It is not that they went off to do something bad, they simply left God’s best to pursue something less. They were putting their everyday concerns before the King’s business. Faced with the greatest invitation possible, they treated it with scorn and indifference. What they were doing seemed more important than what God was doing. They had lost all perspective. But Jesus was saying that God’s gracious invitation to life is not to be placed as one more thing on a ‘To Do’ list. It is to be THE priority of our lives. But for the people in the parable, celebrating with the King seemed less appealing than working in their field or going to the market. Put in modern day terms, fellowship with God seemed less important than watching TV or shopping at the Mall. There is nothing wrong with those things, except when these trivial things take priority over the things of God.
There is one part of the parable that is very difficult to understand. The servants who are sent out to call people to the banquet of the King are tortured and killed. Why did they do that? Why not just go off and do what you want to do? Why not just ignore the invitation? It doesn’t make sense. But I believe that what Jesus is saying is that there are not a variety of ways to respond to God, there are only two. There is only a for or an against, and nothing in between. You either accept the invitation or you don’t. The frightening fact is that indifference eventually accelerates into hostility. People begin by thinking they can just ignore God and his call on their lives. They don’t hate God; they just have other things to do. But over time indifference turns to hostility as their consciences begin to hound them. The invitation from God keeps coming to their heart and they want to shut it off. Apathy will no longer do, and hostility takes over. And that is precisely what people have done throughout history. The prophets of God come with the invitation to the King’s banquet, and people not only refuse to come, they kill those who were sent to invite them. Be careful not to get your priorities out of order, because apathy can turn to hostility, even when you think it is not possible. A heart that was once tender toward God can be so crowded with other things that God begins to take a back seat. And then, when your conscience becomes uncomfortable, your heart becomes hostile to the very thing it once loved.
But I believe that the most important point of the parable is this: The King was determined to have a party. It was the custom in New Testament times to extend two separate invitations. The first invitation was to inform the guests that a feast was going to take place so people would have time to prepare. Then, when the hour arrived for the party, and everything was prepared, a second invitation would go out. People would begin arriving with excitement, looking forward to what they were about to experience. But the people in the parable are so rude that they refuse the very first invitation. When the first invitation was rejected the king’s servants were stunned. They reported back to the King what had happened, but he continued with the preparations for the feast. When it was ready, he sent his servants out with the second invitation to coax them to come, since the banquet was ready. But they simply walked away, and others took the servants and abused and killed them. The King said to his servants, “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” The King was not to be denied. One way or another, he was going to fill the banquet hall. He sent his servants out to invite everyone to the feast, whether they were good or bad. The only qualification was that they were willing to come to the banquet. This must have stunned Jesus’ audience. They caught on that he was talking about God and the great banquet that would take place in his kingdom on the final day, and they could not imagine bad people being there. But this is the good news. What it meant was that even if you have been a bad person, you are still invited to God’s feast of joy. Even moral failures are welcome. The only condition is a desire to be a part of the celebration. Your desire to be at God’s party is proven by the fact that you have walked away from your sin, and even your other interests, to be a part of something which is bigger and more important than anything you have ever known. Perhaps you have been a bad person, but your desire to be with God has brought you to a place of repentance and forgiveness. It has allowed you to come to the banquet when others, who have been better than you, have been excluded. They were busy with other things and refused to come, but you took the invitation seriously, and saw it as good news. You happily took your seat at the banquet of joy. Your heart warmed when you heard God say, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
The final point of the parable which we will consider is: When you come to the banquet you must wear the proper attire. Jesus provides another surprising twist just when we thought the story was over. The King enters the banquet hall as all the guests are seated, but he spots someone sitting at the banquet table who does not have a proper wedding garment on. This is so common in our day that it no longer surprises us. I constantly see people who come to formal weddings in tank-tops, shorts and flip-flops. I admit I still have a problem with that. In our day anything goes. But this parable is definitely not about how to dress in church. The point goes much deeper in another direction. In the culture of Jesus’ day, when a king had a wedding feast he provided wedding clothes for all the guests. For the people in this story not to accept the king’s wedding garments would have been unthinkable. It would have been an insult. Especially in this story, because these were poor people straight off the streets. It would have been a terrible sight to have everyone dressed in their own shabby clothes on such an important occasion. In order to come to the feast you had to take off your clothes and put on the clothes of the king. The meaning of this point in the story is alluded to in the hymn which says,
“When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found!
Dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.”
The shocking secret of the kingdom is that it is not reserved for good people. It is reserved not for the righteous, but for the unrighteous who will humble themselves in repentance and put on the righteousness of God. Isaiah explains our problem: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags....” (Isaiah 64:6). Then Isaiah tells the answer to our dilemma: “For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness....” (Isaiah 61:10). The Scriptures explain it this way: “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5). This is not something which we have earned or deserved — this is a gift.
Who is this man, dressed in his own clothes, who dares to come into the King’s banquet hall? And how did he get there? He has spurned the King’s garment. He sits there thinking he deserves to be there on his own merits, not because of the king’s invitation based on grace. He had the audacity to refuse the King’s gracious gift of a wedding garment, and insisted on wearing his own garment. But when the King confronted him he was defenseless. He was struck dumb when he saw the King, and he was bound hand and foot, and thrown into the outer darkness. Inside there was joy, but on the outside there was weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus concluded the story by saying, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” But the point that Jesus is making is that the invitation is universal — all are called to God’s feast. But not everyone accepts the invitation, and therefore not chosen. They are preoccupied with just existing and don’t want to put forth the effort to find life. But only those who accept the invitation over all of life’s other offers are chosen. Only those who wear the gift of the king’s robe rather than their own are accepted.
C.S. Lewis wrote the provocative Screwtape Letters, a satire in which the devil briefs his nephew, Wormwood, on the subtleties and techniques of temptation. The goal, he counsels Wormwood, is not wickedness, but indifference. Satan cautions his nephew to keep his client comfortable at all costs. If he should become concerned about anything of importance, he is to encourage him to think about his dinner plans instead. And then the devil gives him this chilling piece of information: “I, the devil, will always see to it that there are bad people. Your job, my dear Wormwood, is to provide me with the people who do not care.”
Do you care?
The feast is prepared. The invitation is extended, the banquet table is set, and God’s arms are open wide. The only question that remains is whether or not you will accept the invitation. And, more than that, the question is whether you will remain dressed in the filthy rags of your own righteousness or accept the King’s garment of salvation, the robe of his righteousness.
Rodney J. Buchanan
October 23, 2011
Amity United Methodist Church
rodbuchanan2000@yahoo.com
