J. J.
May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable in Thy sight,
O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
“I Do”
“I do.” Two small little words with big impact. While they can be used on many occasions, we immediately associate them with weddings. Big or small, simple or elaborate, they are joyous, happy, lovely affairs. Not all weddings happen at church. Some happen at a courthouse. Others are in a garden setting with family and friends. And then there are the fairy-book weddings. Like the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981, or the wedding of Prince William and Princess Kate three years ago. A golden horse drawn carriage. St Paul’s cathedral and Westminster Abbey. These were the kinds of weddings little girls dream of. And they were royal weddings, in the truest sense of the word.
Jesus speaks in the Gospel today of a royal wedding. When the time for the wedding had come, the king sent messengers to his guests.
“Come to the banquet. Come, dine, drink, and eat.
Come celebrate, it all is my treat.
Come won’t you please, to the festivities.
My son’s love is true, they’ll soon say “I do.”
“I don’t,” was their answer.
“I don’t want to come. See what I’ve done.
I’ve a field to plow, so I can’t come now.
I’m busy, you see, your Majesty.”
Said one.
“ And my store is a-humming, I must keep it running.
Thanks anyway, some other day.”
Said another.
Despite their apathy and filmsy excuses, “Jimmy crack corn, ‘cause I don’t care,” the king was determined to have a good wedding for his son. He sent more messengers to ask them to come.
“Come to the banquet. Come, dine, drink, and eat.
Come celebrate, it all is my treat.
Come won’t you please, to the festivities.
My son’s love is true, they’ll soon say ‘I do.’”
“I don’t and I won’t. Did you hear what I said?
Don’t bother us now.”
And they killed them dead.
This was it. They’d reject him no more,
Their days were o'er. This was war.
The king leveled their cities, and rightly so.
Burned to the ground, for telling him “No.”
Still, the King wanted to have a good banquet for his son.
This wedding day would be number one.
He sent his servants to hill and to dale.
To young, and to old, to the ill and the pale.
“Come to the banquet. Come, dine, drink, and eat.
Come celebrate, it all is my treat.
Come won’t you please, to the festivities.”
The servants went out and rounded them up.
In the king’s hall, they all would sup.
The servants were busy, they filled every chair.
And the king went in, to see who was there.
“They’ve come to the banquet, the grandest one yet.
At last they have come, to honor my Son.”
And the king was quite pleased.
But when he surveyed the hall,
he saw there a man he did not know at all.
The king went to the man,
“My friend, I do say, how is it that you got in here today?”
The man had no answer. He was white as a ghost.
His party was over, he knew he was toast.
“Show this man out. Cast him into the fire.
To honor my son, he has no desire.
For he did not come in proper attire.”
And that is what happened that great wedding day.
The story is over, but we not quite yet through.
For this banquet is one for both me and you.
This banquet, each day, is still going on.
As more guests join in the Lamb’s triumph song.
What? Are we in this story? Well, let’s take a look.
There are three groups who come to a tragic end. First, the ones who refused to come: the “I don’ts.” They were preoccupied with daily life. Their fields and shops were more important to them then the king, his son, and this banquet. They couldn’t care less. Really. They did not care. Although the King tried and tried to get them to come, they keep themselves out of the banquet. They were preoccupied.
The next group were more than preoccupied. They were predatory. These were the “I won’ts.” The ones who killed the messengers. They were destroyed, and their city burned and torched.
For killing his messengers, we understand why the king would be more than a little upset, why they would end up in fire.
But what about the last one? The one without the proper wedding attire. When the king sees him, he is bound, and cast out into the fire. But why? He wasn’t preoccupied, he came to the banquet. And he wasn’t predatory, we don’t see him killing any one. Throwing him into a fire seems extreme, doesn’t it? I mean, the king was inviting everyone. Surely he would not think that everyone had wedding clothes?
But what was the real problem? He was a wedding crasher. His lack of wedding clothes was just an outward sign of the fact that he didn’t belong there. Why did he not belong there? Because he did not know the Son. The king’s banquet was to honor the Son. This man was a pretender. He did not come to honor the Son. He came only to have a party for himself. To eat and drink the king’s food.
Still why so harsh an end? The predatory killed people and they were destroyed. But this crasher, this pretender, he is cast into a living fire. How can that be fair? Well, for all their evil, the predators were open and forthright. They did not hide what they did. You knew who and what they were.
They may have used a dagger to kill the messengers but there was no cloak and dagger. No stabbing behind the back. No treachery, dishonesty or deceit.
The pretender thought he had it made. He was in the banquet hall. He acted like the other guests. But he was full of himself.
We, church, have come to the banquet, too. Yet, we can find our flesh warring against us. Life preoccupies us. And sometimes we feel like pretenders. We may rarely be dishonest with others. But are we honest with ourselves? Honest with God? One reason we seldom take a close examination of ourselves is that we know we will find the truth about us, and we don’t want to know it. Does our conscience not convict us, that we’re not all we’d like to be, not all we ought to be? Do we pretend, and cover up our sin, or do we confess it, that our Father may forgive us?
Well, then. How do I know, how do you know, that we are invited guests? (and you are!) You, Church, have a wedding garment !! Your robe was washed white in the blood of the Lamb. For as St. Paul writes in Titus chapter 3, baptism is a washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
You are feasting at His banquet table. Receiving His body and blood.
You spread a table in my sight;
Your unction grace bestowing;
And O what transport of delight
From Thy pure chalice flowing! (The King of Love My Shepherd Is, stz. 5).
And one day, Church, Christ will come again. With Him, in the resurrection, we will feast with Him, at the marriage supper of the Lamb. And in God’s house forevermore, our dwelling place shall be.
Amen.
S. D. G.
