Loving God, you never give up on us, even when we ignore your invitation to abundant life.  Open our hearts and minds to your voice today, teaching us to live in righteousness and in love, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

            Today’s parable, once again, includes a lot of bad behaviour.  The king’s son is getting married, and the king has sent out invitations to the wedding banquet.  One would think that it would be an honour and a privilege to receive an invitation like this.  However, those who are invited don’t even bother to give a polite refusal.  They have too many other things to do that are far more pressing, and some of them are so depraved that they mistreat and even kill the messengers.  What kind of people are these, anyway?!

         Meanwhile, the king is – perhaps understandably – enraged, and is quite “over the top” with his response.  Rather than perhaps charging them with murder and throwing them into prison, the king orders the murderers to be destroyed and their city to be burned.  Only then does the king invite everybody to the banquet – which presumably he could have done in the first place if he really wanted everybody there.

         His slaves are sent out into the streets to invite everybody they can find, and both good and bad are brought into the wedding hall.  Of course, then there is this odd bit about a guy who showed up without a wedding robe.  Is that really so strange when he was just brought in at the last minute off of the street?  So then, this one guy gets thrown out “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt. 22:13).

         What are we to make of all this?  Some of you have likely heard interpretations that try to make the entire parable into an allegory – which means that the people in the story all represent somebody else.  In this kind of interpretation, the king is likened to God, and the son is Jesus, and the people who are destroyed are the inhabitants of Jerusalem (or Israel, if you prefer), and the ones who finally come in are those who believe in Jesus.  However, there are numerous issues with this kind of an interpretation – not the least of which is the questionable behaviour of the king.  Does God really fly into a rage and destroy people?

         On the other hand, it is possible to see in this parable an explanation of why Jesus welcomes outcasts and sinners and eats with them.  While many of the religious leaders rejected Jesus, those who were used to being outcasts were more than happy to accept his invitation to come and follow and to sit at table with him.

         As for us, it is important to ask where we find ourselves in this parable.  Are we among those who are too busy with other things to come and to sit with Jesus and to learn from him?  Are we among those who simply don’t take the call to come and follow very seriously?  Do we invite both the good and the bad to come in?  Do we think that just showing up is enough, and we don’t need a wedding robe?  Are we called, or chosen, or both?

         For God’s part, we do get the impression that God does not give up on the work of saving people, even if some of the religious leaders are corrupt (workingpreacher.org).  It is also true that God’s call to come and follow Jesus goes out to pretty much everybody who hears the good news.  But, what about this guy without a wedding robe and the fact that “many are called, but few are chosen” (Mt. 22:14)?

         The implication seems to be that more than just “showing up” is required when responding to the call of Jesus.  While some have suggested that the wedding robe might represent baptism, the context in Matthew suggests that it might be a “robe of righteousness” that this guest was missing.  In the previous chapter, Jesus was speaking to the religious leaders about John the Baptist and saying, “John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him” (Mt. 21:32).  In other words, the outcasts changed their minds and their hearts, but the religious leaders did not.

         Responding to God’s invitation is the first thing that we are asked to do, but we are also asked to live in God’s way – which is the way of righteousness and love.  The good news, however, is that God gives us the means of doing this through the power of the Holy Spirit.  We are not called to self-righteous arrogance, but to humility, firm in the knowledge that it is Jesus who empowers us to live in God’s way.  It is Jesus who initiates the “great exchange,” where we are clothed with Jesus’ righteousness, and Jesus takes our sin in exchange, and bears it on the cross.

         As for “many are called, but few are chosen,” the chosen, in this case, are those who respond to God’s call and who do God’s work, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  These people – those who put their faith in Jesus – are worthy of the feast that has no end in the kingdom of heaven, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Lectionary 28(A)                              Matthew 22:1-14

October 15, 2023

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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