22 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ 5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
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A parable. A story. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, tells a parable, a story. A nice way to learn how to follow Jesus. That’s what we expect from parables. Parables teach us about God, about our relationships with God. Usually. This one turns in the wrong direction at vs. 6.
6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.
What?
A king sends out his slaves to invite people to a big party. The slaves are either ignored or mistreated or……killed? What? What can we learn from this? A king’s slaves are abused or killed. How does this apply to me?
It gets better. Or worse.
7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Getting even? Overreacting?
I send you an invitation. You blow it off. I blow up your house Truthfully, Luke’s version is much tamer:
21 So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ 22 And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ 23 Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’ ”
Luke leaves out killing the messengers Luke leaves out destroying the homes of the invited guests. Luke leaves out that other troublesome part, too, the part about the guest not being correctly dressed.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
So why even bother with Matthew’s story of revenge and violence? Why is this version important to the author of this gospel? and to us?
One explanation is that this parable reflects God’s longtime relationship with the Jewish people.
Rev. Debie Thomas explains the traditional interpretation this way:
In the rendering I inherited as a child, the king in the parable is God, the son/bridegroom is Jesus, the wedding feast is the Messianic banquet, the rejected and/or murdered slaves are the Old Testament prophets, and the A-list guests who refuse to attend the wedding are God’s “chosen people,” the Israelites. And the B-listers? Those last minute guests who come in off the streets to fill the banquet hall instead? Those folks are us. The gentiles. (Debie Thomas: THE JOURNEY WITH JESUS A weekly essay on the Revised Common Lectionary )
That’s pretty much what my New Interpreters’ Bible says, too. Thomas, however, suggests that sometimes we need to hear scripture with new ears, see it with new eyes. We’ve talked about that in Confirmation class, describing how our personal experiences teach us to understand a story based on our own limited knowledge.
So, let’s look at this text in a different way. If parables are supposed to show us who God is, what we can expect from God, do we really want to believe in this God? A God who destroys a city just to get even? A God who can’t take “No!” for an answer? A capricious, picky God who worries about appearances? Is this the kingdom that is coming?
Thomas suggests that despite the fact that we claim our God is a loving, merciful God, there are times when we indeed see a judgmental, intolerant God. This kind of God comes in handy when we are annoyed or bothered or hurt by the sins of others. And the sins of others are not defined by God, but by us. It is a sin to be gay. It is a sin to be liberal or conservative. It is a sin to read this book or sing that song. God bless me and God damn the guy who rubs me the wrong way.
Thomas suggests that Jesus was exaggerating in order to make a point:
I wonder now if Jesus tells the parable in such an extreme and offensive way precisely because we do believe in a God as harsh as the king who turns his armies loose on his own people — and we need the help of hyperbole in order to recognize it. Is it possible that Jesus is offering us a critical description of how God’s kingdom is often depicted by God’s own followers? What if the king in the parable isn’t God at all? What if the king is what we project onto God? What if the king embodies everything we’ve learned to associate with divine power and authority from watching other, all-too-human kings and rulers? Kings like Herod. Conquerors like the Roman Empire of Jesus’s day. Leaders in our own time and place who exercise their authority in abusive, violent ways, compelling their followers to gleefully celebrate in circumstances that call for lament.
What if the king in the parable is what we project onto God? What if we associate God as the angry parent, the parent who slaps the kid, the parent who grounds the kid, the parent who punishes the child for simply being annoying or embarrassing.
Furthermore, if this is how Christians depict God, then why does anyone want to worship a God that will only see the bad in them? Why is the name “Christian” now associated with judging and bias and attacking those who were created differently? Anytime Christians are mentioned in the news or on talk shows, we are depicted as unforgiving, as judgmental, as heartless, as crusaders out to destroy anyone who disagrees with us. Is that us?
Does that sound like Jesus? Is Jesus being totally sarcastic in that parable? Is Jesus telling us to look in the mirror? Is Jesus telling us that we need to take the log out of our own eye before we take the speck out of our neighbor’s eye? Matthew 7:5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.
Thomas asks: What if the king embodies everything we’ve learned to associate with divine power and authority from watching other, all-too-human kings and rulers?
What if, as we are so prone to do, we think God is made in our image? What if we assume God acts like all the other people who are more powerful than we are? What if we, by our own actions and words, make other people think that God is out to get them?
We need to remind ourselves that we are made in God’s image, not the other way around. Furthermore, we also need to remind ourselves that while we have been corrupted by evil, God has not been corrupted by evil. Remember Jesus in the desert, refusing every offer Satan made to him? Evil can’t influence God’s decisions, God’s actions. The only thing Evil ever made God do was to send God’s Son to rescue us from Evil. And that was God’s idea.
There is still more with which to wrestle in this parable.
14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
In other words, being a part of the kingdom of God is not a slam dunk through the hoop of life.
If parables show us who God is, then there are Christians who are showing the world a God who doesn’t exist, a vengeful God, a God who died on the cross because of hate, not love, a God who takes offense and gets even.
The God I worship, the God you worship, if I may put words in your mouth and heart, is a God who loves unconditionally, a God who forgives, a God who is not wealthy and proud and condescending like the ruler in the parable. Our God does not throw impressive banquets and pick and choose who gets to attend. Our God hosts a simple meal of bread and beverage. Our God invites everyone. If we refuse the invitation, God invites us the next time. And the next time. If we screw up, God keeps us in God’s grace.The door is always open.
Some see this parable as an indictment of the Chosen People, the Jews. Karoline Lewis suggests that the Chosen of our time are those who labor in the kingdom, who do more than show up.(https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/what-not-to-wear) The Chosen are those who remember their baptism, their covenant with the Christ. Our place in the new Kingdom is not a reservation but a commitment, not a long-awaited vacation from the troubles of the earth, but a vocation, a calling to prepare, to comfort, to claim in all its messiness and beauty, the reality of God’s kingdom on earth. Amen.
P.S. After I had printed the sermon Sunday morning, I had time to read the Sunday paper. This opinion piece by Professor Dan Lee, Augustana, reflects some of my thoughts as I was writing my sermon. Please read it, too. https://qctimes.com/opinion/columnists/dan-lee-the-cruelty-of-self-righteousness/article_4a58eaeb-cbbe-589e-905e-1b4c5a3cfc2d.html
For the Love of Jesus,
Dianne
Pastor Dianne Prichard
Community Church of Toronto, Iowa
Hope Lutheran Church of Dixon, Iowa
Some Kind of Faith 