The Table is Set

How many of you are baffled by today’s parable? If you didn’t raise your hand then I would like to invite you up here to give today’s message! There is so much happening in this parable, and so much of it is negative that we can very easily lose our way in all of it. So let’s take a moment and step back. While we do that let’s also take this moment to remind ourselves that this is a parable. Jesus is not recommending that we do any of these things literally, he is helping us understand and get a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven. Also, the point in the gospel that Jesus is telling this parable is after Palm Sunday, after he has flipped the tables in the temple, and after the leadership have begun to try to find a way to arrest him.

Again, remember this is not literal. So do not, I repeat, do not send soldiers to destroy people and burn cities because they refused to come to your child or grandchild’s wedding. Jesus is not advocating violence on people who are not following proper wedding etiquette. It doesn’t matter how many save the date cards have been sent, and RSVP’s you have received, do not behave this way to wedding guests who end up being no shows. On the other hand, can you imagine what it must have been like for the king and the son, who is the groom, when not a single person they had invited shows up to their wedding? I can guarantee that these people knew the wedding was going to happen about the time that it did. I can guarantee these people were invited to the wedding with plenty of advance notice. It’s not like these servants telling them that the wedding was now was completely new information to them. We even see a sense of urgency and preparedness when the king sends out the second set of servants telling everyone that the animals have already been prepared for the meals that would last 7 days. I bet wine had already been poured at the tables, musicians were already playing music and so much more. And having known all that, can you imagine the audacity of these guests who were invited and decided that they had more important things to do then come at the invitation of the king? Free food, free wine, opportunities to network with the other elite in the community? It was an ideal situation for all of them to advance themselves amongst each other and with the king, and not a single one seemed to even bat an eye when they were told it was time to celebrate.

What, then, does this have to do with the kingdom of heaven? Well I would say that this is the story of people since the beginning of time and even to today. God has offered and continues to offer a banquet for us to feast on, and we all find excuses to not go. We are too busy, or we’ll come, just not yet. Kind of like those people that Jesus meets on the road to Jerusalem and they want to follow Jesus but one has to take care of his affairs first. Another one has to go and bury his dad and then he’ll come back. Or it’s like the wealthy man who wants to know how to inherit eternal life and when he finds out it asks of him something that he doesn’t want to do he walks away from it. Or maybe for us today we’ll get to those important things of faith after we clear out our email inbox because there might be an important email from a friend or we’ve been waiting for that coupon for the sale that only happens once or twice a year and we don’t want to miss out on it. We all, in all times and in all places, find excuses to do things that are not as important as the things we really should be doing and focusing on.

So the king says nevermind, I’ll find new people. In fact I’ll find everyone and anyone who wants to come to this celebration and rejoice with me. It doesn’t matter if they are a good person or a bad person, everyone should come and celebrate. And all of these people who traveling on the main roads, who were doing their shopping, going about their regular business of the day and then they were presented with this incredible offer: free food, wine, and music. This time these people accept. They come and they fill the entire banquet so that the hall was full of people. This is where it would be great to stop the parable. Everyone is eating, drinking, dancing, and rejoicing at the wedding banquet for the son of the king. This is a great and beautiful image of the kingdom of heaven. And it is one that we should hold onto when we think about all the ways that we come together to celebrate our generous and awesome God.

However, the parable doesn’t end there and we have this part about the man who doesn’t have wedding clothes on. He’s there and enjoying the party but he’s ignoring the fact that everyone else is wearing their celebratory clothes that show that they understand why they’re there and who they are celebrating. What helped me really understand this difficult part was to think about how this parable does show the story of God and people from the beginning of time all the way to today. The story that came to my mind was one that we looked at in the fall. It’s the story of Joshua when he stands before the people of Israel and he tells them that they have a choice to make. They can live life like it was before God when they were slaves in Egypt or they can live life with God. If they live life with God then they have to give up all those other things they were holding onto: like the gods of Egypt, the statue idols that were in their tents. They needed to not just say yes to God and continue life as normal but the yes to God includes a change of the way that they live and believe and act. Then Joshua tells them basically they can figure that out for themselves but he and his house will serve the Lord.

Jesus is about to be placed on the cross in a few days. He no longer has the luxury of time on his side to get his message across to people. He is desperately trying to help people understand that the celebration is coming and he wants anyone and everyone to come and be a part of the banquet. He is inviting the evil and the good. I know the passage ends by saying many are invited but few are chosen, but I would argue that Jesus, as he was throughout this whole parable, was using hyperbole to help people understand the urgency of the gospel and the need to live their lives for God here and now and not to wait. Because if we take this parable as an example of the invited and the chosen, then we can see that only a single person had to leave, and yet, there were many people who were both good and bad, so many, in fact, that the whole place was filled with people. God invites everyone to the banquet, God is patient with each and every one of us. God cares so much that the doors are wide open and people are being sent out to bring even more people in and it’s not our job to decide who can come, clearly these servants didn’t and all got to be a part of the celebration of God. So join in the celebration and don’t wait another day to go out and bring other people in until this banquet hall is full and all can come and join at this table where God has prepared a meal for us all. Amen.