God invites his people to a banquet, a celebration of life, a life where every person finds all that they need to be fully alive and deeply happy. The prophecies we have, for instance in Isaiah 25, describe a celebration where there is ‘rich food and fine wines’, where the ‘mourning veil covering all peoples’ will be removed and Death will be destroyed for ever.
In Matthew 22 Jesus takes up this image but adds that those invited to this banquet are not interested. They do not respond. ‘One goes to his farm, another to his business and the rest seized his servants and maltreated them and killed them.’ The king becomes furious and sends out troops ‘to destroy those murderers and burn their town.’ The early Christians, aware of the crushing of the Jewish revolt and the destruction of Jerusalem in 69 and 70, hastened to apply this to the Jews. They rejected the Messiah and lost everything.
Today we would say that is a rather easy and convenient interpretation though, as so often in the scriptures, the Jews do represent all humanity.
What we have to bring home to ourselves is that we go on refusing to come to the banquet prepared for us. In ways that are often hidden from us – even if in general we are doing the best we can – we block out the light that would have helped us read the invitation properly.
The parable does not end there. When those who were invited refuse to come, the king extends the invitation to everyone. ‘So the servants went out to the crossroads and invited everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled.’ It’s ‘awesome’ as they say. It’s like God is desperate to gather whoever he can find.
No qualifications are needed. ‘Bad’ people, who don’t keep the rules, don’t fit in, live deviant lives, are crooks and prostitutes – they are all welcome. There is just one qualification; a wedding garment.
They have to have shown that somewhere in their heart there is an openess to the divine. Those totally closed off from God are the only ones rejected.
Post published in: Faith