Monday, June 1, 2015

5/3/2015

“An Offer We Ought Not Refuse...”
Matthew 22: 1-14
Did we hear all these preparations being made? Oxen and fattened calves were killed...I imagine tents erected, food prepared, musicians hired...hotel rooms reserved...rabbi on stand-bye. We mere mortals cannot imagine what a wedding banquet such as this would cost. Or, maybe we could. According to Business Insider, to make the list of the 12 most expensive weddings in recent history you had to spend at least 1.5 million. The most expensive was Prince Charles and Diana — $48 million in 1981 or $110 million in today’s money. If we wish to look at someone who spent their own money and not that of a nation-state, we could consider second place: Vanisha Mittal and Amit Bhatia of India. The bill was $60 million in 2005, or $66 million when adjusted for inflation.1
To be sure this wedding portrayed in our text was the event of the year, probably of the decade, and maybe even of the century in Palestine. Obviously they sent out “save the date” invitations six months earlier; then the King sent his servants to personally bring the invitees to the banquet.  

This reminds me of the couple who spent $900,000 flying 500 guests to the wedding on private jets. What more could one do to ensure that his son had a proper wedding?


For some unknown reason the invitees refused to come. The King could not believe it. He was enraged; none dare refuse the offer of a King to come to a wedding banquet. (This is like the statement from the Godfather movies: “I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse!”) So, being the “nice guy” that the King was, he sent more servants to explain that everything was ready and issue one more invitation. Surely they would now come. Yet again not only did they refuse, the invitees mocked the servants, even seizing and killing them. How’s that for saying “No thanks!”

The King’s blood was running hot...fiery hot. I can just hear him now: “Those no-good, unworthy so and so’s...I’ll show them what happens when you turn me down.” He sends his soldiers to kill those who rejected his offer and then he has them burn down the town. Literally...burn down the town. I can only imagine how fast word must have spread throughout the region: “If this King invites you, you best show up...you don’t want to refuse this offer.”

But now the King has a serious problem: who will be the guests at his son’s banquet? He just killed off the primary guest list; where can you find more friends with whom to party at this late hour? Where else but the streets? So, he tells his servants (the one’s who are left): “Go out on the streets and invite anyone and everyone to come to the party...rich, poor, good or bad...regardless of creed or ethnicity... bring them all in so we can celebrate and party.”

So they do — and what a party it must have been. I am sure that it got a little rowdy; after all these were not the “country club clientele” who were now gracing the dance floor, eating caviar or drinking champagne. No, these were the people who knew how to get down with it...they had more in common with the servants and the band than with the King. They might have even talked the band into playing country music or at least some good old South Carolina shag!

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Just when you think that you have seen it all, the King surprises everyone. He notices a man enjoying himself who does not have on the proper garb — he is not wearing his wedding garment (translation — tuxedo or at least dark suit.) Anyone knows that when you come to a wedding after 6:00pm you have to wear a tux. However, not our friend...he’s there in blue jeans, tee shirt and flip flops just having a good old time. The King challenges him: “How did you get in here without the proper clothes?” Our friend is so stunned that he cannot answer...he just stares speechless at the floor...thinking to himself: “Is there a dress code? Did I miss something?” Then the King utters these words that echo across the room and down the corridors: “Throw him out and let him go to hell. For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Do you think the party ended shortly thereafter? I sure do. I can see the guests heading for exits, tuxedos or not, for this King is not one with whom one can trifle. When he invites you, you best come — and dressed to the nines as well.

OK — I can see you are all just as puzzled as me at this parable. After wrestling with it this week I was so glad that it is not an allegory, where every part reflects some area of life. (The portrayal of God as the King, for instance, is not one with which I am comfortable.

What is important here are not the details per se, but the fact of God’s great invitation to us all to the banquet of celebration in the Kingdom of God. Jewish weddings were great affairs which often lasted a week or more. The contract/proposal was agreed upon by the parents; then the bridegroom would show up, often unexpectedly, at his bride’s home to take here to his home where the feast would be prepared. After this word would go out to the guests, the party would start and the guests would come from all around. To refuse the invitation would be to shame the King, the giver of the party; no one in their right mind would do that. Would they? Would we?

Let’s bring this home a bit. What about us? We’ve all been given an invitation to the celebration of life and life eternal. This is an invitation to a life in Christ that begins now and never ends. To say yes to the invitation is to accept this incredible invitation to live in relationship with God through Jesus Christ. When we say yes to Christ we say yes, we will be at this party which begins now and never ends.

What about those who refuse? Jesus is telling us a strange truth: all are invited, but not all accept. “Many are called, but few are chosen.” For whatever reasons there are those who refuse to join the party. Oh, they want to hear the band...some will even stand outside and listen. But commit to the party — no way.

Far too often we who claim to follow Christ are guilty of a hollow commitment, an insincere “yes” to the “save the date” but a “no” when the date comes. Yes, we will follow Christ; no, not right now — its’ just not convenient. Yes, we would love to come be a part of a celebration; no, I’ve other things to do. Saying yes...but then no — is to say no, is it not? If you go back one chapter to Matthew 21: 28-33 Jesus tells the parable about the two sons — one whom said yes and did not go and the other said no but went. The doing of the will of God, it seems, is not in the verbal reply, but is found in our actions, in the obedience of our life. Do we really show up at the banquet, properly attired and ready for action?

What about these who killed the servants? Jesus talks straight to the Jewish leaders who have rejected the prophets and even Jesus, and they know it. He says to them, “Not only have you refused to come to the party...you have even killed the messengers of God who brought the invitation. Now, since you refuse to come, not only will you perish outside the Kingdom, I will invite and and all who will to come.”

This parable comes at a vital time in the life of Jesus: Wednesday of Holy Week. This is the day of controversy, the day when push comes to shove and the confrontations between Jesus and the Jewish leaders are coming to a head. Immediately following this parable Matthew tells us that these leaders try to trap Jesus into betraying his hand by demanding to know whether they should pay taxes to Rome. Yes, the journey of Jesus is approaching that climatic moment.

Before we get too far down this road, let’s take a minute and look that those whom Jesus is saying rejected the invitation. They would have been most surprised, for they would have said that they accepted the invitation. After all, they were “good, God-fearing people who loved God, obeyed the Torah (mostly) and just knew that they were ‘God’s people.’” How did they reject the invitation? They rejected the invitation when they refused to listen to the prophets who sought to bring correction to their life, particularly in the areas of social and economic justice. They rejected the invitation when they made religion a matter of private practice/relationship and not applicable to societal structures or to social moral and ethical issues. They rejected the invitation when they ostracized, imprisoned, and/or ignored the prophets/messengers for speaking to these very issues.

All my ministry I have heard the mantra over and over again: “Following Jesus is about going to heaven when you die and not about those social issues you keep talking about!” Nothing could be further from the truth. “Going to heaven when we die” and working to align our social structures/lifestyles with the biblical witness are one and the same — the result of a life of full and complete surrender to Jesus the Christ. The gospel of Jesus is about the in-breaking, the coming of the Kingdom of God in this world. The gospel of Jesus is about us working together to establish communities where the justice and economics of the Kingdom are practiced. This gospel is about realizing that in this Kingdom we come alive with one another and with Christ in such a way that life, even when it is difficult, becomes a banquet, a celebration of life under God. Working for social and economic justice? Not a problem when you’re a part of the wedding banquet...not a problem when you’ve read the prophets and heard their message in the depths of one’s soul.

But — what about our guest who gets evicted for not wearing a tuxedo? Can we get in and get thrown out? In Palestine a good host not only invited you to the wedding, he provided you with a proper wedding garment. When you arrived you were given the garment to put on as you entered the party. To not have on the proper garment is simply a matter that this one, like the earlier invitees, refused the gracious invitation of the King and wanted to enter on his own terms. Wearing one’s own clothes, in this parable, was like believing that salvation could come by one’s own merits, one’s own righteousness. Just as entry into the banquet was by the grace of the King — and our acceptance of that grace, so entry into the Kingdom of God is by grace and grace alone. We don’t get into the Kingdom on our own merits...and we don’t stay in the Kingdom by those either.

We live in a culture where we all expect to live full and complete lives — and go to heaven when we die. Even for those who never grace a church or work to build the Kingdom, we still have that

subconscious, cultural thread: “they were good people and they surely will be in heaven...right, Preacher?” Maybe, maybe not? Maybe how we live and the faith we live out are of vital importance? Maybe, just maybe, saying yes to the invitation and living out the values of the Kingdom are of first hand importance. Maybe, just maybe not all “good people” go to heaven?

Can we recall these earlier words of Jesus recorded in Matthew 7? (I think Matthew was giving us early warning...)
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’ 2

So...have you had any good wedding banquet invitations lately? Might we ought to pay attention to them? Have we said yes to the invitation that came to us? When will we?

1 http://www.businessinsider.com/most-expensive-weddings-2010-7?op=1#ixzz3bLWgFZEj 2 Matthew 7: 21-23
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