Image: Show Me Your Glory © Jan Richardson
October 12, 2014
Tables
spread with mouth-watering morsels, guests gathered in the perfect ambiance,
lots of noise, laughter and fun.
We know a
party when we see one. But we also know that not all parties are the same.
Like the
towels in the guest bathroom that are there to be admired but never touched,
some parties focus more on display than on people.
Other
parties are known more for who is not
invited than who is.
Some parties
are held to celebrate, others to commiserate.
As diverse
as parties can be, they all have one thing in common: their purpose and tone
are set by the host.
In the
parables of Matthew 22, the King has gone to great trouble preparing a wedding feast
for his son, slaughtering enough oxen and fatted calves to feed several hundred
people.
He sends out
invitations and then twice reminds the guests to attend.
Not only do
the guests refuse, but some of them seize his messengers and kill them.
In response,
the king sends his troops to burn their city.
Then he
sends out another invitation requesting that all persons -- the
"good" and the "bad" -- be invited to the banquet.
The hall is
filled, and the party begins.
This is one
of several parables of judgment spoken by Jesus against the chief priests and
Pharisees during the last week of his life.
Taking the
parable is an allegory, we can see that the king is God, the wedding feast the
messianic banquet.
The
messengers who are killed represent the prophets and early Christian
missionaries, and the invitation to the "bad" and "good" is
the church's outreach to both gentiles and Jews.
Seen in this
way, the parable becomes a radical invitation.
The table is
spread for all to come.
Those
gathered in the streets have no reason or right to be there -- except that a
gracious king invites them.
Jesus is
issuing the invitation for all to join him as God's guests in a banquet feast
called the kingdom of heaven.
Life in the
kingdom is a party where God is the host and all of us rave received a royal
invitation.
Yet some of
us come unprepared, as a second parable reminds us.
One guest is
improperly dressed, and is thrown out of the banquet -- quite a contrast to the
inclusive tone of the previous parable.
To wear a
wedding garment is to know the significance of the occasion, to allow God's
gracious invitation to change our lives, and to live accordingly.
The dinner
guest has received a gift from the king -- the invitation to a joyous,
elaborate feast -- to which he has not responded appropriately.
When we
receive a gift such as salvation or forgiveness, we are called to lives of
penitent joyfulness.
All are
invited to feast at the table, but not every response is acceptable.
We are
called to repent in preparation or the party, not because we have to but
because we know we are entering into the presence of a gracious, forgiving God.
We will be
left out if we think hat God's love carries with it no desire or response from
us.
Though we
are often tempted to play the host, these parables together confirm that we
reed God to be the host -- not only for the grace-filled invitation to the
banquet, but also for the expectation of holy living that God presumes of those
a attendance.
Grace is
amazing, but so is God's desire for our response.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Add