The Parable of the Wedding Feast

Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus again in reply spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. When the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Discussion Questions:

1. The invitation to the banquet is extended to everyone. What do you think it means to actually refuse that invitation? Can you remember a time when you sensed an invitation from God but found yourself reluctant or unwilling to respond?
   
   
2. Do you sometimes feel more like a spectator at your faith than an active participant in it? What might it look like for you to move from simply attending to more fully responding to God’s invitation?
   
   
3. The Kingdom of Heaven is a state of consciousness and action. What invitation for conscious action have you sensed recently toward justice, service, compassion, mercy, or simply in the way you relate to another person? Are there invitations you may be hearing but not yet responding to?

Biblical Context

Matthew 22:1-14
Margaret Nutting Ralph PHD

Jesus continues to call the chief priests and elders to conversion by telling them a story in which guests who are invited to a wedding feast refuse to come. The king sends his servants out a second time to invite guests to the feast. Some ignore the invitation, but others “laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.” In response the king “destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” Once more the king sends out his servants to gather “all they found, bad and good alike.” When the king comes to greet his guests, he notices one who is not dressed properly. He says, “My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?” The guest doesn’t say a word. He is completely unresponsive. That guest is thrown out “where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

The chief priests and elders are compared to the invited guests who not only neglected to come to the banquet when all was ready but abused and even killed the one sent to extend the invitation. Jesus is once again warning these religious leaders that in rejecting him they are also rejecting an invitation to the kingdom of God.

By the time Matthew includes this parable in his Gospel (AD 85) Jesus has been killed, Jerusalem has been destroyed by the Romans (AD 70), and Gentiles have been invited into the kingdom. All of these events have helped shape the parable in its present form. Matthew is most probably referring to the destruction of Jerusalem when he says that the king was enraged and burned the city. The invitation to the banquet is now open to everyone, including Gentiles: “… invite to the feast whomever you find.”

Many people, when reading the parable of the wedding feast, make an unconscious mistake in interpretation that can lead to serious error. Instead of interpreting the story as a parable, as we have done, they interpret the story as an allegory and assume that the king stands for God. They then have the image of a God who kills and destroys, who throws people out where there is “wailing and grinding of teeth,” rather than a God who saves. The basis of this mistake is a misunderstanding of literary form. Many parables, if interpreted as allegories, lead to similar mistakes. This parable is teaching the chief priests and elders that they must respond to Jesus and his invitation if they want to enter the kingdom. It is not addressing the question, “What is God like?”

As Jesus concludes his parable, he emphasizes the necessity of a proper response to the invitation to the kingdom by describing the king’s interaction with the guest who is not dressed properly. The king doesn’t throw him out immediately. Rather, he calls him “friend,’ and asks why he is not properly dressed. The guest does not respond in any way: “But he was reduced to silence.” The failure to dress properly functions as a symbol for the failure to respond properly. The fact that everyone is invited does not mean that everyone will enter the kingdom of God. The chief priests and elders are invited, but they will not enter the kingdom. A proper response is necessary, and they will not respond. Instead, as we will read next week, they will continue to plot how to trap Jesus.

Accepting the Invitation

Reflection
Bob Saraceni

Jesus spent most of his short life on earth preaching, teaching, and healing. But when I think about Jesus and the way he celebrated life, I am always moved by how important it was for him to bring people together, especially around a table, at a banquet, or at a wedding.

I think there is something deeply beautiful about this image of the Kingdom, and of God that Jesus is describing: a God who will not be satisfied until the hall is filled with guests; a God who gathers people together, who feeds us, who celebrates with us, and who reminds us that none of us is meant to walk through life alone. This is what faith can do. It creates a table, a place where people are welcomed, nourished, and celebrated. But the feast is not just something God gives us; it is something God asks us to participate in creating as well.

The banquet is already prepared. The invitation has already been extended. The question is: what do we with it? We can also choose to ignore, or even refuse, the invitation. 

This what I wrestle with most. What am I being invited to at this stage of life? Am I actually participating, or am I refusing? Is there something God is inviting me toward that I have been too busy, too comfortable, too afraid, or maybe too resistant to notice?

And… when I do show up, am I wearing the right garments? How am I dressed on the inside? What do the garments of my intentions, attitudes, resentments, generosity, willingness, humility, love, and most of all, my ability to forgive say about how I am dressed interiorly?

The wedding garment, then, can become an image of our interior response to the invitation. God welcomes us as we are, but we are also being invited to become something more. We are free to respond, or not respond. And sometimes our choices can create a distance between ourselves and God, until we find ourselves living outside the very communion we were invited to share. 

I notice myself moving back and forth between these different levels of awareness when it comes to God’s invitations. Sometimes I see it and I get it. Other times I miss it. And there are those times when I consciously and sadly refuse the invitation.

Matthew may be a lover of dual outcomes, but I don’t think Jesus sees people as permanently divided into the good and the bad, the worthy and the unworthy. Jesus imagines that everyone is invited, the good, the bad, and even those who may still be unconscious that they are on a journey.

God is always inviting us to more. Hearing the call is often easier than accepting the invitation. And accepting the invitation means more than simply walking through the door, it means allowing the feast to change us.

If the Kingdom is a banquet, then accepting the invitation would eventually turn us from guests into people who help set the table for others.