The Wedding Banquet Wednesday, February 28, 2007 |
I have a friend who is an event planner. Most of the events she plans are weddings. She's great at it. Although I've never talked with her about this, I've always assumed (relying on my vast experience attending weddings) that the guest list is always pretty much planned ahead of time. You know who you want to invite, and you use amo ink to make some cool invitations to send out. Everybody's excited about the big day, blah blah blah.
SO...I'm a little stuck on something wedding related. Your help is appreciated. I've been reading Matthew, making special note of all the times Jesus leads with something along the lines of "For the Kingdom of God is like..." I'm familiar with all these parables, but I've really tried to dig into how Christ is describing his Kingdom, and how that Kingdom is present currently, here on earth. Anyway, Matthew 22 is throwing me for a loop. I understand the general premise...the king (God) invites guests to the wedding banquet for his son (Christ). The parable continues that the guests he invited basically snubbed him..."Sorry King, too busy preparing my taxes and sharpening my plow." This enraged the king, who then asked his servants to go to the street corners and invite anyone they find. I like this part, because in this I think God is calling out to me (a Gentile), inviting me to some join the banquet even though I wasn't on the original list. Yea! I'll take that invitation any day! Sign me up, thank you very much. So we all end up at the party, hanging out, good and bad...end of story? Not quite. This is where I get a little hung up. The king then notices a man there not wearing wedding clothes, and gets pissed. Now my honest immediate reaction is "Hello...you invited people off the street. Not everyone will be in their Sunday best." When the king confronts the man, Matthew records the man as "speechless." I would be too. Then, without warning, the king tells his servants to tie the man up, hand and foot, and throw him outside into the darkness. Jesus ends with "For many are invited, but few are chosen." Now, I've read several commentaries on this passage. I understand that all are welcome at the banquet, but no one should remain the way he or she entered, in view of the final separation of "the wicked from the righteous" (MT 13:49). Still, I feel like I'm getting stuck on something. Perhaps I'm missing something obvious (it happens with frequency.) All I know is I spend some serious time with this over the last week, and I'm not feeling settled, and that's ok. Maybe that's the point...wrestling with God's word is DEFINITELY not a comfortable exercise.
SO...I'm a little stuck on something wedding related. Your help is appreciated. I've been reading Matthew, making special note of all the times Jesus leads with something along the lines of "For the Kingdom of God is like..." I'm familiar with all these parables, but I've really tried to dig into how Christ is describing his Kingdom, and how that Kingdom is present currently, here on earth. Anyway, Matthew 22 is throwing me for a loop. I understand the general premise...the king (God) invites guests to the wedding banquet for his son (Christ). The parable continues that the guests he invited basically snubbed him..."Sorry King, too busy preparing my taxes and sharpening my plow." This enraged the king, who then asked his servants to go to the street corners and invite anyone they find. I like this part, because in this I think God is calling out to me (a Gentile), inviting me to some join the banquet even though I wasn't on the original list. Yea! I'll take that invitation any day! Sign me up, thank you very much. So we all end up at the party, hanging out, good and bad...end of story? Not quite. This is where I get a little hung up. The king then notices a man there not wearing wedding clothes, and gets pissed. Now my honest immediate reaction is "Hello...you invited people off the street. Not everyone will be in their Sunday best." When the king confronts the man, Matthew records the man as "speechless." I would be too. Then, without warning, the king tells his servants to tie the man up, hand and foot, and throw him outside into the darkness. Jesus ends with "For many are invited, but few are chosen." Now, I've read several commentaries on this passage. I understand that all are welcome at the banquet, but no one should remain the way he or she entered, in view of the final separation of "the wicked from the righteous" (MT 13:49). Still, I feel like I'm getting stuck on something. Perhaps I'm missing something obvious (it happens with frequency.) All I know is I spend some serious time with this over the last week, and I'm not feeling settled, and that's ok. Maybe that's the point...wrestling with God's word is DEFINITELY not a comfortable exercise.
Labels: Wedding banquet
