“Called by the King. . . Dressed for the Party”
“Called by the King. . .Dressed for the Party”
Matthew 22.1-14
Matthew 22.1-14
In the name of the Living God and his risen Christ. Amen.
The parable Jesus tells is admittedly rather difficult for our modern American ears. We don’t have a King anymore—took care of that circa 1776. We certainly don’t have slaves, or even servants, sending them about to do our business. The parable’s violence seems distasteful, and perhaps like me you’re thinking, “I get enough of wars, retaliation, and retribution on my news feed, why do I have to hear it at church, too?” And even the swankiest downtown restaurant with the strictest dress code probably won’t bind you hand and feet and toss you out for being underdressed. (Probably won’t, I say.)
It’s a difficult, shocking, even disturbing story, for sure. Here’s a few things to keep in mind as we unpack it. First, it’s a story. It’s a story Jesus tells for a specific purpose to a specific audience at a specific time. We’re not to extrapolate a lesson from every aspect or contour of a parable. Jesus isn’t recommending you put oxen on you wedding menu (yummy…Oxen!), nor are you to burn your neighbor’s house down if they don’t show up for the wedding!
Secondly, it’s meant to be shocking, ridiculous even. How crazy would you have to be to not accept an invitation to a king’s banquet?! How shameful and insulting to kill the king’s representatives! How rude to accept the invitation, but to show so little respect as to not dress appropriately as a guest before the king! Especially when we consider that Jesus tells this story in what cultural anthropologists call a predominantly “honor/ shame” culture, we can sense the magnitude of the insults to the King. It’s more than just declining a wedding invitation or forgetting your suit coat. You’re making a statement about what you really think about this king and his son.
As we heard last week, this is the third of three parables Jesus tells at the beginning of Holy Week. They are specifically aimed against the religious leaders in Jerusalem who reject him, seek to entrap him, and plot to murder him. The point of all these stories is the same: as they rejected and killed the prophets before Jesus, they likewise now reject the son. And by rejecting the son they reject the Father. Because of this, others will be invited, and that surprising guest list will include all kinds—"the good, the bad, and the ugly,” we might say: tax collectors, sinners, gentiles, outcasts, unrefined, unappealing, uneducated all who share one thing in common: they accept the invitation and honor the son.
As I said, this parable was told for a specific reason to a specific audience at a specific time. So why do we bother reading it today? Can it be more than a first-century religious history lesson? God’s word is living and active, it is God-breathed, inspired, which means we know that God still speaks to us this morning, even in new and challenging ways through this parable.
There are two things I want us to take with us this morning once we get past a bit of the challenges of the parable. The first is to know that you’re invited to the party. You are. It is a feast of victory, a blessed banquet, a marriage celebration that will never end. It’s worth more than any earthly party or activity or relationship or ideology, and although you can’t fully see it with earthly eyes it’s real and true. In fact, it’s the most real and true thing you can be a part of. And you’re not invited because you’re good enough, or because of what you own, or how much you make, or how your week went, or what your family’s like. You’re invited because of the crazy, almost reckless grace of the King. The creator and sustainer of all the universe, Holy, Almighty God calls to you and welcomes you to the table.
This same Almighty God sent his son, his beloved son into the world as the Great Graceful Invitation, the “Eternal E-vite” we might say: a message in a manger, a call from a cross. Know that you’re invited, and that through the Son we have access to the Father and a place at a party that will never end.
Second, live like you belong at the party. There’s been much ink spilt and a lot of speculation about the close of this parable. They go to the highways and byways, and bring many others in, but then there’s this one guy who gets in without wearing a wedding robe. It doesn’t go well for him in the end, as you’ll recall. Is the robe meant to symbolize his good works in response to the gospel? His faith? The covering of the righteousness of Christ? All this is possible, but none of it certain.
Here's the way I’d like us to think about it. Our lives are now lived in the presence of the King of Kings—graciously invited, powerfully sustained, lovingly held. Live now with as much honor and recognition of this as you can. Adorn the gospel with good works. Sacrifice of yourself for others and for God’s work. Live humbly before your God and in a constant awe-struck recognition that, though unworthy, you’ve been welcomed and everything you do and everything you are gives honor and praise to the one who called you. This is what it means to dress up for the party: live a life in joyful response to the life-changing invitation.
St. Paul said it this way: “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:1-2).
The Feast is ready, the Banquet prepared, and you’re called by the King. Now also dress yourself in a way worthy of that calling and give honor and glory to the Son at the party that will never end.
Come soon Lord Jesus. Amen.