Strange Stories: some party

This story is ridiculous!

I mean who turns down an invitation to the wedding of a prince. An invitation that affirms that you are in the right social group.

And what king burns down a town in the time it takes to cook dinner?

Luke includes a similar story, but no murder or fire or dress code.

So, what to make of this over the top parable.

In reading this week I found there are a few ways that this can be interpreted.

We will explore the parable and see if anything else helps us to make sense of this parable.

Getting invited to a banquet or feast was a big deal. In this time in history, it was not unusual for food to be scarce, or at least not plentiful. This is a wedding, a time of joy and feasting. [i]

In a society based upon honour and shame, nothing could bestow more honour (to oneself and, by extension, to one's family) than attending a royal wedding, particularly the wedding of the king's own son. This is the kind of event for which you make room in your calendar. Circle the date. Don't forget. Be there at all costs. [ii]

Normally a feast like this one would be given by someone wealthy and those invited would be of parallel wealth. This was quite a strict social convention and it would therefore be quite a serious offence not to take up the invitation.[iii]

So why in the parable are the people who receive the invitations first time around either disinterested or murdering the messengers?

Then the king responds with more violence.

A further invitation to anyone and everyone.

I wonder, if we were walking along the beach and someone came up to us and said the Governor is holding a party here, come and join in the festivities – how would you feel? Would you go?  

This parable comes in the final week before the crucifixion in Matthews gospel. Jesus has come into Jerusalem on a donkey, cleared the temple of traders, healed people, then went away for night. The next day he is in the Temple again, and the Scribes and Pharisees question his authority.

Jesus responds with some parables:

The two sons, one who said he would go and work, but does not and the son who says he will not work but does. Jesus asks: Which one does the will of the father?

The second parable is known as the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. When the landowner sends slaves to get his share of the harvest, they are beaten up, the landowner sends his son, and he is killed.

Then this parable.

The traditional way to look at this reading is that God is the king, the messengers are the prophets, the people who are initially invited are Jews and the people who eventually come are the gentiles. The one thrown out for not wearing the correct robe, that refers to the need to always be clothed in righteous. It is an end-time understanding of the parable.

I can see how people read the parable this way, but I struggle with this explanation.

Some commentators read this as having some extreme elements, like murder and fire while dinner is being cooked, but overall it is about an invitation that is broad and wide but has an expectation of changed behaviour if you accept the invitation. Maybe this is the discipleship explanation, the invitation is there, accept it, but be willing to be transformed. [iv] The wedding garment is not a fashion statement as a   passion statement – where is your heart? [v]

Another way of reading the end of this parable is that reason the person who was thrown out, was because he was speechless when the king came to talk with him. Speechless.  Which means he wouldn't enter into a relationship with the king.[vi]

Some commentators speak of the parable as contrasting the violence of the Empire with the non-violence of Jesus. The reaction of the King shows his power, and his insecurity. Worried monarchs are dangerous monarchs: they are likely to erupt in rage.^[vii]

When we hear a parable, our first instinct, in general, is to assume the king in the parable represents God. But this King kills people and destroys a town, is that like the God you know? [viii]

What if the king in the parable is not God?

What if Jesus is the person thrown out of the banquet?

A king gives a banquet, and the people invited think they are too important to attend, so other people in the area are rounded up to attend the banquet. Would you turn down the invitation given what happened to the other people who did not accept the invitation?

Jesus is part of the ‘ordinary’ people who is rounded up to attend the feast but refuses to party at the king’s command. When questioned by the King in the parable, the person stays silent.

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is silent when questioned by chief priests and elders [Matthew 27: 11-14]

If Jesus is telling a parable about the way in which our earthly, violence-based authority is on display, then where do we see the kingdom of heaven? It looks like what this king does to the man who stands silently before him at the end of the parable. In short, it looks like what happened to Jesus when he stood silently in the face of his accusers and let them throw him out into the darkness of death. [ix]

Jesus tells this parable in response to questions from the religious leaders, they are asking who gives Jesus authority to teach and heal. Maybe this parable is a reminder that we cannot follow Caesar and God. For the early church the idea that following Jesus may get you killed was one they knew from experience.

This is another strange story, another parable that can sound bizarre to us. However, you understand the parable:

To be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

To accept the invitation of Jesus and be transformed

Or to not get involved in the violence of Kings and rulers, but to live for God even at risk of your life

This is a powerful parable.

I pray you will hear God speaking to you,
that you will respond to the invitation and call of God
and live in the love and peace of Jesus.

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[i] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3870&fbclid=IwAR3Odwl8qvhYbq1uucBQjRauGQ24OqV1_gnuRBXNI4_jvWpm0UQGvtz05Z0

[ii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=172&fbclid=IwAR0UxlohxX3KmvD2UtalzAofga46iV3PMTHks2gGNIKJtvIfC0LBIiDjywc

[iii] Spill the beans

[iv] Hope Molozaiy on Facebook Narrative Lectionary Facebook Group responding to

Sarah Sanderson-Doughty 21 March 2019

[v] Spill the beans

[vi] Comment in https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=997&fbclid=IwAR3R4ZPodXuL_gcGraOAL5FhEWB2eoQs0NHyPRgUeV5Yp5tVqJUiD9u991Q

[vii] https://provokingthegospel.wordpress.com/2017/10/09/a-provocation-nineteenth-sunday-after-pentecost-october-15-2017-matthew-221-14/?fbclid=IwAR3Zc2235go9YBsgVgs7iyWhqvfGcoZ4M6LpEnp4zyT07IVr2BNtQNW3Dtw

[viii] http://girardianlectionary.net/year_a/proper23a_2008_ser.htm

[ix] http://girardianlectionary.net/year_a/proper23a_2008_ser.htm