At-Home Liturgy: Wedding ClothesMatt. 22:1-14, Rev. 19 Introduction Welcome to our at-home liturgy podcast, friends. I'm excited for this month as we have this week to rest and reflect; then, next week, we start at our new location at 800 SE C St off of 8th in Bentonville. Oct 18 at 930 AM! Today, let's think about what God offers his people… and maybe consider how we're responding right now. Are we accepting his invitation? This is one of those Jesus parables that can be uncomfortable. Jesus says something clearly true that no one really wants to hear. And it's an allegorical story, meaning everyone knew he was talking about specific groups and historical moments. At first, it sounds good. But then, hmmmm… challenging. Here it is: Read Matthew 22:1–14 The first thing Jesus says is worth plenty of our consideration: the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. God's kingdom, God's way and rule, is like a wedding feast! In Jesus' day, these were lavish parties that lasted seven days, featuring food and drink, entertainment and dancing. They knew how to throw a party. They knew how to savor the good things and special moments. How to stop their preoccupations to embrace goodwill and merrymaking. God's kingdom, the divine intention, is a celebration. A feast. To keep special what is special. To savor the holy. To welcome goodwill and a good future. Amen and amen! God, let your kingdom come! This image is common in the New Testament. The Wedding Supper of the Lamb is one of the pictures of God's redemption fulfilled in Revelation. Revelation gets a bad rap for the ways it's misread and abused, and because it is the biblical book most likely to attend Comic-Con. But read as intended, weird stuff and all, Revelation imagines the hope of God's kingdom finally coming to earth: the end of empire and injustice, sickness and death, and the completion of Christ's work. And one of the images of that hope is a wedding feast! Christ welcomes his bride, the Church, and she is given white clothes described as "the righteous acts of God's people." Based on NT Wright's work, those "righteous acts" include restorative justice, holding onto gospel truth in dark times, showing mercy, and the heart posture of holiness. Keep that image in mind. God's saving work culminates in a wedding banquet, and the clothes are provided for the bride. Exploring the Parable Now back to our parable. The king sends his servants out to tell the wedding guests that it's time. In first-century marriage customs, invitations would go out and people would actually respond to them. No text messages: "Hey, can you RSVP? Do you want chicken or fish? We need to know what to tell the caterers!" The first invitation didn't specify the exact time. The servants went out to say, "Okay, it's ready. Come to the feast!" And since it's the king asking, you drop whatever you're doing, get dressed, and go. In Jesus' story, the guests don't come. So the king repeats himself: "Friends, everything is ready. The feast is luxurious. The wine is flowing. Come, friends. The time to celebrate is now!" But those who have RSVP'd don't want to come. It says they "made light of it." Some went to their farms, others to their businesses. (Pause.) Then a smaller group mistreated the king's servants and killed them. This was not a done thing. You might as well slap the king. Now, if this were a real situation, the meat would be spoiling and the fruit going bad. But this is allegory. Jesus is making a point about Israel's own history. The king punishes those responsible and burns their city. Matthew's first readers had already watched Rome burn Jerusalem in 70 CE, and many would have heard that history in the king's anger. Exploring Allegory Matthew tells us Jesus is speaking to the chief priests and Pharisees. Jesus is the son whose wedding feast is coming, and God is the king. The wedding feast is the great joy of heaven coming to earth at last, setting all things right. But who are the people who don't want to come? The farmers and business folk resemble us common folks, preoccupied with our labors and worries: the next promotion, a balanced checkbook. The sent servants are the prophets of Israel, sent by God with the same invitation. Micah sums it up: Wanna be feast people? “Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.” Sound familiar? Those who mistreated and killed them represent the religious and political establishment that rejected the prophets because they didn't like the message. Scripture tells that story: God sent messenger after messenger, and the people mocked them and despised their words (2 Chronicles 36). And Jesus is telling this story to leaders who are about to do the same to him. Exploring the Good and the Evil I can imagine everyone listening would have heard themselves in those first groups. I hear myself in the farmer and businessman, certainly. I'm often too busy or preoccupied to pay attention to God's presence and Christ's way. I can be overly concerned about red in my ledger. What's fascinating, and something we really value at Bread + Wine Church, is that the king throws open the doors to all. This was definitely not a normal story for Jesus' audience. "Take it to the streets! Everyone may sit at the table, eat from the lavish foods and drink the wine. All may savor the joy of this wedding, the good and the evil. All may come." Taste and see that it is good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. The wedding hall fills with unexpected-but-welcome people who show up for the party, who go to church, or who call themselves some kind of Christian. Everyone is welcome. Everyone can belong. "Wait, but didn't it say some of the guests were good and some were evil?" Yeah, it did. Elsewhere in Matthew, Jesus says to let the good and bad grow together, because we never know who might be changed by grace, starting out one thing and becoming quite another. I hope that's my story anyway. (pause) It also helps explain why churches are accused of containing unchristian people, even sometimes leading them! But then there's that strange last scene. The king walks into the full banquet hall, among the riffraff and ragtag guests, and notices a man who isn't wearing wedding clothes. "Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?" The man has nothing to say. He's bound and tossed out to "utter darkness." That's pretty rough, right? This might be the most challenging part of the passage. If you've heard religious teaching that made God seem threatening, you might be wondering what Jesus is saying here. Is the man thrown out because he isn't dressed well? Is God going to find people who don't fit in and surprise them by throwing them into darkness and gnashing of teeth? What!? Judgment The same Jesus who welcomed everyone at his table and loved so deeply also told this parable. He has good things to offer the world. He is full of grace and truth, and he gave his life as a ransom for many. Jesus came to save sinners. But... he also never backed down from the idea that we will answer for how we live. He consistently calls us to take inventory of our thoughts and actions and change our minds about God and neighbor in light of what we know about him. This is one of those parables where he's letting us know he's serious about it. Look again at what the king does. He sees a man without wedding clothes and calls him "Friend." Then he asks a question: "How did you get in here without wedding clothes?" The man gets a chance to answer, and he has no defense and makes no excuses. Matthew tells us he was speechless. There are different readings of difficult texts, so go and look them up and consider for yourselves. The interpretation that makes the most sense to me is this: several commentators, Craig Keener among them, point out that a host in that world would often make wedding garments available to guests. The clothes were on offer. This man seems to have refused them. He wanted to feast and drink and laugh without putting on the clothes. Follow the allegory: he was unwilling to put on the qualities of God's kingdom: justice, truth, mercy, and holiness. Everyone may come as they are; we cannot expect to stay as we are. Putting on Christ If we take an honest look and find we’re lacking what Jesus has, there is plenty in Scripture to help us become more like him. Paul tells us to "put on Christ" like a garment (Romans 13:14), and to "clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience as God's chosen people" (Colossians 3:12). C.S. Lewis wrote about how children play pretend, wearing things that don't fit them yet. Over time, they grow to fit. When Willa puts on her mom's jewelry and shoes, we can envision the day she has grown to fit them. Imagine going into a conversation where you don't have much goodwill toward the person on the other side of the table. If you ask yourself, "What would the compassion and humility of Christ look like here?" what would your answer be? Try that on for size. Chances are, it won't fit. It won't feel right. But over time, it might. Practicing compassion, kindness, humility, and patience can help us grow into the qualities of Christ we don't yet possess. Jesus ends the story with this line: "Many are invited, but few are chosen." Everyone in About Bread and Wine Church Jesus followers discovering together what it means to Love God and Love Others More information at https://breadandwine.church/
