Matthew 22:1-14
We just heard a parable about a king who held a wedding reception for his son where none of the guests showed up.
The interpretation of parables is not an easy task, and this parable is considered by many to be THE MOST DIFFICULT to interpret. Unfortunately, scholars have made it even more difficult for centuries by ‘over-interpreting’ the parable. Most people tend to apply allegory to the parable where it does not belong.
This parable starts pleasantly enough, with the Kingdom of Heaven compared to a king giving a wedding party for his son. But from there, things go awry. The invitees murder the servants who ask them to come. Then, after the king invites everyone on the street to the banquet, he becomes enraged with a guy not dressed for the occasion, casting him out into the outer darkness to suffer for all time.
Allegory is a literary device that uses elements of a story to represent elements of real life. Almost every character and setting in the story has some symbolic meaning. Some parables have symbolic elements, but not all parables are allegories where everything has some hidden meaning.
N. T. Wright said of this parable that it “often bothers people because it doesn’t say what we want it to. We want to hear a lovely story about God throwing the party open to everyone… to let everyone in. We don’t want to know about judgment on the wicked, demanding standards of holiness, or weeping and gnashing teeth.
Matthew’s parable of the wedding banquet depicts a scenario with several seemingly strange aspects:
- a king’s invitation to a wedding banquet that all the guests reject;
- his multiple attempts to entice them to attend;
- mistreatment of his servants by those invited;
- his violent and excessive punishment of the original guests;
- asking the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ to the banquet;
- the forceful expulsion of a guest whose attire the king deemed improper.
Thus, in this parable, we should be slow to assign specific allegorical meanings to each element and instead ask the simple question, What is Jesus’ message here? There’s a big difference between the cultural expectations of first-century Palestine and 21st-century America.
The challenge for today is no different than it was yesterday or even in the culture three thousand years ago. The challenge will always be to do what is right, not necessarily what society asks of us.
There are those times when what society asks is the right thing to do, when individuals have stood up and called the people to act appropriately. For the most part, what society has asked people to do seems to be the logical thing but not necessarily the right thing.
Right now, the world seems to be careening and bouncing its way into a world of never-ending wars. Society has decided that there will only be one view of how things are, and the existence of two different ideas is the basis for conflict.
Ideas, which place the thoughts and values of one individual over those of another and do not allow for a discussion of the differences, are inappropriate. But that only means that we must be aware of what is happening and prepared to meet the challenge before it gets to the point where violence is the only alternative.
Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a marriage feast given by a slave-owning king. Now, slave-owning kings were quite common back then. Fortunately, neither human bondage nor absolute monarchy is part of our day-to-day experience. We have not wiped out oppression or tyranny on the earth – far from it. But at least in this nation, we call it a crime when one person claims to own another, and we do not permit anyone to have absolute power.
So the progress of 2,000 years will require us to adjust to hear and understand this parable.
King = God;
the Son = Jesus;
Invited guests = Jewish people
The violence in this parable is startling. We can understand why people might decline an invitation, but to beat and murder the servants who extend the banquet invitation is unacceptable. Likewise, we can understand the king being disappointed that those invited refused to come and angry about the mistreatment of his slaves—but to send his army to slaughter and burn an entire city seems a disproportionate response.
The king in this parable demonstrates qualities that are the opposite of how I understand God.
- This king is demanding and impatient;
- he is prideful and violent;
- he demands perfection and enacts harsh punishments on those who don’t cater to his whims.
This is the kind of god too many people embrace, but it is not the God scripture defines – the God who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
While the God of our understanding is not like this, plenty of people in power are. So much violence is fueled by the fragile egos of people who wield power.
I think it would be a mistake to gloss over the violence–especially as the violence in Israel is so prevalent in the news these days. The violence in our world is unavoidable, and avoiding it in this parable seems neglecting my responsibility as a clergy. Perhaps, together with the Holy Spirit and the body of Christ, we can discern a world from our God of peace.
What is happening in Israel and Palestine is despicable and unforgivable. Both armies are trying to annihilate each other, leaving the Palestinian people in Gaza without electricity, water, or food. The Israelis say they will wipe the Palestinian people off the face of the earth.
Each of these enemies is wrong, just like the king who destroyed the villages of those who rejected his wedding feast invitation.
We can acknowledge that many of the Arab countries fear Israel and would like to eliminate the Jewish people. After World War II, the United Nations proposed a partition plan for Palestine, dividing it into separate Jewish and Arab states. In 1948, Israel declared its independence, leading to a regional war.
After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights. The construction of Israeli settlements in these occupied territories, notably the West Bank, has been a significant point of contention in the conflict.
But by carving up Palestine, the Palestinians have been left in a country with no cohesive formal government. The state of Israel is continually subsuming its territories as part of its belief that they are God’s chosen people and a desire to protect themselves from their enemies.
Hamas, an Islamist terrorist organization, gained popularity in the Gaza Strip and won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections. It subsequently took control of the Gaza Strip after clashes with Fatah, the political party dominant in the West Bank.
In the context of the conflict, one can draw a parallel between the king’s invitation and the call for peace or the ‘two-state solution’ in the region. The international community, including neighboring countries and organizations, consistently extends invitations for dialogue and peaceful negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The refusal of the initial guests to attend the wedding feast could represent the unwillingness of parties involved in the conflict to engage in peaceful dialogue, leading to ongoing tensions and violence. Just as the king in the parable sends his servants to invite others, efforts by various mediators and peacekeepers to involve different parties and encourage them to participate in peace talks have failed.
The guest without proper wedding attire could symbolize the consequences of not approaching the peace process with sincerity, respect, and a genuine willingness to find a resolution. In the context of the Israeli-Hamas conflict, this could imply that those who do not engage in peaceful negotiations or violate agreed-upon terms face diplomatic and social isolation, as well as financial sanctions.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine will not be easy to fix; both countries have perpetuated violence and terrorism on each other since 1948. There appear to be no signs of negotiations to stop either of them. Hamas keeps shelling Israel, and Israel states it will level the Palestinian territory.
Amid the shelling and destruction within their borders, over 400,000 Women, children, and families are trapped, and the death toll on each side keeps rising. Palestinian people are being warned to leave but have nowhere to go; Israel just ordered 1.1 million people north of Gaza to migrate to the south, yet restricting their movement. Egypt has been unwilling to open its borders to allow these refugees to enter.
The United States is a staunch supporter of Israel but has not been militarily involved in the fighting. However, our current treaties with Israel may require that we become involved on the ground.
We are at a critical juncture in the Middle East. If some sanity does not prevail soon, we could face the possibility of an all-out war in the Middle East. On Friday, Iranian-backed Hezbollah started attacking Palestine from the north. This is particularly frightening because several of the countries possess nuclear weapons.
What should we Christians do?
The first response must be to lament: a passionate expression of grief and sorrow. It is deeper than mere sympathy or empathy. Lament forces us to pause amidst whatever we’re doing and focus on crying out to God. And part of lament is also confusion. When we’re deeply troubled by why God would allow something like this to happen, lament is often the only appropriate response.
Helped by the Spirit’s intercession, we pray for peace. We pray for justice. We pray for comfort for those who’ve lost loved ones. We grieve because human beings, including babies and children, made in God’s own image have lost their lives.
We also lament that another war has now started. Wars, of any kind, mean devastation and destruction and further loss of life. Already, Israel is massing more than 360,000 troops on the border with Gaza. What happens if Syria and Lebanon join the fight? What happens if other terrorist groups try and start similar actions elsewhere in Israel or around the world? In our lament, we also pray for de-escalation and for peace to prevail. How can we not?[1]
What we, as Christians, must do is pray for peace in the Middle East. We must pray that everyone involved will cool off and observe a ceasefire until a diplomatic truce and equitable, long-term solution is found.
Let us pray:
God of peace, we pray for the people of Palestine and Israel in these perilous and dangerous times.
For all who are fearful for the safety of their loved ones and themselves, we pray that the assurance of unfailing love, even amid danger, settles upon them. Shelter them from despair and protect them from harm.
For all who are wounded, we pray they find healing.
For all who have died, we pray they find rest.
For all who grieve, we pray they find comfort.
For leaders on all sides, we pray for a renewed will to lay down arms, for the strength to put the grievances and wrongs suffered by their people to rest, and for the conviction to embrace a path of reconciliation and peace that preserves the rights and dignity of all of your children.
God of mercy, help us to remember no border can separate us from your great love and protection, no stone that can sound the well of your deep compassion.
God of justice, we pray with hopeful hearts that your beloved children of the Holy Land will be spared a future of sustained violence and unrest and that a recognition of the humanity of all people will prevail.
We ask all this in the name of your Son, Jesus.
Amen.[2]
Delivered at Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Columbus, OH; 15 October 2023
[1] James Mildred, CARE
[2] American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem
“Love your neighbor as yourself” is a pretty radical command -that we think of our love and concern for humanity in the same way as we regard our love for ourselves.
deni doulos 