First Course - Appetizer

The lessons from Isaiah and Matthew both speak of grand feasts. So what better way to explore them than through the theme of a banquet? So, without further adieu, here is the appetizer, our first course. Its purpose is to whet your appetite for the goodies to come...

(from Matthew 22:1-14) ..."When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless..."

The story of the wedding banquet with reluctant guests is familiar. The King holds a wedding party for his son, but when the invited are summoned to the table, they are too busy and indifferent to come. Some even "shoot the messengers." So those people are "destroyed," and new guests are found (wherever) and invited (whomever). They have the good manners to come when they are called to dinner!

Everything is going great--the feast is on and the band is playing the bunny hop, when in comes the king (fashionably late for a neat entrance), and lo and behold he spots a guy in the corner who is not wearing black tie. Immediately the king calls him on it--stupefying the poor guy. (And then has him tossed out on his butt!)

What gives with this moment of Miss Manners on steroids? Isn't the "King" supposed to be gracious? Hey this kind of feature whets my appetite for knowing more!

In those days one was issued the duds you were to wear to a wedding feast. So either this guy has slipped in uninvited, or he's dissed the king big time by refusing to wear the robe assigned him. Either way he is both a stand out, and bonehead for thinking that no one would notice!

Which leads me to believe that what we see here is some editing by Matthew. Perhaps the original parable ended with the hall being filled with new guests. And the part we're discussing was added on, maybe from another unrelated parable, to address the reality Matthew's church was facing. That being a separation from the Jewish community, and a need to explain why some were not "chosen." (Because they refused to.)

There's more to these two (?) parables than that. There's eschatology, soteriology, and theology wrapped up in these stories. But for now we must be satisfied with this delicious tidbit, and wait for the next course...