Last week’s sermon looked at another of Jesus’ crazy parables, with a curious twist at the end. Whenever we see something strange in Jesus’ parables, we need to ask why he would say it. For example, why did the landowner in Matt 20:1-16 keep going out looking for workers up to 5pm? It’s because he didn’t care about the wages; he cared only about the workers. Or why did the landowner in Matt 21:33-46 keep sending servants, KNOWING the tenants would harm or kill them? It’s because he didn’t care about the rent; he cared only about a relationship with the tenants.
The parable of the wedding banquet starts out simple enough, with a king inviting guests to his son’s wedding. Yet when the day arrives, the invitees (the Jews) refuse to come, claiming ‘I married a cow … I bought a wife’. So the king sends for others (Gentiles) to come. The message is simple; to get into the wedding banquet of the Son (Jesus), we have to accept his invitation.
Yet the parable ends with the king noticing a man not wearing wedding clothes, whom the king then kicks out. So what is this about? When we dive deeper, we realise the people at the wedding banquet didn’t have time to go home and get into their wedding clothes. The king must have dressed them, ensuring they looked immaculate for his son’s wedding.
What this means is, there are 2 ways to be excluded from the wedding banquet of the lamb. One is to reject God’s invitation outright, as the pagans do. They thumb their nose at God’s rules, declaring they want nothing to do with him. The other is to think our own righteousness (our own wedding clothes) are good enough for God, as many religious people do. These people thumb their nose at God’s rescue, declaring they wish to deal with their own sin. So not only do we need to accept God’s invitation, we have to accept his salvation as well.
