The King Invites Everyone!
Matthew 22:1-14
Pentecost + 22 – October 12, 2008
Have you ever had a party and nobody came? It happened to Andy & I once when we were living in Michigan. We wanted to have a 4th of July cookout for our out-of-town friends, but it turned out, no one could make the trip. It's a sad thing, isn't it, when you try to have a party and no one shows?
Jesus tells us a story today about a king who had a party but no guests. Now Andy & I knew enough in advance that no one could come for our party, so we just called the whole thing off. We hadn't put any time or money into buying hamburgers & hot dogs & veggie burgers. We hadn't made tons of potato salad or bought any drinks; Andy hadn't fired up the grill. So canceling the party was really no big deal. But the king...he was another story.Because the king had been planning this party for months! It was his son's wedding party, after all, the royal wedding reception. The wedding of a prince requires a big, lavish party. You know what kind of time & effort it can take to plan a wedding, not to mention money. Now think Prince Charles marries Princess Diana, think the grand wedding ball from any Disney princess movie. It was that kind of a big deal. The guest list had been pored over so just the right people would be invited. The invitations had been sent out, responses received. The menu was planned, the food bought, the castle cleaned and decorated. This was a massive undertaking, a party months in the making!
And now the day has arrived. The king's kitchen is filled to the rafters with the best food you can imagine! The best appetizers, the best wine, the best steaks – the whole full-course meal, from soup to nuts. And it's almost ready, so he sends out his servants to call in the invited guests, which seems weird to us, but that was the custom of the time.
But the guests wouldn't come! So the king, who really wants this party to be a wonderful celebration, sends out another set of slaves to tell the guests that dinner's ready, food like you wouldn't believe! Come to the banquet! “Celebrate good times, come on!” A classic party song, right? But the guests ignore the 2nd summons too – one going off to the farm, another to his business, and the rest of 'em – they do the unthinkable! They kill the messengers! This isn't just being rude – it's outright revolt. This is the king's party remember. Refusing to come was bad enough, but then killing his slaves? That's a slap in the face, a rejection of the king's authority.
No wonder the king sends the troops after them. It's what kings do when they've got rebellion brewing. But it makes this a hard parable, because we like to match all of the characters up & make them stand for someone else. And obviously the king equals God in this scenario, but the king's reaction makes us wonder what that says about God. But the king's behavior doesn't match what Jesus reveals to us about God. Even when Jesus was killed, God didn't come seeking revenge. So I think sometimes there are parts of parable that are just good story-telling & we can leave it at that.
Now, this story may have been directed at those religious leaders: the chief priests and elders and Pharisees we've been hearing about the past few weeks, but we can see ourselves in this story too, can't we? Because certainly there are times when we do not come to the banquet God has invited us to. Even though God promises it's gonna be the biggest and best party ever, we can still find excuses not to come. We're too busy with all of our conflicting commitments on Sunday morning, or maybe we haven't had a day off all week and just want to sleep in, take it easy. Maybe we're staging a little rebellion of our own against God, so we refuse to come when we're called. Then there are those times when we show up, but we don't come in our party clothes, like the man at the end of the parable, who didn't put on a wedding robe. We're there in body, but not in spirit, and so we refuse to dress the part. We come to a wedding dressed like we're going to a funeral! We're party-poopers, and it's not about out clothes. It's about our inner attitude. We come wearing disrespect instead of gratitude, pride instead of humility, resentment instead of joy! We're lucky we got invited to the party at all, but we act like we're doing the king a favor by being there!
The astonishing thing about this parable is that the king doesn't decide to call off the party when the original guests bail out. A party is no party without any guests, and the king is gonna have this party – and so he sends out his slaves a third time. But this time when they go out with the invitation to “Celebrate good times, come on!”, they're singing to all of the people on the street. He sends them to the place where the main roads empty out through the town gate & into the surrounding countryside. He tells them to invite everyone they find to the wedding banquet! Everyone! The homeless, the unemployed, the sick, the diseased! Everyone they find – whether they look like they're good enough to come to the king's party or not. The king is inviting everyone to come – good or bad, rich or poor, man or woman, toddler or senior citizen. Every single person they find gets an invitation to come to the best, most amazing party they have ever imagined. Once they get the invitation, they hurry home, clean up, put on their finest clothes, and race off to be a part of this incredible, once-in-a-lifetime event! And when they get there, it's beyond their wildest dreams! And so the wedding hall was filled with guests – cue the band and let the celebration begin!! What's really amazing is that God invites each of us to be a part of the best party ever. Good & bad, rich & poor, old & young – everyone is welcome to come to the wedding banquet. It's a feast like Isaiah describes – filled with rich food and well-aged wines, when death's power will be destroyed and God will wipe away every tear from all faces. Can you imagine?! And we have a standing invitation! Every week, as we gather at this communion table, we receive a foretaste of the feast that is to come – although the food will be a lot better than a little wafer and a sip of wine. This is the pre-party, & God calls us to be here with bells on to celebrate what God has done for us and for all people!
There was a comedian, the late Mitch Hedberg, who had this great bit about busy restaurants. You sit there and wait for your party to be called, and the host says, “Dufresne, party of 2, Dufresne party of 2.” And when no one comes up, the host moves on to the next group on the list: “Bush, party of 3, Bush party of 3.” But what's going on here? What happened to the Dufresnes? How can anybody eat at a time like this? People are missing! The party of 3 is now the Bush Search party of 3. You can eat when you've found the Dufresnes!
That's our call this morning, because we're not just the guests. We're the slaves from the parable too, and God is sending us out to invite more people to come to this banquet we share, because people are missing! The wedding hall isn't filled! There is still room for more people to join us at the party. God's party is too good to keep to ourselves. Go therefore and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet. What a party it'll be when everybody's finally here!
Amen.
