Matthew 22:1-14 (and Philippians 4:1-9)
God of truth,
honor, and justice; God of purity, commendation, and excellence; help us to
stand firm in you. Give us your peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Have you ever told a story in order to prove a point,
and stretched the truth just a little to make your point more firmly?
That ref must have never watched a football game
before, every single play he called was wrong!
Well,
really, he probably only messed up once or twice, but if it was on an important
play, it would seem like he was wrong more often than that.
We went to the amusement park and the line for every
ride was at least two hours long!
Well,
no, the unpopular rides probably still had short lines or no lines at all, but
you’re making the point that the park was unusually crowded.
She hasn’t slept more than an hour at a time since the
baby was born.
OK,
maybe that one’s not an exaggeration, depending on how demanding the newborn
baby is.
The Horse and
His Boy is one of the Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, which are some of my favorite books. One of the
characters in that book is telling her servants about the importance of keeping
a particular secret, and this is how she threatens them:
“No one
is to be let out of the house today. And anyone I catch talking about this
young lady will be first beaten to death and then burned alive and after that
be kept on bread and water for six weeks. There.”
– Lasaraleen in The Horse and His Boy,
by CS Lewis, p.106
Today’s parable from Jesus is just as absurd as these
exaggerations.
The king invites a bunch of guests to a banquet in
celebration of his son’s wedding, but no one comes.
Really? Who ignores a royal summons?
And then the king sends out slaves to encourage the
guests to come with delightful descriptions of the feast that is ready and
waiting, but the guests aren’t impressed.
Hey –
free food! Do you really think no one would be tempted by that?
At least
a teenager or two would find their way in, wouldn’t they?
But they didn’t, apparently. And then the people who
were invited decide to kill the messengers.
Whoa.
That’s a pretty severe reaction. I mean, I’m no expert – well, I do watch a lot
of CSI, but I don’t have a lot of personal experience with this… I’d imagine
that it’s more work to kill someone and clean yourself up afterwards than just
to go to the banquet and eat the free food. Why go to the extra trouble of
killing the king’s slaves?
In response to the murder of a few of his slaves, the
king goes to war against the people – his
people – and burns their city – his
city. This doesn’t sound like a good policy for a king to follow if he wants to
keep his throne.
Well, apparently after his subjects killed some of the
slaves, and the king killed many of his subjects and burned their city, there
were still folks left roaming the smoke-filled streets. The king still had a
full staff of other slaves he could send out to invite people in from the main
streets to join in the feast – the feast that apparently had been sitting in
Nescos to stay warm while the war was raging and the city was burning.
If it
was so important to have people at this feast, why didn’t the king just feed it
to his soldiers? It would have saved him a whole bunch of trouble.
But the point isn’t what would make sense for a
rational person to do. The point is that this parable is absurd and
unbelievable.
I don’t
know whether Jesus was trying to exaggerate the violence of the people, or the
power of the king, or the importance of the feast, or what. This is a confusing
parable on many levels.
But what I do know is that Jesus was not trying to tell a believable tale
here. His listeners are supposed to understand that this situation is
ridiculous.
And just
like when we tell ridiculous stories, and exaggerate the details in order to
make a point, Jesus is trying to make a point in the parable today.
Or, since it’s a parable, there might be several
layers of meaning and many different points that Jesus is making by telling
this story.
But for today, let’s just focus on one of those
points.
What is your commitment to God, really?
Jesus is at the end of his ministry.
In Matthew, chapter 21, shortly before today’s
reading, Jesus entered Jerusalem to the shouts of Hosanna, while people laid
down coats and tree branches to prepare a way for his triumphal entry into the
city.
Through
this chapter of Matthew, and on into chapters 23, 24, and 25, Jesus continues
some pretty serious teaching. He’s not particularly nice here – his teaching
gets more pointed at the end of his life, it includes more imperatives to renew
your relationship with God. Jesus emphasizes the life-or-death importance of
faith.
In Matthew chapter 26, Jesus shares his last meal with
his disciples, then is arrested.
So today’s parable comes just a few days before Jesus
will be arrested and put to death. He knows that the powers that be are drawing
closer and preparing to punish him. He has predicted his own death and told his
disciples about it.
Which
means that the disciples have heard about what’s at stake, and they should have
some idea of what’s about to happen – even if they don’t like it, they’ve heard
Jesus talking about his own death a few times now. They know that the stakes in
his ministry are high.
And today Jesus tells this confusing, exaggerated
parable about a king giving a wedding feast for his son.
Given the context of where Jesus is at in his
ministry, considering that he knows he’s at the end of his life, I think he’s
returning to the beginning. He’s ready to play his hand and call the bluff of
everyone else at the table.
What is your commitment to God, really?
This is what Jesus is asking by telling today’s
parable.
Jesus expects high levels of
accountability from his followers.
So today’s parable asks the listener, are you ready to
put your money where your mouth is?
To quote an old Elvis song, what Jesus wants is a
little less conversation, a little more action, please!
If you’re really my disciple, Jesus asks, are you
actually following me?
Did you
drop your daily tasks to come when I invited you?
Did you
listen to and respect my messengers?
Did you
respond appropriately to the call to be a disciple?
Are you actually present here, at the table where
God’s servants throughout time will be feasting together for eternity?
If you’re too distracted by your daily tasks, Jesus
suggests – if you’re too busy to listen to the voice of God – you’d better
watch out. Your priorities are confused. And there may be a price to pay if you
don’t fix those priorities quickly.
In Matthew 21 and 22, Jesus teaches a lot about total
commitment to God.
The
greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind, and the second is like it – to love your
neighbor as yourself.
In the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus turns over the tables
of the moneychangers and argues that the Temple should be re-focused on being a
house of prayer.
There
have been a few other confusing parables in the recent Gospel readings we’ve
had the past few Sundays, and while they may be difficult to follow and even
sometimes absurd like today’s story – the parables that Jesus uses here help us
remember that a commitment to following Christ is what makes us a Christian.
It’s like I said in last week’s sermon – Jesus is
life! The rest is just details.
So today
Jesus is saying – enough with the discussion and debate! I’m calling the
question. It’s time to make a decision, time to fish or cut bait.
Are you committing your entire lives to God? Will you
put God’s needs before your own? Will you answer when God asks you to do
something?
Or will you be like the guests in today’s parable, who
ignore the invitation, make excuses, and even react violently when there’s an
attempt to force them into doing something they won’t like?
That brings up a good point, really.
It may
not be pleasant to follow Jesus.
There
are times when it will be hard, stressful, maybe even countercultural.
But following Jesus is still the most important thing
that you will ever do.
Jesus has already made all the Passion predictions in
the Gospel of Matthew – before he tells this parable, he has told his disciples
several times that he must suffer and die in order to fulfill his purpose on
this earth.
The disciples don’t like that.
Whenever Jesus talks about his own death, sometime
tries to talk him out of it.
So today Jesus changes the stakes.
You don’t really get a choice, is what the
parable implies.
When God asks you to jump, you ask how high.
When
there’s an opportunity to follow God – when you are invited to a free five-star
meal – you go! That’s really what the appropriate response must be, both for
the disciples and for us.
Today’s parable uses exaggeration and ridiculousness
to make the very simple point that following God is the most important thing
that we will ever do.
In just a moment we will sing about having a
commitment to follow Jesus. I recommend that you think about the words, and
actually pray that God would help you follow through on them.
Jesus is asking – will you come and follow me? Will
you let your life be changed? Will you leave yourself behind and move ahead in
faith, following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, even when it’s a little
scary? Are you willing to take risks and step out of your comfort zone because
of your faith?
That is
what Jesus is asking us to do. Here, at the end of his life, he knows that
discipleship isn’t about comfort and feeling good. It’s about sacrifice and
selflessness. That is what he expects from his followers.
Let’s sing together, and pray that we will have the
courage to follow where Jesus leads.
Amen.
The song we sang next was The Summons (or Will You Come
and Follow Me), #798 in the hymnal Evangelical Lutheran Worship. The tune
is traditional Scottish, and words are by John Bell of the Iona Community in
Scotland (copyright 1987).
Thank you to Lance Pape's commentary on Working Preacher this week for much of the inspiration for this sermon! http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2204
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