Brueghel, Peasant Wedding, 1568
Matthew 22:1-14
The first story about the Wedding Feast ends with the reception hall being filled with just about everybody you could imagine. But at the conclusion of the story (unique to Matthew & probably existed as a separate story) things take a different turn.
“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’”
The improperly attired guest was left speechless, or as the more forceful Greek expression actually puts it, “His mouth was stopped!” There was nothing he could say in answer to the host.
Whoever comes is welcome. But what’s this about special attire? When the guests are gathered in from the streets without warning, it doesn’t seem quite fair to expect sartorial elegance from them!
Now why did Matthew add this concluding parable of the improperly clothed guest? Obviously, the evangelist purposefully juxtaposed these two parables of Jesus.
Yes, everyone & anyone, the somebodies & the nobodies, the salaried & the hourly wage earner, the native born & the latest arriving immigrant, black & white, rich & poor, Republicans & Democrats, Knights of Columbus & the Eastern Star, are all invited to participate in God’s Kingdom.
But just because all are invited doesn’t mean there are no expectations of the guests. Something more is needed than just our mere presence. You don’t get credit just for showing up.
“Sitting in a pew thinking that will make you a Christian is like, as Garrison Keillor (Lake Wobegone) once said: sleeping in the garage thinking that will make you a car.” You don’t get credit just for showing up.
A Methodist minister & her husband were invited to a costume party one Halloween. They got all dressed up. By the time they got to the party, things were in full swing & everyone was having a blast. She soon discovered why when she had a glass of the punch. It was heavily spiked, and people were already pretty tipsy. She was surprised since the couple that invited them was older & pretty conservative. Mostly, she was surprised they invited their pastor. She didn’t want to be rude so she & her husband danced & chatted with folks. After they had been there an hour, they discovered when people started removing their masks, that the party they were supposed to be at was two doors down.
God has invited us all, but many of us have been attending the wrong party.
The parable says that an appropriate wedding garment – which is Kingdom talk for new life, righteous conduct – is expected. As Paul wrote to the Galatians (3:27): “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” literally, “worn Christ like a garment”.
You don’t go blithely into the kingdom dressed in any old clothes. You have to put on a new attire, a new attitude, a new way of seeing, a new behavior, a new being. You have to put on Christ.
