Welcome to the Banquet

Today’s gospel about a wedding banquet is a story that is analogous to the kingdom of heaven.  Many of us have been to wedding banquets.  Some of them are rather simple and low-key, and others are very lavish and go on for hours with drinks and dancing.  Some wedding receptions and banquets are held at great financial cost.  Banquets when done well are festive and fun, and the guests have a good time.

With today’s story of a wedding banquet that is like the kingdom of heaven, what do you imagine a heavenly banquet would be like?  What is your vision of a heavenly feast or banquet?  For example, if you were the host and giving a heavenly banquet what food and drink would you serve?  How would you set the table?  Who would be invited to share this festival meal with you?  What would you wear?  What would your guests be asked to wear? 

The parable in Matthew about the king's wedding banquet says that gathered at the feast will be all sorts of people.  They will be brought together by divine generosity.  This banquet, to which Matthew has added a mini parable about a "man without a wedding garment," is composed of four parts: first, the original invitation and a response of indifference and violence; second, punishment of those who rejected the invitation; third, a second and more far-reaching invitation; and fourth, the man who was not wearing a proper wedding robe.

Matthew's version of this parable differs sharply from the same story in Luke's gospel.  Some scholars doubt that both versions were derived from a common source, and contend that the version we have in Matthew has strayed far from the original parable.  It is important to remember that both Luke and Matthew were written perhaps some twenty to forty years following the death and resurrection of Jesus.  It may be that Matthew wrote his account after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

Some biblical scholars contend that Matthew has taken this story and turned it into an allegory of the history of salvation: a king (God) prepares a feast for his son (Jesus) and invites his subjects (Israel) to the banquet.  The invited subjects either did not reply to the invitation and went about their business, or they became angry and maimed and killed the king's servants.  So the king destroyed them and their city (Jerusalem) and invited others (foreigners and outcasts) to the feast.  The point made by the biblical scholars is that this allegory is alien to Jesus, since the story has been thoroughly Christianized and is used to look back on the destruction of Jerusalem.

In addition to this, Matthew added to the parable a warning addressed to those who enter the banquet hall but are not properly dressed.  This is a reference to Christians who join the community but turn out not to be fit and so they are expelled.  This addition was probably of Matthew's own devising, since it agrees with one of his favorite themes: the Christian community as a mixture of the good and the bad, the deserving and the undeserving, who will be sorted out in the final judgment.  The final saying about many being called but few chosen is also Matthew's invention: it expresses his own point of view.

Then as we look at St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians we have an account about what a person properly attired for a wedding feast or a heavenly banquet is like.  Paul’s word is one of advice and assurance.  A guest at God's banquet wears "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable,... excellence... and anything worthy of praise."  Paul assures his readers that "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."  Just as he can "do all things through God who strengthens him, so we are to rely on God and "keep on doing the things you have learned and received and heard and seen,…and the God of peace will be with you.” 

Regardless of the circumstances of our lives, and no matter how dangerous or unsettling they are, God prepares a table and loves everyone enough to sit down with us at the heavenly feast.  The poet George Herbert, who lived in the early part of the 17th century, wrote a poem from the perspective of one who was invited late to the wedding banquet:

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,

            Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack

            From my first entrance in,

            Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning

            If I lack'd anything.

            "A guest," I answered, "worthy to be here";

            Love said, "You shall be he."

            "I, the unkind, ungrateful?  Ah, my dear,

            I cannot look on Thee."

            Love took my hand and smiling did reply,

            "Who made the eyes but I?"

            "Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame

            Go where it doth deserve."

"And know you not," says Love, "Who bore the blame?"

            "My dear, then I will serve."

"You must sit down," says Love, "and taste my meat."

            So I did sit and eat.

This morning as we celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion, a sign of thanksgiving and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, we are to be as welcoming of others to our tables as God is welcoming of us to the feast of life.  May God's peace that surpasses all understanding guard and keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God in Christ Jesus.   Amen.