Jesus often teaches in symbolic stories called parables. A parable is a short story that makes a comparison. Jesus is famous for parables that compare the kingdom of God to happenings in everyday life.
In last Sunday’s parable renters refuse to hand over an owner’s rightful share of the grape harvest. This Sunday guests refuse an invitation to dinner.
Jesus wants us to see that the door to the kingdom of God opens in our daily lives. We meet God in interacting with family, classmates, and neighbors, both close and global.
A parable works like a mirror. In its plot and characters we see people like ourselves. We see relationships and situations like our own. When a parable challenges us to judge and decide what a character in the parable should do, we are making judgments and decisions like those we make in our lives. Jesus’ parables help us reflect on the person we want to be and the community we want to build among us.
The gospel writers Matthew and Luke both tell the parable in Sunday’s gospel. Luke’s version is simple — a man prepares a big dinner and invites guests who refuse to come. What should the man do? In Luke the man invites the poor to share his dinner.
What do the man’s actions in.Luke reveal about the kingdom of God? We find God and establish God’s reign where we care for people who are poor. Luke describes Jesus as a prophet anointed to bring good news to the poor.
Matthew’s version is symbolic. Matthew echoes Israel’s prophets to show his Jewish audience that Jesus is the long-awaited messiah.
The prophet Hosea compares the covenant between God and Israel to a marriage relationship. The prophet Isaiah pictures what God wants for humankind as a great feast on God’s holy mountain for all peoples of the earth. They will eat rich food and abundant drink. God will destroy death and wipe the tears from each one’s face (Isaiah 25.6-8).
Drawing on these symbols, Matthew’s version becomes a parable about a king who gives a marriage feast for his son.
The king is God.
The king’s son is Jesus, who is Israel’s messiah.
The marriage is the new covenant that Jesus makes with humankind through his life, death, and resurrection.
The banquet is the feast of abundance to which God invites all people, the beginning of a new relationship between God and the people in Jesus the Christ.
The guests who refuse to come to the feast are those among Jesus’ own people who don’t believe he is the long-awaited messiah.
The king’s army that kills the guests who refuse to come refers to the Roman soldiers who stopped a Jewish rebellion in A.D. 70. They destroyed Israel’s temple and the city of Jerusalem.
The servants the king sends to invite people to the wedding feast are Israel’s prophets.
The servants who go to the byroads to invite anyone they can find are Christian missionaries.
The new guests are the Gentiles who believe in Jesus.
The parable as Jesus told it was closer to Luke’s simple version. A man invites guests to a big party but no one comes. What does he do? He extends the invitation to new guests. What does this show about the kingdom of God? God invites all people to friendship.
Matthew’s symbolic parable focuses on Jesus, the king’s son, who is Israel’s messiah and bridegroom. The king invites the Gentiles into the new covenant community when the original guests don’t believe in Jesus. Matthew incorporates two historical events into his parable — an allusion to the destruction of Jerusalem and the faith of so many Gentiles.