Who will attend the messianic banquet?

The wedding feast is the third of the three parables Jesus uses in Matthew’s narrative to call the chief priests and elders to judgment. Two Sundays ago, the parable of the two sons asks them whether they are sayers or doers of God’s commands. Last week, the parable of the tenants asks them whether they are murderous or fruitful tenants of God’s vineyard. The parable of the wedding feast asks if they are coming to God’s everlasting party.

Matthew enhances this third parable with details that both express who Jesus is and interpret events in the Church’s early history. The parable of the wedding feast carries over the father/son relationship from the parable of the tenants. We Christians quickly and rightly identify the son in both parables with Jesus.

In Israel’s traditions, son is a code word for messiah. Israel understood its king as God’s son. In Psalm 2 God says of the king on the day of his enthronement in Sion, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.” The word messiah means the anointed one or king.

The meal Jesus describes in Sunday’s parable is no ordinary dinner but the messiah’s wedding feast. The royal wedding setting is unique to Matthew’s telling of this parable.

Matthew adds other details to the parable that give the story double meanings. In this way he creates an allegory in which characters and actions in the parable stand for people and events at the time he wrote in the A.D. 80s.

The king is God.

The king’s son is Jesus, the bridegroom, Israel’s messiah, who has come to his people.

The first servants are the prophets of Israel. In Sunday’s first reading, the lectionary reads from one such prophet, Isaiah’s vision of a feast God will set for all nations in Jerusalem.

The first guests are Jews who do not recognize Jesus as the messiah. In Israel’s history, political leaders sought to kill the prophets Elijah and Jeremiah and did kill John the Baptist and Jesus.

The wedding feast celebrates a union that is not between just any man and woman but between the king’s son and the people of Israel.

The king’s troops are the Roman soldiers, who put down a Jewish rebellion in A.D. 70. The 10th Legion destroyed and burned the temple in Jerusalem, ending temple worship. Matthew’s allegory interprets the temple’s destruction as punishment of those who rejected Jesus.

The second servants, the ones who find guests on the highways and byways, are the Christian missionaries who preached the good news of Jesus’ resurrection to new life to people from many nations.

The second guests are those from the many nations around the Mediterranean Sea who believe in Jesus and come to the messianic banquet.

  • What does Matthew’s allegory tell us about the community for which he writes?
  • What message do you get from this gospel for today?
  • In what ways do you imagine the kingdom of heaven is like a wedding feast?

Without Matthew’s allegory the wedding parable raises everyday questions. Why don’t people accept invitations or come late or just do a cameo? The parable asks us to look at how we humans relate to one another and set our priorities — the farm, the business, family, friends. Refusing guests risk no future invitations. Snubbed hosts have insult to process, their anger and disappointment to vent and resolve hopefully without starting a war. Our relationships test us.

What about the food as a practical matter? Who pays the caterer for a wedding called off at the last minute? What does the host do with the food? How about the uneaten pizzas if few kids come to a youth group? What does one do with leftovers?

The king’s fury seems overkill until a reader realizes Matthew is overlaying the parable with details that connect it to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. The parable speaks more to us today without the allegory.

  • How do you handle people who refuse an invitation?
  • What do you do with the leftovers?

For Matthew, the story of God’s love for humankind does not end with the end of temple worship. For him, Jesus the messiah hosts the wedding banquet in the eucharists Christians gather in his name to share. He sees in the preaching of the early Christian missionaries a new wave of God’s servants gathering guests from among the nations for God’s banquet. God’s love reaches beyond Israel’s boundaries to the Gentiles.

For Christians, Jesus’ meal, our eucharist, is the messianic banquet, a feast for all nations. Jesus opens new possibilities for gathering people into union with God. He shows us that wholeness and salvation flower from loving enemies, sharing what one has, making peace, showing mercy.

  • How do you experience God’s vision for the human race at Eucharist?
  • How do you help provide for hungry people in your area?
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