Matthew 22: 8-12: The Wedding Garment
8 “Then [the king] said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
Context: Jesus tells a series of parables to the religious leaders of Jerusalem. These leaders who pride themselves on their power, status, and authority, feel their egos being squeezed. As they see it, this homeless, itinerant “teacher” claims the authority of God. And through his teachings and healings, Jesus has the audacity to challenge their religious and social status in the community.
The Point of the Parable: The people of Israel are the initial invites to the kingdom. As evidenced by these self-righteous leaders, they have rejected the invitation of Jesus. Therefore he crafts the parable to illustrate their rejection, to illustrate, in an abstract way, their fault. Not only this, but Jesus shows that others will be invited to inherit a kingdom initially intended for them. And these “others” will be people from all walks of life -- outcasts, Gentiles, sinners, prostitutes, lepers, and adulterers. These are the very people the religious leadership rejects and condemns.
Application: Genuine faith is not something we can fabricate and fake. If we try this, we will be left empty and walk away. Faith is a living gift that needs food. It is like a glowing ember placed in a fire place. If we do not carefully construct kindling around it, feed it oxygen, and work at making the ember glow hot enough to ignite the tinder and blaze the fire, it will go out and we will be left cold. Faith is not an instant infusion; it is at first a gift, a gift that requires our attention. Faith, also, is not a right; it is not something inherited by any group of people.
This parable symbolizes God’s gift of faith, an all-inclusive invitation to a kingdom of love ushered in by his son, Jesus Christ. It is easy for elitist religious people to say only they are invited and that “others” are condemned because they don’t fit their model of righteousness. But Jesus defies that claim in this section of Matthew’s Gospel. The authors of Sacred Space, for instance, illustrate the point well:
The invitation to the kingdom of heaven is cast wide, yet we are free to say yes or no. No matter how low a stature I seem to have in life, I am welcome. I will shake off the rags of my injustice, my less good self and dress in the clothes of a new, more loving person.
The invitation is universal: Both sinners and saints are invited. The required wedding garment is one that sloughs off our attitude of entitlement, our inherent prejudices, our sub-optimal self. Instead we are to embrace the love of all people regardless of who they are -- all races, all religions, all gender identities, all sexual orientations. This transformation is not something we can simply jump into. Being a more loving, inclusive person is a journey not a destination. But it is a journey on which the Spirit accompanies and empowers us.
Am we willing to put on the proper wedding garment?
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