RBWords

     In my years of ministry, especially campus ministry, I have attended many wedding feasts!  I am well aware of the all the preparations and expense that go into planning one of these events.  It would be almost unimaginable to me that so much effort would be frustrated by the refusal of the invitees to attend.  In fact, I know many who would skip the ceremony but would very definitely show up for the feast!  Yet, that is what happens in the first part of Jesus' parable in today's gospel.  [It is important to read the "long form."]  

     The parable of the wedding feast is one of several we have seen in the past couple of Sundays.  Jesus is in Jerusalem for the last time and he challenges all the various influential elements in the Jewish community:  the Chief Priests and the Elders, the Scribes and Pharisees; and the Saduccees.  The parable today is directed to the Chief Priests and Elders.  They would know well the image of the banquet from the tradition in Isaiah [first quote above], which speaks of a messianic banquet.  They also would not have missed the implication in Jesus' words that they were among those who refused to come to the banquet!  They rejected the "bridegroom!"

     It is important to understand, however, that the evangelist includes this parable not simply as a story of what happened in Jerusalem, but as a preaching to the community.  There is a double lesson.  It is a terrible thing to ignore the invitation, but it is also terrible to take it for granted!  That is what happened to the guest who showed up without a "wedding garment.  The invitation is a sacred thing and not a personal possession to be treated however one wishes.  Even if the second group of guests is from the whole wide world and would include folks of every sort instead of the original list, the new group must respect the invitation just as the first group should have.  This is a warning against getting smug about our faith and treating it as something "humdrum" or ordinary.  As the gospel ends, Jesus warns that many are invited but few are chosen.  God is not arbitrary, but we can be very unappreciative.  Come to the wedding feast, and dress up for it!  AMEN