Matthew 22:1-14

Matthew 22:1-14 Parable 3 - First Invited Replaced by Last

(Lk 14:15—24)

¹ Again Jesus spoke to them in parables.

Clearly, Matthew wished to connect the following parable to the previous two (a connection made even more obvious by the many parallel images in the narratives). The question of the relationship of the new Christian community to the original People of God was close to his heart. The parable, at least in its allegorical re-telling, reflected the time of Matthew’s own community, rather than that of Jesus and his immediate disciples.

Many scholars believe that, as it stands, the story was hardly a parable told by Jesus. If Jesus told the original story, it has been allegorised beyond recognition. In its present state, it represents a new composition arising from the experiences of the early Christian community. (Luke used it in his Gospel.)

² “The kingdom of the heavens can be compared to this:

There was a ruler who had put on a wedding celebration for his son.

Landowner gave way to ruler. The allegorical comparison of the way things happen in the Kingdom, and the tempestuous actions of the ruler, contained both similarities and striking dissimilarities.

The image of wedding banquet carried echoes of the Messianic Banquet spoken about by Isaiah, which extended the blessings shared by Israel to include the peoples and the nations:

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,

of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.

And he will destroy on this mountain

the shroud that is cast over all peoples,

the sheet that is spread over all nations;

he will swallow up death forever.

Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces,

and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the LORD has spoken. [Isaiah 2:.6-8]

The banquet theme suggested the invitation, sent by Wisdom to “the simple” and those “without sense”, to share her feast. The sophisticated leadership could not hear Wisdom’s call.

Wisdom has built her house,

she has hewn her seven pillars.

She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine,

she has also set her table.

She has sent out her servant-girls,

she calls from the highest places in the town,

“You that are simple, turn in here!”

To those without sense she says,

“Come, eat of my bread

and drink of the wine I have mixed.

Lay aside immaturity, and live,

and walk in the way of insight.” [Proverbs 9:1-6]

³ He sent his slaves to summon those invited to the celebration,

but they did not want to come.

The story presumes a situation where the invitation had been sent, and accepted, some time in the past. The first group of slaves referred, clearly enough, to the Hebrew prophets sent to the People of Israel across their history. Like the first of the two sons in the first of the three parables, those invited said “yes”, but did not go.

⁴ He sent off again another lot of slaves, saying,

Tell the guests, ‘Look, the meal has been prepared.

The bulls and the fatlings have been killed, and everything is ready.

Come to the celebration.’

⁵ But they took no notice and went off,

one to his own farm, another to his business.

⁶ The rest took hold of the slaves, manhandled them and killed them.

The second group of slaves would have been Christian prophets and missionaries, sent to the Jews between the death of Jesus and the period of Matthew’s community. Speaking from experience, Matthew highlighted how many of them had been mistreated; some of them were killed.

⁷ The ruler was enraged.

He sent his army to destroy the murderers

and to burn down their city.

The detail was strikingly in contrast to the ways in God’s Kingdom. However, Matthew was interested in theology, not in narrative niceties. Writing after 70 AD, he alluded to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem to give topical relevance to his story.

⁸Then he said to his slaves, “The celebration is ready,

but those invited were not worthy.

⁹ Go out to the exits of the highways

and summon as many as you find to the wedding.”

¹⁰ The slaves went off into the highways

and gathered everyone they found, bad as well as good.

The celebration was filled with diners.

In the face of Jewish reluctance, and in line with the commission given to disciples by Jesus at the end of the Gospel, Christian prophets and missionaries had brought the good news to Gentiles.

¹¹ “The ruler came in to look over the diners.

He saw there a man not wearing a wedding outfit;

¹² and he said to him, “Friend, how did you come in here

not wearing a wedding garment?”

He said nothing.

¹³ Then the ruler said to the servants.

“Tie up his hands and feet.

Then throw him out into the darkness outside.

There there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

At this stage of the narrative, it seems that Matthew added this as his own conclusion. (It is not found in the story paralleled in Luke’s Gospel.) To an allegorical reflection on the history of God’s process of salvation in Israel and the Church, Matthew insisted on adding a moralistic warning to his readers. Though beneficiaries of God’s continuing work of salvation, they should not take their blessings for granted.

Consistently with the parables given earlier in the narrative, Matthew had no difficulty in identifying members of the Christian community as both good and bad [13:41-42; 48-50].

Wearing the wedding garment was Matthew’s way of emphasising the importance of appropriate behaviour. As had happened earlier in the story, theology overrode narrative probability. This parable, and the two preceding ones connected to it, were not written to be read by hostile Jewish opponents of the Matthean community. Matthew wrote for his own community. Israel’s fate was not a matter of mere historical or theological interest. It served, above all, as a cautionary tale for Christian disciples. Matthew was unwilling to pass over any opportunity to insist on the importance of producing the practical fruits of faith. In Matthew’s mind, there were no “free meals” in the Kingdom of God!

¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

The comment hardly fitted the context, beyond warning that the Christian call would be valueless if not accompanied by appropriate behaviour.

Applying the Parables Thoughtfully

The fate of the guest without the wedding garment echoed that of the unforgiving slave in 18:34-35. Both images seem to have been Matthew’s own composition. In his obsession to emphasise the need for disciples to act consistently, Matthew overlooked the danger he ran of leading his readers to believe that, like the king of the story, God could be enraged, unforgiving, and viciously vindictive (and not unlike the tyrants of the world).

A number of scholars believe that the "darkness outside and the weeping and gnashing of teeth" are not references to eternal punishment, but graphically describe experience in this unredeemed world when people choose not to behave according to Jesus' values of mercy, purity of heart and peace-making but are driven rather by envy, rivalry and overt or covert violence. God permits such distress, rather than violate human freedom - but does not directly punish anyone.

People will do wrong. People will betray their trust. God accepts their free decisions and their options against truth and life. People’s decisions have their consequences that carry into eternity. But the response of God is better imaged, not by an arbitrarily cruel tyrant, but by a distraught father or mother sadly weeping.

Over the centuries, some Christians have taken the texts at their face value, seen them in isolation and failed to read them within the broad sweep of the Gospel message as a whole. In these stories, they have seen a justification to react with equally cruel violence towards others whom they judged to be in error. A sad misreading, particularly of this group of three parables, has served to nurture sporadic but virulent anti-Semitism.

Next >> Matthew 22:15-22