Matthew 22:1-14 "Everything Is Ready" Scott Hoezee

If it were up to me, I'd draw a thick black line underneath Matthew 22:10 and just end this parable right there. If I were allowed to edit the sacred text, I'd grab my little bottle of White-Out and paint over verses 11-14. Because up to that point this had been a fairly lovely parable of grace. Had the story concluded with verse 10, we'd be left with the happy portrait of a succulent feast being punctuated by the chatter of the guests and the clank of flatware against china. That's not how it ends, however. Instead Matthew leaves us with the bitter image of bouncers tossing someone out on his ear. We're left to hear not the clank, clatter, and chatter of a fun dinner party but the sound of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

If it were up to me, I would have cut the story off a few verses earlier. And I'm not alone: that is exactly what Luke did when he relayed this story in his gospel. So I rather like Luke's version better. But despite what the Jesus Seminar thinks, it's not up to us to decide what Jesus said and so concoct a Bible more in line with our preferences. Jesus has something to say to us in Matthew 22. Let's think for a few minutes as to what that may be.

Overall this is indeed a parable of grace. Jesus begins by telling us that the kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepares a feast. That's grace for you: God has prepared everything. We don't have to roll up our sleeves to peel the potatoes or save up enough money to afford such a four-star gourmet banquet. No, it's all finished for us by God himself. All we have to do is show up hungry!

But this matter of "showing up" is just the problem: no one does. They had sent back RSVPs saying they'd come, but then they don't, and so the king starts to panic. I know how he feels. If you want to throw me into a sour mood rather quickly, show up late for a dinner I'm making. As my wife could tell you, I rather quickly begin to pace in front of the window when people are late. Cooking is about timing as much as anything else and if my Spanish-style baked clams are ready, they're ready. If I've got the rack of lamb already roasting in the oven, I can't put it on pause--it's going to be finished at a certain point and if we're not through with our salad course yet, things are going to start getting dicey.

So also here: everything is ready to roll but no one shows up. So the king begins to make calls, and a flurry of excuses begins to pour in. "Sorry, gotta get back to work! Duty calls. My clients need attention, got the West coast on hold, closing on a big deal this evening and can't be in two places at once."

The king can't believe it. But he's not going to let good food go to waste and so he sends out some servants. "Go pick up the prostitutes, the beggars in the alleys, the heroin addicts and the soup kitchen denizens. Empty out a homeless shelter or two and haul those folks over here. Don't discriminate. Take the good with the bad. The main thing is that a feast as lavish as this one gets enjoyed by someone!"

Before the evening is out the king's banquet hall is filled with people who cannot believe their good luck. Folks who usually drink Muscatel from brown-paper-sheethed bottles suddenly find themselves sipping Dom Perignon champagne, with their glasses getting re-filled by tuxedo-clad waiters at that! Folks for whom finding a half-eaten cheeseburger in a McDonald's dumpster is a treat suddenly get to wolf down prosciuto-wrapped scallops and rack of lamb in a springtime fashion with braised morel mushrooms and a pinot noir pan sauce.

It is an extravagant scene, which also tells you something about God's grace. God does not scrimp! Remember when Jesus created wine at the wedding in Cana? The guests at that wedding had already had a few, and yet to save the host a social embarrassment Jesus creates not just the finest vintage ever but 150 gallons of it! The host was maybe hoping for a case or two and Jesus creates a whole winery! There seems to be a certain amount of "waste" in it all. Why squander good wine on people whose palates have already been sullied by cheaper stuff? Why present gourmet delights to street people who maybe could not even begin to appreciate the cost and work involved in creating such a feast?

But that seems to be God's way: he sqaunders his goodness freely on the people who seem to deserve it least. Indeed, the ones who seemed like the natural candidates for such a banquet are the ones who decline the invitation in favor of working. These are folks who would rather work than play, rather keep busy than waste precious time at a formal dinner party. Time is money, after all. Somebody has to make a living!

But the gospel is about raising the dead, not rewarding the living. Perhaps that is why it is the economically, socially, and religiously dead who end up at this feast. They had nothing better to do! No urgent phone calls from the coast were vying for their attention! No preconceived notions of social propriety prevented them from whooping it up, licking their fingers in unalloyed delight. They were so thrilled to be invited that they didn't mind wearing funny party hats or anything else the king asked them to wear for this festive occasion. People like this perhaps appreciated what the king offered far more than those who were used to getting such invitations. They figured they could afford to skip this one meal as there would be other meals just like it later.

You've got to know that you are spiritually dead to be a candidate for the new life of resurrection. But so long as you think you can still "make a life" for yourself, so long as your days are clotted with the delicacies of the "good life" as the world defines it, you have no time or desire to lay down and die.

It is instructive to drive through ritzy developments and notice that everything a person could possibly want was thought of by the real estate developers. I thought of this last summer when driving through a Michigan town that has recently seen an explosion of multi-million dollar homes on the choicest lakefront lots. As that area has seen a sharp spike in wealthy residents, lots of things expanded accordingly. Malls needed to be built or upgraded, more movie screens and golf courses were required, lush horse stables were erected, world-class restaurants opened and flourished, and even supermarkets needed to add gourmet sections so that all the ingredients for truly high-end cooking could be found.

About the only thing in this town that did not change was worship space. Despite a huge influx of new residents somehow or another the same old white clapboard country church that has been there for years continues to suffice. Curious, isn't it? But for those busy making a life in this world it is often the case. So also in this parable such folks received the king's engraved invitation and responded, "Sounds great but I really need to keep an eye on the market today. Can I take a rain check?"

But none of that gets at the fellow who does attend the banquet but who gets tossed out on account of inappropriate attire. The odd thing about that last detail is that there is no prior evidence in this parable that the vagrants of the streets had been re-clothed. But apparently they were because when the king comes out of the kitchen right before the chocolate soufflé was to be served for dessert, he is able to spy one person who is dressed different from the rest of his motley assortment of guests. Apparently a stop at the haberdashers had taken place for all the other guests before dinner was served.

Some of you may recall that back in March fifty or so of the Oscar statues given out at the Academy Awards in Hollywood were stolen. The cache of golden Oscars was found under a dumpster a couple of days later by a street person. The Academy rewarded this man by giving him a good seat at the Oscar ceremony, taking him to the awards in a limousine but not before getting him over to a tailor where he was fitted for a custom tuxedo.

Something like that must have happened here because in the end just one person stood out from the crowd for not wearing festive party clothes. The meaning of this is, at best, difficult to discern. But it would appear that the missing wedding attire may be the garment of Christ. The Spirit of God clothes us with Christ and all his benefits, and we are changed. We become Christ to one another. You cannot, as this man apparently did, bypass the tailor's shop; you cannot (to put a theological spin on this) skip baptism and its stripping away of the old self and the re-clothing with the new self that just is Christ Jesus.

But baptism is just the point: you cannot become clothed with Jesus without dying first. Showing up in a business suit as you try to squeeze a little God into a life which is mostly still clogged with the things of this world does not work. God will spot you every time. You need to look like someone who was crucified with Christ. You need to wear a festive resurrection outfit that does not quite fit in with the rest of the world's fashions.

In her novel A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley shows readers a highly dysfunctional family which nevertheless attended church each Sunday. Yet this is how the novel's narrator sums up this religious practice: "We came to church to pay our respects, not to give thanks." When faith becomes a compartment of life instead of life's vibrant center, when you're just stopping off to put in your time or pay your respects, squeezing God in between everything else that you clearly value much more highly, then you reveal yourself as an ill-clad impostor. You haven't put on a festive wedding garment, you're still refusing to wear that funny party hat because you fail to realize that the kingdom of God is a high and holy and hilarious feast thrown by a king who has prepared the best of everything.

I said at the outset tonight that I like Luke's happy-ending version of this story. But really we need both versions. We need Luke to tell us that there is a happy ending in the kingdom of God--there really will be a day when the laughter and chatter of a banquet will be the last word. But we need also Matthew to remind us that those who enjoy that eternal feast will do so because Someone paid a terrible price. Someone died so that the rest of us dead folks could be raised to just this banquet of surprising grace.

The man tossed out on his ear is said to have been speechless when the king asked him why he wasn't dressed for a party. Indeed, there is finally no explanation for knowing enough about the goodness of God to try to sit at the table yet without being serious enough to serve this God every day. There are no words in heaven or on earth to explain that.

Then again, we who do understand find ourselves sputtering to express our shock at having been invited. There are not enough words in heaven or on earth to give voice to that happy reality. But you've got to start somewhere, and so as in this service of music and praise tonight, so every day of our lives we heed the apostle Paul's advice to "Rejoice in the Lord always--I will say it again: Rejoice!" Amen.