Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:1-14, NRSVue)
This is another parable that seems to have an overabundance of death and destruction from the one we would say is God in the parable. Last week, the landowner is said to kill the wicked tenants, and here the king gave a wedding banquet and sent troops to kill and burn a city when people did not come.
This is not a loving God, so who is God in this parable?
Maybe the one not wearing a wedding robe. Christ would be in the place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. We proclaim each week in the creed that Jesus went to the place of darkness, the place of the dead, to tell them to come along and to bring them into the kingdom.
Why would God be the one casting out and not the one cast out? Because God came to overturn our thoughts about power and love and show us a better way.
Follow the better way, lay down power, and pick up love.
