Rethinking the Story

Gospel: Matthew 22: 1-14

We have been given a certain way of thinking about this parable where the Jewish people are maligned for their response to the king and they are replaced with other people who are brought to the wedding banquet.  But then we have this poor man without a wedding garment who finds himself unexpectedly in a wedding and perhaps unable financially to even have a wedding garment, but is now cast out of the hall for this lack of proper attire.  What are we to make of it all?

First, the story is odd in that it is highly unusual for a king's wedding to go unattended or ignored.  Those seeking favor from the king and those looking for social influence attended such functions for those reasons alone.  And no king would go about the byways seeking for any old slob to attend his wedding banquet.  And how could we fault this poor man without a wedding garment when he was forced to attend on such short notice?

This parable is addressed to the religious leaders of Jesus' day.  Perhaps what Jesus is saying here is that we may have been thinking wrongly about God for a very long time.  Maybe that's why people are not coming to the religious rites - i.e. the wedding banquet.  Instead of seeing God as a temperamental king, we might imagine God differently and arrive at different conclusions and outcomes than we have had in the world of religion.  Maybe that lesson is for religious leaders of all times and places...