Sunday October 12
It is what we call Holy Week. Jesus has entered Jerusalem in triumph; the crowds have greeted him with shouts of ‘Hosanna’, welcoming him as King. He has entered the Temple, overturned the tables of the money-changers and accused the authorities of turning God’s house into a den of robbers. The chief priests and the scribes are fuming with rage, seeking ways to get rid of him without angering the crowd.
When, the following day, Jesus returns to the Temple to teach, the priests try to trip him and confound him but cannot. Jesus then tells us three parables. It is the scribes and Pharisees, the religious authorities and official teachers who are the first focus: it gives a warning to those who serve as teachers and pastors to-day as well.
This week’s gospel reading – the parable of the wedding banquet, the last in this sequence, - continues the imagery used last week in the parable of the vineyard. It is the King who speaks, who sends out the invitation. The ‘official’ guests turn him down, despite being asked more than once. The finest feast is promised, but they even abuse and kill the slaves sent to invite them. The King acts: ‘He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers and burned their city.’ Abuse, any abuse, is not unpunished.
The first-choice guests, the leaders and teachers, had made their (bad) choice, but the banquet is still there, waiting for its guests. Others are brought in – absolutely everyone, good and bad, the ones the ‘officials’ wouldn’t welcome or countenance. So far this is an easy enough story to follow and understand. The scribes are hypocrites and unworthy: the Kingdom invites us all.
But, as almost always, there is a hard part. There is one at the feast ‘without a wedding garment’; he had come to the feast but stayed the same, he couldn’t be bothered to change, didn’t think it was important. He is there, but his actions (or lack of them) show his wish not to be part of the rejoicing. He too is cast out, condemned. A second focus, then, a warning not just to pastors and teachers, but to the rest of us as well. Jesus’ call is unrestricted but demands a response. He welcomes us just as we are but does not expect us to remain the same: we are called to put on our wedding-garment, to grow in his love and service. The call is to a new life, not to stay in the old one.
Rev P Masson,
Rector of Porthcawl
Posted October 10th, 2008 in reflections |