Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Psalm 146; Matthew 22:1-14"Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find."
(Matthew 22:9)
"And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests." (v. 10) Those that were invited would not come. Not only that, some of them killed the messengers. But God will have a harvest. God will fill his house with guests.
Again Jesus is going after the religious leaders. Here is the third parable in a row that he tells against them. The Pharisees have joined with the priests in the plotting (21:45; 22:15). Jesus' demise is more and more certain with each parable, with each encounter.
The second part of this parable (about the wedding garment) is considered by most scholars to be another parable that Matthew links to the first. I don't really understand "Many are called, but few are chosen." But it obviously has to do with the man who had no wedding garment. He strikes me as a wedding crasher. He wasn't there for the king or his son or even the wedding, otherwise he would be wearing a wedding garment. Obviously those who were there had wedding garments, perhaps they were provided by the king. (again this is probably a separate parable, one which was not originally about bringing in everyone at the last minute, so they didn't have time to prepare... the king didn't fill his hall with guests only to condemn all of them).
And again, I think back to chapter 13 and the kingdom parables there. A couple of them speak of the good and the bad not being sorted out until the end, by the angels. There may be those who are at the feast for a while that won't ultimately be there, but the king will sort them out.
Jesus seems to be saying two things in these parables: (1) the Jewish leaders had rejected the invitation of both John and Jesus (and the prophets before them) to come into the kingdom, and (2) though it may seem like they're are inside now, they not there for the king and for his son. Therefore they will not be there with the king and his son.
1 comment:
Mark, my daily commentary earlier in the week was on this. For this they made a very interesting comment concerning the wedding garments. After the people had been invited they would have either changed into wedding garments that they had or had been privided by the king. Either way they were expected to change. This man had tried to come to the wedding in his "old clothes" without changing. You can't do that. The commentary referred to the attempting to put new wine into old wineskins. We are invited to the wedding, but we have to put on the garments required (proper response to the Gospel) to get to stay!
Dan
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