He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
Do we sometimes receive invitations from the Lord that we reject? We like to imagine that we would always quickly respond to the servants who summon us. After all, who doesn't like a feast?
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The risk of ignoring the invitation, however obvious it seems in a parable, remains real for us. Our farms and businesses are such pressing concerns that we can hardly see beyond them. To those of us busied with life in the world a Kingdom feast can seem too frivolous to allow ourselves to indulge. When we realize that there is a sense in which we must come away from business as usual in order to participate in life in the Kingdom do we not quickly begin to formulate excuses ourselves? From the perspective of an earthly mind the Kingdom can seem to have this aspect of imprudence and impracticality. If we are pressed on the point we may be willing to fight against the Kingdom to ensure that we can keep our daily lives on track.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Those for whom attendance was a matter of course did not appreciate the value of the invitation. Mysteriously, their sense of entitlement kept them bound to the labor of farm and business. In some sense their riches got in the way, for their livelihoods had such a hold of them as to not permit them the freedom of attending a feast. Perhaps too, they took it as a given that they would be invited, that they were free to wait for another invitation to another feast at a time that would be more perfectly convenient. Such a time, of course, would never come. But do we not employ similar delaying tactics when faced with the call to sanctity and sainthood?
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
Those who had no reason to expect this invitation, no merit with which to justify it, were the ones most likely to respond. Perhaps too they were the ones not so consumed with farm or business as to be able to indulge the idea of an apparently superfluous celebration.
He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?’
But he was reduced to silence.
The invitation was a free gift. But the response required meant that one would not be allowed to come directly off the street in clothing muddied or soiled by sin. The response of repentance, culminating in baptism, provided the garment one would need. This was not a matter of effort or riches, but rather of taking the invitation seriously enough as to make a serious and completely committed response. But even the garment itself, though one must choose to put it on and wear it, was properly a gift.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you
to cleanse you from all your impurities,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you,
taking from your bodies your stony hearts
and giving you natural hearts.
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