What makes a story entertaining and intriguing is its unique and sometimes bizarre characters. The king in the parable palys that role. He's an eccentric figure. He’s not afraid to take revenge on those who disrespect him and his slaves. He also comes across being overly generous to the point where he invites everyone, whether good or bad to the wedding banquet. All are invited. Then he becomes quite moody and strict about the dress code that he kicks out someone who is invited, yet is not properly dressed.
The parable that Jesus tells us today in the gospel lesson directly targets the chief priests and the Pharisees since they're the main audience. These are the local religious authorities and elites who hate Jesus and plot to murder him. We all know they do succeed in crucifying him. In the parable, they are depicted as those who are originally invited to the wedding banquet but take it lightly and ignore the king’s invitation. They even kill the slaves who are sent to remind them of the party. All the king’s slaves represent the prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and many others in the Hebrew Bible who are rejected by the Israelites. The latest one who is in this prophetic tradition is St. John the Baptizer. I don't believe Jesus is afraid to offend these religious authorities. He ticks them off and enrages them with his radical teaching and life. What’s most ironic about this parable, however, is this; all are invited to the wedding banquet. Good or bad, innocent or guilty, holy or sinful, rich or poor, young or old, documented or undocumented, LGBTQ or straight, white, black, brown, or yellow, no matter what, all are welcome. The Kingdom of God is open to all. It’s like what our Church sign says, “The Episcopal Church welcomes all.” We often forget this infinite wideness of God’s feast. Theologically speaking, it is always "catholic" in both space and time. The feast that Jesus embodies is still open to all, not because we are good, but because God is good. Now, with this unconditional invitation of God to the feast, what matters is the dress code, whether one wears a wedding robe or not. The king comes to the wedding banquet to see all the guests. He notices this unlucky man who is not properly dressed for the feast. We have been already warned about the king’s eccentricity. He asks this man, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” The man becomes speechless. The king orders his attendants to bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness. As I’m reflecting on the idea that it would’ve been better off if this man hadn't come to the feast from the beginning and how unfortunate he is, I am also thinking that he probably doesn’t even know why he is there, to which party he is invited, and what is really going on there. He is not at all prepared to celebrate the wedding that takes place. He’s at the wedding banquet but is still outside of it. His body is there, but his heart isn’t there. It’s like he has no eyes to see, no ears to hear, no heart to enjoy and celebrate the feast. He is there, but he has not really taken the invitation to his heart. He has not accepted the invitation. He has no knowledge that he is invited to the feast where everyone else is invited. The ones who are originally invited to the wedding banquet and those others like this man who are invited later, yet are without their wedding robes face the same destiny after all. The parable then questions us Christians, “What are we wearing?” I don’t mean this question to be figurative or rhetorical. What are we really wearing, receiving this invitation to the feast of God through Jesus Christ? This is not about how we should dress when we come to church, not about the Sunday best. This question of what clothes we are wearing every single day is really about how we look at the world in which we live. Jesus tells us in the parable that the world that he brings, proclaims, and embodies is the divine feast to be celebrated. In this world of Jesus, what are you wearing? Well, maybe we should first ask ourselves, “What kind of world are we living?” Is it the world filled with hatred, terror, violence, judgment, and punishment? Are we living in the Kingdom of God here and now on earth? What does your inner world look like? When we as Christians talk about the Kingdom of God and say the Lord’s Prayer, especially “Thy Kingdom come,” we are praying and proclaiming that God reigns in my inner world, that I’m accepting God’s forgiveness, mercy, compassion, and love for myself and others. Encountering our world that is far from grace, love, forgiveness, and peace, we might forget this divine feast Jesus brings. We might forget what we are supposed to wear. We might forget that we are already wearing our wedding robe, which is the cloth of our “baptism” but wearing something over it as if there’s no feast happening. So for us, it's not so much about wearing a wedding robe. We are already wearing one through the sacrament of baptism. Once we wear it, that is it. There’s no need to wash it or wear it on and off. What’s at stake is to undress whatever is covering this robe of our baptism. If we are wearing an armor for a battle or survival, that tells us the world we are living in is a dangerous place. Check if we are wearing something like prisoners of consumerism, ageism, sexism, racism, classism or all that unhealthy ideologies. If so, that means our world is that of economic, emotional, and spiritual oppression and discrimination. We as baptized in the death and resurrection of Christ are constantly called to undress whatever layers that are covering our true identity and unmask whatever we are hiding from to see and live in the world Christ envisions in the Beatitudes. "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets." (Lk. 6.20-26) This spiritual discipline of undressing and redressing means that we will not participate the feast of those who celebrate the golden calf or idols that are created by our own anxiety, lack of faith in God, and our desire to control. This spiritual act of undressing and redressing is about resisting the wedding banquet of idols and protesting against all the temptations of greed, selfishness, and evil and the messages of fear, anxiety, and despair. Practically speaking, reading and meditating the baptismal covenant time to time is a way to undress and redress:
And we respond to all these questions, “I will, with God’s help!” With this cloth of baptism, we see and celebrate the divine feast that Christ has brought to the world through his death and resurrection. With this wedding robe of baptism put on, we not only bring the feast of God to places of suffering and oppression but also join the feast of God already happening there. With this divine cloth called Christ, as St. Paul once said, “Put on Christ,” we sit with the poor and oppressed, not being afraid of our way into the cross with those suffering, yet placing our hope in the resurrection, living out the eternal feast of God Christ has opened to all, good or bad. We no longer are guests without a wedding robe but God’s slaves who are sent to invite all, good or bad in the parable. As God’s slaves, our wedding robe won't be clean. It will be stained with dirt, tears, or even blood. Putting on Christ is being wholeheartedly and absolutely involved and immersed in the suffering reality of our world that has forgotten the divine feast of Christ. Though this whole business of undressing and redressing, putting on Christ sounds daunting and somewhat scary, the Holy Spirit is always present in us, reminding us the taste of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding banquet. As we eat the bread of life and drink the cup of salvation today, may Christ send us as his slaves to the world. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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