Everyone Loves a Good Wedding... Don't they?

I mean who doesn't enjoy dancing at a wedding? 

As Evan D. Garner pointed out in his post this morning this week’s Gospel lesson from Matthew 22 leaves us wondering, “Where is there hope?” Over the last three Sundays Jesus has seemingly put a few conditions upon the unconditional love of God. Two Sundays ago the condition was actually doing the will of God rather than just saying we would (Parable of the Two Sons), yesterday it was giving the fruits of the vineyard back to the owner (Parable of the Wicked Tenants), and this week’s Gospel lesson requires us to accept the invitation into the king’s son’s wedding (Parable of the Wedding Banquet). So that is it, at the height of Jesus’ ministry—as he walked deliberately through Jerusalem to the Cross on Calvary—the ultimate message of the one who came to show us the way of love has put limitations on the limitless grace of God? Maybe, but I feel more hopeful than that given that this week’s story is about a wedding.

Weddings are one of my favorite occasions. I mean who does not love a good wedding? Getting dressed up, eating delicious food, seeing good friends, and dancing to a band or a DJ make weddings such a joyous time. Who would not want to take part in such a fun time? Even wallflowers love weddings because they make for such good opportunities to people watch. So why, oh why would one not want to go to a wedding of a friend or a relative? What about someone else? I mean maybe I am not a wedding crasher who goes to any party I see, but if someone random asks me to their wedding I would go. What about a celebrity or even a member of the royal family? You bet your bottom dollar I would be there—if even just to see what it was like!

When Prince William married Kate Middleton—in what was not a full scale state wedding mind you—the guest list included about 1,900 people according to Wikipedia. Now, if they had made an exception and added just one more person and that person was you or me—just for the sake of experience—don’t you think you would have gone? Of course, I know I would have! This is in a day and age when people do not particularly know what to do with royalty too. We have had the fall of kingdoms in much of the world and now have democracies or democratic republics or oligarchies. Still, we have an obsession with royalty, which makes the ridiculousness of this coming Sunday’s Gospel lesson all the more, well… ridiculous!

Back in Jesus’ day whole societies revolved around kings. If you or I (read: non-royals) were invited to participate in the wedding feast of a king would we not go? Simply put, yes! I know that I might even take a subtle mention of the occasion from a royal currier as an excuse to crash the party. If I were to receive a notification on royal parchment I would be there in a heartbeat. If someone came knocking at my door to tell me about it even after it was starting I would drop all that I was doing to go attend. So what is Jesus really trying to say here?

The king in this Gospel lesson makes multiple attempts to bring anyone and everyone inside his son’s wedding feast—the rich and the poor, the upper class and those on the street, the good and the bad. Those who come up with excuses of work, family, or selfishness miss out on the event of a lifetime. The one who does not wear the proper attire gets thrown out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth not because he had on the wrong outfit, but because he was not willing to engage in the revelry by getting all dressed up. (This is akin to the person who—despite all his friends wearing a group costume for Halloween—decides he is “too cool for that” and simply wears a dress shirt and khakis instead of being Lurch from the Addams Family. He misses out by not getting to enjoy in the festivity) To be honest, this story makes me think that the real missed opportunity is not getting to be part of something grand, over-the-top, exciting, and fun.

The story that Jesus tells though comes off sounding so odd to us because of the details on which our eyes fall. Some of the guests instead of accepting the invitation murdered the servant inviting them. Who would do that? The one gets thrown out who does not wear the right clothes. Who wears a t-shirt to a wedding? We tend to focus on these two points, and we ought to as they are dramatic points in the story. And yet, what stands out to me is that this is an once-in-a-lifetime event that calls for such celebration and excitement that everything else falls off the calendar. While we as preachers must deal with the moments when it seems God retracts grace from those unwilling to participate, we must also wonder, “Who would pass up the party of a lifetime?” If even wallflowers love weddings, why wouldn’t everyone want to participate in God’s festive feast?