The Wedding Banquet

Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus responded by speaking again in parables: ² “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding party for his son. ³ He sent his servants to call those invited to the wedding party. But they didn’t want to come. ⁴ Again he sent other servants and said to them, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Look, the meal is all prepared. I’ve butchered the oxen and the fattened cattle. Now everything’s ready. Come to the wedding party!” ’ ⁵ But they paid no attention and went away—some to their fields, others to their businesses. ⁶ The rest of them grabbed his servants, abused them, and killed them.

⁷ “The king was angry. He sent his soldiers to destroy those murderers and set their city on fire. ⁸ Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding party is prepared, but those who were invited weren’t worthy. ⁹ Therefore, go to the roads on the edge of town and invite everyone you find to the wedding party.’

¹⁰ “Then those servants went to the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding party was full of guests. ¹¹ Now when the king came in and saw the guests, he spotted a man who wasn’t wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But he was speechless. ¹³ Then the king said to his servants, ‘Tie his hands and feet and throw him out into the farthest darkness. People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth.’

¹⁴ “Many people are invited, but few people are chosen.”

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During a session of my Intro to Psychology class in my freshman year of college my professor was lecturing us about “involuntary reactions” within the nervous system. The explanation involved all sorts of technical terms like “parasympathetic responses” or “autonomic pathways” that are rather hard to understand (at least for me).  Instead of diving into scientific nomenclature, he settled on an “over-the-top” description. “Let’s talk about the involuntary reaction of fear.  Imagine that a lion walked into the classroom right now…” he said, pausing for effect, “…and he’s packing an Uzi!  That would cause you to have an involuntary reaction: fear.” We, of course, laughed out loud: not only did his use of hyperbole make help make the point, it helped me remember his subject 17 years later. It didn’t hurt that his delivery was effective, making the joke that much more hilarious.

When we’re dealing with the parables of Jesus I get the same feeling because these seemingly “simple” stories are anything but straightforward.  Jesus will start with a relatively familiar setting like a wedding banquet, farmer’s field or group of men fishing and his audience will immediately know what he’s talking about. But just about the time his hearers think they know what’s going to happen, Jesus will twist the story in such a way that things get confusing and people start to think.  Sometimes this occurs with unexpected behavior from characters and on other occasions there is a great deal of hyperbole (exaggeration).

C.H. Dodd’s definition of “parable” is a good representative of scholarly thought: “At its simplest the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.”*  I often say that parables are stories that are meant to make you say “Oh, yeah, I get it," as the story begins immediately followed by, “Wait a minute, really?” by the time it's over.

 Parables get you thinking.

Our story today starts out normal enough: a king is throwing wedding party for his son and wedding invitations go out. Makes sense right? Then things get weird. Not only do people refuse the invitation, some grab, abuse and kill the messengers. You might be thinking “Who does that?!?!?” and you’d be right, but we’re just getting started.  The king responds in anger over the mistreatment and death of his servants (again, very understandable), and he responds by destroying the murderers and SETTING THEIR CITY ON FIRE. Say what?!?!? Presumably the fatted calf and oxen that had been butchered are simply sitting there on the table while all of this is happening. Finally, when the new guests arrive, the king throws one of them into the “outer darkness” because of his attire. Wow!

All of this hyperbole is meant to make a point. Much like my Psychology Professor who referred to Uzi-packing lions, Jesus is giving us vivid images to get us thinking.  At this point, of course, we have to be careful. Parables get you thinking, but it’s important to keep the rest of scripture in mind as we ponder. Parables don’t just mean whatever we want them to: going down that road will ultimately mean conforming Christ to our image rather than the other way around. We need to look at the parables within the greater context of the Gospel of Matthew and of scripture as a whole. So what’s going on here?

In Chapter 21 Jesus enters into the temple where the chief priests and elders of the people begin a verbal “fencing matching” with him.  He responds to their questions with parables and it gets rather dicey.  The Pharisees figure out that he’s speaking about them as well and they join the group that is ready to arrest him; only their fear of the crowds stops this. 

Again and again in the Bible we see examples of the high and mighty being brought down while the lowly are raised up (See what Hannah has to say about this in 1 Samuel 2:1-11. Mary weighs in with the Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55. Paul adds to this in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31.  Jesus himself talks about how the ‘last will be first and the first will be last will be first’ in Matt. 19:30 and 20:16.  The religious leaders, those favored in society, the people with all of the prestige either don’t understand what God is up to or they don’t care.  They are turning down an invitation to God’s party. Crazy isn't it? The lowly are coming instead. 

And how about the improperly dressed wedding guest? There have been plenty of explanations out there about why one of the guests didn’t have a wedding garment.  Some scholars say that these types of garments were handed out at the door, others say that if he had spoken rather than remain speechless things would have been different. One of my favorite stories about this comes from the amazing preacher and Professor Fred Craddock.

Craddock, Barbara Brown Taylor and Tom Long attended an Atlanta Braves baseball game while in town for a preaching conference. After taking their seats they noticed a group of college kids who were sitting a few rows in front of them. One of these students had become rather drunk and belligerent. He started yelling profanities, throwing empty (and not-so-empty) cups of liquid and generally carrying on. When security finally came and forcibly escorted him out of the stadium, Craddock turned to his companions and said, “He must not have been wearing a wedding garment…”** Perhaps the guest’s lack of wedding garment had everything to do with him rather than the host. 

In the end, God is throwing a party and all sorts of people are invited.  You might scratch your head and wonder why people wouldn’t want to show up, but then all you have to do is look around at our world today and scratch your head at humanity’s behavior around our globe. Not only do we choose to do evil because the righteous option is hard, quite often it seems we choose the evil option when the righteous path is MORE OBVIOUS.  Jesus uses exaggeration to get this across.  Hopefully this can show us that there is a party going on and that we are invited.  

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* Quoted on pg. 121 in The Peoples' New Testament Commentary by Eugene Boring and Fred Craddock.

** I originally heard this story at a preaching conference at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, IN. Since then, I have heard it related by a variety of other people too.

February 15, 2015: Bearing the Cross

Matthew 16:24-17:8

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. ²⁵ All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will find them. ²⁶ Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? What will people give in exchange for their lives? ²⁷ For the Human One is about to come with the majesty of his Father with his angels. And then he will repay each one for what that person has done. ²⁸ I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see the Human One coming in his kingdom.”

17 Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them to the top of a very high mountain. ² He was transformed in front of them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.

³ Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Jesus. ⁴ Peter reacted to all of this by saying to Jesus, “Lord, it’s good that we’re here. If you want, I’ll make three shrines: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

⁵ While he was still speaking, look, a bright cloud overshadowed them. A voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son whom I dearly love. I am very pleased with him. Listen to him!” ⁶ Hearing this, the disciples fell on their faces, filled with awe.

⁷ But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” ⁸ When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

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“This is my Son whom I dearly love.  I am very pleased with. Listen to him!” This statement from the “cloudy” voice of God serves as the linchpin that keeps the two episodes in this lesson together.  Why should God feel the need to say these words?  For two equally important reasons: 

1)     Jesus had something worth saying.

2) The message that Jesus is sharing will be hard enough to digest that a divine message of support is in order.

Before our lesson begins Jesus has already told his disciples that he will experience great suffering and death when they get to Jerusalem.  Now he is saying, “If you follow me, the same sort of thing is in store for you too.  Say “no” to yourself and take up your own cross.”  That’s a hard message to hear.  We often domesticate the phrase “bearing the cross,” by using it to refer to situations like dealing with our in-laws (“I’m spending the day with my mother-in-law, I guess it’s my cross to bear.”) or some other annoying situation (“I’ve always had bad eyesight, I guess that’s my cross to bear.”).

This misses the radical nature of what Jesus is talking about.  Saying “no” to yourself and helping others is a big “about face” from the way the world often works, especially in Jesus’ day.  The ancient world ran on an understanding of honor and shame.  Honor was the cultural currency that got you through life. Shame was the threatening motivation that kept people in line.  The idea of saying “no” to yourself, of lowering yourself before an “equal” or “inferior” person was considered ludicrous.

Here are two examples. 

After the Battle of Salamis in 480 B.C.E. the victorious Greek Commanders gathered together to vote on who received “battle honors” for the triumph that had saved their land from invasion.  There was to be a first place and a second place prize. Each commander felt honor-bound to vote for himself for first place. To do anything else…to actually lower yourself before a perceived equal…was unthinkable. There was dozen or so way tie for first place.  Second place was unanimously awarded to a man named Themistocles, who everyone knew was the actual person who deserved first place. (Plutarch Themistocles in Greek Lives, 17.)

In his book Humilitas author John Dickson talks about the way ancient people found the idea of lowering yourself in front of someone you considered to be equal or lesser than yourself to be rather weird.  The second-century Jewish Sage Yeshua Ben Sira once wrote “…incline your ear to the poor and return their greeting in humility.”  When his grandson translated his Ben Sira’s writings into Greek, however, he changed the word “humility” to “gentleness.” The idea of being humble in front of people obviously below you was just too strange and unpalatable. (Dickson, Humilitas 100-101).

How often do we today have to listen to people try to get all of the attention, trumpet their own works, or push others around…quite often with a veneer of faux humility thrown on top.  How often do we see an athlete who grandstands or a celebrity who jumps onto the stage at moment meant for someone else so that they can steal with spotlight? (I'm looking at you, Kanye)

Jesus’ words to his disciples are indeed weird and could certainly use the voice from a divine mountaintop cloud.  They’re weird, but they are entirely world-transforming.  As Christians we are called to follow Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is inviting us into a new way of life; a transformed way of living.  It might seem weird at first, but it is also a blessed relief to let go of all of the anxiety.  The things for which we are exhaustively striving, the things that we grip onto with white-knuckles, the things we allow to drag us down: all of these things do not have to control us.

It might be weird, but it’s nothing short of salvation. This is the same Jesus who has already said, “Come to me all of you who are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest…” (Matt. 11:28)  This is the same Jesus who will tell his followers, “…I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20b)

Let’s listen to him.

Sources sighted in this post:

Dickson, John. Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love and Leadership. Grand Rapids, MI:

          Zondervan, 2011.

Plutarch. Greek Lives. Translated by Robin Waterfield. New York: Oxford University      

          Press, 1998.

February 8th: Feeding the Five Thousand

Matthew 14:13-33

¹³ When Jesus heard about John, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. When the crowds learned this, they followed him on foot from the cities. ¹⁴ When Jesus arrived and saw a large crowd, he had compassion for them and healed those who were sick. ¹⁵ That evening his disciples came and said to him, “This is an isolated place and it’s getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

¹⁶ But Jesus said to them, “There’s no need to send them away. You give them something to eat.”

¹⁷ They replied, “We have nothing here except five loaves of bread and two fish.”

¹⁸ He said, “Bring them here to me.” ¹⁹ He ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves of bread and the two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them and broke the loaves apart and gave them to his disciples. Then the disciples gave them to the crowds. ²⁰ Everyone ate until they were full, and they filled twelve baskets with the leftovers. ²¹ About five thousand men plus women and children had eaten.

Right then, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead to the other side of the lake while he dismissed the crowds. ²³ When he sent them away, he went up onto a mountain by himself to pray. Evening came and he was alone. ²⁴ Meanwhile, the boat, fighting a strong headwind, was being battered by the waves and was already far away from land. ²⁵ Very early in the morning he came to his disciples, walking on the lake. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified and said, “It’s a ghost!” They were so frightened they screamed.

²⁷ Just then Jesus spoke to them, “Be encouraged! It’s me. Don’t be afraid.”

²⁸ Peter replied, “Lord, if it’s you, order me to come to you on the water.”

²⁹ And Jesus said, “Come.”

Then Peter got out of the boat and was walking on the water toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when Peter saw the strong wind, he became frightened. As he began to sink, he shouted, “Lord, rescue me!”

³¹ Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him, saying, “You man of weak faith! Why did you begin to have doubts?” ³² When they got into the boat, the wind settled down.

³³ Then those in the boat worshipped Jesus and said, “You must be God’s Son!”

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As part of my seminary training to become an ordained pastor I completed an intensive 10 week program called “Clinical Pastoral Education” (“CPE” for short) at a local hospital.  Clinical Pastoral Education has something of a reputation: all you have to do is say the name “CPE” in front of a group of pastors and you will get a variety of reactions, none of them half-hearted.  It’s a program that certainly lives up to the “intensive” description.  Students take part in extremely deep conversations with a small group and also spend a great deal of time on hospital units, getting to know patients and staff. Then there are the “on call” hours when a student is the chaplain on duty for a certain period, quite often overnight.  It can be a very draining, yet also rewarding, experience.

I can’t say that I vividly remember much my first time “on call." Most of it is a blur: running from this emergency to that crisis, praying at the bedside of a dying person, speaking to a family about their grandmother.  One moment did stand out to me, however.  After a long night of no sleep with only forty-five minutes left in my shift, I was called to speak with a family who had just arrived in the emergency room with their ill relative. They were very kind and gracious but I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, they deserve better than some inexperienced, groggy, bleary-eyed student at a time like this.” I felt like I had nothing left in the tank and that I was running on fumes. 

As far as I remember, I didn’t “crash and burn” during this encounter, but it was touch and go to say the least, and this was during a time when I was feeling positive about helping people. There have been other times in my ministry where I have felt like I just needed to get away but the phone keeps ringing and people keep talking. You don’t have to be a minister to have a similar experience! All of us can have times like this.

Which brings me to Jesus...

Our lesson today begins with the statement, “When Jesus heard about John…” 

“What did he hear?” you might ask. Just this: John was dead, executed by Herod Antipas when he spoke out against Herod’s marriage to Herodias.  The Gospel of Luke tells us that John was Jesus’ cousin. While Mathew doesn’t include this fact in his account, it is clear that John was important to Jesus. John had baptized him in the Jordan, they had preached similar messages and had pursued similar ministries.  With the news that John was dead, Jesus attempts to be by himself.  He needs some time to be alone with his closest followers, but the crowds follow him.  Everything that happens in this story needs to be seen through this lens. 

We’re not told if Jesus is tired, sad, angry or discouraged at this point although it is certainly possible and rather likely. What we do hear is that “he had compassion” for the great crowd.  He cures their sick, he feeds them in a miraculous fashion.  He gives of himself.  Then he attempts to be alone once again: this time without even his disciples.  He goes to a mountain to pray, to be with his father.  But then there’s a storm and the disciples are in need of help, so we walks out to them ON THE WATER.  Even when Peter sinks due to his lack of faith, Jesus immediately pulls him out again. 

I look at what Jesus did and I am comforted.  I’m also inspired.  I’m comforted because he could have told the crowds, “Forget you, I need some time.” He could have looked at Peter and said, “Really?!?! I’m just going to let you sink. You see this guys? You in the boat? This is what happens when you don’t have enough faith!” He doesn’t. He has compassion. He reaches out his hand.  This is the kind of Savior and Lord that we have: a compassionate one who heals, feeds and reaches out.

I am also inspired by Jesus’ example.  As I read through the Gospels, I see that Jesus is always finding a balance between being alone in deserted places and time in public ministry. There are times when things get so busy he and his disciples barely have time to eat. When this happens, he takes them away to a deserted place. There are also times (like today) when he is attempting to get away, but encounters people in need.  Then he errs on the side of compassion.  I see Jesus and I say, “I’d like to be more like that.” Can I be more like Jesus? Only by the action and presence of the Holy Spirit. Thank God for my baptism where I received this amazing gift! 

Because of God’s grace, I can start by seeing Jesus as a gift that I receive and then move to seeing him as an example to follow. With this reality, there’s a new life waiting for me each and every day.

If I find myself in a situation similar to the one I described from my time in CPE, where I was exhausted and a bit out of it in the middle of a pastoral conversation, I can remind myself that I do not need to be the savior of whoever I am speaking to: they already have one and he’s named Jesus. All of a sudden, I can put things in a proper and helpful perspective.  At the same time, I can look to Jesus’ example and see someone who balanced self-care with the care of others. I can see someone who always chose compassion.  With the Holy Spirit’s presence, I can follow in his footsteps like those bumbling disciples and when I fall I can cry out “Lord, save me!” His hand will be there.