"But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen."
[Matthew 22:1-14, ESV]
What does this parable have to do with being “hungry in the desert”? After all, Jesus spoke this parable in the temple in downtown Jerusalem, not in the wilderness. It was directed against the Chief Priests and Pharisees whose hearts were hardened against him, not to eager followers. It concerns the most exciting of celebrations – a (royal) wedding – not a famine. Yet it speaks to us as we experience spiritual dryness and as we pursue the kingdom of God.
The first thing to note is that Jesus repeatedly uses this picture of a wedding feast as a description of the kingdom of God. We are often tempted to think of the kingdom of God as a poor and needy thing – something we need to prop up with our giving and our labour. This is especially true when we are experiencing spiritual dryness ourselves. Everything we do, every act of service, every prayer, even cracking the cover on our Bible, feels like a chore. But this isn’t true! It is a fabulous feast, a celebration. It is not dour. It’s not a long drawn out meal dominated by a dreary, and slightly embarrassing, speech made by tipsy Uncle Bob. It’s not an eight hour TV special with exclusive pictures licensed to a particular tabloid. It is more like the story from the 1987 Danish film “Babette’s Feast”.
Babette’s Feast
“In 19th century Denmark, two adult sisters live in an isolated village with their father, who is the honoured pastor of a small Protestant church that is almost a sect unto itself. Although they each are presented with a real opportunity to leave the village, the sisters choose to stay with their father, to serve to him and their church. After some years, a French woman refugee, Babette, arrives at their door, begs them to take her in, and commits herself to work for them as aid/housekeeper/cook. Sometime after their father dies, the sisters decide to hold a dinner to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth. Babette experiences unexpected good fortune and implores the sisters to allow her to take charge of the preparation of the meal. Although they are secretly concerned about what Babette, a Catholic and a foreigner, might do, the sisters allow her to go ahead. Babette [who had been a famous chef in Paris] then prepares the feast of a lifetime for the members of the tiny church and an important gentleman related to one of them.”[Babette’s Feast, http://www.imdb.com/]
The struggle to follow Jesus here and now may cloud our perspective of the true nature of the kingdom of God. We can extrapolate our present experience into an endless future and fall into despair. But the beautiful picture the Bible presents of a glorious royal wedding feast awaiting the guests should draw us forward. The true destiny of those who pursue Christ, who pursue the kingdom of God here and now, through times of abundance and spiritual drought, is to arrive at a celebration when the kingdom of God is consummated that is beyond imagining.
Anyone who watched the last royal wedding will realise that the money spent on clothing – the wedding dress, the clothes of the attendants, and the guests – and the ceremony, and the feast that follows was extravagant. It was a massive celebration, not just for the family but for the whole nation. And the royal marriage feast of the lamb will cause any earthly royal wedding to pale in comparison.
Read this story from BBC.com about the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on 29th July 1981:
Crowds of 600,000 people filled the streets of London to catch a glimpse of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on their wedding day. The couple were married at St Paul's Cathedral before an invited congregation of 3,500 and an estimated global TV audience of 750 million - making it the most popular programme ever broadcast. Britons enjoyed a national holiday to mark the occasion.
Lady Diana, 20, arrived almost on time for the 1120 BST ceremony after making the journey from Clarence House in the Glass Coach with her father, Earl Spencer. She made the three-and-a-half minute walk up the red-carpeted aisle with the sumptuous 25 ft (7.62 m) train of her Emmanuel designed, ivory taffeta and antique lace gown flowing behind her.
Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Robert Runcie led the traditional Church of England service, but he was assisted by clergymen from many denominations. The bride's nerves showed briefly when she mixed up the Prince's names - calling him Philip Charles Arthur George, rather than Charles Philip. Charles, 32, in the full dress uniform of a naval commander, slightly muddled his vows too, referring to "thy goods" rather than "my worldly goods". After a brief private signing ceremony, the Prince and Princess of Wales walked back down the aisle to the refrain of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance.
The newlyweds took the open-topped state landau to Buckingham Palace where they emerged on the balcony at 1310 BST to give the crowds the kiss they had been longing to see. Afterwards Charles and Diana retired from the public gaze to enjoy toasts and a wedding breakfast with 120 family guests. A "just married" sign attached to the landau by Princes Andrew and Edward raised smiles as the married couple were driven over Westminster Bridge to get the train to Romsey in Hampshire to begin their honeymoon.
In comparison we have John’s prophecy,
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"-- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These are the true words of God."
[Revelation 19:6-10, ESV]
A royal wedding is a major affair. It is a celebration that everyone in the country takes part in, even though only a relative few may be invited to the feast. It carries national and political significance. After all, the reason King Solomon got into so much trouble was because marriage formed the basis of so many of his international alliances. In Jesus’ time the feast was not just a “breakfast”, but a seven or fourteen day marathon of feasting! The point to focus on and remember is that the kingdom of God is a major affair, a celebration, with huge significance for the whole of humanity.
But Jesus’ story is not about the royal wedding feast itself. It is focussed on the invitation to attend the feast. The king’s leading subjects in a city were invited. And they rejected that invitation. This amounted to rejection of the king’s authority, to rebellion. The mistreatment of his messengers was public humiliation of the king. This parable was told, in the first place, against the leaders of the Jews. The nation of Israel had been chosen to be God’s people. Through the prophets they had received lots of advance notice about the coming King. But when the long-awaited Messiah arrived in the form of Jesus, they rejected him. The chosen ones had proven themselves unworthy. The destruction of the city in v.7 must clearly be understood as a prophecy against Jerusalem itself, fulfilled in 70AD.
The invitation is then extended to both “the bad and the good”. This is a reference to the inclusion of the Gentiles. It emphasises the universal or unconditional nature of the kingdom of God. It is not just limited to the Pharisees and other religious leaders. It is not just limited to God’s chosen people, Israel. It is extended universally to all people everywhere. But this had always been God’s intention.
We can jump back to the story of Abraham and review the promise that God gave him,
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
[Genesis 12:1-3, ESV]
The climax of God’s promise to Abraham was that all the nations (or families) of the earth would be blessed. Abraham, and his descendents - the nation of Israel - were chosen to be the source of blessing to all nations. Their failure to live up to that role, caused by focussing on themselves, led to the hard-heartedness that brought God’s judgement – upon the nation, and upon the leaders in Jesus’ day. What does the selfishness of the people in Jesus’ parable look like? Some were apathetic to the invitation to the feast and just went about their own business. Some were filled with antipathy or hostility to the king and abused his servants and killed them. The Greek word translated as “treating them shamefully” is the word we derive the English word “hubris” from. Hubris means “arrogance” or “insolence”. Both apathy and antipathy brought judgement.
What does apathy look like in today’s society? What does it look like in today’s church? What does it look like in my life?
What does antipathy or arrogance look like in today’s society? What does it look like in today’s church? What does it look like in my life?
After seeing the troops sent in to quash the rebellion among the elite, the general populace are more than willing to attend the king’s sumptuous feast. The invitation is indiscriminate. It was offered to anyone who was walking on the roads through, in or out of town. It was extended to those who were honest, hard-working farmers and to the slimey tax collectors. It included the hard-working wives and the promiscuous prostitutes. It included residents and foreign travellers. Both good and bad were invited to join the celebration. The leaders had proven themselves unworthy. These guests were not presumed to be worthy, they were just invited.
This is helpful for us to remember when we are experiencing a spiritual desert. In Part One we spoke about the frequent encounters with God that his people experienced in the desert. The reason these encounters were so special is because the usual blessings of God are not present in the desert. In fact, the desert or wilderness was usually seen as a place inhabited by evil spirits (c.f. Jesus temptation from Satan in the wilderness, the man possessed by a legion of demons). The desert fathers spoke about how Satan loved to point out their shortcomings, sin and failure during their desert fast. Those of us who wander through a spiritual desert can feel like we are outcasts from God’s kingdom. We can feel unworthy of any spiritual encounter with God. We can experience a heightened awareness of our sin and feel even more distant from God. This parable, with its driving message of the universal, unconditional invitation of the kingdom of God should encourage us to keep pursuing it even when we are most aware of our sin.
The invitation is universal, but it is not unconditional. The second part of this parable makes that clear. The change in tone of the king’s encounter with his guest has caused commentators some confusion. Some think of this as a later story added to the end, or a second parable independent of the first. It definitely makes a different point to the first part of the parable, but it complements the first point. The second point is that to be accepted at the wedding feast, the guests must accept the king’s gracious provision of wedding clothes.
The man spotted by the king must have refused the garments the king supplied to all the other guests. He thought that the invitation was all that was needed. He considered himself worthy of attendance, just because he had been invited. He didn’t act as though the wedding feast a special occasion. He ignored the fact that it meant submitting everything he had to the king. To refuse the king’s offer of appropriate attire was an act of “hubris” too.
In the same way, all are invited to enter the kingdom of God. There is no one who is excluded, unwelcome or left out. But accepting the invitation means surrendering ourselves totally to the Father and accepting all that he has provided for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is a response of faith, demonstrated through obedience.
“God has provided the feast of the kingdom. It is the wedding feast for his Son. The invitation goes out far and wide. If you reject it, you miss the party. If you think you can get in relying on your own fitness, you will be thrown out.”
Michael Green
"Only our refusal to trust him . . . can hinder his purposes in our lives."
Joni Eareckson Tada
There is a difference between experiencing a spiritual desert and being cast out into the place of outer darkness. In the desert we are humbled, seeking after God’s righteousness. I have been there – aware of my sin and yearning for God’s empowering presence. In the outer darkness we are filled with angry hubris and mourning at our lost opportunity. I have seen a friend go there – angry at God, filled with darkness, yet still shaking his fist and arguing that God can’t exist. What is the condition of my heart?
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