What's With the Wedding Garment?

• First Sunday of Lent

Matthew 22:1-14

with Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 1 Corinthians 2:11-16

also Colossians 3:12-15

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• Recall the previous passage on the landowner and the tenants
(Matthew 21:33-46)…

God desires fruit, and if the original workers will not do the work (or if they’re greedy or violent or they kill the landowner’s son!) the landowner will find new workers!

God desires a harvest of righteousness,
and seeks workers who will work towards that!

• In chapter 22 the theme is continued
of the rejection of the unfaithful (and violent!) workers

Plus there’s the added description of grace
(there’s a wedding feast planned and you’re invited!)
plus the repeated invitation (verse 4)

And when the king’s servants are killed we get the added identification of Jesus with the prophets. And the scribes and Pharisees are aligned against [the prophets and Jesus].

• After the invited guests reject the king’s invitation, the king has servants invite whomever to the wedding feast.
How generous! How grand! How glorious!

(there is that confusing and disturbing aside of verse 7, in which the king destroys the city of the earlier intended guests… Impracticality aside, it’s worth considering that this is Matthew’s addition to Jesus’ parable, added to reflect the fall of Jerusalem in the later first century)

Expanded invitation!
How generous! How grand! How glorious!
God’s gracious invitation extended to all!

• And then the confusing bit about the wedding garment
aaand the expulsion of one guest.

Simply put, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love…”

Yes, the invitation to the wedding feast is expanded to many more, but we still have a God who desires a harvest of righteousness, and someone has come in who is not clothed in righteousness, who is not known by God’s love, who does not have the mind of Christ.

Consider again that this may be a later addition in Matthew’s telling, and that an early audience would hear both invitation and warning: you can come in, and you’re expected to participate in God’s harvest of righteousness.

• I like this commentary and it also haunting… The invitation is generous and it is broad, but it is not an invitation to a come as you are party, and it… does not pretend that “you are just fine the way you are.” You are not [“just fine”]– you are troubled, confused, sinful, mortal, perhaps sick or in deep distress. The Gospel is not the announcement that any of us is just fine the way we are. Rather, God loves us so much that he will not leave us unchanged.  It is not our banquet… it is the marriage supper of the Lamb. God wants us there as what God has made us to be, not as the mess we have made of ourselves.
(Leonard Klein, The Lectionary Commentary, p. 128. LK is a Lutheran pastor in York PA).

• I am thankful that God has saved a wretch like me.
I will give thanks in how I live my life.
It is my aim to be known by the love of God in me.

I am thankful that we have God’s word and its assurances that the Spirit of God is with us and that we are being made new and can have the mind of Christ, that God invites us to the wedding feast of his son! and gives us the will and the way to respond.

• Recall that Lent is a season of repentance and self-examination,
of prayer and fasting and self-denial. 

Do consider your response to God’s invitation.

• Hymn 396 Oh Jesus, I Have Promised 

Matthew 22:1-14     (Common English Bible) 

22 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.”

Colossians 3:12-15      (Common English Bible)          

¹² Therefore, as God’s choice, holy and loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. ¹³ Be tolerant with each other and, if someone has a complaint against anyone, forgive each other. As the Lord forgave you, so also forgive each other. ¹⁴ And over all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 

¹⁵ The peace of Christ must control your hearts -- a peace into which you were called in one body. And be thankful people.