The Banquet

Summary

I think it was six Christmases ago, during the break from school, when, in America at least a lot of youth are sitting around trying to figure out what to do, I planned the best of youth events. It was the best of youth events, in that it was free, it was fun, and it was something that the youth had asked for, I planned a downhill sledding party.
You see back in the U.S. many people work the week between Christmas and New Year’s, and yet the kids don’t have school. So, I often tried to plan a youth event in that between week for the youth to have some fun, and get together as church kids.
I planned the event a couple months in advance, I advertised it in all of the usual places, I e-mailed parents, I ‘Facebooked’ kids, and I prepared for a fun day. When that day dawned it was perfect for sliding. We had enough snow, but it was cold enough that it had frozen a few times, the hill had been used, and so it meant the sleds would run fast, although with granular snow like that you don’t want to do a face plant ‘cause you’ll get snow-burns on your face. It was going to be a good day.
Frankly, I was excited, for after the sliding was done we were going to go back to church for Hot Chocolate and games, to warm up and take the fun inside.
I arrived at church early, and my volunteer leader Deb showed up a bit after me, and we talked about the details of the event, sweating in our outdoor gear as we waited for kids to arrive, while standing inside the church. At the appropriate time nobody had yet arrived, but that wasn’t strange, so we waited some more. At a quarter past the hour, there was still no one there. So, we started to call and text various youth. Either no one answered, or our texts went un-answered.
Finally at half-past Deb and I called it, ‘quits’ and left, depressed that the ‘best’ of youth events had never happened.
Later when I was able to talk face-to-face with some of the youth I asked them why they couldn’t come. A few actually had something else happening, but the majority were too lazy to pull themselves off of their couches, or away from their screen, and admitted that they spent the day bored, and wished they had come.
Ugh! It’s easy to invite, but rather hard when those invited don’t respond.
I guess I know a bit how the king in Jesus’ parable this morning might have felt like. You try to offer up the best you can, and no one wants to come. You feel let down and depressed.
In Jesus’ story the king is offering up the very best thing he can for the guests to his son’s wedding, a party, a banquet. He plans a party…and no one comes.
This parable is not simply a story, no, rather in this parable Jesus is reminding his listeners of their nation’s relationship and history with God. You see Jesus’ story of those who refuse the king’s invitation to the banquet is simply a lesson in Jewish history, it is a reminder to his listeners of how their ancestors had not responded to God’s invitation to be a part of his kingdom, and in fact how they had at times truly refused, and even abused his servants, the prophets and judges. Jesus also reminds them of how the scriptures tell of the nations’ destruction by the empire’s of Assyria and Babylonia, as a judgment upon their disobedience.
So, the first part of the parable is simply a recounting of what all of Jesus’ listeners all know. It is what comes after the history lesson that is the new, and may I say, revolutionary part of the parable.
And, it is the important part for you and me.
Did you notice what words Jesus puts in the king’s mouth when the king sends out his servants again, he says, “go…and invite everyone.”
Everyone? Yeah, Jesus said, ‘everyone.’ For Jesus’ story continues with the words, “they gathered everyone they found, both the ‘good and the bad’, or as another translation puts it, “the evil and the good.”
What? The king’s servants are inviting the evil people as well as the good?
Yes, that’s what Jesus said, everyone is invited, and they were, for Jesus tells us the wedding banquet was full of people.
So, what is it that Jesus is trying to tell us in this parable? What is it we’re supposed to learn?
The King, God, does not…give…up! When the king is refused by the first people he invitee, he throws the doors open wide, so that all can come, the good and the bad, the evil and the good. I am going to re-iterate that, Jesus says, “invite everyone…”
This is important people. We are constantly battling the idea that there are Godly people, and un-godly people, in fact we are all God’s, for we are all God’s creation. Jesus also tells us that he has come for all people. This is important to remember.
In fact, Jesus helps to solidify this reality when in the parable he very specifically tells his listeners that the servants gathered everyone they found, the good and the bad. I know when people hear that phrase, ‘the bad and the good’ or, ‘the good and the evil’, they instinctually don’t like it. Usually asking themselves, “Why would God invite the bad as well as the good?”
Why? The easy, and a correct answer is, God loves everyone, and wants all of his beloved to be a part of his kingdom. We are his children, and he is calling us home.
The harder question, which also has a correct answer, at that, is whom is good and whom is bad?
As listeners we assume Jesus is talking about two different types of people, right? Yet, what I think Jesus is getting at is that, each of us is both, because each of us does both evil and good in our lives. It is like Martin Luther’s teaching of the Christian being simultaneously, ‘sinner and saint.’
Remember, the entire reason that Jesus comes to earth, is because ultimately we lose to the evil, we cannot be good enough, righteous enough, perfect enough on our own, right? So, we need that invitation to the banquet, to the wedding party that is the kingdom of heaven. We need to be found and gathered in to the party.
Did not Jesus often speak about himself as the shepherd, and us, as the sheep?
We are the sheep gathered into God’s presence, because, we cannot make our way there on our own. We just have to be smart enough to not refuse the invitation. We also have to be wise enough to not refuse the wedding gown of mercy, of salvation that is given to us. Another way of thinking of the wedding gown is that it is Jesus’ blood of salvation. We cannot refuse Christ’s gift, by saying, “Thanks, but no thanks, I am righteous all on my own.”
The judgments made in this parable, if you notice are not firstly made by the King, but by the invited guests. They judge the party not worth attending, or judge the wedding gown not worth wearing, and so, they separate themselves from God. They judge God’s offering not worthy of their attention, or their efforts, or within their theology.
People! Friends! God, through Jesus invites us into his presence. We are invited into the Kingdom of Heaven, as the imperfect people that we are, both good and bad, saint and sinner. It is not up to us to make our way into the kingdom, but rather it is all up to God, the one whom invites, and welcomes, and gives.
We simply believe and enter the party, having faith that all that has needed to be done for us to be there, has been done already through the mercy of Jesus. Jesus has done it all, for us, and has done it once, forever! Don’t turn away, but rather enter his gates with thanksgiving, for God has invited you home!
Amen.

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