We Have to Accept God’s Terms for Salvation

Homily for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost

2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4..................Matthew 22:2-14

At first reading, the parable of the great wedding banquet seems very unfair.  The king seems to over-react to everything.  When the original guests refuse his invitation, he sends his soldiers to kill them and destroy their city.  Then he sends his servants to fill up the wedding feast with people off the streets.  Finally, the king spots one of these new guests not wearing the right clothing and orders his servants to tie him up and throw him back onto the street, tossing him in the gutter like a discarded fast-food wrapper.

Such extreme behavior seems totally irrational.  It cannot be explained or understood until we figure out the parable—the hidden meaning of the story.  This story is one of several that Jesus tells when He is asked the questions, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”  The elders and priests of the Temple are worried that Jesus is undermining their control of the religion by healing people and teaching them to think about the Kingdom of God.

As usual, Jesus doesn’t give direct answers.  He uses parables to explain and teach a lesson about some subject by telling stories in which the characters and actions parallel or stand for the people and situations being indirectly talked about.  Jesus tells the stories, and usually the listeners have to figure out for themselves what the stories mean.  In a few instances, He unfolds the parables, but mostly, as in this case, He just states the lesson more or less clearly.

Here, the parable shows that the source of Jesus’ authority is God, the Giver of Life and the Giver of the Law.  Since God makes the rules and sets the terms for our existence, we cannot call His actions unfair, even if we don’t like them or don’t understand them.

We can see that the king in the parable represents God the Father, and the wedding banquet stands for the eternal celebration of God’s love in heaven—what we call Salvation.  The original guests are the Israelites—the chosen people with whom God made a covenant—who often ignored God’s call for them to be holy and even killed God’s messengers, the prophets.  Jesus knows that they will have Him killed, too.  So God punishes them by inviting a new set of guests—God opens salvation to all people, not just the chosen people.

Now everyone has a chance to enjoy the wedding banquet of the King.  Everyone has an invitation to be saved.

But salvation is not automatic.  Salvation is not forced on anyone.  Even those who accept God’s invitation must respond in the right way.  This story isn’t about wearing the right clothes to the party.  It’s about accepting salvation according to God’s terms.  An invitation to a wedding comes with certain obligations.  If we fail or refuse to fulfill those obligations, it’s fair for our host to have us removed, even while still calling us “Friend.”  To participate in God’s eternal wedding feast, that is, to be saved, we must believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son and Word of God who became a man to save humanity from sin and restore our right relationship with God.

The wedding robe the ejected guest is not wearing can be identified with our baptismal robe.  In accepting Jesus as Lord, God, and Savior, we take off our old sinful self and put on Christ—the new garment of light and love and salvation.  If we refuse to wear the robe of salvation, we disqualify ourselves—we disinvite ourselves from the banquet and reject the hospitality, the love, and the salvation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, whom we thank and praise and glorify now and ever and to ages of ages.  Amen.