How Much Did They Cook?
“Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.” But they made light of it and went away, one to his far, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, “the wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.” Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.”
(Matthew 22:1-10)
The Gospel of Matthew has often been nicknamed “The Gospel of the Church” because you can tell how Matthew has shaped the storytelling to uplift and instruct the fledgling Christian movement that is forming into churches by the time Matthew is publishing. It’s the only Gospel that uses the word “ekklesia” which came to be interpreted as “church.”
“Church” first appears in future tense in Matthew 16, when Jesus tells Peter, “On this rock I will build my church.” But by Matthew 18, Jesus is giving instructions on how to handle conflict and accusation of sinning within a church, with this assumption now that churches are already on the scene.
Matthew is also the book that highlights the incompatibility of the Pharisees’ message with Jesus’ message, as Matthew’s primary mission seems to be helping the Jewish people understand how Jesus fits into what God has already been doing. In doing so, Matthew often makes the Pharisees look bad – like Matthew 22.
The implications of “The Parable of the Wedding Banquet” could be far-reaching across many groups that don’t accept the invitation of Jesus, but here it’s centered on the Hebrew religious elite that are so wrapped up in inflexible ideology, their refusal to believe God has sent a Messiah, and their own desire for power. Clearly, Matthew thinks they missed the point and as a consequence their seat gets taken by someone else.
The parable gets pretty exclusive and pretty dark, especially if you read past vs. 10, but what I wonder is…
“How much food did they really make?”
I’ve performed my fair share of weddings. I’ve paid for mine. It’s not cheap to feed that many people. Lyndsey and I actually had two receptions, one for everyone that was cake, a candy bar, and drinks, and another more intimate dinner for family and close friends where the main feast occurred.
Why? It’s hard to feed that many people!
It seems Jesus’ character is preparing in a similar way. There’s a small guest list with only 4 people mentioned up front. It’s clearly for an exclusive group of people, and I would imagine the king spent lavishly on the most succulent food for a small group of people.
Surely the chefs weren’t prepared for the second invitation of “invite whoever you can find?”
A Similar Conundrum
This question reminds me of Jesus’ first miracle in Cana, recorded in John 2, when he’s at a wedding and the hosts run out of wine. Even Jesus can’t refuse his mother and he helps the hosts save face by turning water into wine so that everyone can keep celebrating.
Jesus has a way of making sure everyone gets fed because Jesus advertises abundant life found in him. In John 10:10 Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came so that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” In John 14 he tells the disciples that he goes to prepare a place for them, and in his house there are many rooms. In the story we’ll spend the next 4 weeks on in worship, Jesus takes 5 loaves and 2 fish and multiplies it to feed 5,000.
Jesus isn’t worried about the capability and capacity of the kitchen staff to feed “whoever they find.” Jesus is confident that when the doors are thrown open and everyone is invited, then we’ll find we have enough to go around. It’s when we hoard it for ourselves and ignore the invitation to the banquet that we find we can’t feed everyone.
October
I’d love to invite you to make worship and small group a priority in October. We will digging heavily into the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and comparing/contrasting it to the story of the Israelites traveling to the Promised Land in the wilderness. In doing so, I’d like us to lean into the attitude of abundance that Jesus shows us, and learn to fully embrace and understand the abundance in our world – that isn’t just for us alone.
In small groups, I’m inviting groups to take “The Generosity Challenge” curriculum to explore not only how we can financially give to the church and missions, but how individually we can rethink and reshape our schedules, attitudes, and ways of relating to be more generous and generative.
I’ll also invite you to consider giving some of our abundance to assist those in North Carolina and the surrounding areas who have had their lives torn upside down, and face a very long road to recovery. United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has a sterling reputation for local networking, hands-on help, and often being some of the first on the scene to help in recovery efforts. They also don’t leave until the job is done. Every dollar that you donate to UMCOR goes straight to help those in need, as the overhead is covered by a special offering in local United Methodist Churches taken each year called “One Great Hour of Sharing.”
UMCOR is one of the great benefits of being a connectional, global church and I would encourage you to make a donation. We will be shifting our communion offering this week to UMCOR for hurricane relief, so you may also give on Sunday. To learn more about how UMCOR responds, visit here.
Peace,
David Lessner
