Matthew 22: 1-14
Sermon by The Rev’d Tracey Gracey
One way of understanding this morning’s parable is to read it as an allegory – a story in which the people and events represent something beyond themselves.
Read this way:
The king – represents God.
The bridegroom – represents Jesus.
The special invited guests – represent those first invited among the people of Israel, with the challenge directed particularly at their religious leaders.
The two sets of slaves – represent the prophets of the Old Testament.
The city that is destroyed – represents Jerusalem.
The slaves who go into the streets and gather the good and the bad – represent the apostles who became the first missionaries.
The good and the bad – represent the new church. The new church that Matthew’s community was now invited to be a part of.
Within this gathering is a guest without a wedding robe, whose presence raises a question about what it means to accept the invitation.
And while this guest stands out, someone else is not mentioned at all.
The bride.
Matthew doesn’t tell us where she is. Her absence may have been of little concern to his community. But for us, her absence, together with the words of our marriage service, offers an insight into what it means to accept the invitation in today’s parable.
Listen to the opening words of our second order marriage service:
We have come together in the presence of God
to witness the marriage of N and N,
and to ask God’s blessing on them
as we share their joy.
Marriage is a gift of God our creator.
It is a symbol of God’s unending love for his people,
and of the union between Christ and his Church.
Christ loved his bride the Church,
and gave himself for her.
As he has called N and N to marriage,
so he draws their differing gifts and hopes
into a unity of love and service.
Christ loved his bride the Church.
And he draws their differing gifts and hopes into a unity of love and service.
In our marriage service, two people make promises to each other. They bring their differing gifts and hopes, their histories and their uncertainties, and commit themselves to a shared life.
Those promises take shape in the way they live together.
In listening and making time for each other.
In sharing responsibility.
In being willing to apologise and to forgive.
In supporting each other through things neither could have anticipated when they first said yes.
Their commitment is lived through the ordinary decisions of each day.
So too with our relationship with Jesus.
The invitation is to participate, to become involved, to allow what we believe to take shape in what we do.
The image of the Church as the bride reminds us that we are loved and invited to love in return. We bring ourselves to this relationship with faithfulness and commitment.
The wedding robe gives us another way of picturing this. Putting it on can express our willingness to make Jesus’ teachings part of how we live.
Seen this way, the guest without a robe raises a question about being present without fully participating. We do not know why he has no robe and the way he is thrown into darkness is troubling.
Matthew uses the words “weeping and gnashing of teeth” six times in his Gospel. This strong language of judgement underlines how seriously he takes our response to God and how we choose to live.
Accepting the invitation is the beginning. Living it means allowing our faith to shape our decisions and the way we use our gifts.
Matthew’s community was being invited into that participation, as we are today.
Our wedding robes then become expressions of love, faithfulness, prayerful commitment and service.
These qualities become part of who we are, shaping the choices we make, how we use our gifts, and how we live out our faith.
Putting on our robes expresses our willingness to offer ourselves fully – body, heart, mind and soul – with all the gifts and hopes we bring.
We do not have to have everything worked out before we begin. The servants gathered everyone they found – both good and bad. The invitation was already theirs. The question was how they would respond.
This morning we have come together in the presence of God to reaffirm our commitment, our partnership, our relationship with Jesus.
As his bride, the Church, may we bring our differing gifts and hopes into a unity of love and service.
And as we put on our wedding robes, may that commitment take shape in how we live, love, pray and grow in our faith.
Amen.