Sarcastic Lutheran: Sermon on the worst parable ever..
Matthew 22:1-14
Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4Again 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.’ 5But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. 13Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Yeah, this is a tough one to preach one. One most pastors would prefer to avoid. Nadia looks at it from a perspective I had never considered before – both the terrorizing party of the king as an ongoing threat to his subjects and the possibility of the man without a robe as a hero.
The idea of God as an outraged tyrant who annhilates those who will not do what he says is certainly popular in certain fundamentalist circles. It is key to those who are still caught up in the hell and salvation debated triggered by Rob Bell’s Love Wins. Make your decision for Jesus, accept the invitation, or God will destroy you, all you have, and cast you into hell because you didn’t love him enough back.
Hard to connect with Jesus the suffering servant. But the parable is there nonetheless and this is a good honest and new view of it that has me thinking. Enjoy.