Pentecost 17

Pentecost 17 (Matthew 22:1-14
“The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.”

What we think about heaven reveals what we truly value.

Norse mythology viewed heaven as a place where warriors feasted and fought. Aztec mythology viewed heaven as a field of flowers where the faithful were reincarnated as butterflies to sip the nectar of immortality.

One of our recent confirmands told me he didn’t want to go to hell but was worried that heaven might be boring. I suspect he understood heaven as an ethereal cloud where people wore long white robes, played the harp and sang hymns.

The preeminent image of heaven used in the Bible is a wedding.

The pattern for a wedding in Bible times has four parts: the betrothal, the promise, the celebration, the consummation.

First, there is the betrothal. In the ancient world, and until relatively recently in human history, marriages were arranged by parents when the children were still very young. The parents made the arrangements and signed the marriage contracts.
Children grew up knowing that at a certain age they would marry a certain individual. Usually, they never met their fiancé until the marriage ceremony took place.

The marriage ceremony was a very formal time honored set of prayers, rituals and promises that honored God, the tribe, the family and the couple.

Following the marriage ceremony was the marriage feast. Everyone in the village or town was invited since it was a celebration for the entire community. Marriage feasts often lasted several days. It was the joyful duty of the father of the groom to pay for the feast and make sure everyone had the opportunity to have a good time.
The celebration ended with the families escorting the bride and groom to the bridal chamber and leaving them alone to consummate the marriage and begin their new life together as husband and wife. The newlyweds usually moved in with the groom’s family where the bride would learn the family customs and religious traditions.

Jesus uses the image of the wedding feast in new and exciting ways. In this parable, Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven in terms of a royal wedding.

Perhaps some of you watched the recent royal wedding in England that was televised worldwide. This was a very public ceremony that involved the entire nation and by all reports the entire world.

A royal wedding is a joyful occasion for the entire population of the kingdom. The wedding secured the stability of the state and offered the opportunity for the aristocracy to express their loyalty to the heir to the throne.

As Jesus tells the story of the invited guests who reject the wedding invitation and mistreat the royal messengers the people who hear the story are outraged. They know very well that such behavior is more than rude. It is treasonous.

By their actions they proclaim their contempt for the monarch, the state and the wider society in which they live and from which they draw their wealth and security. They declare themselves independent and separate from the basic courtesies and responsibilities of citizens. When Jesus describes how the king destroys those disloyal wedding guests the crowd would shout out “yes.”

As the parable continues Jesus relates how the king invites everyone in the kingdom to the celebration. The wealthy and powerful forfeit their place through their arrogance. The king’s servants fill the wedding hall with all manner of people, rich and poor, good and bad.

The man who is found without a wedding garment presents a problem for the modern reader. Ancient people would have understood the reference. The king provided the wedding garments for all invited guests. The man who entered the banquet without the garment willfully rejected the royal gift through an act of self will and pride. As with the aristocracy, he is guilty of rebellion and treason. He reveals himself to be disloyal and a threat to the peace and security of the nation. And so, the king orders him to be cast out.

The point of the parable was obvious to the people in Jesus’ time but less obvious to us.

The King is God. The Son is Jesus. The aristocracy are the religious leaders in Jerusalem who reject God’s invitation to enter the Messianic Kingdom of His Son, Jesus Christ. God expands his invitation to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven to all sorts and conditions of people everywhere. The wedding garment is the grace of divine love received in baptism. The response to the royal invitation is a matter of personal choice.

The key to understand the parable is the reality of personal relationships.
It is clear that the aristocracy in the story value the material benefits they derive from the king more that their relationship with the king himself. Ancient societies were built on a series of personal relationships and personal loyalties.
The same is true of our relationship with God. Jesus speaks in the context of personal relationships to reveal the reality of God. There are the relationships of father and son, king and aristocracy, groom and bride. Each relationship is grounded in personal loyalty initiated and sustained by choice.

Jesus uses the image of the most intimate of human relationships, that of husband and wife, to describe the nature of the kingdom of heaven.

Those who look for the material reward of wealth and power miss the reality of the relationship. Those who respond to the invitation to celebrate the relationship are those who accept the invitation to the wedding feast and wear the wedding garment of divine grace.

The kingdom of heaven is not about material rewards. The kingdom of heaven is the great and wonderful celebration of a royal wedding. It is anything but boring. It is a participation in the infinite and eternal love of the triune God.

It is also a choice. It is a very simple and direct choice. As the king in the parable invited first the aristocracy and then everyone to the celebration so our Heavenly Father invites all people everywhere to the grace of baptism to prepare us for the Eucharistic Celebration of the co-eternal beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

The invitation is incredibly simple and straightforward. The Eucharist is the present reality here and now of the wedding feast of Jesus Christ. The invitation is universal and unconditional. As the Eucharist is a gift so the Kingdom of Heaven it represents is a gift. All are invited. None are commanded. How we choose to respond to this invitation reveals what we truly value and who we wish to become.

In the Eucharist, Jesus gives us himself as the groom gives himself to the bride.
God the Father created our species to be in an eternal loving relationship with God the Son. God the Holy Spirit invites all people everywhere into this new personal and intimate spiritual relationship.

The reward is the relationship. Heaven is the relationship. The Eucharist is the time and place in this life where Jesus agrees to meet us to celebrate the relationship. The Eucharist is the wedding banquet the Father gives for the Son and the Holy Spirit invites us to celebrate in the Sabbath Day call to worship.
Heaven and hell are not about rewards and punishments. None of us deserves heaven. None of has a right to heaven. Heaven is a personal relationship, a passionately loyal friendship with Jesus Christ. Heaven is for all people, the good and the bad, who say “yes” to the invitation to the wedding feast.

Jesus wants to be your forever friend. His Father invites you to meet the Son here at the altar of sacrifice where the spiritual banquet begins and continues forever.
Heaven is not boring. It is a new life and a new way of living in the infinite and eternal love of the infinite and eternal Triune God. The Kingdom of Heaven is not like anything human created religion can imagine. The Kingdom of heaven is like a king who gives a wedding banquet for his son.