Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 07 Oct. 2012
By Captain Michael Ramsay
Today is Thanksgiving Sunday. It is often a time to get together with family, make new memories and recall old ones. Maybe this is why my mind drifted back to my teenage years this week. I remember when I was 16. It was the 1980s on the west coast. Things are a little bit different there and things were a little bit different then. I remember when I got my ear pierced. Now, I haven’t worn an earring for years. It probably wouldn’t go so well with my uniform. When I was a teenager it was a little bit different than today. Today I see men and women, boys and girls – especially in the large urban centres – with either or both ears pierced, noses pierced and even eyebrows pierced. I have even seen cheeks or tongues pierced as well, in not only teenagers but in adults and children alike. Now, when I was a teenager, teenage boys were just starting to have one ear, their left ear pierced. Does anyone remember why back then it had to be the left ear pierced? What did it used to mean if the right ear was pierced in Canada? (It used to mean that one was an open and active part of the homosexual subculture)
I remember one Saturday when I was 16. My friend Alex called me and asked me to come over. Okay. I had or had access to a car so I drove over. We hung out for a bit and then he asked me if I wanted to go downtown. Okay. I drove downtown and he told me to park in a certain place. Okay. His older brother and his brother’s girlfriend were waiting for us. Okay. Alex never told me we were meeting anyone but okay. We went into the store with them. Okay. Monica was looking at jewellery. Okay. She then asks Alex what he thinks of some gold earrings; he then asks me. I don’t care; why do I care about earrings. Then she tells the clerk that she will take them and tells Alex to sit in the chair to get his ear pierced. Unbeknownst to me that is the whole reason we are down here with his brother and Monica - so that Alex could get his ear pierced. Alex then starts to chicken out of his previously made deal with his brother when Monica says something that takes me completely off-guard. She says, ‘Okay you go first, Mike’.
“What?” I said – How did I get involved in this? I think.
“You’re not afraid too? You’re not afraid like Alex are you?” I stood there a moment. You know how it is like when you need to make a decision and you need to make it quickly but it is a decision that normally you would like to take a little time to make. My mind is desperately running through all the pros and cons. My brain tries to think of a good reason to get out of it actually. I can’t. I can’t think of any good Biblical reason not to do it. I can’t think of anything but we do wind up leaving that store in a very few minutes anyway, Alex and I each… with our left ears pierced. And then I go home…
I don’t think anything could have prepared me for the response of my parents who were known as some of the more accepting parents on the block. I walk into the house – I immediately wished Alex was there with me but I had taken him home – I walk into my house and my mother actually grabs my ear and tries to tear the earring out of it while calling me quite a number of names and telling me that I don’t have any right to pierce my ear; I have no right to do that to my body and that it is really her body and that it is the temple of God and, and, and, and… and her yelling at me and her trying to pull the earring out of my ear is causing quite a scene and leaving me more than a little perplexed but that isn’t half as bad as my dad’s response. I don’t think I could get him to even speak to me for a month; I did not anticipate this response to having my pierced ear anymore than I had expected getting my ear pierced this day. It was a very confusing day for me and it was a very upsetting day for my parents and I think they were both relieved somewhat and very happy shortly afterwards when I brought home my next girlfriend.
Years later, when earrings became more and more common, I did stop wearing one. That’s another story that I’ll have to tell you on another day and that one relates to my family as well: This time, my children. I don’t know why that story came to my mind when I was reminiscing about family leading up to Thanksgiving but it did.
Today’s pericope comes from our Gospel reading in the Bible: Matthew 22:1-14 (cf. Luke 14:15-24 and Gospel of Thomas 64). It is about a big dinner not unlike the big dinners that many people may be having with their families for Thanksgiving this weekend. The parable about the Kingdom of Heaven talks about a feast. It is actually about a wedding feast and some not very thankful people. This wedding feast is a big deal for the parents of those being married. This is an important dinner. Dad invites everyone he knows and more. Dad is really important in our parable today. He is referred to as a king. He is an important political leader like Premier Brad Wall or Mayor Jared Schaffer and he has invited some important people to his son’s wedding. Matthew 22:2-5:
The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”’ But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business.
Can you imagine if an important political figure invited other important people to his own son’s wedding and everyone just “made light of it and went their own ways?” Can you imagine now if this political figure was really powerful? Can you imagine if he was the President of the United States? Can you imagine if he was the President of the United States and he invited leaders of the 100+ countries that they militarily occupy right now and can you imagine what would happen if they each defied the world’s paramount superpower? Remember Iraq? Remember Afghanistan? And can you imagine if these people, Verse 6 “…seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and then killed them”? What would be the response nowadays? What would be the response then in the first Century when Rome was the paramount superpower? Most commentators mention that this act of turning up their noses at the king and his son by this act of turning down the wedding invitation is more than just an insult. It is a tantamount to a declaration or independence, a provocation, an enticement to war (cf. 2 Samuel 10:4; cf. also Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 9.13.2).[1] How do you think any leader of a superpower past or present would respond to this? Verse 7 records, “…when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their cities.”
Now most commentators on this parable will emphasize its allegorical qualities at this point. Jesus said that this situation is like the Kingdom of Heaven. The King therefore is God.[2] The King’s Son is Jesus (cf. also Matthew 9:15, 25:1; John 3:29; Ephesians 5:25-32; Revelation 21:2-9).[3] God then sends out the prophets and the early Christian disciples, missionaries to Israel and instead of coming to celebrate Jesus, those who should have know better, those who were supposed to be subject to the king, those who were supposed to be subjects of God instead rebelled against Him (cf. TSA docs 7, 11).[4] They responded by murdering His prophets and martyring the early Christian missionaries. Some commentators even suggest that when the Bible here refers to the burning of their cities, it is saying that this is some of why God saw Jerusalem destroyed in 70 CE - because they rejected Christ.[5]
But how does this relate to us today? The Judeans in the first century were the ones who probably knew the most about God and the most about the promised Messiah therefore should have been the most thankful and they -by and large- still rebelled against Him, rejecting His Kingship and turning their back on His only begotten Son. Who in the first half of the 21st century here is in a very similar situation and doing the very same thing? We are. Canada, Europe, the US, Australia, New Zealand: the western world. Most of our countries were founded as tributaries to the King of Kings and servants of the Lord of Lords. We have mentioned here again and again how Canada, in particular, was founded on the Word of God. Our nation’s very motto “From Sea to Sea” comes from Psalm 72:8 and the motto of one of our highest orders, the Order of Canada is taken from Hebrews 11:16, “they desire a better country.” But now in our country when we should be thankful to our Lord, it seems that we are thankless and even rebellious. We used to open sessions of the House of Commons with prayer. We used to have prayer in the public schools. We used to have scriptures as a foundational part of our literature and our schooling. Even when I first came to Saskatchewan, still not too many years ago, virtually every public dinner would begin with a prayer of thanksgiving for the meal. Not anymore. In our western world today instead of being thankful, we are thankless and even rebellious. And we know from this parable what happens to thankless and rebellious people who reject the invitation to God’s eternal banquet with His Son: They perish (TSA doc. 11).[6]
There is more to this parable though. It doesn’t end here. Verses 8 through 10:
Then [the king] he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Now this is something to be thankful about. This is great news and if the story ended here it would be good news indeed. This passage is primarily referring to the fact that even though many of the Jewish people, though not all, (Jesus’ disciples and their group were Christians) rebelled against God and His Son, God still invited even more people to the eternal celebration (as was always His intention, Genesis 12:3; cf. also Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, Romans 1:16).[7] God invited the whole world actually (cf. Luke 24:47, John 10:16, Romans 10:12-13, 1 Corinthians 7:19, Galatians 3:9-29, Ephesians 2:14-18, Philippians 3:2, Colossians 3:11). John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”, Matthew 22:8 here records that in the process of inviting everyone, the good and the bad, that, of course, He even invited some people who were unworthy (TSA doc.6). Verse 10: “So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.” This is something to be thankful about on this Thanksgiving Day, right?
The story doesn’t end here though. Verses 11-14:
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
What does this mean? This is important. It means that some people who celebrated at the ecclesiastical and/or eschatological banquet, some people who celebrated at the feast with Christ will be removed. Verse 13: Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ Some people who aren’t thankful to our Lord for His offer of eternal life will be removed from the banquet not unlike those who refused to come in the first place (cf. TSA doc. 9).
This is not just some poor soul who is dragged into a building in his jeans and then tossed out because he doesn’t happen to be wearing the right clothes. This isn’t someone who loses his right to celebrate the banquet by accident. There is no reasonably conceivable way that a person could not know and would not obtain at the arrival to the wedding what was acceptable to wear to a king’s feast. They just refused to change.[8] As was often the custom, the king could probably even supply their clothes himself (cf. Genesis 45:22, Esther 6:8-9, cf. also Ezekiel 16:10-13).[9] Showing up in the wrong clothes would be an act of rebellion.[10] It would be like if you or I received an invitation to go to dinner with the Queen and we showed up in a tank top and torn pants. It would be like if we men showed up at a formal dinner for Her Majesty without a jacket and tie and a doorman offered to rent one to us or to lend a jacket and tie to us and we say, ‘forget that. If she wants me, she’s going to have to take me just the way I am’. How is that going to go over? Are we going to be allowed to stay at the dinner for the Queen? No, nor should we!
It is the same with the Lord and us. God has called all of us. Jesus died so that whosoever believes in him need not perish but can have everlasting life (John 3:16, TSA doc. 6). Jesus died so that we can all live and this is exciting and this is something we all should be thankful for and this is something we all should celebrate on this Thanksgiving Day. Jesus died so that we don’t have to perish and Jesus rose again so that we can do the same: be resurrected with Him for eternity. There are no tricks to this. It is really quite simple. God the King sent the prophets and the disciples and the missionaries all pointing to His Son, Jesus Christ. And as long as we are thankful and accept His invitation, as long as we accept His Lordship, as long as repent and we don’t reject Him, as long as we don’t rebel against Him, this great feast of everlasting life is here just waiting for us to partake of it and enjoy it with Him forever.
If there is anyone here today who has never repented and said ‘Yes Lord, I accept your invitation’, if there is anyone here today who has not been clothed with the assurance of salvation, if there is anyone here who is not currently celebrating with our Lord, I urge us not to wait another moment before we mail off our eternal RSVP, I urge us not to wait another moment before we clothe yourselves in His righteousness (cf. Luke 15:22; Romans 3:21-31, 4:22-25, 13:12-14; Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 6:11; Colossians 3:12; Revelation 3:4, 6:11, 19:8) and I urge us not to wait another moment before we sit down in thanksgiving with our Lord and Saviour both for now and forever more.
Let us pray.
[1] Cf. M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 417
[2] Cf. Benedict Thomas Viviano ‘God in the Gospel According to Matthew’ Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 64 no. 4 (October 2010): 341-354
[3] Cf. D. A. Carson The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/VI. Opposition and Eschatology: The Triumph of Grace (19:3-26:5)/A. Narrative (19:3-23:39)/8. Opening events of Passion Week (21:1-23:39)/d. Controversies in the temple court (21:23-22:46)/(4) The parable of the wedding banquet (22:1-14), Book Version: 4.0.2
[4] Cf. R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), S. 315
[5] Cf. Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1993), 251. But cf. R. T. France,: Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), S. 316
[6] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, The Ethics of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel as reflected in parables spoken en route to Jerusalem, Presented to WCBC (Fall, 2006), on-line at http://www.sheepspeak.com/NT_Michael_Ramsay.htm#Ethics of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel
[7] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today, Vancouver, BC: Credo Press, 2010. (c) The Salvation Army. Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com./ptl4covenants.htm
[8] Carter Lester, ‘Matthew 22:1-14’ Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology 62 no. 3 (July 2008): 308-310
[9] Michael J. Wilkins, ‘Matthew’ in ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway Bibles, 2002), note on Matthew 22:11, p. 1868.
[10] R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), S. 316: cf. the interestingly similar but later parable of Johanan ben Zakkai in Shabbath 153a (see Jeremias, PJ, p. 188).
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