RAT RACE OR CELEBRATION

So the servants went out into the streets
and gathered all the people they could find,
the bad as well as the good,
and the wedding hall
was filled with guests.

Matthew 22:10 (read 22:1-10) - NIV

This parable is part of a confrontation between religious leaders and Jesus. Its interpretation must take into account this context. This allegory reflects tension and conflict between two value systems. The king invited some selected subjects to his son’s wedding celebration, but the specially invited guests put their private affairs in the foreground and coped out of the invitation. The king responded by bypassing the invited guests and opening the party for everyone.

Jesus was criticizing the exclusive elitism of the ruling religious establishment of his day. He approved the opening of the Kingdom to include the excluded. Because of the stark reality of exclusiveness, this subject was discussed repeatedly in all four of the Gospels. The Kingdom of God was the exact opposite of that system. For the victims of the social situation of inequality Jesus brought the Good News (Gospel) of inclusion.

The Gospel is perpetually valid, because history constantly repeats itself. Human nature dictates that in most social structures power structures prevail and create an exclusive privileged class and an excluded underprivileged one. The great irony of the history of the church is that a vast majority of its ecclesiastical authorities, who claim to represent the poor and humble Jesus, take care of themselves first and have a life style much higher than that of the average follower. We see that from the luxury of the Vatican to Protestant leadership, both traditional and charismatic. Modern Christianity has little, if any, leadership of the style of Mahatma Gandhi. Another irony in modern times is that the political leader who most imitated Jesus was Hindu. Religious leaderships as well as secular and profane are lacking the Gospel standards of being servants rather than masters. They are still taking care of their own particular interests and ignoring the invitation to the "Son’s wedding celebration”.

As followers of Jesus we are challenged to identify with the excluded in our social structures. The power holders are in that position because they have put their own interests above that of the collective good and are very busy continuing to do so.

In light of these considerations we are servants of the Kingdom (wedding celebration) and are to include both the bad and the good in the celebration. We have trouble with the inclusion of the “bad”, but in the text the bad are put before the good. The bad are as needy as the good and the invitation to the wedding celebration of the parable is open to all.

The evil of those who ignored the first invitation was selfish busyness. Life is to be a celebration, not a rat race. Both the bad and the good people who left the rat race and went to the celebration were better off than all those good folk who had something “better” to do. The good news of the Kingdom is that we, both bad and good, are invited to celebrate what life has provided.

MATTHEW 22:1-10 – NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (NIV)

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.