“Moral Yes” to God, Our Uniform to Heaven
Isaiah 25:6-10a; Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20; Matthew 22:1-14
On reading today’s gospel, my mind remains glued to how one individual could sneak into the wedding banquet of God without a garment! Does it mean that God’s security is porous and can be beaten? Yet, this fellow was fished out and thrown into hell or outer darkness among those to weep and gnash their teeth. What is happening here?
Two realizations will help our comprehension, 1) that Jesus continues to address the chief priests and Pharisees (again) in another parable (Matt 22:1), and 2) that the chief priests and Pharisees needed another parable because the chief priests and Pharisees were unrepentant at the end of the last one, which we read last Sunday, “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet” (Matt 21:45-46).
The opening sentence of today’s gospel situates our parable in Jesus’ quest to establish the “kingdom of God”. Our gospel starts out with these words, “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son” (Matt 22:1), implying the roles of God and his Son in the manifestation of God’s kingdom.
Curiously, the Pharisees and the chief priests realized that Jesus was talking about them (Matt 22:45), yet they were plotting to kill him (Matt 21:46; 22:15), instead of accepting the offer of repentance available to them. Imagine how evil can eat deep into a soul that whatever is right becomes nauseating is very evident here. But Jesus offers a new parable to help dissuade the chief priests and Pharisees from losing out on heaven and to keep the hope of conversion alive in them. It is within this ambient, the spiritual stubbornness and intransigence of the Pharisees and sinners, that the need for today’s parable makes itself evident: for stubborn souls and sinners, there is only one way, perseverance in hope and finding new strategies to win them over to God.
In order that the meaning of our gospel reading may become self-evident, we need to divide up our gospel reading into two segments, as Matthew himself suggests. We have, 1) a wedding to which the guests refused to turn up (Matt 22:2-7) and 2) a wedding feast to which everybody is an invited guest (Matt 22:8-14). One fact is suggestive, from our parable, there used to be an exclusive list of those invited to the feast of God, in the Jewish mind, but with Jesus that now changes, the feast is thrown open to all and sundry – a clear sign of a movement from exclusivism to universalism!
In the first segment of our parable (Matt 22:2-7), Jesus offers the status quo ante of Israel vis-à-vis God; the Jewish people, symbolized by the class of the Pharisees and priests, had exclusive right to God and the prerogative of salvation. They never considered whatever they did as militating against that exclusive right to salvation. But like last Sunday, Matthew introduces an element of history to today’s gospel when he says, “The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city” (Matt 22:7). In other words, the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem was a punishment for the sins of Judah and Israel, and for the killing of the prophets sent to them; by implication, there are always repercussions to sins and sinful activities, in the past, present and future.
The second segment of our parable (Matt 22:8-14) inaugurates a new dispensation, a universalist agenda of God towards humanity. The need for a new dispensation, according to our parable, is the “unworthiness” of the people of the past – “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not WORTHY” (Matt 22:8). The wedding feast is now for everybody, and there is only one requirement – the ability to say “yes” to God’s invitation, although the authenticity of each person’s “yes” is subject to verification by God himself, who knows the mind and heart of everyone – “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless” (Matt 22:11-12).
There are two bases to our analysis, 1) in the first segment of our gospel, the “invited guests” were called “tous keklēmenous” (Matt 22:3), which literally means “among those CALLED/INVITED,” the people of Israel, the call of Abraham (Gen 12). In the second segment of our gospel, the “invited guests” are called “tous anakeimenous” (Matt 22:11), which literally means “among those at table.” This difference in nomenclature shows the movement from the old referees (Jews) to the new (everybody). The condemnation of the person without a wedding garment was not based on a physical garment, but on moral rectitude. The Greek verb “theaomai” means “moral and spiritual perception.” Hence, when Matthew writes that “But when the king came in to look (theasasthai) at those at table, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment” (Matt 22:11), it simply means that what qualifies one to the wedding feast is one’s moral rectitude, one’s ability to say “yes” and mean “yes,” and not just being Jewish. At this juncture, the meaning of Jesus’ statement, at the end of today’s gospel, makes sense: “For many are called, but few are chosen” – we are invited to the kingdom of heaven, but our moral “yes” will determine our election or “chosenness”. In other words, it is not on the basis of one’s ancestry and genealogy that one makes and merits heaven, but as Paul says, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).
Furthermore, the wedding garment in question, which the man lacked, is provided by God himself, it is the symbol of salvation. Isaiah prophesies that “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the GARMENTS OF SALVATION, he has covered me with the ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Matt 61:10). In addition to what Isaiah prophesies, Paul tells us what constitutes this garment: “Therefore take up the WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on THE BELT OF TRUTH, and having put on the BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and, as SHOES FOR YOUR FEET, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the HELMET OF SALVATION, and the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, which is the WORD OF GOD, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:13-18).
The lessons not to be missed today are, on the one hand, God’s move from particularity (Israel alone) to universality (Israel and the nations), and on the other hand, the two approaches to salvation. The old approach was legalistic and based on human efforts, the new is grace based, salvation is a free gift of God to be freely received. The Pharisees and the chief priests claimed to know it all, and were not ready to listen even to Jesus’ offer of salvation. In other words, knowledge without faith can become a hinderance to salvation. What faith does is to accept the gift of salvation and to trust in the help of God every step of the way. That is to say, when one trusts in God and receives salvation from God, it doesn’t matter how much of a sinner one is, the grace and courage to keep on struggling for salvation will be provided by God. The perfectionist attitude of the Jewish leadership, without making room for a sinner to hope for salvation, is what Jesus is against.
As a matter of fact, God’s plan for human salvation goes beyond human imagination and circumspection. The human straight-jacket approach to salvation cuts many souls off God’s canopy of salvation. The opposite of that is clearly shown in the following statement of our gospel, “The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests”. If God has spread out to the maximum his net of salvation, no one has the right to limit its scope, not even the leadership of the Jewish people, not the Church of today. By implication, everybody is invited to work for the salvation of all, putting oneself in God’s logic of salvation, and not work against God.
Paul’s statement, in our second reading today, is instructive, as regards the right comprehension of salvation, when he writes: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me”. What counts in salvation is, first and foremost, God’s grace working in us sinners towards salvation. The prayer of Paul, at the end of our second reading today, comes in handy: “My God will fully supply whatever you need, in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus”. Paul invites us to see in our efforts for salvation, God’s grace at work in us, not our power and the fact that we are holier or better than others, whom we call sinners.
Finally, our first reading, too, corroborates our interpretation of salvation when it says: “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!” Salvation comes from God and not from human beings; it also means that none of us has come too late for salvation, since it is a free gift of God to humanity. The question is whether we will avail ourselves of the gift of God and stop worrying either about our unworthiness or our perfection and embrace God’s logic of salvation. You know what is more, it does not need to make sense. It suffices that it makes sense to God and Jesus, just trust their judgment and walk up to claim your salvation. All God asks of you and me is to put on our wedding garment so that God can recognize us as his own when he comes to inspect the guests at his wedding banquet!
Assignment for the Week:
This week, set aside some time every day to pray for your own salvation and do not spend time judging others’ faults.