YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)
Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
We have now completed and reviewed again thirteen of the Lord’s parables and I for one see more in each of them today than I did before. I always saw depth in the Master’s teachings and I am ever realizing more and more depth in them. There are messages for us all and on so many different levels and we should all have a new appreciation for His frequent saying that “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” which He says eight times in the synoptic gospels and many more times with slightly different words an context. We have also discussed, in the last post, a story that is not considered a parable but which should work for us in the same way and that is to show some deeper spiritual meaning behind the actual words. Today we will take on the Parable of the Great Banquet or the Wedding Feast. This parable is found in both Matthew and Luke and, like the Parable of the Talents, it is rather unclear if these two versions are actually the same. The story line is similar but there are distinct differences; nevertheless, we will treat them together as we have been doing.
The Parable from Matthew: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying , Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard there of, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye there fore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:2-14).
The Parable from Luke: “Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in , that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper” (Luke 14:16-24).
Again, here are two versions of the same theme, with a similar story and much the same endpoint but with some stark differences in their method and in their delivery. In the last instance of two similar but different parables we took the position that they were addressed to different groups of people. In that case it was as Luke was speaking of and to average citizens and Matthew was speaking to a different audience of aspirants and followers of the Master. We were able to portray this well in our interpretation of the parables and so we can conclude that lour ideas are among those possible truths given to us by the two versions. In all of our commentary regarding parables and their working out in our lives it is always in the sensibility of what we say that we can find that we are on a right path. If our understanding is cogent and workable in life then we can consider that we did justice to the words of the Master.
Let us start by looking at some of the differences between these two versions. First, there is a difference in the nature of the event. One is a wedding banquet and the other is just a banquet; one, according to Vincent, is an afternoon affair while the supper is done in the evening****. Luke tells us that those invited that do not come “make excuse” for not attending while Matthew says that “they would not come” and that “they made light of it“. Also, in the one version there is anger and slaying and the parable contains a comparison of the king to the Kingdom of Heaven which is not included in Luke’s version. Because Matthew’s version is more complex and has more going on, we will begin with the story as found in the Gospel of Luke. The common wisdom for the interpretation of this parable is that those invited to the “great supper” by the man are the Jews to whom Christ came and who, not being interested in His mission, “make excuse” and do not come. This leads to the later invitation of those less worthy from among the Jews and of the gentiles; the man tells his servants in the end that they should even “compel them to come in“. There are some also that liken this parable, in the basic idea of the common wisdom as well as in other contexts, as being eschatological, that is as representing in some way the end times. Other ideas on this say that the those invited are the religious of the day and who have no time for God and “make excuse” because they are too busy to spend time. Because of the depth of all Jesus parables, both of these ideas do work in the scheme of things although there seems little indication of any end time lesson in either version.
The latter of these interpretations lends to our idea of what it is that the Master is trying to convey through this story. We should see those invited in the light of those who have ‘accepted’ God and who are, at least by their own standards, religious. In today’s economy we can see them as those who have ‘accepted’ Jesus and believe that they are born again, by their own standards or even the standards of the church. They are invited to enjoy the blessings of the Lord but in order to do so, they are required to come to His supper. We liken this, as we always do, to the exchange between the Christ Within and the conscious personality. The Christ Within, the Inner Man, the Soul, represents God to us and the personality consciousness represents man. This then works just as the parable except it is an individual story and not a group story with each man representing a real person and God speaking to or inviting him through his Soul. So we have an invitation to join in the joy of the Lord and this because we have heard the call and we have answered; there is interaction. The time comes when we must participate with the Master in this activity of joy which can be likened to the idea that we need to keep His word; to be striving to enter into His Kingdom. But we make excuse; we are too busy, there are other things that are more important to us at the time and so we don’t join with Him. As with much that is spiritual this is not a one time invitation, it is a continual invitation. We are then continually deciding that either we want to sacrifice some or all of our daily living in the world and spend that time with Him or that we are still too busy with our own little lives to attend to the needs of the Kingdom.
Remembering that this is a parable and in the telling there must be a complete story we next come to the idea of the Lord asking others to attend in place of His favored guests. There is little relevance here to us as individuals but the idea is valid in that the Master is going about inviting all and all those that do hear are invited. Around the world men are invited and we may see some attending the feast of the Lord who we believe are less worthy than we are. We see them by their actions and by their Light. This may well be the Master’s point for those who are invited by do not respond; that they are the ‘religious’ and ‘born again’ people who consider themselves His and who, in their self righteousness, see the others as inferior and not as worthy. Compare this to the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (In the Words of Jesus part 89) which ends with a similar ending to our current parable from Matthew and this ending is: “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). We should see that His message is ever the same; through all of the parables and all of the variations of them plus His every other saying. When we hear that call of the Soul and we heed that call and come to the Lord, we must be ready and willing to come completely; He tells us time and again that there is no halfway; that we cannot serve two masters.
We come now to the version of the Parable of the Wedding Feast as it is more aptly called from the Gospel of Matthew. Here the feast is a wedding feast for the son of a king. The king invites many and when the time of the feast arrives they are told but “they would not come“; they are told again and “they made light of it“. Now we should see here the same basic idea as before except that we have a king who we should assume has some power over those he invited as they are his citizens. Not only are those invited not wanting to go to the feast but here they do harm to the servants of the king. What can we say here of this parable that can liken it to the version from Luke? It is quite the opposite of what we discovered in the Parable of the Talents. There, in Luke’s version we see the parable directed toward the average citizen and in the Gospel of Matthew we see it directed at the aspirant or the follower. Here today we have Luke speaking to those who are deemed to be religious and should be followers and Matthew, in our interpretation, speaking to the average person who is listening. We should not erect hard fast lines around these ideas of audience but see them only as guides in understanding the differences of approach by each writer.
In Luke’s version we said that the invited guests are religious; they have heard the call and hence the invitation as from a friend. Here we can see this as the first call or the call yet unheeded and from the king, from the one who requires all to come. Men being men do not want to go, they are too busy doing what they do and when told again they make light of it as many do in regard to God and religion. We should remember again that this is a continual happening, a constant invitation from the king, our own Souls, to take notice and to hear the call of the Inner Man and the conscience is the intermediary or the servant of the story. We most all know what is right and choose that we will either do right or not. The next part of this story is the violence done by some of them that are invited; these are those who are not only too busy but are involved in the vileness of carnal life. These “took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them” which is to say that they have killed their own intermediary, their conscience. Two classes of citizen are here; those that are too wound up in the world of things and worldly duties to pay any attention to the Lord’s call and those who are truly carnal and vile and who not only pay no attention but kill the voice of the one calling. The Master tells us of the latter that they to will be destroyed and we can see in this the idea that the Soul, the Inner Man, gives up on the personality and lets it go into a downward spiral to to its own demise. Again we must remember that in the Great Scheme of Things, the Plan of God, nothing is ever truly lost and that there is always chance for redemption but in this story the message is clear in that the truly carnal and vile risk their own demise moving further and further away which makes it harder and harder to return.
The end part of this version from the Gospel of Matthew is similar to that which we discussed above in saying that the wedding feast will be filled and from over the whole Earth. They who did not attend at first, those from either story line, will look out and see that “the wedding was furnished with guests” and will know the guests by the nature of their works and will see themselves on the outside looking in. But what of the man without a wedding garment? What does this mean? Many ideas abound as to the meaning of this part ranging from the idea that the king would provide the garment to the idea that the garment is faith or even love. Whenever there is a range of interpretations there is uncertainty for sure; Vincent suggests that the man without the wedding garment came with no respect for the king or the other guests and that he knowingly entered guilty of this neglect. What should we say about this in the context of our explanation of these parables? First, remember that we have a interchange here between the Soul and the personality representing the king and the invited guest from whatever group. The other guests come to the feast because they hear the call of the Inner Man and seek to join with him in the fullness of life as it should be. But this guest does not come prepared to do this, he comes half heartedly. He is there but his mind is elsewhere and his state is apparent to the king or the Soul. He is like the guests in Luke’s version who were too busy to come even though they may consider themselves to be His people. He is discovered by the king and his fate is to be forced out of the spiritual life and back into the life of the flesh. He squandered his opportunity and now must await another. Remember again the ending “many are called, but few are chosen” for it effects us all. It is we who choose to follow the Lord.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty (1 Corinthians 1:26-27).
Here in this Quote of the Day we can see some of the dynamics that play in today’s parable. The wise and mighty and noble after the flesh may hear and heed the call but it is difficult for them, because of their stature in the world, to let it go and follow the Lord. Who is left then but the foolish and the weak? That is, the foolish and the weak according to the standards of the world.
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**** Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
