Matthew 22: Worship Is a Feast the King Invites You To

Introduction

That Sunday, the worship service at the Baptist Church of Naples (via Foria) is shorter than usual: the congregation must afterwards gather in an extraordinary session to elect the community's new elders. Pastor I. Benedetti therefore goes straight to the sermon, on the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22:1-14.

He begins with a confession: every time he reads this parable, he feels for those who do not go to the meal. He does not like wedding meals. "Weddings are fine, but the wedding meal does not appeal to me." He also understands the king's reaction: he invites important people to his son's wedding and sees that in the end nobody comes.

From there, the pastor asks a question that touches every believer: how do you respond to God's invitation? And when you come to worship, do you come as to a feast?

Outline of the message

1. Guests who do not respect the king

The king prepares his son's wedding and sends his servants: "Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My cattle and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the marriage feast" (Matthew 22:4). But the guests go away, "one to his own farm, another to his merchandise," and others mistreat and kill the servants.
The reason for their refusal is not simply a lack of taste for parties. At bottom, they do not respect the king or the invitation he sent them. They do not feel obliged to take part.
"They know they are the guests by right, but they do not want to become the king's table companions."
They see this worldly event, a political one for kings, as optional: "If I feel like going, I go; if I do not feel like it, I do not. It depends on my will, not on the invitation."

2. A parable addressed to the professionals

Jesus tells this parable to the chief priests and the elders of the people, to those who know about religious matters. The pastor calls them "the professionals."
Shortly before, Jesus had told them: "The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into the Kingdom of God before you" (Matthew 21:31). Why? Because these people had believed John the Baptist's preaching, whereas the leaders of the people had not believed it.
The parable of the wedding feast carries the same message: in the end, in the kingdom, there will be precisely those who were not supposed to be there.
The king sends his servants out onto the roads to bring in everyone they find, "both bad and good" (Matthew 22:10). Jesus makes this clear. These people were not on the guest list and had no title to be there. Yet they find themselves at the table, guests of the king and of his son.
First lesson: "Entering the kingdom is not a matter of acquired right, but of availability." It is not about preparing in order to enter, but about being quick to answer the invitation received: when you receive the invitation, you go.

3. The professionals today are us

This parable should not be understood as if it were aimed at others. As the saying goes: "When the pastor preaches, he always preaches to those who are present, not to those who are absent."
Today's professionals are those who have believed in Jesus and who, in a certain way, are on the guest list for the kingdom. Those who know the Scriptures, the hymns that everyone can sing together, the order of the service.
We are the ones who risk treating this invitation as a given, to accept or to push away depending on the day: "If I feel like it, I come; otherwise, I do not."
The parable is not meant to judge. Jesus' intention is not to judge, but to awaken those who are to enter the kingdom.

4. Sunday worship, a foretaste of the kingdom

Sunday worship has an eschatological dimension: it concerns the final things, the kingdom of God. During worship, we live in small scale something of what we will live in the kingdom.
Taking part in worship is therefore accepting an invitation, because worship is an anticipation of it, a pledge. Not taking part is not answering the invitation made to you. And yet we sometimes think that participation is optional.
The king does not want the hall to stay empty. The feast must take place, even if the invited guests did not come, and it will take place with those who did not deserve to be there. "Jesus wants the hall full."
Good or bad, it does not matter: "It is not a moral problem. It is a question of wanting to be at this feast."
You go to a feast to rejoice, to feel good, because you are among friends and you are a friend of the host. But if you do not like the decorations, the music, the other guests, the way they dress, if you find the party goes on too long, if you are forced to dance or clap your hands, the feast becomes torture and you no longer want to go.
"Taking part in worship depends a great deal on the attitude with which we take part. If you have reservations, sooner or later they will keep you from being present."

5. The wedding clothes, the quality of your presence

The parable ends on one particular fact: a guest does not have wedding clothes. "Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?" (Matthew 22:12).
He is not sent away because he is poor. That cannot be the reason, since all the others were also taken from the street. He is sent away because he came as if it were not a feast.
At a feast, there is a "dress code," as we say today: a way of dressing suited to the event. This man's attitude already begins at home, when he does not dress to go to a feast.
The clothes are not an entrance ticket. Nobody says you have to dress well to come to worship. "Dressing well is the quality of the answer you give to the invitation you received. It is the quality of your presence."

6. Faith always tends toward joy

If Sunday worship is the image of the kingdom of God, it must also have its characteristic: the feast. It is no accident that Jesus almost always describes the kingdom as a great banquet, a joyful event.
The pastor describes himself: he is not a great revolutionary of the liturgy. He likes the old hymns, those of the old black hymnal in use when he entered the church. He likes inner spirituality, small gatherings, lit candles, quiet prayer. His ideal building is the Romanesque church, very simple, where there is nothing.
Despite his tastes, he affirms it: Sunday worship has an aspect of celebration that cannot be taken away from it. At a feast, you meet your friends, but you do not stay only with them: you try to get to know other people, to make new friends.
"Faith always has to do with joy. Faith and joy are practically the same thing. Faith always tends toward joy, just as worship always tends toward the feast."
The king has already invited us. Our place at the table is already there. The meal is ready, everything is set. "We can leave our reluctance at home, take our good shoes and our good clothes out of the wardrobe, and come to worship happy, as when we go to a feast where we meet the people we love."

Key takeaways

The guests in the parable do not come because they do not respect the king: their presence depends on their wish, not on the invitation.
Entering the kingdom is not an acquired right, it is a readiness to respond when the invitation arrives.
Believers who know the Bible, the hymns and the order of service are the first exposed to the risk of treating the invitation as a given.
Sunday worship is a foretaste of the kingdom: coming to it is answering the king's invitation.
The wedding clothes represent the quality of your answer and of your presence, because faith always tends toward joy.

Personal application

Does your presence at worship depend on God's invitation or on your wish of the moment?
What reservations (the music, the length, the others, the way things are done) risk, sooner or later, keeping you from being present?
Do you sometimes consider yourself a "guest by right," to the point of treating God's invitation as a given?
Concretely, how can you prepare your heart from home to come to worship as to a feast?
Whom could you seek to get to know at the next service, beyond your usual friends?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why do the invited guests refuse to come to the wedding feast in Matthew 22?

According to I. Benedetti, they do not come because they do not respect the king or his invitation. They know they are invited by right, but they treat their presence as optional: if they feel like it, they go; if not, they do not. Everything depends on their will, not on the invitation.

What do the wedding clothes represent according to I. Benedetti?

The man without wedding clothes is not sent away because he is poor: all the guests were found in the street. He is sent away because he came as if it were not a feast. The clothes are not an entrance ticket. They represent the quality of the answer you give to the invitation, the quality of your presence.

Why should Sunday worship feel like a feast?

Jesus almost always describes the kingdom of God as a great banquet. Sunday worship is a foretaste of it. For the preacher, faith always tends toward joy, just as worship always tends toward celebration. It is an aspect that cannot be taken out of worship, whatever our tastes.