Read between the lines. Look beyond what is said to the underlying feelings. Therapists do that. Once in a while--perhaps--husbands and parents do too. Friday's readings are filled with more denouncing and judgment of sin. But I think we can look beneath the surface to the mercy and grace which calls the sinners to repentance (Amos), or the concern that believers not be led astray (Jude), or to the king's openness to all and his desire to share his joy with a banquet-room full of guests.

Amos 5:1-17

5:1 Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

2 Fallen, no more to rise,

is maiden Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with no one to raise her up.

3 For thus says the Lord God:

The city that marched out a thousand

shall have a hundred left,

and that which marched out a hundred

shall have ten left.

4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

Seek me and live;

5 but do not seek Bethel,

and do not enter into Gilgal

or cross over to Beer-sheba;

for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,

and Bethel shall come to nothing.

6 Seek the Lord and live,

or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire,

and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.

7 Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood,

and bring righteousness to the ground!

8 The one who made the Pleiades and Orion,

and turns deep darkness into the morning,

and darkens the day into night,

who calls for the waters of the sea,

and pours them out on the surface of the earth,

the Lord is his name,

9 who makes destruction flash out against the strong,

so that destruction comes upon the fortress.

10 They hate the one who reproves in the gate,

and they abhor the one who speaks the truth.

11 Therefore because you trample on the poor

and take from them levies of grain,

you have built houses of hewn stone,

but you shall not live in them;

you have planted pleasant vineyards,

but you shall not drink their wine.

12 For I know how many are your transgressions,

and how great are your sins—

you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,

and push aside the needy in the gate.

13 Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time;

for it is an evil time.

14 Seek good and not evil,

that you may live;

and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,

just as you have said.

15 Hate evil and love good,

and establish justice in the gate;

it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,

will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

16 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord:

In all the squares there shall be wailing;

and in all the streets they shall say, "Alas! alas!"

They shall call the farmers to mourning,

and those skilled in lamentation, to wailing;

17 in all the vineyards there shall be wailing,

for I will pass through the midst of you,

says the Lord. (Amos 5:1-17, NRSV)

The following comments are repeated here with editing and supplement from December 2, 2005 (Friday in the week of the First Sunday of Advent, Year Two):

Amos alternates from judgment to calls to repentance. Judgments include the ironic “funeral song” for “maiden Israel”: “Fallen, no more to rise, / is maiden Israel; / forsaken on her land, / with no one to raise her up. / For thus says the Lord God: / The city that marched out a thousand / shall have a hundred left, / and that which marched out a hundred / shall have ten left” (Amos 5:2-3); the bitterness of injustice: “Ah, you that turn justice to wormwood, / and bring righteousness to the ground!” (v. 7); and being deprived of unjust acquisitions: “Therefore because you trample on the poor / and take from them levies of grain, / you have built houses of hewn stone, / but you shall not live in them; / you have planted pleasant vineyards, / but you shall not drink their wine” (v. 11). But the call to repentance is interspersed. “For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: / Seek me and live” (v. 4). The people are to seek the LORD, and not Bethel, Gilgal or Beer-sheba–that is, they are not to worship in those centers. Amos says, “but do not seek Bethel, / and do not enter into Gilgal / or cross over to Beer-sheba; / for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, / and Bethel shall come to nothing” (v. 5; cf. the ironic call to worship, 4:4).

“Seek the LORD and live,” says Amos, “or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire, / and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it” (5:6). And again, the call to repentance is sounded. “Seek good and not evil, / that you may live; / and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, / just as you have said” (v. 14).

Among these interspersed judgments and calls to repentance the “second doxology” appears (Gregory Mobley, on Amos 5:8-9). “The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, / and turns deep darkness into the morning, / and darkens the day into night, / who calls for the waters of the sea, / and pours them out on the surface of the earth, / the Lord is his name, / who makes destruction flash out against the strong, / so that destruction comes upon the fortress” (vv. 8-9). Eugene M. Tucker, revised by J. Andrew Dearman, explains: “The Lord made the constellations (Pleiades and Orion), causes day and night, and brings rain from the sea” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Amos 5:9). However, they add, “the one who controls natural forces also acts in history to destroy” (on v. 9).

Amos elaborates on the reasons for God’s judgment. “They reject justice, that is, “They hate the one who reproves in the gate, / and they abhor the one who speaks the truth” (v. 10). “Therefore,” says Amos, speaking for the LORD, “because you trample on the poor / and take from them levies of grain, / you have built houses of hewn stone, / but you shall not live in them; / you have planted pleasant vineyards, / but you shall not drink their wine” (v. 11). The LORD knows the transgressions of these people: “For I know how many are your transgressions, / and how great are your sins–you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, / and push aside the needy in the gate” (v. 12). It is a time for “the prudent [to] keep silent”; it is “an evil time” (v. 13). According to Mobley, “At the very site of legal proceedings, the city gate, the truth is rejected, the poor are plundered, and witnesses are bribed” (on vv. 10-13).

In addition to the calls to repentance noted earlier (vv. 4, 6, 14), there is a specific call for justice. “Hate evil and love good, / and establish justice in the gate; / it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, / will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph” (v. 15). Though the possibility of repentance and living with God’s grace is presented (vv. 14-15), the emphasis is upon judgment, lamentation and mourning. “Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: / In all the squares there shall be wailing; / and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! alas!’ / They shall call the farmers to mourning, / and those skilled in lamentation, to wailing; / in all the vineyards there shall be wailing, / for I will pass through the midst of you, / says the Lord” (vv. 16-17). Even so, we should not overlook the hopeful signs, for, as noted above, God says, “Seek me and live” (v. 4), “Seek the LORD and Live” (v. 6), “Seek good and not evil...Hate evil and love good,/and establish justice in the gate [i.e. court of justice];/it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts,/will be gracious to the remnant of Israel” (vv. 14-15).

Jude 1-16

1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, who are beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ:

2 May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.

Reason for Writing the Letter

3 Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4 For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Denouncing False Teachers

5 Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, that the Lord, who once for all saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day. 7 Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

8 Yet in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael contended with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a condemnation of slander against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct. 11 Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam's error for the sake of gain, and perish in Korah's rebellion. 12 These are blemishes on your love-feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.

14 It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “See, the Lord is coming with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all, and to convict everyone of all the deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage. (Jude 1-16, NRSV)

The following comments are repeated here with editing and supplement from December 2, 2005 (Friday in the week of the First Sunday of Advent, Year Two):

The Epistle readings for today and tomorrow present the New Testament Epistle we know as Jude (“Gk Judas [Ioudas],” Jude 1, NRSV note a). The author identifies himself as “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James” (Jude 1a), which most likely refers to the brother of Jesus (Mk. 6:3; Mt. 13:55; Gal. 1:19). While some question this claim (e.g., J. D. N. Kelly, The Epistles of Peter and of Jude, Black’s New Testament Commentaries, 1969, pp. 231-234), others see little reason to doubt it (cf. William Barclay, The Letters of John and Jude, The Daily Study Bible Series, rev. ed., 1976, p. 173). Paul J. Achtemeier, Joel B. Green, and Marianne Meye Thompson agree with Barclay: “The nature of Jude’s polemic, together with his use of the Hebrew version of the Scriptures, suggests this letter’s provenance in a Palestinian Christianity at home with apocalyptic forms of interpretation. There is no reason, then, not to credit Judas, the brother of Jesus (and thus of James ‘the Just’), with this letter” (Introducing the New Testament; Its Literature and Theology, 2001, p. 533).

 The greeting is a kind of benediction, “May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance” (v. 2), that varies somewhat from the greeting of most other New Testament Letters; compare “Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Tim. 1:2b; 2 Tim. 1:2b). The letter is addressed “to those who are called, who are beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ” (Jude 1b). Although Patrick A. Tiller considers this a rather vague definition of the readers, he says “the emergency identified as its occasion (vv. 3-4) and the concrete descriptions of the opponents indicate that it was a real letter to particular recipients.” He says that

the date of composition is uncertain, except that it must be earlier than 2 Peter which uses Jude. The reference to ‘the words spoken by the apostles’ (v. 17) may indicate a period in the church when the apostles could be spoken of as a unified group from the past. If so, this may point to a date late in the first century CE. Others have dated Jude as early as the 50s.” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., in the Introduction to Jude)

Jude states his purpose in writing: “Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith (pistis) that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (v. 3). One notes that the term “faith” (pistis), which in the earlier letters of Paul, for example, often refers to a “state of believing on the basis of the reliability of the one trusted, trust, confidence, faith,” as for example to faith in Christ (e.g. Rom. 3:22, 26; Gal. 2:16, 20, etc.), here means “that which is believed, body of faith/belief/teaching,” a meaning found in Paul’s early letters (e.g. Rom. 1:5; Gal. 1:23), but more commonly in later letters (e.g. 1 Tim. 1:19; 4:1, 6; 6:10; 2 Tim. 2:18) (Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich [BDAG], A Greek-English Lexicon, 3^rd ed., 2000, s.v. pistis, meanings 2 and 3).

According to Jude, this “body of teaching” is under attack. “For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (v. 4). Jude presents three examples from the Old Testament of judgment on the wicked by God, “three dreadful examples,” according to Barclay (op. cit., pp. 181-186, on Jude 5-7). He reminds the readers “that the Lord, who once for all saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (v. 5). According to Bauckham, “A whole generation of faithless Israelites died in the wilderness (Num. 14:1-35; 26:64-65)” (Ibid., on v. 5). Jude presents two other examples, the fate of fallen angels, “And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day” (v. 6); and the fate of those living in Sodom and Gomorrah, “Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire” (v. 7). According to Tiller, “angels (v. 6; see Gen. 6:1-4; 1 Enoch 6-16) were judged when they went astray, and Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19) were destroyed by fire for their sexual immorality” (op. cit., on vv. 5-8).

As Jude turns to denouncing the present “intruders” (v. 4), he emphasizes the contrast with mentoi (“yet,” NRSV), which might be translated in an adversative sense, “though, to be sure, indeed” (Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker [BAGD], A Greek-English Lexicon, 2^nd ed., 1979, s.v. mentoi). “Yet in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones” (v. 8). Kelly, who translates mentoi as “Nothwithstanding,” suggests a paraphrase, “in spite of the dreadful fate of the three groups just mentioned” (op. cit., on Jude 8). The indictment continues, “in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones” (v. 8). “These dreamers will suffer a similar fate for their misdeeds. The intruders apparently claim to experience revelatory dreams. The authority that they despise may be either God’s authority or angelic authorities. The glorious ones [‘or angels; Gk glories,’ NRSV note d] are probably angelic dignitaries” (Tiller, on v. 8).

The present “intruders” (v. 4) are denounced for atrocities similar to the biblical examples just cited. “Yet in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority , and slander the glorious ones” (v. 8). According to Barclay, “Deuteronomy 13:1-5 sets down what is to be done with ‘the prophet or dreamer of dreams’ who corrupts the nations and seduces the people from their loyalty to God. Such a prophet is to be mercilessly killed. These men whom Jude attacks are false prophets, dreamers of false dreams, seducers of the people, and must be treated as such” (op. cit., on vv. 8, 9). Barclay adds that their false teaching “made them defile the flesh” and despise angels. He says,

This follows immediately after the citing of Sodom and Gomorrah as dreadful examples; and part of the sin of Sodom was the desire of its people to misuse its angelic visitors (Genesis 19:1-11). The men Jude attacks spoke evil of the angels. To prove how terrible a thing that was Jude cites an instance from an apocryphal book, The Assumption of Moses. . . . [After reporting the death of Moses, Deut. 34:1-6], The Assumption of Moses goes on to add the further story that the task of burying the body of Moses was given to the archangel Michael. The devil disputed with Michael for possession of the body. . . . The point Jude is making is this. Michael was engaged on a task given him by God; the devil was seeking to stop him and was making claims he had no right to make. But even in a collection of circumstances like that Michael spoke no evil if the devil but simply said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’ If the greatest of the good angels, even in circumstances like that, surely no human being may speak evil of any angel. (Ibid., pp. 187-188, on vv. 8-9)

“But these people,” says Jude, “slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct” (v. 10). Jude pronounces their “woe”: “Woe to them!” he says, “For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain, and perish in Korah’s rebellion” (v. 11). We think of Cain as the one who killed his brother, but, says Kelly, “In contemporary Judaism, however he was ‘a child of the Evil One’ (1 Jn. iii.12) and personified a much wider spectrum of iniquity. For Philo (De post. Cain 38 f.; Migr. Abr. 75; Quod det. pot. ins. sol. 32; 48; 78) he is the great lover of self, the rebel against God who relies on his own resources, the instructor and leader of men who give themselves over to godlessness and sensuality and are doomed to eternal corruption” (on v. 11). They are compared to “Balaam who prophesied for gain: Num. 22; Rev. 2:14 . . . [and to] Korah who rebelled: Num. 16. Similarly, the opponents lead others to their doom by leading them astray for gain and rebelling against the (apostolic) leadership of the church” (Tiller, on vv. 11-13).

At this point, Jude’s disparagement of the false teachers turns from Old Testament examples to various metaphors. “These are blemishes on your love-feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted” (v. 12). “They are members of the group, participating in their love feasts . . . Jude calls them intruders (v. 4) because their membership is illegitimate” (Tiller, on v. 12). They are called “wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever” (v. 13). Waterless clouds, trees without fruit in season, wild waves, and wandering stars illustrate uselessness, or worse, promising benefits that they can’t deliver. According to Bauckham, “Wandering stars [i.e., planets] mislead those who are guided by them” (on v. 13). Tiller says, “in the pseudepigraphical books of Enoch, wandering stars (planets) were understood to be disobedient angels. For Jude the phrase serves as a metaphor for the activity of the opponents” (on v. 13).

Jude follows this allusion to the Book of 1 Enoch with a quotation: “It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘See, the Lord is coming with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all, and to convict everyone of all the deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him’ “ (vv. 14-15). The quotation is from 1 Enoch 1:9 (from The Wesley Center Online, http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/ot/pseudo/enoch.htm, accessed December 6, 2007):

And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones

To execute judgement upon all,

And to destroy all the ungodly:

And to convict all flesh

Of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed,

And of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.

“1 Enoch is a collection of apocalyptic writings,” says Tiller, “dating from the third century BCE to the first century CE attributed to Enoch (Gen. 5:21-24. Jude has a high regard for the authority of these writings, but it would be anachronistic to suppose that he considered them canonical” (on vv. 14-16). Referring again to his opponents, Jude says, “These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage” (v. 16).

Matthew 22:1-14 (cf. Lk. 14:15-24)

Parable of the Wedding Feast

22:1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.' 5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14 For many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:1-14, NRSV)

On July 8, 2007 (the Sunday closest to July 6, Year Two, comments were based on earlier comments that had been combined with revision on July 6, 2006 (Thursday in the week of the Sunday closest to June 29, Year Two), from an E-mail sent December 4, 2003, for December 5, 2003.), from July 1, 2004 in an email sent June 28, 2004, for June 28-July 4, and from December 2, 2005 (Friday in the week of the First Sunday of Advent, Year Two). Similar comments on Matthew’s version of this parable were used on July 3, 2005,(the Sunday closest to July 6, Year One), and on July 6, 2006 (Thursday in the week of the Sunday closest to June 29, Year Two. The comments of July 8, 2007, are repeated here. For recent comments on Luke’s version of this parable, see the Archive for November 11, 2007 (the Sunday closest to November 9, Year One):

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Mt. 22:1-14) is similar to the Parable of the Great Dinner (Lk. 14:15-24) as the following table demonstrates:

Matthew includes this parable in his account of Jesus’ final ministry in Jerusalem between the Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Mt. 21:33-46; Mk. 12:1-12; Lk. 20:9-19) and the account of the Question about Paying Taxes posed by the Pharisees and Jesus’ response. Luke includes it as a part of Jesus’ teaching in the extensive Travel Narrative (Lk. 9:51-18:14), between a section on Humility and Hospitality (Lk. 14:7-14; cf. Jn. 5:29) and a section on the Cost of Discipleship (Lk. 14:25-33; cf. Mt. 10:37-38). In Luke the setting is a meal in “the house of a leader of the Pharisees” (Lk. 14:1), and thus it is implied that those who refuse the invitation to the dinner (vv. 18-21) are people like the Pharisees who reject Jesus’ message. But the setting in Matthew, following the questioning of his authority by the chief priests and elders (Mt. 21:23-27), the Parables of the Two Sons (vv. 28-32) and of the Wicked Tenants (vv. 33-44), preceding a further series of hostile questions, about Paying Taxes (22:15-22), the Resurrection (vv. 23-33), and the Greatest commandment (vv. 34-40), is clearly directed against the Jewish leaders. The parable is introduced, as it were, by the closing paragraph of the preceding chapter. “When; the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet” (Mt. 21:45-46).

This parable has two parts. The first (Mt. 22:1-10) emphasizes the king’s desire to have guests for his son’s wedding, which we may take to represent God’s desire that people recognize his Son Jesus and come into the Kingdom of God. He has gone to great lengths to prepare for the banquet. He sends his slaves to invite the guests (Mt. 22:2-3). But “they would not come” (v. 3). When the invitation is repeated through other slaves (v. 4), “they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another for business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them” (vv. 5-6). The king is profoundly disappointed when people, for one reason (excuse) or another (v. 5), fail to respond to his invitation. The behavior of “the rest” reminds us of the tenants in the Parable of the Vineyard (Mt. 21:35-36). At this point in the story, the king, “enraged, . . . sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city” (22:7), which apparently anticipates or symbolizes the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army in A.D. 70.

The reference to “the rest” who “seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them” (v. 6) refers to the Jewish leaders who turned against him and to the killing of the prophets (cf. Mt. 5:12). The parable comes after the Parable of the Wicked Tenants (as noted above) and illustrates Matthew 21:43, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.” It may be surprising that the troops are called God’s troops in the parable, God being represented by the king. in the parable. But though Nero, the emperor at the time, would surely not have agreed, in or about A.D. 57 Paul said “those authorities that exist [including Nero] have been instituted by God [i.e. the Judeo-Christian God of the Bible, not the gods of Rome]” (Rom. 13:1). In the end, “street people” were gathered for the feast (Mt. 22:10), but the one without the “wedding robe” was expelled (vv. 11-14).

In the second part (Mt. 22:11-14) emphasizes the need for a proper “wedding robe,” which we may take to represent preparedness for entering the kingdom. While the invitation is extended to outsiders and marginal people, “everyone you find” in “the main streets” (v. 9), it turns out that something is necessary. In another context in Matthew, Jesus says, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:20). Matthew 5:20 should be balanced, perhaps, by another saying from Matthew:

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Mt. 11:28-30, NRSV)

Krister Stendahl sees this “royal wedding feast” as “more eschatological [than] the story” in Luke 14:16-24, where “a man gives a dinner” (Peake’s Commentary on the Bible, sec. 690 l, p. 791, on Mt. 22:1-14). But Luke prefaces the story with reference to the “messianic banquet” (Lk. 14:15), as Stendahl also notes. “The wedding garment symbolizes the ethical quality expected in the church (cf. Rev. 19:8) . . . The rational problem of how they could have such garments, being ushered in from the highways and by-ways, is irrelevant to Mt.” (Ibid.). According to Dennis C. Duling, HarperCollins Study Bible, on Mt. 23:11), “A wedding robe would not be expected of someone summoned off the streets . . . it probably symbolizes a new way of life (see Rom. 13:14; Gal 3:27-28; Col. 3:11-12). “The final words of the parable [v. 14] serve as a warning against self-righteous arrogance among God's new people” (Duling on v. 14). Taking the wedding robe as symbolizing “a new purity and a new holiness and a new goodness,” William Barclay says, “This parable has nothing to do with the clothes in which we go to church; it has everything to do with the spirit in which we go to God’s house” (The Gospel of Matthew, The Daily Study Bible, rev. ed., vol. 2, p. 270 on Mt. 22:11-14). Barclay lists “garments of the mind and of the heart and of the soul–the garment of expectation, the garment of humble penitence, the garment of faith, the garment of reverence” (Ibid., pp. 270-271).

Too often [he says], we go to God’s house with no preparation at all; if every man and woman in our congregations came to church prepared to worship, after a little prayer, a little thought, and a little self-examination, then worship would be worship indeed–the worship in which and through which things happen in men’s souls and in the life of the Church and in the affairs of the world. (Ibid., p. 271)

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net