28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A 15th October 2023
Lectionary Readings: Isaiah 25 v1-9; Psalm 23; Philippians 4 v1-9; Matthew 22 v1-14.
Actions have consequences.
Matthew’s telling of the great banquet story contains some verses that are difficult to reconcile with a God of love.
“Many are invited, but only a few are chosen”. (Matthew 22 v14).
“Some of the invited guests grabbed the king’s servants, then beat them up and killed them. This made the king so furious that he sent an army to kill the murderers and burn down their city”.
(Matthew 22 v 6b,7).
If Jesus wants us to think of the king in the story as God, why does he make the king so fearsome?
I think the key to understanding this story is contained in the a verse just before this story starts.
In Matthew 21 v45, we read, “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard these stories they knew that Jesus was talking about them”.
In the story of the great banquet, God is inviting everyone to enter the kingdom, but some ignore the invitation, others are actively hostile to God’s messengers, and some attend with the wrong attitude (wrong clothes).
Their negative response to God’s invitation has consequences, personally and for their community. It is easy for us today to read the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman army in AD70 as fulfilment of verse 7 in the story.
In contrast to this, the prophet Isaiah offers up a prayer of thanksgiving to God, who shelters the poor in times of trouble and invites all nations to feast with him. A God who will “destroy the power of death and wipe away all tears”. (Isaiah 25 v8).
God will not let the ‘bullies of this world’ win, God will triumph over all forms of evil.
Paul is encouraging the Philippians to live out their lives in the light of Jesus’ teaching.
“Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything with thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God”. “Always be glad because of the Lord”. (Philippians 4 v4).
“Then because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel”. (Philippians 4 v7).
So, our actions, both bad and good, have consequences. When it comes to deciding which course of action to take, we have a choice, it is always ours to make. God has granted us free will.
God has also issued us an open invitation to join him at the kingdom banquet.
N.B. The dress code is a heart motivated by love.
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version.