October 11, 2026
By Kristin Berkey-Abbott
Matthew 22: 1-14
The idea that the reign of God is like a banquet is probably not unfamiliar to us. You may have grown up singing about the welcome table, either as a grace before a meal or as a hymn. We partake in the Eucharist, also called Communion, also called The Lord’s Supper, every week as part of our service—this sacrament is rooted in a meal, unlike baptism, our other sacrament. This church enjoys eating literal meals together, as most churches do.
What are we to make of this parable that gives us God as a king celebrating his son’s wedding with a banquet? So far, it’s not troubling: we might nod along, recognizing that the King represents God, and the son Jesus.
But then, this parable gets dark very quickly. Unlike other parables, where potential guests offer reasons for why they can’t come—an RSVP done politely—in Matthew’s version, we get neglect. The Greek translation of their response is much closer to “They didn’t take notice of the King’s invitation.” They just didn’t care.
Later it gets even worse. The invitees kill the slaves sent to fetch the wedding guests. These last few weeks in parables have not been kind to those on the lower rungs of the social ladder—they’re ignored or beaten, and this week, they get killed. The King is enraged and sends in troops to destroy the invited guests who have behaved badly and to burn their cities. Yikes. What, exactly, is it that Jesus is trying to teach us about God?
Some Bible scholars say that today’s Gospel is perhaps trying to tell us more about earthly rule than Heavenly rule. The book of Matthew was written in a time period in history when Rome has just behaved like this king, killing people and destroying the temple. Maybe this parable represents the trauma of war, of the experience of an empire that is mightier than its subjects, and in some ways, mightier than any individual ruler.
What if we take Jesus at his word? What is Jesus trying to tell us about the reign of God? But before we go further, let me remind us that it’s a parable—it’s not an allegory with one to one correlations. It’s a parable, and parables are meant to knock us off balance and leave us with puzzles. Maybe we’ll figure out the puzzles, the contradictions. Maybe we won’t. Maybe we can’t. But parables offer us the possibility of a richer understanding because we’ve done the puzzling.
We have several other versions of this parable. The most familiar one is in the 14th chapter of Luke; there’s also one in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas, along with a similar story out of the Jewish Babylonian time period. But those texts have significant differences from Matthew’s text. Our former bishop of the SE Synod, Julian Gordy, tells us that the differences can tell us what a particular text is trying to say.
So let’s look at the differences in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. In the book of Matthew, we have a king and a wedding feast for a son; in the book of Luke, it’s a man creating a banquet for guests. These differences give us insight into what the Gospel of Matthew may be trying to say.
Saying no to an invitation from the king is significantly different than saying no to a rich man’s banquet. And it’s more than a banquet in our reading today—it’s a wedding banquet for the king’s son. This invitation is exceptional. Saying no is not just disrespectful, it’s rebellious.
The reaction of the King to the man who doesn’t have a wedding robe might seem extreme—but maybe not. We’ve seen the king in action before. It’s not wise to wear casual clothes around this kind of King who kills people and burns cities in retaliation for individual behavior. Again, maybe Matthew is telling us about earthly empires.
But what if this parable really is trying to teach us about the community of God? It’s not an easy parable like the version in the Gospel of Luke. The easy part of the parable explores inclusion. Both parables are telling us something about the community of God being open to the people who have never experienced it before. In the words of a more ancient time, both parables seem to teach us that God continues to expand the covenant. But the Gospel of Matthew gives us a vision that is much less comforting. Even when we’re chosen, we might be banished.
The language at the end might tell us that we’re looking at a text that teaches us about judgment and end times, that language about weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Matthew’s Gospel does often circle back to judgment, both in the current time period and at the end. The book of Matthew often tells us not to judge each other, but reminds us that God will judge eventually.
This parable in today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew’s tells us that we are chosen, but not to sit around in our non-wedding clothes. Kingdom living should change us. Luther says, “The Law doesn’t save you, but it does command you.” This parable shows us a relation between grace and obedience. In more modern language, we are chosen and called to participate in what God is doing here. Now that we’re at the banquet, there are expectations. Our good works won’t save us, but they are required, according to some theologians, like John Calvin, and others from the non-Lutheran streams of thought. But even Luther told us that faith should move our feet (an older version of one of the ELCA’s mottos, God’s work, our hands).
Scripture reminds us that we have some power and some agency. Unlike the underdressed person in the parable, we have a voice. We can clothe ourselves with gentleness, with what is true, what is honorable, what is just, what is commendable, what is pleasing and worthy of praise, those qualities from Paul’s letter today, the one we just heard a few minutes ago--theologians from the time of Paul and onward have given similar advice.
Or we can go back to Jesus. Jesus showed us how to live as the community of God. We share what we have, knowing that it will be multiplied to be enough. We invite everyone, even though some won’t accept. We heal our societies in the ways that we know how to do, and we remember that even when it seems there is no way, we pray to the one who shows us again and again, that there is a way out of no way, a way that is different from the ways of earthly empire.
God invites us to a wedding feast—not an ordinary banquet. Let us say yes—today and every day, let us respond to the invitation with a resounding YES.
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