We know the setting: a great banquet is prepared, but those who were invited would not come. In the version prepared by St. Luke, who never met Jesus, a certain man invited the wealthy — real estate speculators, ranchers, and men of leisure. — who are then supplanted specifically by the poor:
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"Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here
the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind. (Lu 14:21) |
This is the narrative that captured the Greek physician as he heard others tell Jesus' parable: "the rich He has sent away empty" but "the hungry He will fill with good things" (Lu 1:53). "Blessed are the poor," St. Luke writes, "for their is the Kingdom of Heaven" (Lu 6:20).
By contrast is St. Matthew, one of the Twelve, descended from the priestly tribe of Levi. What stood out for him as he heard Jesus tell this parable directly is the Wedding Banquet and King's Son." The poor, Matthew does not even mention:
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[The king] said to his servants, "The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were
not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding." So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. (Mt 22:8-10) |
The wedding hall was filled. And this is the point for St. Matthew: the servants brought in all who could be found. A feast originally intended for the few has now been opened to all humanity. We must be impressed, therefore, with the nature and quality of this king's palace, whose banquet hall could accommodate so vast a gathering: humankind.
In St. Matthew's telling, the story is grounded in the cultus of Judaism: the founder of the feast is not "a certain man" (as it is in Luke's Gospel), but rather a king. The banquet is not simply a party — a meal followed by a symposium (the Hellenic term for drinking and reveling), but rather a wedding celebration. And the occasion is not mere festivity, but the marriage of his son.
As a publican, Levi-called-Matthew would have been one of the elite, a member of the Equestrian class just below the Senatorial class. Publicans were entrusted with overseeing great public works projects. He would have been honored in general society.
Remember, Alexander the Great had taken over Jerusalem in 332 B.C. Jerusalem had been occupied by his troops and then those of the Roman Empire for more than three centuries — a longer interval than the entire span of the American republic. Life among occupiers had become deeply woven into Judean life. We should not accept uncritically the old stereotype that as a tax-collector Levi-Matthew would have been a despised outcast. By Jesus' time, Caesar Augustus had long since reformed the famously corrupt practices of Roman tax collectors.
We would do better to see Levi-Matthew as a mirror image of Josephus Flavius. Josephus was a Jerusalemite who began by fighting against the Romans but then became a distinguished Roman citizen whereas Levi began as a Roman partisan who then sold all he had in order to follow a Jewish teacher from Nazareth. A mirror image. But they both jealously guarded the cultus of Judaism. Indeed, Josephus' writings formed an extended apologia extolling the ancient pedigree and deeper philosophy of Hebrew civilization versus, by his lights, an inferior Graeco-Roman world.
In Matthew's version of the banquet story, the cult of Judaism is present with a vengeance. At the center is the King. As Josephus pointed to the excellence of a God Who is sovereign over all (Antiquities), so Matthew depicts a Sovereign Who is ruler over the wealthy and powerful and is capable of accommodating all people is His banquet hall, which by that fact must have been a boundless space. He has armies under his command which might not be resisted. With one stroke of his pen, a whole city is obliterated and suddenly.
Plainly, we have entered a narrative signifying the End Times and Divine Judgment. These eschatological notes are sounded first with the servants' observation that all were present, "both bad and good." You see, both goats and sheep are there. We have seen that the haughty and proud have already been adjudged .... and found to be lacking, thrown into the fire as their entire city is burned. Lastly, a mysterious detail is revealed. We learn that the King's domain extends to an ominous "outer darkness" where "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Truly, this King — Whose palace boundaries and halls are limitless; Who is judge of the whole world around Him, both rich and poor, both bad and good; and Whose Sovereignty extends over Hades &mdash must be the King of Heaven and Earth.
As a member of the Societas Publicanorum, Levi-Matthew would have been invited to symposia hosted by Pilate or Herod Archelaeus, Tetrarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. He would have known such "local kings" as Rome would have seen fit to appoint. He might even have met Caesar Tiberius. He would have known the world of pridefulness and pettiness and the cat-and-mouse game of invitations accepted or declined.
Contrasted to these earthly rulers, Matthew understands the King emphasized in Jesus' parable to be an Emperor Who rules far above and beyond any and all rivals, just as the God Whom Josephus Flavius extols sits far above the many gods of pagan religion.
Who then is this King, Whose power and Kingdom are without limit? Let us apply the method of Scriptural interpretation commended by the Early Church Fathers, explicating Scripture with Scripture. Where else do we find a King in the Gospels Whose powers are limitless and who orders whole cities to be destroyed? Let us begin in our earliest Gospel, According to St. Mark:
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"And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there,
shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!" (Mk 6:11) |
Wow! Because an Apostle was not received by a single household, because the Kingdom of Heaven had come near and was rejected, the entire city will be burned, as Sodom and Gomorrah were reduced by brimstone and fire.
The One Who utters these words is the King already present among the Twelve Disciples. He is the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth. Assuredly, He tells the Apostles, whom He has sent. "Make no mistake about it," we would say today. And in St. John's Gospel, Jesus says,
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"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered;
and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." (Jn 15:6) |
We do not learn who "they" are, who gather the withered branches and throw them into the fire, but whoever they might be, they surely represent a shadowy otherworld, which is also part of His vast and mysterious Kingdom.
Let us consider the man Levi-Matthew, who had everything, who knew everyone, who lacked in no material luxury, who sold it all because, standing near to the top, he saw that all was a sham. It turned out, there were no gods on Mt. Olympus. All the pomp and grand spectacle amounted to .... nothing, only fallible humans, empty, temporary, and pathetically fraudulent pretense and pridefulness. So, he sold everything he had because he had found a treasure buried in a field; he had discovered the pearl of greatest price: the King of Heaven and Earth.
He must have been aghast to hear Jesus tell the parable of the King's banquet. The most distinguished leaders of the Jewish people were invited: the Sadducees who supplied the rota for the High Priest's office, the wealthiest and most influential men of Judea, indeed, all distinguished Jews everywhere — from Elephantine in the Nile to the furthest corner of the Jewish Diaspora in the Iberian Peninsula. This was the invitation awaited by kings and prophets from the beginnings of time (Lu 10:24), and now it has arrived! And what will be the response? Will it be jubilation? Will it be tears of joy and relief? No, something quite different will occur: they will ignore Him, even marginalize and abuse Him.
Do these petty officials believe that such insolence would go unnoticed? Would they dare to offend Caesar in this way? And do they think this will be overlooked at the Final Judgment, the locus classicus of punitive fire? The King of Heaven and Earth has called to them, and they have rendered Him .... no honor nor even their presence at the Marriage of Heaven and Earth. Had they not been told that standing before them is the Son of God? Why, yes, repeatedly. It is written in His bill of indictment.
Wait! Did I just say that the King and His Son are one and the same? The King is holding a banquet; the Son is to be married. Have I made them One and the Same? We must not trip here concerning Divine identity. Jesus tells us that He and the Father are One. More to the point, all human aspects of the Father are personified by the Son. This is theological bedrock.
We hear the naive say that in the Old Testament we find a wrathful God but in the New Testament, a merciful God. But such a notion is grave heresy. Have these naive people never read the Bible? God is God from Genesis to Revelation, from the Big Bang until the Last Things. Jesus, the Son, is the Eternal Word Who created Heaven and Earth. Jesus is the God we meet on the summit of Mt. Sinai, displaying the human traits of yearning love, of bitter disappointment, yes, and of wrath and rage. Orthodox theology holds that where One Person of the Holy Trinity is Present, the fullness of the Holy Trinity is also Present.
Jesus, the King of Heaven and Earth, the Creator of the Universe, and our Final Judge is Present. He is Present in His perfect mercy, inviting all people to His banquet. He is Present in His perfect justice, ensuring that in the end, the world He made is fair and that all will receive their due. He is Present in His Kingly splendor and power and sovereignty.
When I first set foot in Haiti,
walking into a bombed out world, as it were,
I beheld
hungry people huddled around random bonfires in the streets,
nearly naked children wandering among pigs looking for something to eat,
desperate men and hopeless women who had come to habituate the lowest places
in the human food chain
descending into darkness and oblivion and, yes, filth.
But then I was amazed when my first Sunday arrived. I did not know what to expect, but at least here at church I could speak their language, for the Holy Mass can be followed in any language. I looked forward to this two-hour period where I might worship God among His beloved poor. Then, something more happened — palpable and ordinary though no less miraculous for that. Each person who came into the church was immaculately washed and beautifully dressed. A miracle! I do not know a better word than shining to describe it. The girls from the local orphanage filed in occupying two rows in front of me. Each had her hair meticulously combed and dressed. Each wore a beautiful little dress. Each had nice shoes that had been buffed. Everyone present .... they shone with the garments they had set aside for this one, most important day of the week: when they would present themselves to the King of Heaven and Earth.
You see,
each of them had received the invitation which kings and princes and prophets and high priests
back through the mists of time
had longed to receive.
They had receivd an invitation to the Marriage Supper of the Son.
And they prepared themselves ....
with all their hearts,
with all their souls,
with all their strength,
they prepared themselves.
For the great moment had arrived:
the Desire of the Everlasting Hills.
And it was theirs for the having,
and
they came into the King's limitless halls to have it.
And
it is theirs.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.