Some Will And Some Wont
Matthew 22:1-14
Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hanson in their book Aladdin Factor presents the formula SWSWSWSW, which stands for “Some Will, Some Wont, So What, Someone’s Waiting”. Jesus seems to take a somewhat similar view when he talks about people being invited to share in the Kingdom of God. He realized that Some Will and Some Wont. He may not have said,”So What!” but he knew that he couldn’t spend a lot of time grieving over those that wouldn’t accept the invitation. He knew that there were “Some Waiting” . The invitation needed to be extended to all.
I have the feeling that this parable of the Wedding Feast was another parable addressed to the religious authorities of the day who were rejecting Jesus and thus refusing the invitation to experience what the Kingdom of God was really all about. Their narrowness and exclusiveness kept them from sharing in God’s intention for the world.
I believe that the parable was also addressed to the many people in the world who felt powerless in the face of the religious systems of the day and oppressed by the religious authorities. Jesus was assuring them that they were welcome in the Kingdom of God.
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Some people wonder what the requirement of the Wedding garments means. Why would people be cast out because they were not properly dressed. However, I don’t think that the parable was referring to a dress code like certain restaurants require coat and tie before you can enter for supper. Sometimes those restaurants, in fact, supply a coat and tie for you so you can enter the establishment but often they are something you would never choose to wear anywhere that you might be seen by friends. (I went to a seafood restaurant once where they handed me such a terrible coat and tie, I was surprised and glad when they handed me a huge bib to cover the coat and tie up when eating some of the shellfish that they served) . Anyway, this parable is not about dress code. It is about the the requirements for following Jesus. It appears to me that one of the main garments one must have for the Kingdom is to have the Vision of Christ which I believe was the remaking of the earth into a new world of Love, Justice and Righteousness. Those who want to listen have been summoned by Jesus for rebuilding the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. If we are to come the the banquet where Jesus is host we have to be prepared for that.
Robert E. Luccock talks about the the requirements to the banquet of the Kingdom of God:
Harsh to condemn a fellow to weep and gnash his teeth because he tries to join Christ s company not clothed in this attire? So it may seem. But one who comes to such a meeting full of his or her own rightness or bearing no fruit worthy of repentance; one who arrives giving no praise or glory for God s goodness and grace; one who enters wearing no robes of commitment to God s rightness whatever the cost—for such a person Christ s company finds no place.
Thank God for the Gospel that tells us how we are to dress for coming into Christ s company and for God s provision of the garments to wear! Most of all, thank God for the grace by which we can put on the clothes and go!
Robert E. Luccock Preaching Through Matthew Abingdon, Nashville, Tenn., 1980 p.187
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If we are to enter the the banquet of the Kingdom I have to be prepared to give all that we have and all that we are able to promote Love , Justice and righteousness in a world that is dominated by the human ego motivated by greed and the desire for power and control over others. As someone once wrote: It requires us to care more than others thinks is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical, expect more than others think is possible. If we cant we end up living a life that is not fully human and fully alive.
I am reminded of an incident told to us at a conference several years ago in London Ontario. We were told by the presenter of a friend who one time visited what was purported to be the ovens of Auschwitz where many Jews had lost their lives in what now is called the holocaust. He said that he could still smell burnt human flesh. It was in the bricks. He asked the old man who was conducting the tour, “How could this happen?” “How could people act so inhuman to others?” “How could they be so insensitive to other human beings”. The old man answered, “They lost their vision of Love of God”
Where there is no vision, there is no risk
Where there is no risk, there is no witness
Where there is no witness, there is no Gospel
Where there is no Gospel, there is no hope.
It appears to me that the Vision that Christ had of the world and God’s purposes in the World is one garment that we cannot enter the Kingdom without.
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