28th
Sunday in Ordinary Time-A
I
Reading: Isaiah 25:6-10: The Lord will
prepare a banquet, and will wipe away tears from every cheek.
II
Reading: Philippians
4:12-14.19-20: There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who
gives me strength.
Gospel:
Matthew 22:1-14: Invite everyone you
can find to the wedding.
The Parable
of the Marriage Feast:
Israel’s
Rejection of God’s Great Invitation
This parable deals with
the Kingdom of Heaven. The parable tells how God dealt with Israel and turned
from Israel, its major point is God’s dealings with His new people, the church
(the new nation, Mt 21:43; Pet 6).
The meaning of the
parable is: the King is God, the Son is Jesus Christ himself (Mt 21:37-39), the
great marriage feast (represents God’s kingdom) is the glorious day of
redemption (1Thes 4:13-18), those who have been invited to the marriage refers
to Israel- they were called by God from the very first and beginning with
Abraham, those on the street corners are the Gentiles, people from all other
nations who are ready to accept God’s invitation to His Son’s wedding, the
wedding clothes represent righteousness
(dikaios=one who totally depends upon God, trust in God, does the will
of God, walks in the way of God), which means repentance and change of life
(shub=U turning); turning to God from all evil. The parable has both an
historical and personal meaning.
How Jesus describes the
group of people invited last to the banquet. The king told the servants to
invite “everyone they could find”, and the servants “collected together bad and
good people alike”. (Mt 22:10)
Luke adds that the king
ordered his servants to bring in “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the
lame” (Lk 14:21).
That is, we can apply
to anyone of us.
1. Jesus again shared a
parable (v.1-2)
a. Of the Kingdom of
Heaven
b. Of a marriage
prepared by God for His Son
2. God’s invitation to
Israel (v.3-7)
a. God invited Israel,
but they rejected
b. God showed great
mercy
1) Extended a second invitation
2) Prepared an abundance
c. God saw His great
invitation rejected
1) by a busy farmer
2) by a busy businessman
3) by a religionists and worldly: who denied, scoffed,
abused and persecuted
d. God judged Israel
for rejecting His invitation: destroyed the abusers and murderers; rejected the
rejecters
3. God’s invitation to
any and all (v.8-10)
a. God then invited all
1) Those who were out on the street corners
2) Those who were both good and bad
b. God’s invitation was
accepted
4. God’s confrontation
with the guests (v.11-14)
a. God entered to see
the guests
1) He saw a man without wedding clothes
2) He asked only one question
3) The man was speechless
b. God judged the man
who was not clothed properly
1) was bound
2) was taken away
3) was cast into the darkness
c. God calls and
invites many, but few are chosen
Thought: The
wedding clothes which the man lacked represented righteousness. The man did not
possess the righteousness of Jesus Christ nor did he live righteously
(Mt 5:6; Rom 5:1; 10:3-4; 2Cor 5:21;Lk 9:23).
We must be
grateful to God for having sent his servants (prophets, messengers and
disciples) to call us (his Christian community) into his banquet (kingdom), and
for having provided us with the wedding garment(righteousness of repentance)
the Life in the Spirit. The Sunday service is the privileged time for our
spiritual nourishment to cleanse the wedding garment we received at Baptism; if
not we become foolish indeed (“The king”, says the Gospel, “was furious; he
dispatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their city-Mt 22:7)
because of our carelessness to His invitation and lack of faith in God.
God is always
faithful where as we are unfaithful to Him. Let us repent and believe in the
Good News and take part in his banquet (kingdom) of righteousness, forgiveness,
love, joy, peace, justice, equality and
fraternity.
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