The first reading is Philippians 4:1-9.
El
santo evangelio según San Mateo (22:1-14)
Once
more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying:
2“The kingdom
of heaven has been likened to a man, a king,
who
gave a wedding banquet for his son.
3He
sent his slaves to call those who had been called
to
the wedding banquet,
but
they would not come.
4Again
he sent other slaves, saying,
‘Tell
those who have been called:
Look,
I have prepared my dinner,
my
oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered,
and
everything is ready;
come
to the wedding banquet.’
5But
they made light of it and went away,
one
to his farm,
another
to his business,
6while
the rest seized his slaves,
mistreated
them,
and
killed them.
7The
king was enraged.
He
sent his troops,
destroyed
those murderers,
and
burned their city.
8Then
he said to his slaves,
‘The
wedding is ready,
but
those called were not worthy.
9Go
therefore into the main streets,
and
call everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’
10Those
slaves went out into the streets
and
gathered all whom they found,
evil
as well as good;
so
the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11“But
when the king came in to see the guests,
he noticed a man
there who was not wearing a wedding robe,
12and
he said to him,
‘Friend,
how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’
And he was
speechless.
13Then
the king said to the attendants,
‘Bind
him hand and foot,
and
throw him into the outer darkness,
where
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14For
many are called, but few are chosen.”
El
evangelio del Señor.
-----
“Rejoice
in the Lord always.”
No
matter what.
That
is a tall order coming from Paul to the church in Philippi. And much like our gospel reading today,
this passage has frequently been interpreted, without sufficient context, in
ways that are harmful.
The
number of people with mental illness, especially depression, who have been told
“4Rejoice in the Lord always;
again I will say, Rejoice.” when their chemical, emotional, and mental
contexts make their situation way more complicated than that easy
exhortation is, perhaps, only rivaled by the number of people who have been
told that today’s parable—or riddle—from Jesus means that God enacts harm and
even kills some people or casually sends others to hell.
Neither
of these interpretations are Gospel, or Good News, for God’s people. They also don’t take into account the
full context. Take Paul, for
example. He’s neither telling
depressed people to just try to be happier, nor is he prescribing the life of
faith to be one of ignoring any suffering or injustice in the world. God still calls us to weep with those
who weep. Instead, Paul speaks out
of his own context, of suffering and faith, because Paul is writing to the
church of Philippi from jail. He
has been imprisoned for his commitment to the Gospel in the face of an Empire
that wants to keep a tight hold on its power.
So
when Paul encourages us, with the church of Philippi, to “4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice,”
it’s not about ignoring reality or “fake it ‘til ya make it.” It’s the same commitment
that landed him in jail in the first place. God is bigger than the persecution of the Roman Empire and
even the death that Paul will face.
So,
in the face of injustice and even death, Paul exhorts followers of Christ to …
continue following Christ, saying, “8Finally, beloved, whatever is
true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is
pleasing, whatever is commendable, if
there is any excellence and
if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9Keep on doing the things that you
have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Last
week, Jesus told the religious authorities a riddle and they responded to it
with a call for vengeance. Wrong
answer. They didn’t get Jesus. The religious authorities are operating
from an understanding of God that is rooted in the way the world works, so
Jesus brings them back to the cornerstone, saying, “The stone that the builders
rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is
amazing in our eyes.” (Matthew 21:42)
The religious authorities’ understanding of God as a God of vengeance
will be upended. The ones
rejected—the Crucified One—will become a resurrected people—and the Resurrected One.
This
is the God who is Good News and to whom Paul is so committed that he will
exhort us all to “4Rejoice in
the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”
Jesus
furthers his point to the religious authorities with today’s parable. While many try to allegorize today’s
riddle and make God, or Jesus, the king, there’s more to the text—much more.
In
the original Greek, it’s not that the kingdom of heaven is like a king, but
instead it’s that “The kingdom of heaven has been likened to a man, a king.” Jesus is calling out the religious
authorities on their vengeful theology.
There
are some who say God’s reign is like a powerful political leader—the
powerfullest—throwing a big party.
This political leader invites all the most “important” people, but when
the slaves go out to gather these important political and cultural people—the
ones with influence and definitely money, these ones who have been invited
decide they don’t want to come.
They snub the political leader—in a culture so heavily steeped in honor
and shame, they shame this political ruler, diminishing his power and calling
his authority into question. After
all, this was never just a wedding feast; it was always also a political
gathering.
The
political leader tries again, but the politicians and business owners, the
celebrities and religious authorities, dismiss the slaves, or even kill them,
taking away even more power from this ruler.
The
king’s response?
Enraged,
he throws a grown-up tantrum, as only one used to getting anything and
everything he wants, can do.
The political leader kills those who refused to give in to his
power—destroying entire cities in the process! Cities filled with innocent people, completely unaware of
the politics at play.
Then
he tells his slaves—the ones with so little power that they really have no hope
of doing anything but listening obediently. He tells them that the ones who deemed him unworthy, rejecting
his invitation, are the real “unworthy
ones.”
It
is reminiscent of childhood arguments where one kid calls the other a name,
eliciting the well-known taunt, “I know you are, but what am I?” But this king has all the power, so, to
save face, calling the original guests unworthy, he “calls”—but what peasant
could say no to a request from the king—you heard what he did to the powerful
folks!—plus, there’s free food.
The political ruler calls everyone in town—“evil as well as good.” The political leader gets his filled
feast, the peasants get a bit of food, and maybe this won’t be a complete
failure after all.
But
when we think that it’s at last settled, this political leader notices the one
person who has not completely followed his rule of law. Tapping into the irony, the king calls
this stranger “friend” and challenges his presence at the feast. Then the political ruler throws him out
and we are left to wonder about this outer darkness and the weeping and
gnashing of teeth.
If
“The kingdom of heaven has been likened to” this, I don’t want a part of their
kingdom of heaven—and perhaps that’s Jesus’ point. No one wins in this parable. It is filled with violence and vengeance. If God is the king, then God cannot be
the source of all love, because love wouldn’t wipe out all of those towns or
wield power in such harmful ways.
And
if Jesus can be found anywhere, it is in the man at the end, bound “hand and
foot, and [thrown] into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.”
Jesus
knows weeping and gnashing of teeth—it is the deep pits of suffering and
imprisonment, it is the pit of depression, and it is from there that Paul
writes. It is from there that
resurrection comes—true hope. It
is precisely because Jesus, our Cornerstone, knows pain, violence, oppression,
and hell that our path of faith can challenge theologies of vengeance and can
insist on rejoicing in the one who is more powerful than any fear or even
death.
It
is not an ignorant rejoicing. It
is not a rejoicing that tries to “fix” those of us living with depression or
mental illness. It is a rejoicing
that takes each moment as a moment, that lives out of the Love that grounds all
life. That is the God whom we
follow in Christ Jesus. That is
the God to whom Paul is committed, even in prison. That is the God who calls us to new life, to rejoice in a
power greater than death. To live
into our resurrection life of hope.
Thanks
be to God.
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