And the parable’s keep on coming…week-after-week-after-week, but that is Matthew’s gospel for ya’.
Jesus is a teaching…and his teachings are against the “Temple elite.” He continues his conflict, rails against and widens his distance from the Pharisees, Scribes, Sadducees and priestly class, as well as the “Jerusalem elite and the wealthy.”
The Pharisees are especially on his radar. Many would agree with Jesus and side with him against their own religious leaders.
They loved their religious “traditions” more than God and neighbor.
They loved their many and various interpretations of the law – more than God and neighbor.
They loved their money – more than God or neighbor.
Heck, they loved themselves and their long flowing robes more than God or neighbor.
They even got caught up in their own public prayers…offered up routinely on street corners.
They loved being seen and heard.
They loved the best seats in the Temple.
They were always “honored guests.”
They loved their political power more than God and neighbor. And they loved their religious power more than God and neighbor.
Now to be sure, this was a blanket condemnation and they were not all that way…but it seemed like a majority was…
According to Jesus and to others, they talked a good line, but did not live it.
They were the epitome of hypocrisy.
They were blind to God, God’s love, God’s word, God’s truth and to Jesus, as God’s son.
Jesus was not alone in his assessment.
They despised the fact that Jesus’ friends were the poop, the maimed, the blind and the lame, lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors and other so called “sinners.”
They saw to it that they kept their distance from people such as these.
They deserved the best and the most honored places…they did not associate with common everyday riff-raff.
Besides that, class barriers and the social order at the time of Jesus held people in their place.
But Jesus surprised a great many “that day” when he painted the Kingdom as being a feast among equals. They were all equal in stature…and they were certainly all equal in dignity.
The Pharisees could not have disagreed more. So Jesus – being Jesus, decided to share with them a little story.
Everyone knew that ancient people viewed “wealth” and “power” and “position” as distributed according to the “Divine Will.” Social Status was the same exact thing…God willed that as well.
The rich and the privileged would always remain so…and they each had a special place in the heart of God. The poor would always “serve the well healed.” It was their state in life.
Social functions like a “royal wedding feast” reflected the general social outlook.
As a matter of fact: only the “privileged” would receive an invitation. The seating arrangements at such gatherings indicated “the importance” of the guest in society.
The “higher the status” the closer to the host, while the “lesser people” sat obviously further away… Everyone knew their place in society-based upon “where they sat” at dinner. Jesus’ story was shocking. People could not believe their ears and what they were hearing.
This King sent out multiple invitations. Guests actually rejected the King’s invitation. The King even sent out an invitation to the general population. This King was breaking down all social barriers. The seats of “privileged few” were open to anyone! All were equal in the eyes of this king. All the “upright” and the “outcast” took advantage of this invitation.
The final shocker was – this was God’s kingdom. It was a feast of equals.
In one parable Jesus destroyed any notion that social place within the Kingdom depended on one’s social standing. God himself had turned the social order topsey-turvey and upside down.
God actually raised the lowest of people to the dignity of being “his children.” Those who claimed honor for themselves would be reduced, if not outright – rejected. Truly many were called, but few are chosen.
We exclude ourselves with our own superiority and by our own actions of character!