The Wedding Banquet

In Matthew 22 Jesus tells a very odd parable about a wedding banquet. A king's son was getting married and all the arrangements had been made. Guests were invited and all the lavish preparations made. In the first century weddings were an even bigger deal then they are now, some would last up to a week. To be invited was a great honor. In Jesus' parable the guests don't show up, but, they're given a second chance. This time they murder the servants of the king. This is a declaration of war. Who would do such a thing? Jesus is suggesting that in refusing to acknowledge him, the people of Israel were like those disobedient guests. So the invitation now goes out to the unworthy, to whoever will respond in faith. In Luke's version it is specifically stated that those invited last were the poor and the lame and the outcast. This rag tag group is the church. Maybe that's not how we want to see ourselves? Maybe that's because we've become too respectable? Maybe we've lost sight of the vision of the kingdom? We tend to view the poor as people we're happy to help on our own terms, but, would prefer they didn't mess up the good thing we have going for us in church. Church is after all for us - and sometimes we'll even do the right thing and care for those whom Jesus has such a strong interest in. But, Jesus' parable suggests that the church is the band of outcasts - the unworthy,and to see ourselves in a higher way is to miss the point of grace. Like Cervantes famed character Don Quixote, we are to have a strange vision that sees outcasts as specially invited guests, VIP's, beloved of the King. The kingdom of God/Heaven is a movement of people who are developing this strange vision through the gift of the Spirit. And it's not just vision alone, but, the fruits of that vision. Where last people are put first and those who are least are invited in with to a king's welcome. What might it look like for the church of the 21st century to respond faithfully to such a vision?