Jesus, front and center

FROM A READING FOR OCT. 9, 28TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
'...And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.' - Philippians 4:19

Those who experienced the marriage of the heir to the British throne will find Sunday's Gospel parable (Matthew 22:1-10) hard to understand. How could anyone ignore or reject an invitation to such a significant event?

The key to understanding this parable revolves around a proper understanding of Jesus' first words: "The kingdom of heaven may be likened to...."

As I remind readers and students, the biblical phrase "the kingdom of God" (or its parallel, "the kingdom of heaven") usually doesn't refer to the eternal life we expect to experience after death. It refers to God working effectively in our lives here and now.

It's relatively easy to appreciate why someone would ignore or reject that kind of an invitation. At the very beginning of His public ministry, Jesus tells us that accepting this invitation entails repentance: a complete change in our value system.

Insignificant pieces
What we once thought important, we now push to the periphery of our lives; what we once thought insignificant is now front and center in everything we do.

As we hear over and over in the Gospels, a sign we're working on this repentance is when people have become more important for us than our careers, wealth, institutions or even laws.

Lots of people simply aren't willing to take such a drastic step in order to experience God's presence in everyone they meet and everything they do.

In the 50-year interval between Jesus' telling this parable and Matthew's writing it down, the Church had suffered persecution at the hand of some fellow Jews. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. Someone even joined this story of a rejected wedding feast to another parable about someone flaunting the dress code for an important occasion.

Yet Jesus' basic message remains: Those who should have been the first to hear and respond to the good news of God's kingdom among us ignored it. An unexpected and unprepared people were the fortunate individuals who eventually accepted it.

Jews and Gentiles
That's a powerful message for Matthew's Jewish/Christian community, dealing with an influx of Gentiles into the Church. Some among Matthew's readers would have put these non-Jews in the same category as the sinners and outcasts of the historical Jesus' day and age: the people who came to the feast.

Neither Jesus or Matthew was talking about a literal banquet, as Isaiah does in our first reading (Is 25:6-10a). But both could identify with the prophet's words about "removing the veil" from the Gentiles - and the fact that Yahweh ultimately saves us. Biblical Christians defined salvation in a way quite different from those who originally took Isaiah's words literally.

The belief that experiencing God's kingdom right here and now is part of God's plan of salvation is behind this section of Paul' letter to the Philippians (Phil 4:12-14,19-20). Once we take the steps to cross into the kingdom of heaven, our outlook changes.

As Paul puts it, "In every circumstance and in all things I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need. I can do all things in Him who strengthens me."

He's not focused on the things most people judge essential to well-being. Paul's value system has shifted 180 degrees.[[In-content Ad]]