A Sticky Parable

[HKHaugan]

Recently the Parable of the Wedding Banquet was read in a worship service (Mt.22:1-14). It speaks of a king preparing a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited but they didn't come. He sends some more servants but due to business they still refused to come.. Then the ones that weren't busy abused and killed the servants. Enraged the king had the murderers and their city destroyed after which he sent out more servants and invited everyone both good and bad. The banquet hall was filled. This parable comes on the heels of His confronting the chief priests and Pharisees about their spiritually restrictive legalism (Mt.21). Jesus had come that all people should know Him. God was preparing a spiritual banquet for everyone and the religious leadership refused to accept that as their real task.

But there comes the sticky part that seems to baffle most people. The king spots an improperly dressed man. He had come without proper wedding clothes. The man was speechless. The king then told the attendants to bind the man hand and foot and throw him into the darkness outside. Jesus then concludes the parable by saying “Many are called but few are chosen.”

The operative words in this parable are these: “Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” This question is the one that must be leveled against the leadership that says they support the king. Because the attendants, the king's staff, were not tuned into the king's heart, the king's mind and the king's spirit. They seemed to assume that the invitation was to everyone regardless of how they were dressed. Just what is the proper dress if we are looking at this from God's point of view? There is no question we want everyone in the Body of Christ. “Come unto me all who travail and are heavy laden and I will give you rest (Mt.11:28)” and “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that all who believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life (Jn.3:16).” Right in those declarations lies the responsibility of the leaders who prepare those who have been invited. Are they presenting the Gospel as Scripture presents it so that people are introduced to Jesus as personal Savior and Lord? Are they showing that He is the way for the heart, the truth for the mind and life in the Holy Spirit (Jn.14:6)?

Let me be personal here. I went through seminary and ordination. It was ten years after that before I was converted. I never really ever preached the Gospel. No one in the process of preparing me for the ordained ministry ever questioned what I really believed. Questions like “When did you accept the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior?” or “What was the transforming event that brought the Lord into your life?” or “What are your favorite books in the Bible and why do you hold them up?” or “How do you view the Bible as authority for living?” In other words did I have a personal testimony I could share that would be the basis for being called into the ordained ministry? If any of those questions had been put before me I probably would have ended up being a ski bum or, like Cain, “a restless wanderer on the earth.”

Just my wanting to be a clergyman seemed to be enough to the leadership, the bishops, committees and seminary officials –- “the attendants” of the parable –- who were responsible for training the 'shepherds' for their pastoral positions. When I first came out of seminary it was more important to uphold my denominational stance than it was to preach the biblical Gospel and bring people to accept a personal Savior and Lord. It was far more important to simply let anyone believe what they wanted and build the congregation. Attending the liturgy and reciting the Creeds would be sufficient. These would supply the proper atmosphere and a kind of spiritual osmosis would take place. If people just showed up then they were OK. We weren't hired to be overly personal about our spirituality. All that kind of thing was tagged as fundamentalism. Actually what was taking place with the melding of psychology and theology, clergy were becoming more therapists than spiritual leaders. While Scripture was venerated it was not the source for living a productive life. Having an integrated personality and emotional balance, that was the way.

I hope you are getting the drift here. Like Paul an “attendant's” (bishops, priests, pastors) goal is very specific. It's all about Jesus. “We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ (Col.1:28).” In other words dressed in righteousness. Frankly, I fumbled so many times not having the kind of spiritual mindset that wanted to help people know Jesus personally and to do that trusting Holy Scripture as the only source for living. It was so easy from Sunday to Sunday to give talks on the benefits of personality adjustment since it did hold people's attention and give them a sense that I was sufficiently intellectual to appear before them and lead them to think they were all really doing spiritual things. One of my friends instrumental in my eventual conversion in 1969 remarked that when I gave young people a talk “they didn't understand what you were saying but they liked the way you said it.” That pretty well sums up where I was before I asked Jesus to be Lord of my life.

What I am so thankful for is the grace of God that has prevailed for others in spite of me. God has a way of operating that overrides our errors and false assumptions. Occasionally people from that unbelieving past have shown up to tell me that I had some influence in their spiritual turn around. Believe me that was the Lord's hand not mine.

Now back to the 'attendants.' The growing liberalization of seminary training and compromised clergy buying into cultural trends have borne bitter fruit. All one has to do is look at the culturally compromised leadership in major denominations. Three major issues, homosexuality, abortion and anti Israel attitudes prevail as well as the general theological liberalism in seminaries that questions the authority of Scripture. The cultural shift on these issues is presenting a challenge to disciples of Jesus in very subtle ways. Television, movies and journalism reflect this shift and we find public apology from people who are business and professional leaders. They refer to their past 'discriminatory' attitudes but they have 'evolved' in their thinking.

Jesus put it this way, “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin (Lk.17:2).” I wonder what the attendants must have felt like when the king asked them to throw the improperly dressed man into the darkness.

This is a call to leadership to maintain what Jesus taught the Apostles. Go into all the world and make disciples (Mt.28:18). It's a call for that same leadership to ensure that those who are to be new 'attendants' hold to the same truth, Jesus is Savior and Lord and the Scripture is the authority He has given us to hold up as the way to life in Him. To do otherwise is to watch the lost become even more lost. It should excite our compassion for the lost wherever they are and the passion to be there for them. They are those the Lord has called to Himself.