In today’s Gospel passage (Mt 22:1-14), Jesus used a parable about a king who hosted “a feast for his son’s wedding” to illustrate the nature of the Kingdom of God. While reading or listening to this story, we must not lose sight that it is a parable that needs to be interpreted. As per the narration, a king invited some guests to his son’s wedding banquet. He killed oxen and fattened cattle to prepare a lavish meal. When the feast time came by, he sent out sets of servants to remind the invitees that the banquet was set. All those who had been invited gave various apologies such as I have some work to do in my farm, or I have a business commitment for their inability to honour their invitation. Some of the invitees maltreated and killed some of the king’s servants. The king in anger dispatched his troops to retaliate for the maltreatment and killing of his servants.

He then ordered his servants to go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone they could find to the wedding since the initial invitees had proved themselves unworthy to sit at the banquet table. The servants followed assiduously the instruction of the king, and the banquet chamber was filled with guests. However, when the king came to greet the guests, he spotted a man who was not wearing a wedding garment, the king ordered that he should be punished for not wearing a wedding garment.

This banquet envisaged in the Gospel is not an earthly meal, but an eternal banquet in the Kingdom of God to which the people of Israel and the non-Jews (gentiles), were the first and the second invitees respectively. The host of the banquet is Jesus Christ and the servants sent out refers to the prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles and disciples in the New Testament.

One may wonder why the king ordered that the guest without a wedding garment should be excluded from the banquet since he was not given advance notice to prepare for the feast. We must recall, as I have stated above, that this story is a parable which needs to be interpreted.

God calls us despite our state in life. He calls us as we are. Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, neither do I condemn you but go and sin no more. God expects that his grace in us will transform us and make us better human beings – people who choose good and shun evil. Hence, there will be reckoning for those who refuse to be transformed by the grace of God.

Another way of interpreting the punishment meted out to the guest without the wedding garment is that we must always be ready because we do not know at what day or time death might come knocking. We should ensure that our souls are ready to meet with God any time God communicates to us that our earthly dwelling has come to an end.

Again, in ancient Israel, it was the host who provided the guests with the wedding garment, thus the guest without the wedding garment may have lost or misplaced it which would be interpreted as being negligent. Or he may have chosen not to wear it, which portrays him as being rebellious against the king and his son.