Wedding Feasts - how to read this story




The conversation in Matthew (22:1-14) between Jesus and the Chief Priests plus leading Pharisees continues. Jesus tells a story about a wedding feast – a similar story is in Luke but with big differences. We assume Jesus is saying “this is what the kingdom of heaven is like.” The king then is God. This is how God rolls - with all the violence. But is that what he is really saying or is he offering a critique of a common way the kingdom of heaven was described – a way implied in how the Chief Priests and leading Pharisees finished the story about vineyards? This story finishes with the weeping and gnashing of teeth in the outer darkness – is this where this kind of understanding of the reign of God will lead us? If so, where are our assumptions about the reign of God leading us astray, and what other ways of describing this reign are we able to offer?

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