Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Tone 5; Commemoration of the Miracle Performed at Colossus in Chone by the Archangel Michael; Holy Martyr Eudoxius and His Companions (284- 305); Our Venerable Father Archipus
2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4; Matthew 22:1-14
Read 2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4
Meals and eating were an important part of Jesus’ life. For starters, he seemed willing to eat with anyone, whether they were tax collectors and sinners or “righteous” Pharisees. If you invited him to lunch, Jesus would come. He also fed people himself, sometimes miraculously (the feeding of the 5000) and sometimes in what looked like normal circumstances (the breakfast in John 21). In either case, these meals show Jesus as the one who can give the bread of life.
Like all of Jesus’ meals, the wedding feast in this parable reveals something about the kingdom of heaven. In today’s parable, we realize that the kingdom of God is open to all and that it is an abundant banquet: no one will leave hungry (in fact, no one will want to leave, and no one will have to!). The kingdom is also going to make room for people we may think of as outsiders: whether the people “in the thoroughfares” represent Jews or Gentiles is debated by scholars, but there is no doubt that they would have been overlooked in any normal wedding invitation. Finally, the kingdom requires a change on our part: the man without a wedding garment is the photo-negative of the disciples, or the tax collectors and sinners, who ate with Jesus and were converted as a result. Every time we go to the Divine Liturgy, we are invited into the Kingdom. Have we welcomed the outcast? And have we been open to the change that we need to undergo if we are going to participate in that great banquet?