Dressing Down

But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was speechless. 13Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 14For many are called, but few are chosen.’ The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

"You're not going dressed like that."

If you're like me, you heard that phrase, or a reasonable facsimile, more than once in your teenage career. In my case, I usually heard it in the context of some familial-obligation event -- a wedding, an anniversary -- that I didn't want to attend; and my passive-aggressive way of indicating that would often be to want to dress down...way down. A sort of sullen, non-digital bird-flipping to the universe in general and to my clueless, embarrassing extended family in particular. (It makes sense when you're 14, anyway)

This is, I think, the attitude that Jesus is addressing in this parable...a parable which is problematic for a lot of us, coming at the heels of another parable that seems to illustrate God's generosity and inclusivity. Reading today's text, I wanted to say, "You had a good thing going with that story, Lord -- why didn't you quite while you were ahead?" The cruelty of the king, whom we tend to associate with God, troubles us. And the issue of the appropriate wedding garment seems to carry with it a subtext of works-righteousness that doesn't play very well in Lutherland.

But in talking about today's Gospel text, our pastor made a couple of good points. First, he noted that the Gospel of Matthew was written to a Christian community being actively persecuted by the political powers that be. The wrathful king in this parable would not be an unfamiliar figure to the Gospel's hearers; they were living, and sometimes dying, through just such a brutal imperial reign. He also contrasted this parable with the example of Jesus' entire ministry. Did Jesus ever call down the wrath of God on persons who violated ritual rules? No; he violated a few of his own. How often did he become furious at people for just being human -- flawed in predictable, everyday ways? Not much. No; Jesus saved his strongest invective for those who willfully sought to demean and thwart the inbreaking Reign of God as proclaimed and modeled by Jesus.

In Jesus' time, choosing to "dress down" for a wedding would be seen as a dishonoring of the host. At one end of the scale, rich invitees would indeed be expected to wear fine wedding robes; at the other end, poor persons who may only own one article of clothing might simply be expected to merely show up "freshly scrubbed." So no matter who you were, you showed respect for the family holding the wedding by making an effort to affirm the goodness and blessedness of the occasion by one's appearance. To show up for a wedding in the ancient Palestinian equivalent of casual wear told the hosts, in effect, "Your special occasion isn't special to me."

Throughout the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is confronted by religious authorities -- people who think they've cornered the market on God -- who challenge his authority to teach and heal; who judge the good things he says and does to be bad; who nit-pick at his words and actions; who've placed arbitrary, artificial barriers before the everyday folks, the "little ones," in living out their relationship with God. The religious bigshots' message to Jesus is, "Your 'good news' isn't good. Your good works aren't good. The people you care about aren't worth caring about."

Jesus' message to us, through this parable is: Look at the people who've responded to me...who've said yes to my yes, who recognize that they're now part of something big and wonderful and who respond in trust and hope. I have dressed them in my very own robes. Now look at those people who want to be treated like spiritual VIPs but who hold my words and my actions and the values of my reign in contempt; who hold the "little ones" dear to me in contempt; who reject my offer of a robe because they think they look fine just the way they are. Which of these guests really understand what my feast is all about anyway?

Walter Wangerin, in his famous story Ragman , puts it this way:

I myself walked up to the Ragman.

I told him my name with shame, for

I was a sorry figure next to him.

Then I took off all my clothes in

that place, and I said to him with

dear yearning in my voice: "Dress me."

The Wedding Banquet, Alessandro Botticelli