The Wedding Banquet Parable in Luke and Matthew

Parables constitute a large portion of Jesus’s ministry. The parables of Jesus are allegorical, meaning they contain rich, complex, and multi-layered symbolism. The Bible’s enduring nature is partly attributed to the medium of the parable as a primary means of delivering universal truths. Parables involve human characters making important and challenging moral choices. Fables can be equally as constructive in relaying moral messages, but fables frequently feature anthropomorphized animal protagonists. The messages of parables are often grander and more spiritually meaningful than those delivered in fables, particularly true with the Biblical parables. A fable can deliver raw commentary about human nature, but a parable takes that commentary a step further with the allegorical message. One of the reasons parables became instrumental in Jesus’s ministry is that symbolic storytelling of this type would have been as ubiquitous as social media is today. Parables were simply one of the best and most familiar means of communicating. Even now, parables are an important way to deliver messages to large and diverse groups of people. Because parables are metaphorical, they can be retold and applied to different situation. Finally, parables also tease readers or audiences of the Bible, luring them into deeper readings of the text.
For example, Matthew 22:1-14 draws readers in with a story of a typical wedding banquet so that Jesus can deliver the more abstract message: “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” The parable teases the reader with unanswered questions: why are the villagers reluctant to attend the wedding? Why is the King’s pride so fragile that he must commit murder? Why did the one man show up to the wedding in his plain clothes? The conventional world described in the parable is one that Jesus largely refutes. The King comes to symbolize God, and the villagers represent non-believers or those who do not fear God. Although the level of violence seems disproportionate, Jesus uses the medium of the parable to convey the strong message at the end.
Donohue (1988) suggests that the wedding garment “stands for Christian life and those qualities which are to characterize those invited to the banquet after others refuse,” (p. 95). The wedding banquet allegory also becomes a metaphor for Christian missionary work, with the King representing the missionary and the villagers representing those who shun the word of God. The banquet itself represents “God’s eschatological banquet,” (Maloney, 2012, p. 139). The King’s wrath and subsequent use of violence “is very much part of the apocalyptic mind-set that influenced both Jewish and Christian writers of the period,” (Donohue, 1988, p. 95). In fact, it is also important to note that the Luke version of the banquet parable does not contain as much violence—it was less apocalyptic and less referential to the impending destruction of the Temple. Missionary activity sometimes fails, and persecution might ensue. Jesus points out to his followers and would-be missionaries that “judgment on the persecutors” is inevitable (Donohue, 1988, p. 95).
Parables are not to be taken literally. Therefore, the King’s violence is meant to shock the reader into hearing the deeper messages contained within the layers of the allegory. The parable also contains a “story within a story,” as Donohue (1988) puts it (p. 95). One way of analyzing the parable of the wedding banquet is through linguistics, as the same word for the wedding clothing can be used to described the “putting on” or adoption of a new way of life (Donohue, 1988, p. 95). Those who don the mantle of Christianity, the believers, are those who are called to perform ministry for Christ. As Donohue (1988) also points out, the parable provides a broader message for the Christian community in that the role of the minister or Church is to simply preach and spread the gospel. Not all who hear the truth will heed it, just as not all who respond to the King’s invitation will come to the wedding. A new world is opened up by the parable, primarily because the King had to seek out wedding guests from beyond the usual pool of villagers—paralleling the way Jesus opened up his ministry beyond the boundaries of Israel.





References

Boring, M.E. (2006). Mark: A Commentary. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press.
Donohue, J.R. (1988). The Gospel in Parable.
Maloney, L.M. (2012). Jesus of Nazareth. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.