Breaking the Word

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them (a scholar of the law) tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."  (Mt 22:34-40)

Jesus was opposed by Priests, Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes.  These four groups were the leading groups in Israel. They were also the powerful groups in Israel. The four together controlled the Jewish society. The Priests controlled the religious aspect of the society and the Pharisees controlled the customs and practices (culture); the Scribes controlled the ‘thought world’ of the society and the Sadducees controlled the wealth (economy) of the society.

In the case of Jesus all the four came together against him. They also opposed him individually and together. They posed questions against him in their own areas of interest and tried to control Jesus and make him part of the social system. Jesus was within the system but he was constantly purifying the system with kingdom values which in certain cases disturbed the leading members of the society.

The answer given by Jesus was within the Scripture traditions and hence none of them could find fault with Jesus. Scripture traditions were the basis for all the leaders of the Jewish community. Individual traditions of the four groups were the product of Bible traditions. Jesus was firmly rooted on the Bible and hence he was out of danger. When he answered one he silenced four so to say.

Jesus again in reply spoke to them in parables, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast."' Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.' The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, 'My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?' But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.' Many are invited, but few are chosen." (Mt 22:1-14)

According to today’s reading, the kingdom of heaven is a place of celebration. Yesterday it was a place of work. Kingdom is inclusive of all types activities. Since it is a place of wedding feast the servants are sent around to invite and welcome the guests. Usually in the society, all the invited guests come and join in the celebration. It is the social celebrations and to come together is a social value. Most people respect the invitation. Friends, relatives and people of respect are invited.

Feast is ready and the celebration must go on. Only the people are missing. The king wants the celebration hall to be filled in. The criteria of the society are not followed up in this kingdom celebration. In the society friends, relatives and people of honour are important. But here those criteria do not work. The only criterion is that people should come in for the celebration.

One man is punished because he did not have the wedding garment. But most of the people who came for this feast were from the streets and where did they get their wedding garment from? When did they get time to change or where did they go to change their dress? This is a parable and this story talks about the values of the kingdom: love, truth, justice, mercy, holiness etc. If one does not have these values then he himself is not willing to be part of the kingdom but has entered in without the knowledge of the kingdom and hence he is sent out.