Prepare
The gospel text is a continuation of Jesus after his entrance into Jerusalem on the week of his crucifixion and is a charged judgment on the temple leadership. It follows the cleansing of the temple and continues as he teaches stories of unreliable sons, cursed fig trees, and unfaithful and murderous tenants.
Jesus brings these stories here to indict the leadership in the ways they have missed the proverbial spiritual boat. The reign of God is right in front of them, yet they dismiss Jesus’ witness, turn their backs on the ways God is working, and will go so far as to crucify the messiah.
Before we get too excited about the “bad guys” of this story, these stories can hold up a mirror to our own lives and ways in which we may have fallen short of living into God’s reign. We can point our fingers at others in this text, or we can take this as a moment to learn about our own shortcomings, confess them, and seek the Spirit’s power to lead us as God’s heart, hands and feet.
This story is about invitation and what it means that we are invited to participate in God’s vision for the world, and we get to share the invitation, in particular to those who are on the fringes of our community.
Note: The end of the text brings a curious sidenote about a particular guest who came but did not dress for the occasion. He is bound and thrown out from the feast with the declaration, “for many are called and few are chosen.” This last cryptic story has had many interpretations from a representation of Judas to spiritual readiness to disrespect for the king by not honoring the moment with proper dress. It is very easy to chase these conclusions, but some texts are best left in wonder. It is a good idea to be curious about the intention of these verses, but perhaps leave off a definitive conclusion.
Opening Story
In 2025, a young woman, the daughter of garbage collectors in Mexico, held her quinceañera. This cultural milestone celebrates young people on their 15th birthday. Unfortunately, the party was sparsely attended, leading her father to post a video for people to come eat the food he had saved up for and prepared. After her father posted the video of the meager celebration, the community rallied around this young woman. Event planners donated their time, others donated food and photography, and the town offered a venue. Thousands attended her quinceañera weeks later, giving her the experience of a lifetime.
For a video on this story, follow this link.
Reflection Questions
- What are your immediate reactions to this story? How do you feel about this young woman at the beginning of the story compared to the end?
- How did the town change the story? What did people do to change what this moment meant for her?
- Imagine you invite people to join you to celebrate your birthday, but on the day of the party, hardly anyone comes. Imagining this, what feelings are percolating in you?
- Now imagine a member of your community who is vulnerable, someone who may not have a strong social network. Now imagine they invite you to their party. What are honest feelings you have around this invitation? What would make responding to this difficult for you?
- What responsibility do we have to care for our neighbors, especially those who are more vulnerable?
Text to Read Aloud
Who is Invited?
Jesus is in the temple courts and is speaking to the temple leadership about the ways they have fallen short of seeing the reign of God before them. To highlight this, today’s gospel text sets up a parable about a banquet where everything goes wrong. A king is preparing for a wedding for his son; the food is purchased, the date set, the venue prepared, but the guest list is a complete catastrophe. Every RSVP is a “no.” He goes to all those he invited, pleading with them to attend the feast, but they ignore his pleas. Some invited guests even go so far as to kill the messengers inviting them to a feast! Clearly they REALLY did not want to go.
Finally the king opens the banquet to all. Servants are sent out and gather anyone they may find, “the good with the bad.” And so the feast was full.
The focus of this text is on invitation. Contextually, Jesus is highlighting the temple leadership’s failure to see the king, literally messiah in Hebrew, in Jesus and heed the invitation to see what God is preparing. The feast represents the inbreaking reign of God. In this text, God shows how the reign of God is not limited in scope but will go where it will go, inviting all to the table. The invitation cannot be stopped and it will roll out to the streets, valleys, and beyond, bringing all kinds to the party. Jesus’ reign was built on the societal outcasts, the “other”, those whom culture puts to the margins.
Who’s Invited?
This story is not just about the temple leadership, but about all of us and how we all can be generous in our invitation to participate in the reign of God.
When we gather at our feast at the table of grace and bless the cup, the words are often spoken, “shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.” Jesus’ invitation to the table is not just for us but for the whole world. As God’s heart, hands, and feet, we can extend this invitation to those in our radius, inviting all to participate in what God is doing in the world. As God’s chosen, may we extend our invitation far and wide so all may experience God’s abundant grace.
Reflection Questions
- How would you react if you were king and people refused to join the marriage feast for your son? Do you think he was justified in his reaction?
- How is Jesus pointing us to be generous in how we invite people into the way of Jesus and welcome them to the feast?
- How do people experience welcome in your community? In what ways would a new person experience your church?
- How can you grow in the ways you invite and welcome people, not just to church, but into friendship and community?
Closing Activity
Ask each person to consider one person in their radius who may need a friend, someone who may not feel “invited to the party.” Consider what it would look like to befriend them and how this might make a real difference in their life. Share how you might extend that invite and what this might show you about the reign of God.
Closing Blessing or Prayer
Teresa of Avila reminds us in her famous poem “Christ Has No Body Now but Yours” that Christ exists in and through us. Consider reading this poem to the group as a way to remind each of us that we get to be God’s invitation in the world.
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Amen
Biography
Jay Gamelin is Lead Servant for Family Life at Abiding Hope Church in Littleton, CO. His passion is seeing the transformative work of the gospel at work in families and students. He loves to go to hot yoga, eat fresh basil on pizza, watch sea otter videos, put barbecue sauce on his mac and cheese (very controversial in this household) and admire his amazing wife and four kids.
