On a recent reality TV show entitled Wedding Wars, engaged couples competed for a complete wedding wardrobe. The winning couple received the bride’s dress and the groom’s tuxedo as well as proper attire for their entire wedding party. The estimated cash value was $30,000. Getting married is not cheap.
In today’s gospel Jesus tells a parable about a wedding invitation, a banquet, and God’s grace. Jesus teaches about a king who ultimately invites all people to a wedding banquet. At first this parable seems to portray a wide open and gracious invitation to a wedding celebration. However, by the end it is hard not to feel sorry for the poor guy who gets a last-minute invitation but gets thrown out for not wearing the correct wedding duds! He apparently wasn’t a winner on that era’s counterpart of that reality TV show! Again, getting married is not cheap—but neither is grace.
Jesus tells this parable as a way of teaching us that receiving God’s grace changes people. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught, God’s grace is not cheap, it comes at a great cost upon the cross. Once we receive this costly grace, our lives are never the same. This grace compels us to act and calls us to bear fruit with our lives. Ultimately we are led to share this grace with others. To continue to live in the same way after receiving this gracious invitation is not an option. So what are we to do? We simply receive the gracious invitation to the banquet and find a changing room—it’s time to live a new life.