Jesus' Wedding Parable Makes No Sense

[00:00:00][music] Hey everybody, I'm Dan Mlelen >> and I'm Dan Beecher >> and this is Data Over Dogma, where [music] we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion and we combat the spread of misinformation about the same. I'm in a good mood today, Dan, cuz I just got in the mail my Absolute Batman t-shirt, which [laughter] um >> yes, you can't see all of it right now.

[00:00:25]You'll see it in a video soon enough. I also got my Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow t-shirt based on the comic, not the movie.

[00:00:32]>> Oh, okay.

[00:00:32]>> But um I'm I'm excited about that comic.

[00:00:34]>> I'm going to get I'm going to get the movie one just to bug you.

[00:00:37]>> Well, I'm I'm seeing a lot of uh negative reviews about the movie, which uh I haven't seen it yet, but uh because it comes out tomorrow, but um >> I hope it's I hope it's a good movie.

[00:00:49]But anyway, how are you, Dan?

[00:00:51]>> I'm good. I'm uh I don't have any uh new t-shirts, but I do have a terrible parable I that I need you to walk through with me. That's what we're doing today. It's the parable of the wedding banquet.

[00:01:06]>> Yes.

[00:01:06]>> And it is >> uh I'm baffled. So, I vote we just dive right in with terrible parables.

[00:01:15][music] Okay. So, the wedding banquet, uh, or at least it's a wedding banquet in Matthew in Luke. It's, uh, it's just a a dinner.

[00:01:28]Uh, it's a great dinner in Luke. Um, I I don't know. Should I walk us through kind of the basics? Should I read it? I I feel like >> Yeah. Why Why don't we read it? Read through it first and then we'll go back and talk about what's going on here.

[00:01:43]>> Are we doing Matthew? Matthew is the crazy one. Luke feels so reasonable [laughter] after having read the Matthew one. [snorts] >> Yes. It's good cop, bad cop. Uh today, well, actually, yeah. Yeah. Uh let's let's start with Matthew. We'll talk a little bit about it and then we can talk about Luke and also the version that we find in one of the other gospels that is not in your Bible.

[00:02:05]>> What?

[00:02:06]>> Yeah, you sprung that on me right before. I didn't I didn't know. I didn't know. Uh all right. Uh I'll dive in and read it. Uh this is from uh Matthew 22.

[00:02:17]>> It says, "Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying I love that it says right off the bat that it's a parable."

[00:02:24]It's it's it's not always clear when something's a parable. We've made it clear this it's explicit this time.

[00:02:30]>> Yeah.

[00:02:30]>> The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come again. He sent other slaves saying, "Tell those who have been invited, look, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet."

[00:02:57]But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. While while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, "The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet." Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad. So the wedding uh so the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see these guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe. And he said to them, "Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?" And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, "Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where they where there will be weeping and nashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen." And that last scripture is very very popular and I have heard it a lot and I never knew that it was attached to a crazy story that makes no sense. [laughter] >> Yeah. Uh let why don't we talk about some of the ways it doesn't make sense before we talk about uh the other parables that make more sense.

[00:04:27]>> Yeah. uh that are associated with them because we we have the uh the story in Luke represed by Matthew except for verses 11-4 and and this is interesting because uh a lot of scholars when they compare things that are found across multiple different gospels a lot of times you'll find you'll notice that the language is identical like a verse two verses the whole thing maybe it's identical or very very very close. Uh when it comes to what's in Luke, it's parallel, but there are only three words that are actually identical.

[00:05:06]Into the streets.

[00:05:08]>> Okay, >> that's the only those are the only three words that are actually in the same order in the same part uh between Matthew and Luke. Other than that, it's two different tellings of more or less the same parable until we get to verses 11-14, which leads a lot of scholars to say, "Okay, so whatever parable this was before it was written down in Matthew and written down in Luke obviously didn't have verses 11-4, and it probably wasn't from what what some scholars reconstruct as Q, which would be a written uh source. verse that uh was used by Matthew and Luke that was probably not known to Mark that uh is the reason that there's so much in Matthew and Luke that is shared. Uh it's probably not in Q because it seems more like an oral tradition or something like that. But the it's really >> now remind me uh the order that the that they came in Matthew >> predates Luke >> probably. Yeah. So, it probably went Mark, Matthew, Luke, and then John.

[00:06:15]>> Okay, >> that's where I think most scholars stand right now.

[00:06:18]>> Okay, >> but uh and verses 11 through 14 are where it gets weird because, you know, if the story is, okay, invite all the people, they're not coming. All right, burn their city to the ground. Uh, let's just invite the strangers off the street. Okay, now we got a wedding banquet full of strangers off the street. Fair enough. Like that's that makes sense.

[00:06:42]>> I mean, I don't know about this burning the thing to the ground that that we'll get to that.

[00:06:46]>> Yeah, it's at least internally consistent.

[00:06:48]>> And L Luke doesn't have that part either.

[00:06:51]>> The burning the city to the ground. No, >> burning the city to the ground.

[00:06:54]>> Luke's a little different.

[00:06:54]>> But yeah, I mean like if I cut out all the parts that freak me out. It's a nice story about like you invite the nice fancy people, they don't come. So, you got a bunch of food. You give it you invite all the poor people, which you probably should have invited them before, but that's okay. But you [laughter] invite them in. And and and it's a it's an it's a large table >> parable. And that's a great parable.

[00:07:19]>> Yeah.

[00:07:19]>> If it stopped there, if the parable was just like, "Hey, be cool to all the poor people and be cool to all of the, you know, the people less fortunate than you." That I get. [laughter] But then there's this guy who who forgot his tuxedo.

[00:07:35]>> Yeah. It says when the king came in to see the guest, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe and he's like, "Brohee, how did you get in here?" And the guy was probably like, "I was walking by and somebody told me to come in >> chilling."

[00:07:50]>> Yeah. Like why would I why would I have that on me? I don't keep that thing on me. Um >> sir, this is a Wendy's. [laughter] And then uh and yeah, he gets uh he goes to hell because of that. He gets thrown into outer darkness and and so there a lot of um textually sensitive scholars are like okay 11 through13 was something that Matthew added because it doesn't really fit. And then verse 14 is even is also peculiar because in those >> that's the many are called few are chosen.

[00:08:22]>> Right. Right. In the story the majority of the people who are called don't come.

[00:08:27]Yeah.

[00:08:28]>> And then of all the people who do come, only one is not chosen. So many are called, few are chosen. Is like that doesn't fit >> with the story you just told.

[00:08:39]>> Yeah.

[00:08:40]>> But the story you just told >> confusing.

[00:08:42]>> Yeah. The story you just told is many are called, some don't come.

[00:08:46]>> A small minority of the ones that do come are not chosen. So >> yeah it well it's it's a few are called then they don't come and then then many are called and then everybody but one guy is chosen [laughter] and he's not chosen because he wore the wrong because his because of fashion reasons.

[00:09:07]>> Yeah. Yeah. Cuz he Yeah. [laughter] Um but he's what what is the author of Matthew doing here? Probably cobbling together something. and and Matthew the author has has some message that's going on here. But I want to talk now about the the message of the parable >> because like it makes sense. It's not necessarily a great parable because in this parable obviously the king is God >> and obviously the wedding banquet for his son is about Jesus. This is the kingdom of heaven. This is basically this esqueological end times we all survived. It's the final scene in any your happy ending post-apocalyptic uh movie, >> right?

[00:09:52]>> Sends out his slaves to call those who have been invited to the wedding banquet. So, this is prophets, uh apostles, things like that. Who are the ones who have been invited?

[00:10:03]>> The Jewish people.

[00:10:04]>> Okay.

[00:10:05]>> Yes. The Jewish people would not come. I got to I got to It says, "No, everything's ready. We we're we're ready to go." and they're like, "Hey, I got to go tend to my farm. I got to go tend to my business." Uh, and then some of them, it says, "Caizes his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them." So, that would be the prophets who were killed by other Jewish folks. And then the the early followers of Jesus who were mistreated, uh, Saul, for instance, who became Paul, uh, you know, mistreated and and had some of them killed.

[00:10:34]>> The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed their murders, and burned their city. This is widely understood to be a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem. in 70 CE. In other words, yes. So, this is saying, okay, the Jewish people uh aren't going to come to my feast for my son.

[00:10:53]>> Well, I'm going to send Rome to destroy Jerusalem.

[00:10:56]>> This is almost a a [clears throat] taunting. It's almost like a >> told you so. You You shouldn't have been a jerk to us. That's what happens.

[00:11:06]>> Yeah. You see what happens? Look what you made me do.

[00:11:09]>> Gosh. Okay.

[00:11:10]>> Um Wow. [clears throat] And uh and then he said to his slaves, "The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy." That would be the Jewish people. So um problematic to say the least.

[00:11:21]>> Go therefore into the main streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet. So this is a reference to >> the mission of Christianity to the Gentiles.

[00:11:31]>> Right?

[00:11:32]>> You Jewish people don't want to accept the invitation. We're going to open it up to everybody.

[00:11:36]>> Right?

[00:11:36]>> And we're going to go out and we're going to find anybody we can. the poor, the weak, the orphan, the widow, uh, whatever. We're gonna go find everybody, >> the dirty, dirty Gentiles.

[00:11:47]>> Yeah. The slaves went out into the streets, which would be the world, and gathered all whom they found. And then you have this uh both good and bad. So, the wedding hall was filled with guests.

[00:11:59]Now, it's like why why would you include that? And um and there are a number of scholars who have suggested this is probably something that was added to kind of make sense of the fact that there's somebody in there who's who doesn't belong. [laughter] >> Okay.

[00:12:14]>> Yeah. So >> it does seem a little like >> Yeah. Like we're in heaven now and we brought bad people.

[00:12:20]>> Yeah. Why did you let them in? What's going on?

[00:12:23]>> Or and I love the uh in verse 12, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe? And he was speechless. I can see the guy with like pate like just you wideeyed kind of looking at him before he's grabbed by both arms and dragged screaming out of the out of the venue [laughter] out of a mouthful of chicken. He's like >> yeah [laughter] >> told me about the dress code. I'm sorry.

[00:12:52]But yeah, I I think it's likely the author in in trying to stitch the pre-existing parable to this idea of the one without the uh wedding robe probably had to uh sprinkle a little foreshadowing into the parable that was received. The receiver >> is the idea with the wedding robe is it is the idea that I like if I'm if I'm putting on my parable interpretation hat >> Uhhuh.

[00:13:21]The best I can come up with is that like everyone's invited in, but you got to come correct. Meaning, you got you still have to be righteous and you still have to sort of uh do all of do, you know, do all of the correct things or you're still not getting in even though everyone's invited. I I think this is one of the com complexities of of interpretation because in whatever context this was initially uh published, it probably would have made sense to the audience if they were the target audience what was intended by that.

[00:14:00]>> Whether it was you have to be baptized >> or maybe it's you have to be circumcised.

[00:14:06]>> Okay.

[00:14:06]>> Because Matthew is very much uh we're doing all the stuff.

[00:14:10]>> Uhhuh. you know, anyone who keeps the least of these laws will be the most in the kingdom of heaven, but he who who breaks the the least of these will be the least. Um, so maybe it is uh somebody who's not following the law of Moses >> and uh and they're not circumcised or they're not wearing the uh the right garment uh or they are, you know, not doing the good works or or whatever. It depends on how narrowly you can figure out what the target audience was and and what precisely might have been in view for the author and for the target audience. I don't think we can say for sure what that is, but but it's probably some kind of costly signal, some kind of display of your fidelity to the group that there was probably controversy about whether or not uh this was still required. I'm I'm just going to say just to be on the safe side, you guys, when you get to heaven, poke your head in and see what everybody's wearing and [laughter] just make sure that you're uh that you get it right just in case that it's that it's more literal than >> Yeah. And and uh ask if they're circumcised.

[00:15:21]>> Yeah.

[00:15:21]>> Um [laughter] >> look look under the robe of a couple just to see what [laughter] what's going on. So, so I I think that's that's one way to uh to interpret what's going on there. But, uh, what do you say we take a look at some of the other iterations?

[00:15:37]>> Okay. So, let's go to Luke is very very similar to Matthew. I don't want to read the whole thing. Um, but it's instead of a wedding banquet, which I think the I think this is good because wedding was a bit of a weird metaphor because Jesus never got married that we know about and it it just seems like a weird thing.

[00:15:54]It's a big It's a reason for a big banquet. And I think that's probably what they were going for. But this is just a great >> Yeah. It's not a king. It's just someone.

[00:16:02]>> It's just a dude throwing a party. Yeah.

[00:16:04]>> Uh a dinner party.

[00:16:06]>> And he says, uh, yeah, send his slave, just one slave, >> which which [snorts] is suggestive of of Luke having access to the earlier version of this before Matthew got his grubby hands on it and and, you know, uh, added all these details.

[00:16:19]>> Yeah, Matthew was into embellishment for this one.

[00:16:22]So, >> so one slave goes out to say to those who have been invited, "Come. Everything is ready now."

[00:16:28]>> Yeah.

[00:16:29]>> And then they all began to make excuses.

[00:16:30]Oh gosh, I bought a piece of land. I must go out and see. I bought five yok ox and I'm going to try them out. Please accept my regrets. I've been married and therefore I cannot come. So the slave come back comes back and goes. They all >> And in this case, I liked I liked that they all had what sound like fairly reasonable excuses as opposed to just >> screw off. I don't want to come.

[00:16:54]>> Yeah. Well, and and here's and here's where we get one of the messages of this. Uh all of these people have been pre-invited. They already know it's coming.

[00:17:02]>> Oh, that's right.

[00:17:03]>> Yes. And and yet they made other plans for the time.

[00:17:07]>> Yeah. And and and here's another kind of layer of of significance to Christians.

[00:17:12]Uh it's kind of like the uh the wise and the unwise virgins because God doesn't tell you when God's coming. You know neither the hour nor the day, but be on the lookout cuz one day at some point God's slave is going to show up and say come for everything is ready now. And you got to be sure you haven't uh gotten married, >> right?

[00:17:34]>> Or and you know that's not an excuse.

[00:17:35]You haven't bought five yolk of oxin.

[00:17:38]That's not an adequate excuse. But um then the the person gets angry, tells the slave to go back out into the streets and bring in the poor, the disabled, the blind, the lame. And um >> yeah, nobody is first of all, nobody's murdered. So >> yeah, we're not we're not making reference to the 70 CE Jerusalem destruction, >> right?

[00:17:59]>> So yeah.

[00:17:59]>> So So they just send them out and just say, "Bring in some other cool people, find whoever you find."

[00:18:04]>> And it's explicitly the social outcasts, >> right? Oh, yeah. That's right.

[00:18:09]Not just anybody off the street, not just fano retal uh Joe Schmo, not um your uh Joe Six-Pack or whatever. It's the the poor, the disabled, the blind, the lame. And the slave said, "Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room."

[00:18:27]And then he says, "Go into the roads and lanes and compel people to come in so that my house may be filled." So [laughter] now, yeah, at some point, >> make them come in.

[00:18:34]>> Yeah. At some point, salvation is going to be angels going, "We need more people. Come on, >> get in here.

[00:18:39]>> Yeah, [laughter] >> I don't want to. You have to. Come on.

[00:18:42]>> Before I >> I just ate. I'm fine.

[00:18:45]>> That's that that's the rapture. Angels showing up and being like, uh, take out that guy. [laughter] >> Yeah, you too. No, I didn't.

[00:18:52]>> Even Christians. Doesn't matter. We need the We need the somebody to fill the seats.

[00:18:56]>> We're Hindu. Leave [laughter] us alone.

[00:18:58]>> Um, and then it ends, for I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.

[00:19:04]>> Right. Um, so it sounds almost more like revenge like like look who I'm with.

[00:19:09]>> There's a little bit of bitterness in the last little line. Yeah.

[00:19:12]>> Yeah. Um, now I think Luke probably gives a more pristine representation of what's going on here. probably a little closer to whatever tradition was in circulation prior to again the author of Matthew giving their getting their grubby little hands on it and and turning it into this uh this revenge fantasy >> where burn the city to the ground. Um uh [clears throat] I was going to quote something from uh Three Amigos, but I I thought better of it. Um there's there's another version that is recorded that comes from the Gospel of Thomas.

[00:19:49]>> Okay. And this is >> this is the one I had no idea about. I'm I'm excited to hear about it.

[00:19:53]>> So, uh, Gospel of Thomas probably preserves from some stuff that that might predate the canonical gospels, even though it's also got uh a a kind of uh Gnosticleaning layer to it as well.

[00:20:06]But here is uh utterance loon number 64, however you want to refer to it.

[00:20:13][snorts] Jesus said, "A man had guests."

[00:20:15]And when he had prepared the dinner, he sent his servants to invite the guests.

[00:20:19]He went to the first. He said to him, "My master invites you." He said, "I have some money for some merchants. They will come to me in the evening. I will go and give them my orders. I pray to be excused from dinner." He went to another. He said to him, "My master has invited you." He said to him, "I have bought a house and they request me for a day. I will not have time." He came to another. He said to him, "My master invites you." He said to him, "My friend is to be married and I am to arrange a dinner. I shall not be able to come. I pray to be excused from the dinner." He went to another and he said to him, "My master invites you." He said to him, "I have bought a village. I go to collect the rent. I shall not be able to come. I pray to be excused." The servant came.

[00:20:58]He said to his master, "Those whom you invited to the dinner have excused themselves." The master said to his servant, "Go out to the roads. Bring those whom you will find so that they may dine. Tradesmen and merchants shall not enter the place of MY FATHER.

[00:21:14]>> WHOA. OKAY, that's a that's an interesting exclusion.

[00:21:19]>> Yeah. So, we we have something that's more basic, which doesn't necessarily mean it's earlier, but it could mean that.

[00:21:27]>> Although it does add people. It's not just three excuses given. There are four people with excuses >> and they all have to do with trades, the trades or uh money or uh or responsibilities to family or things like that. And we get a quite explicit tradesmen and merchants shall not enter the place of my father. But also this indicates that the master is not the father. The master here is Jesus.

[00:21:55]>> Right.

[00:21:57]>> Yeah. But um this is understood by those who understand the gospel of Thomas to be a little more gnostic to be uh kind of anti- capitalist uh to some degree uh given >> Yeah. I mean it sounds very uh eat the richy to me.

[00:22:13]>> Yeah. Yeah. Which is funny because you got to imagine somebody who's like they've read Luke, they've read Matthew, then they read this and they're like what the other ones are like people don't make excuses for for not being aware. This one's like tradesmen and merchants suck. Yeah. Like that's it's a little on the nose, but uh but yeah, that's what we get in the Gospel of Thomas's version of this parable. Again, nothing about anybody who shows up and starts shoving shoving his face with stuffing his face with uh shrimp. Uh no shrimp involved, but stuffing his face with with chicken. uh and then uh being uh sent to hell because >> being being incorrectly clothed.

[00:22:56]>> Yeah. So nothing about that. Uh but yeah, we do have uh the Gospel of Thomas's own little spin on who exactly this is about. It's not it's not the Jewish folks, it's capitalists.

[00:23:10]>> It's capitalist. So yeah, [laughter] >> which if you ask anti-semites now, they would they would claim that the Jewish folks are the capital are the >> Yeah, it's a the that ven diagram is a is a perfect circle. Yeah.

[00:23:24]>> So um interesting parable found in a few different versions within early Christianity with some some layers added to it to uh kind of uh you know point the finger at at this group, that group, and the other group. But uh yeah, a lot of fun to see how it differs from one author to another uh and how it's kind of deployed to serve their own rhetorical interests and goals.

[00:23:48]>> Yeah. And also how confusing it is. It is a [laughter] it is a murky murky brackish water. Yes.

[00:23:55]>> That we're waiting in. And I I I still don't feel like I understand what's really going on, but that's okay. That's we we don't get to understand everything. It's uh but it's fun to explore it anyway.

[00:24:08]Well, there you go. That's it. Uh, if you would like to become a part of making this show happen and exploring more terrible parables, you can go to patreon.com/data overdogma and give us a little bit of your hard-earned money. Uh, don't be a merchant. Don't be don't don't be one of those guys.

[00:24:27]>> Don't be a trades person.

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