All parables give a person useful knowledge if understood correctly. But sometimes Gospel illustrations contain very complex images that can confuse you. For example, the parable of the wedding feast. How to understand it?
He seems to divide people into those who are grateful and those who are not. And it seems that the first should be the righteous, but for some reason there are both evil and good among them. And what kind of person was punished by the king in the parable for dressing inappropriately for the occasion? Isn't Jesus' choice of image too complex? Apparently not, because today the meaning of all the symbols from the parable is probably known.
This parable tells about a feast at a noble person, it is in the Gospel in the Spirit versions
This parable is told in two Gospels, apparently written at the same time and based on common sources. Yet the versions are very different from each other.
The text in the Gospel of Matthew in more detail:
“Jesus, continuing to speak to them in parables, said: The kingdom of heaven is like a man king, who held a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast; and didn't want to come. Again he sent other slaves, saying: Tell those who are invited: behold, I have prepared my dinner, my bullocks and what is fattened, slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast. But they, despising this, went, some to their field, and some to their trade; The others, seizing his slaves, insulted and killed them. Hearing about this, the king became angry, and, sending his troops, destroyed their killers and burned their city. Then he says to his servants: The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy; So go to the highways and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast. And those slaves, going out onto the roads, gathered everyone they found, both evil and good; and the wedding feast was filled with those reclining. The king, entering to look at those reclining, saw a man there, not dressed in wedding clothes, and said to him: friend! How did you come here not wearing wedding clothes? He was silent. Then the king said to the servants: Having tied his hands and feet, take him and throw him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth; For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Mf. 22:1–14
This antique painting illustrates the parable of the wedding feast. The king who invites guests has clear features of Jesus Christ
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus Christ clearly tells the same parable about the same request, but if in the first version the royal person was called to come to the feast, then in the second it is no longer necessarily the king, but simply some “one man.” And in general there are much fewer details:
“And he said to him: A certain man made a great supper and invited many, and when the time for supper came, he sent his servant to say to those invited: Go, for everything is already ready. And everyone, as if by agreement, began to apologize. The first one said to him: I bought land and I need to go and look at it; please forgive me. Another said: I bought five pairs of oxen and am going to test them; please forgive me. The third said: I got married and therefore cannot come. And, returning, that servant reported this to his master. Then, angry, the owner of the house said to his servant: go quickly through the streets and alleys of the city and bring here the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And the servant said: Master! done as you ordered, and there is still room. The master said to the servant: go along the roads and hedges and persuade them to come, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you that none of those who are called will taste my supper, for many are called, but few are chosen.”
OK. 14:16–24
The parable of those invited to the wedding feast... (Matthew 22:1–14)
"Interpretation of Old Testament history"
After the public disgrace of the envoys of the Sanhedrin, the Lord continued His conversations with the people, who now especially needed the instruction of the Divine Teacher, since they did not know what to do. A kind heart would like to surrender selflessly to Jesus Christ and was drawn to Him by everything: His miracles, His Divine teaching, and His holy life. But everyday reason and the old habit of looking at the Pharisees and scribes as legitimate teachers appointed by God Himself stopped him. The Pharisees constantly interpreted that the Jews were the “chosen people” of God (Is. 43:20), that the coming Kingdom of God was destined for them, and not for anyone else; and the people became so accustomed to this prejudice, which also flattered their pride, that it was painful for them to hear from the Lord a terrible word for them: “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who bear its fruits” (Matthew 21:43 ). And the more the Lord’s listeners thought about this, the more painful were these doubts, these hesitations. The heart expert saw all these emotional states of the listeners, knew that they, perhaps, were ready to exclaim, as they did recently: “How long will You keep us in bewilderment? if you are the Christ, tell us plainly” (John 10:24), but he also knew what His open declaration of Himself as the Messiah would lead to, and therefore he warned this question: JESUS
,
CONTINUING TO SPEAK TO THEM IN PARABLES
, as if answering their heartfelt yearnings, and at the same time responding to the efforts of the Pharisees to lay hands on Him,
HE SAID: THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE A MAN KING
,
WHO MADE A WEDDING Feast FOR HIS SON
,
AND
, when everything was ready ,
HE SENT HIS SLAVES TO CALL THEM INVOLVED TO THE MARRIAGE Feast
.
The guests were invited earlier; they already knew that the king would have a wedding feast at a certain time and that they would be let know when it was ready. But these invitees were indifferent to the royal invitation: AND THEY DID NOT WANT TO COME
.
The Tsar complacently excused the guests who had slowed down, perhaps due to some misunderstanding; without threatening, without demanding, - on the contrary, out of his kindness, wanting them not to miss the opportunity to enjoy the holiday, he only ordered the slaves to hurry up the invitees more persistently than before: AGAIN HE SENT OTHER SLAVES
,
SAYING: SAY TO THE INVOLVED: LOOK
,
I HAVE PREPARED MY DINNER
,
MY CALFS AND WHAT IS FAT
,
IS SlaughterED
,
AND EVERYTHING IS READY;
COME TO THE MARRIAGE Feast .
BUT
Those invited reacted to the second invitation just as coldly and even carelessly:
THEY NEGLECTED THAT,
SOMEONE
WENT TO THEIR
FIELD
AND
SOMEONE
TO THEIR TRADE
.
Apparently, selfish calculations were more important to them than the honor of being among the guests at the wedding feast of the Tsarev’s son. But this is not enough: among those called, there were also those who acted even more recklessly and more terrible: THE OTHERS
,
SETTING HIS SLAVES
,
INSULTED AND KILLED THEM
.
There is no doubt that these daring subjects would have done the same to the king’s son, if the king’s father had sent him to invite them to the feast. In any case, by offending the royal envoys, the subjects inflicted the greatest insult on the king himself. Both the high rank of the king and the important reason for the celebration increased the severity of the guilt of the offenders. HEARING ABOUT THIS
, about such insane audacity of those whom he wanted to treat with a feast,
the KING
, who had been so complacent,
was ANGRY
, inflamed with righteous anger, and immediately decided to punish the guilty for his offense:
AND
,
SENDING HIS TROOPS
,
DESTROYED THEIR MURDERERS AND BURNED THEIR CITY
, consigned to flames, destroyed from the face of the earth.
Meanwhile, the time for the feast has arrived. The king did not want his joy to remain unshared with his subjects. THEN HE SAYS TO HIS Servants: THE MARRIAGE Feast IS READY
,
BUT THEY WERE CALLED WERE NOT WORTHY
.
These arrogant people whom I did the honor of inviting to my feast are not worthy of my mercy. But I will find some guests. SO GO TO THE CROSSROADS
, where there are many people passing by,
AND INVITE EVERYONE YOU FIND
, no matter who you meet there,
TO THE MARRIAGE Feast
, without distinction of rank or condition.
The slaves fulfilled the command. AND THOSE SLAVES
,
GOING OUT ON THE ROAD
,
COLLECTED EVERYONE
WHO
WERE FOUND
,
BOTH EVIL
AND
GOOD;
They did not dare to distinguish: who was worthy and who was not worthy of the royal feast - they invited everyone who wanted to go, let the king himself decide: who should be seated at the royal meal and who should be removed from the feast.
AND THE WEDDING Feast WAS FILLED WITH PEOPLE
- the banquet table was occupied by guests, the feast began.
Then the king went out to the feasters to please them with his presence: THE KING
,
ENTERING TO SEE
,
SAW THERE A MAN
NOT DRESSED IN WEDDING CLOTHES
: he was dressed indecently, so that he dishonored the very celebration, insulted the king and his guests. And this after the royal servants, according to Eastern custom, before entering the banquet chamber, offered each guest clothes from the royal bounty! Why is this strange guest sitting in his dirty clothes, which he wore at the crossroads? Maybe this is an oversight of my servants who did not offer him clothes, the king thinks. And he approaches the guest.
AND
affably, without disturbing the general fun,
SAYS TO HIM: FRIEND!
HOW DID YOU COME IN HERE NOT IN YOUR WEDDING CLOTHES? The guest could not say that he was accidentally invited to the feast right from the crossroads, that he was not given time to go home to change clothes, that, due to poverty, he did not have the best clothes at all - apparently, the Tsar’s servants also offered him wedding clothes, but he himself did not want to put it on, neglected this royal gift and, therefore, deliberately appeared at the celebration in an unkempt state, came to the king, to the wedding of the king’s son!
What could he say in his defense? HE WAS SILENT
.
The depravity of the heart was reflected in this silence. He remained stubbornly silent, although by this silence he was already pronouncing a sentence on himself. And this sentence did not slow down: THEN THE KING SAID TO THE SERVANTS
, the stewards of the wedding feast:
TIING HIS HANDS AND LEGS
,
TAKE
, remove
HIM
from here
AND THROW HIM INTO OUTER DARKNESS
, into the deepest and darkest prison;
THERE
, in this impenetrable darkness,
THERE WILL BE CRYING AND GRINDING OF TEETH
, the inconsolable crying of late, fruitless repentance, and the gnashing of anger at oneself, the gnashing of disastrous despair.
The Lord concluded this parable with the same saying with which he ended the parable of the evil winegrowers: FOR MANY ARE CALLED
,
BUT FEW ARE CHOSEN
. Among these called, but not chosen, are not only those who did not go to the wedding feast at all, but many of those who came to the feast, but did not want to put on the wedding garment... After hearing this parable, the people had to involuntarily think : “Then there is nothing to be surprised that the high priests do not believe Jesus: many are called, but few are chosen. There is no reason to ask: who will inherit the kingdom if the Jews do not enter it? The king will find guests. Consequently, there is no point in looking at the Pharisees, but you must listen to your conscience, go to the supper, but go in wedding clothes. This - decent attire, a pious life - is the main thing. God has no partiality; whoever keeps faith and is kind will certainly be in the Kingdom of the Messiah and receive salvation” (Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson). Reading the Divine parables of the Lord, one cannot help but be amazed at the wise gradualness with which He reveals in them the holy truths of His teaching. Thus, in the previous parable of the evil vinedressers, He revealed Himself under the image of the only begotten, beloved son of the householder, the good master; in the parable of those invited to supper, He appears as the son of a powerful king. In this parable, He only covertly indicated that the Kingdom of God would be taken away from the Jews “and given to a people bearing its fruits”; here, under the image of those called from the crossroads, he more clearly depicts the pagans who will enter His Kingdom.
In the first, as it were, an Old Testament parable, He Himself appears in the form of the last greatest Prophet, crowning the Old Testament; in the latter, He will already accept His Kingdom, as the King foretold long ago, and calls both Jews and pagans into this Kingdom. In that parable of the Law, He demands from people fruits, fulfillment of duty; in this parable of Grace, He Himself offers gifts to people. There He is insulted by failure to fulfill legal demands; here they insult by not accepting the gift. Thus, these two parables complement each other, so that where the first ends, the second begins. Let us pay reverent attention to the interpretation of the parable of those called to the supper according to the guidance of the teachers of the Church. God the Father, the King of the whole world, is called King here; The Bridegroom is His Only Begotten Son, the true Messiah, the Lord Jesus; wedding feast - the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ or His Church in the world. The Church of Christ is His immaculate bride. And the Old Testament prophets imagined the opening of the blessed kingdom under the image of a wedding feast. “Do you see,” says St. Chrysostom, “the great similarity and at the same time the great difference of both parables? For this parable also shows the long-suffering of God, His great care and the wickedness of the Jews. It foreshadows the falling away of the Jews and the calling of the pagans, and also what kind of execution awaits the careless. It is rightly proposed after the previous parable. Having said that the Kingdom of God “will be given to the people who bear its fruits,” Jesus Christ shows here what kind of people it will be given to. There He is depicted calling before His crucifixion, and here He is drawing them to Himself after the crucifixion; whereas they should have been punished most severely, He calls and draws them to the wedding feast and honors them with the greatest honor. Just as there he does not first call upon the Gentiles, but first upon the Jews, so it is here. How was it when the Jews did not want to accept Him and even killed the one who came to them, and He gave the vineyard to others; so here too, when they did not want to come to the wedding feast, He called others. Could there be anything worse than such ingratitude - to be called to a wedding feast and not come? Who would not want to go to a marriage, to a marriage with a king, a king preparing a marriage for his son? You ask: why is the Kingdom of Heaven called marriage? So that you know God’s care, His love for us, splendor in everything, so that you know that there is nothing sad or regrettable, but everything is filled with spiritual joy. That is why John calls Him the Bridegroom, and that is why Paul says: “I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you to Christ as a pure virgin” (2 Cor. 11:2). Here Christ also foretells the resurrection. Before He spoke of death; now he says that after death there will be a marriage, there will be a Groom.”
“The Father,” says St. Gregory the Great, “arranged the marriage of the royal Son, uniting with Him, through the sacrament of the Incarnation, the Holy Church.” This wedding feast, the “marriage of the Lamb,” which is also spoken of in the Revelation of the Apostle John the Theologian, will be celebrated, in fact, after the end of the world, when the perfect bliss of the righteous redeemed by the Blood of the Lord is revealed; but even in the First Coming of the Lord to earth, His bride - the Church - has already been brought to Him, the betrothal has already been completed, the wedding supper has been opened, all the gracious gifts of God have been offered: come, all of you, enjoy the feast of faith, enter into the joy of your Lord! Receive the riches of God's goodness, everyone! Young men and a well-fed woman (Matt. 22:4); The Lamb of God Christ the Savior is slain; His most pure body and Divine Blood are offered in His Church to all believers; everything is ready: baptism, repentance, all the gifts of God and the Kingdom of Heaven itself. For this supper, into the depths of the Church of Christ, God has been calling the Jews for a long time: He called their forefather Abraham, and Abraham did not deny, he desired to see the day of Christ, and he saw it and rejoiced. He also called their ancestors, through Moses, “who gave them the Law, showing them the way to faith in Christ; He called through the prophets, who revealed to them the will of God; He also called them through John, who sent them all to Christ, saying: “He must increase, but I must decrease”; then - by the Son Himself, for He says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”; “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 3:30; Matt. 11:28; John 7:37). He called them not only with words, but also with deeds; He called after His ascension through Peter and the other apostles, for it is said: “He who assisted Peter in the apostleship to the circumcision also assisted me among the Gentiles” (Gal. 2:8). And what does He call them to? To labors, exploits, disasters? No, He calls them to have fun. For He says: “My bullocks and what is fattened is slain.” What a magnificent feast, what splendor! But this didn’t convert them either. On the contrary, the more He was patient with them, the more bitter they became. For they did not come to the wedding out of laziness, and not because they were busy with business. One should leave all other activities, even necessary ones, for spiritual matters. But this is not the only bad thing that they did not come, but what is most reckless and terrible is that they received those who came very badly: they outraged them and killed them, which is much worse than before. Previously, people came to them to demand fruit, and those who came were killed; Now they come from the One they killed to invite him to the wedding feast, and they also kill them. What can compare with such cruelty? What could be worse than this? This is their third fault. The first fault is that they killed the prophets; second, that they killed the Son; finally, the third, that those who are called from the One who was killed by them do not go to the wedding feast, but present reasons that, although plausible, from this we learn that, even if necessity holds us back, the spiritual must be preferred to everything.”
“One went to his field,” says Blessed Theophylact, “i.e. turned away to a carnivorous luxurious life, and the other to his purchases, i.e. to a covetous life” (St. John Chrysostom). The parable does not say that the son of the kings himself invited him to the wedding feast; judging from a human perspective, it would be indecent, inconsistent with his dignity; but in fact, the Son of the Heavenly King humbled Himself so much that, for the sake of love, He took upon Himself the image of a servant, the image of one of those whom His Heavenly Father sent to invite those called. And so, while these invited ones only did not want to go, until they insulted those sent, until then the Tsar complacently tolerated and tolerated their laziness and negligence. Such complacent condescension is heard in all the conversations of the Apostle Peter to the Jews after Pentecost: “I know, brethren, that you... did this out of ignorance,” he says (Acts 3:17). “The servants,” says Saint Hilary, “are the apostles, for they had to remind those whom the prophets called. Those sent a second time are men and successors of the apostles.” Both the apostles and their disciples addressed their first gospel of Christ the Savior to the Jews, but the Jews, with the exception of a few chosen by grace, rejected their preaching. In the book “The Acts of the Holy Apostles” we often come across the following news: and they laid hands on them... they put them to shame... they beat them... Finally, God’s long-suffering toward the Jewish people was exhausted; The King of Heaven was angry: “since they did not want to come, but killed those who came to them, He burned their cities and, sending an army, destroyed them. By this the Lord predicts the events that happened under Vespasian and Titus.” In the Holy Scriptures, wicked people are sometimes called servants of God if God through them punishes the criminals of His will; Thus, it is said about the Assyrians: “O Assyrian, the rod of My wrath!” (Isa. 10:5) About Nebuchadnezzar: “Nebuchadnezzar, my servant.” In the same sense, the Roman legions are called in the parable the army of the King of Heaven. The Romans destroyed their city too, i.e. Jerusalem, which has already ceased to be the city of God, the city of the Great King, Who renounces it, no longer recognizes it as His own: “Behold, your house is left to you empty!” (Matt. 23:38). “The destruction of the city did not happen immediately after the death of Christ, but forty years later, after they killed Stephen, killed James, and mocked the apostles, so that His long-suffering could be seen. Do you see how accurately and quickly the events themselves were fulfilled? For this happened during the lifetime of the Apostle John and many others who were with Christ, and those who heard this prediction were witnesses of these events. Then, God’s special care. He planted grapes and, after killing some slaves, sent others; After killing these he sent the Son, and after killing the Son he called them to marriage, but they did not want to come.
Then he sends other slaves - they killed these too. Then He destroys them as if they were infected with an incurable disease. That their illness was incurable is proven not only by their deeds, but also by the fact that they committed them when both the harlots and publicans believed” (St. Chrysostom). After all this, the pagans turn to Christ. “The disciples spoke to the Jews first - both before and after the cross. For before the cross Jesus said: “Go especially to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”; and after the cross He not only said: “Teach all nations,” but “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth” (Matthew 10:6, 28:19; Acts 1:8). The apostles did just that. But since the Jews did not cease to deceive the apostles, Paul says to them: “The word of God should have been preached to you first, but because you reject it and make yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13: 46). That is why the Lord Himself says: “The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.” Although He knew about this before, in order not to leave the Jews any pretext for a shameless apology, He Himself came to them first and sent His apostles to stop their mouths, and to teach us to do everything that should be done, even if no one received from it. no benefit. So, He says, since “those who were called were not worthy; So, go to the crossroads and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast,” even the lowly and despised. Since He often said before that harlots and tax collectors will inherit heaven, and the first will be last, and the last will be first, which especially offended the Jews, now He shows that all this is done fairly. For to see that pagans were being brought into the Kingdom in their place was a cruel and much stronger sorrow for the Jews than to see the destruction of their city” (St. John Chrysostom).
"Interpretation of New Testament history"
“And those slaves, going out onto the roads, gathered everyone they found, both evil and good.” This is exactly what the apostles did. So Philip came to the city of Samara and preached Christ to them. Peter baptized Cornelius and his household, and Paul proclaimed before the Athenians that God was now commanding people everywhere to repent. It is said that they gathered both the evil and the good. Nathanael was good, Cornelius was good, the pagans were good, who, not having the Law, were a law unto themselves; on the other hand, those who are affected more strongly by sin, common to all, are evil than on others; the disease that affected all mankind was more concentrated in some members than in others.
The Kingdom of God is a net that captures both the best and the worst, those who previously strived for a righteous life according to the Law and those who completely died in sins and iniquities, but, having heard the preaching of the Gospel, repented and turned to Christ. “And the wedding feast was filled with those reclining.” Until now, Christ’s parable has explained to us why and how God punished the people of Judah and its elders and teachers, who clearly rejected the gospel of salvation; explained how the pagans would enter the Kingdom of God. Now the Lord reveals and warns us that of all who will enter His Church, not all will be worthy of His Kingdom. “The King, having entered to see those reclining,” the Lord, as the One Knower of the Heart, Himself will judge who is worthy and who is not worthy of His Kingdom. It is precisely said about him: “His shovel is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor” (Matthew 3:12). All guests called to the royal feast were given decent clothing: everyone who enters the Church of Christ in the Sacrament of Baptism is clothed in the robe of truth, in the bright robe of spiritual purity, becomes new people by grace and must preserve this purity of the soul, without desecrating it with new sins. The wedding garment is a pure and immaculate life, like a garment woven from virtue. “Put on therefore,” says the Apostle Paul (Col. 3:12), “as God’s elect, holy and beloved, clothed with mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering.” “Under clothing,” says St. Chrysostom, “we understand the deeds of life. Although calling and cleansing are a work of grace, the fact that those who are called and clothed in clean clothing constantly keep it that way depends on the diligence of those called. Calling is not by merit, but by grace; Therefore, one must correspond to grace with obedience and, having received honor, not show such wickedness. Therefore, great punishment awaits the careless. For you, by turning aside to a depraved life, also offend God, just as they offended Him by not coming to Him. For to enter in unclean clothes means: having an unclean life, you will lose grace. That is why it is said: “he was silent.” Don’t you see how, with all the clarity of the matter, the Lord does not punish first, as then, when the sinner condemned himself! Having no way to defend himself, he condemned himself and subjected him to extreme punishment.” Why did the Lord say in the parable: “he made a wedding feast,” and not wedding feasts? “Because,” the Venerable Simeon the New Theologian responds to this, “that this marriage happens with every faithful son of the day,” every believing soul can not only become a participant in the Kingdom of God, but also the bride of Christ. And the Lord gives us all the means so that we can live by faith.
In the Sacraments of His Church we find both purification and renewal of the spirit, so there is no excuse for us if we do not put on righteousness, as in the clothing that the Heavenly King is always ready to give us, if only we strive with all our hearts to fulfill His holy will and cry out to To him: “I see Your palace, my Savior, adorned, and I have no clothes, but there is a stench below: enlighten the robe of my soul, O Light-Giver, and save me!” (Lunar of Holy Monday). The unworthy guest was silent... The tongue of the sinner will be numb when he appears at the Judgment of God. He will not dare to justify himself when his eyes are opened and he sees all the evil that defiles his soul. Convicted by God, convicted by conscience, he will wait in silent trepidation for the pronouncement of the verdict of God's Judgment. And this Judgment will not delay. He cannot escape it. The King will say: “Binding his hands and feet, take him and throw him into outer darkness.” And then for the exile of the Kingdom of God, for the unrepentant sinner, “the night comes when no one” (man) “can do” (John 9:4), the time will come when repentance and correction will no longer be possible, for he himself did not want live in the light, did not strive for the light of life and became the son of darkness and eternal destruction. Death will bind all the active forces of his soul. “Hearing about darkness,” says Saint Chrysostom, “do not think that he was punished only by being sent to a dark place; no, there will still be crying and gnashing of teeth, which shows unbearable torment. Pay attention to this, all of you who, having taken part in the Sacraments and being called to marriage, clothe your soul with unclean deeds! Listen to where you are called from! From the crossroads. What were you? Lame and blind in soul, which is much worse than bodily blindness. Honor the philanthropy of the One who Called; Let no one come in unclean clothes, but let everyone take care of the clothing of his soul. Listen wives, listen husbands! What you need is not this gold-woven robe that adorns your body, but clothing that adorns your soul. But it is difficult for us to put on these clothes as long as we wear the first. You can’t decorate both the soul and the body together - you can’t! It is impossible to work together as mammon and serve Christ as we should. So, let's leave this bad habit that dominates us. You, of course, would not be generous if someone decorated the house with golden curtains, and forced you to sit in rags, almost naked. But now you are doing this yourself, decorating the dwelling of your soul, i.e. body, in countless clothes, but you leave your soul in rags. Don’t you understand that your soul, called to this solemn palace, will have to be brought in dressed and adorned with golden robes? Do you want me to show you those dressed in this way, dressed in wedding clothes? Remember the saints, dressed in hair shirts, living in the deserts.
They especially wear wedding clothes. You will see that they will not agree to take the porphyry if you give it to them; but just as a king, if someone ordered him to put on the poor man’s thin clothes, would reject them with contempt, so they will also reject his scarlet robe. And they do this for no other reason than because they know the beauty of their clothes. That is why they despise a magnificent robe, like a cobweb. If you could open the doors of their hearts and see their soul and all the beauty within, you would fall to the ground, you would not be able to bear the radiance of beauty, the lightness of those clothes and the shine of their conscience. So, if we compare ourselves to them, how much better are we than the ants? Nothing. For just as ants care about things, so do we. And let us only take care of this, otherwise we will worry about much worse things, because we care not only about what is necessary, like ants, but also about what is superfluous. Ants work and their work is blameless, but we always work out of covetousness.” “I,” says Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson, “always shudder when I remember the words: “friend! How did you come here not wearing wedding clothes?” We should especially bring these menacing words to mind when we are preparing to begin the Lord’s Supper—the communion of the Most Pure and Divine Mysteries of Christ. No royal supper can compare with this heavenly Supper of the Heavenly King. With what fear and trembling, with what purity of heart and soul should we approach it! “No one is worthy from those bound by carnal lusts and pleasures to come, or draw near, or serve Thee, the King of glory...” (Prayer of the priest during the Cherubic song). But the gracious King of glory Himself offers clothing to everyone who wants to begin His spiritual meal: this clothing is the grace of repentance. Before you begin the Lord’s Table, come to the servant of Christ, cleanse yourself with repentance and put on the robe of righteousness, and even if you are unworthy, the Lord, in His mercy, will merit you for your humility to taste His Immortal Table”... Another word of Christ is also terrible: “ many are called, but few are chosen.” There are many people who call themselves Christians, but how many of them will really enter the Kingdom of Heaven, at the Great Supper of Christ? How many are there who remain in the same clothes in which the call of saving grace found them at the crossroads of the world - without changing their hearts, without correcting their lives... “Live in such a way,” teaches Bishop Theophan, “so that the God of love will love you with eternal love. Go out into your trade, but be careful not to sell your soul to the world through the acquisition of worldly goods. Go out into your fields, fertilize your land and sow seeds on it, so that with their fruits you can strengthen your body, but especially sow seeds of virtue in the field of your soul, so that you will reap from them the fruits of eternal life.
Keep the clean, unspotted clothes received in Holy Baptism until the end of your life, so that you will be a worthy participant in the heavenly bridal chamber, which includes only those who have clean clothes and lamps burning in their hands...”
The two versions of the parable differ in the tone of the stories and the time at which Jesus told them.
In “Lopukhin's Explanatory Bible” the opinion is expressed that previously these were two different parables, which only later merged into one and the same one.
This is indicated by a number of indirect signs:
“There is a great difference in expression, connection and even purpose of both parables, so that considering them only as different versions of the same parable is not easy and even completely impossible. Therefore, even in ancient times, the opinion was affirmed, accepted by all the best modern exegetes, that these are two different parables, told on different occasions and under different circumstances. “This parable,” says Augustine, “is told only by Matthew; something similar is found in Luke, but it is not the same thing, as the very arrangement of the parables indicates.”
The parable of the wedding feast is complemented by the parable of the evil winegrowers: they have a similar plot and general idea (Painting by Andrei Mironov “The Parable of the Evil Winegrowers”)
These differences are further described in Lopukhin’s Explanatory Bible:
“Luke’s parable was spoken in the house of a Pharisee (Luke 14:1), and Matthew’s in the temple (Matthew 21:23). The wedding feast is called differently (γάμος - Matthew; δεῖπνον - Luke). According to Matthew, guests are invited by the king, according to Luke - by some person. Luke’s parable was told by Christ earlier, when the Pharisees had not yet expressed such hatred as they discovered in the last days of Christ’s earthly life. Therefore, in Luke’s parable, the actions of the host who invited the guests are generally gentler, and he does not send his troops to destroy the murderers and burn their city (Matt. 22:7).”
Lopukhin's Explanatory Bible
About the wedding feast
(MP3 file. Duration 17:37 min. Size 8.5 Mb)
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Today we heard the words of the gospel parable about the wedding feast.
The description of the feast, the image of this festive gathering, is often used in the Holy Scriptures. But these descriptions are different.
We know the description by the prophet Daniel of the feast of King Belshazzar, a crazy celebration on the eve of troubles and misfortunes. We also remember the feast organized by King Herod on the occasion of his birthday, and everything that happened afterwards. We remember both the rich man who feasted every day, and the beggar Lazar who sat at the threshold of his house.
These are all examples of wicked celebrations, which, according to the Holy Scriptures, are arranged by people for pleasure, at which wine makes life merry; and silver is responsible for everything (Ecl. 10:19). The words “silver is responsible for everything” mean that the basis of this rejoicing is not the abundance of feelings of a sincere and pure heart, close to its Creator, but the desire to please one’s belly, and the hope that the more money and silver will be spent on this pleasure, the more it will be possible to acquire happiness and fun, the more the soul of the organizer of the festivities will be amused by vanity.
Is it not about such celebrations that the Psalter says: Let their table be a net before them .
But there are other examples of feasting.
One of them was brought to our spiritual attention. The Lord addresses the Pharisees, priests, his disciples and us, saying:
The kingdom of heaven is like a man king, who held a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those invited to the wedding feast..
Of course, first of all, the words of this parable were addressed at the time to the high priests and Pharisees, i.e. to the most righteous and zealous guardians of the law of that time. But carried away by conceit and pride in preserving its letter, they stopped preserving its spirit, essence - they stopped listening to the words of the Truth - the son of God, who came to them for a calling from the old law to the new, to a calling for marriage, union with the Kingdom of Heaven through the acceptance of His teachings . That is why the word of the Gospel continues:
But they, neglecting [the invitation] , went, some to their field, and some to their trade; the others, seizing his slaves, insulted and killed them .
Thus, pettiness in the performance of even the most holy work obscured their spiritual vision and hearing, and they missed the great calling of unity with God.
And those who were beaten for calling to the feast are the prophets and all subsequent disciples and followers of Christ, his apostles, holy martyrs, everyone who piously wants to spend their lives, pleasing God.
Go [says the great steward] to the crossroads and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast. And those slaves, going out onto the roads, gathered everyone they found, both evil and good; and the wedding feast was filled with those reclining .
It is us, all Christians who once did not know God before baptism, who are being called by the Lord to the feast of faith.
He calls not for a simple holiday, but a wedding feast, calls for union with God through union through faith with the Son of God - Christ the Savior. Therefore, the life of a Christian, even if it is full of sorrows, deprivations, and sorrows, cannot be filled with despondency, for its goal is union with God, a union so faithful, sincere and pure that the Lord himself calls it marriage. And we strive for it.
And so we really see how the temple, the palace of the Heavenly King, the churches of God, are filled with people, pilgrims - for this is who we are, both evil and good, called to communicate with God, instead of those rejected, who considered themselves righteous. But let’s not think that we have already achieved the desired goal, that we are the chosen ones mentioned in the parable. It is not enough to come to church externally and externally perform church rituals; you must begin to serve the Lord in your heart.
But how? Through repentance.
The king, entering to look at those reclining, saw a man there, not dressed in wedding clothes, and said to him: friend! how did you come here not wearing wedding clothes? ?
What clothes are we talking about?
About the one about which the Church sings at the end of Lent:
I see Your palace, my Savior, adorned, and I have no clothes, but I will go into it: enlighten the robe of my soul, Light-Giver, and save me.
By clothing, the “robe of the soul,” we mean the deeds of life by faith, that light, festive clothing that confirms our readiness for marriage, fidelity, union with God in service and love for Him. Clothes that will not be torn off by the wind of evil changes of times and tragic circumstances of our life.
Do we have such clothing, is it clean, is it not defiled, is it not stained with the dirt of unclean deeds and nasty heartfelt aspirations: exaltation over one’s neighbor, envy hidden or even openly living in the heart?
We often do not want to see our sins, considering ourselves already completely redeemed and forgiven in the sacrament of baptism.
Are we being truthful to ourselves, aren’t we covering ourselves with lies, an imaginary truth about ourselves, aren’t we being crooked at heart, don’t we want to appear to be someone we are not, just as in a brilliant crowd of those invited to a holiday, under friendly smiles, coldness of soul and indifference are hidden. There is no reality, but only spiritual laziness.
Vain fears and superstitions are the inseparable companions of an unfaithful heart at all times, empty worries, fussiness from unexpected changes in the world and personal life, don’t they give rise to distrust in us towards God, and hostility and anger towards our neighbors.
Isn’t our heart filled with grievances against our neighbors, against the whole world, against God, from which we withdraw into ourselves out of pride, stubbornness and loneliness.
And we ourselves break the ties of spiritual and blood kinship, and it seems that we remain completely alone in this world.
And suddenly we receive a great invitation - an invitation to the wedding feast of the King. We, all once separated by sin, rush to this call.
But what do we do on the way to this feast, along the life-long road, which is our life itself. Are we not distracted by the bustle? Don’t we want to reach the goal before others, get ahead of them, alone, hoping on our own strength to receive crowns and glory and grace at the finish line?
While we ourselves freely take advantage of the mercies of the Heavenly Father, out of spiritual greed we do not want to let others near them, to share with them the light of faith, to share the goodness of our hearts, and these feelings are gradually exhausted in us and the path of Christian life, devoid of mercy towards our neighbors, becomes tiresome and incomprehensible for us a set of rules, prohibitions and regulations.
But it is impossible to become worthy of being invited to the King’s feast without humility of our hearts before our neighbor; we ourselves must become those who invite others to the triumph of faith before the Heavenly King, according to the words of Christ the Savior Himself: “ When you make a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind , and you will be blessed that they cannot repay you, for you will be rewarded at the resurrection of the righteous ” (Luke 14:13). Let us share our joy with them, and not our grumbling, we will strive to console them, to encourage them Christianly, and having done this to the least of these, we will do this to the Lord himself, before the days of judgment come
For many are called, but few are chosen.
Because the complete triumph of grace and power of the Kingdom of God, the indestructible and perfect union of the soul with God will be accomplished only at the second and terrible coming of the Lord, as Christ the Savior Himself says about this:
The king, having entered to look at those reclining in the assembly of believers, will consider the works of each person’s faith.
Then the word from the mysterious Revelation of the holy Apostle John the Theologian will come true: blessed are those who are called to the wedding supper of the Lamb .
Then, in the life of the next century, when the Lord God Almighty reigns, judge of the living and the dead. Then the completeness of the union of the earthly church, the church of all the saints who worked for the Lord with the Heavenly Bridegroom will be accomplished. And they will rejoice and be glad and give Him glory.
And all His servants who fear Him, small and great, will rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him.
But what will each of us hear from the Lord of the world?
And woe will be for us who lived unrepentantly, naked and without wedding garments. What abyss and darkness of the wickedness of our deeds will expose us, and what the stench of sins will envelop us, who do not have repentance, but have a proud and arrogant heart over our neighbor.
Then they will excommunicate us from the celebration, and
having tied their hands and feet, they will throw them into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
What should we do? To fulfill the ancient and ever new call of the holy prophet:
Wash yourself, make yourself clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes; stop doing evil; learn to do good, seek truth, save the oppressed, defend the orphan, stand up for the widow.
Then come and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; if they are red like purple, like a wave, i.e. I will be as pure sheep's wool .
But not only in the example of today’s Sacred Reading do we see two different feasts, but today’s life itself gives us its own images.
Today we have two holidays ahead of us: Sunday, Little Easter, celebrated in churches, and the holiday - This City Day, celebrated in squares and parks.
Calling today's external holiday a city day, does everyone understand why it is celebrated on this day?
Who invites us to today’s city holiday, and in memory of what is it being held?
Initially, in the days of St. Philaret, they wanted to celebrate this holiday on spring days; the small town of Moscow was mentioned in the chronicle for the first time. But it was not this day, the day of the birth of the walls and towers and the first grand princely feast, that marked the birth of this city.
By decree of the imperial authorities it was ordered to celebrate the city's holiday on the first day of each new year. But this celebration did not mark the day of his spiritual birth and was forgotten over time.
God's providence arranged it in such a way that in the middle of the last century, the government, which set its goal to eradicate the very thought and faith in God, unknown to itself, chose a day for the holiday that was connected with the history of the spiritual formation of our city, its sorrows and joys through the help of God. Having dedicated the first non-working day of this first autumn month to a city holiday, we see that it almost always falls on the day of remembrance of the Council of All Moscow Saints, on the day of remembrance of those who worked the most in the spiritual field of this city, who convened for a spiritual celebration, a feast of faith in the days joys and sorrows of the Orthodox people. There are more than half a thousand names on this list, and by commemorating these saints on one day, the Church honors them as the heavenly patrons of the city of Moscow and prayer books for our earthly Fatherland. Saints, among whom one of the first in time, we see Metropolitan Peter, the Saint of God, then by title the Metropolitan of Kyiv, who blessed this city and its inhabitants, and laid the foundation stone for its further prosperity.
But this holiday, like the morning star before dawn, precedes the day of greater celebration - the remembrance of the meeting at the city walls of the miraculous Icon of the Queen of Heaven, which from ancient times more than once brought salvation to the inhabitants of our city and is its heavenly Patroness.
Saints, shepherds, martyrs, holy fools, confessors and faithful stood with faith and life for the people of God and made this city what it is now - the capital of the Russian state. But do all those who bear the Christian name live in it worthy of their title, and is it the capital of piety, faith and purity? Doesn't the image of piety and faith fade in external splendor and wasteful luxury?
Let us remember the words of today's Gospel: many are called, but few are chosen .
Let us be grateful to the Lord for not despising our wretchedness, but calling us to His fellowship, so that we may become worthy of this invitation, and having received the joy of this calling to the feast, we will invite others to this joy, striving in repentance to find pure wedding garments.
Let us ask ourselves for God's help, the protection of the Mother of God and the prayerful help of the Moscow saints, so that our soul may be enlightened and covered with the garment of joy for the life of the next century. Amen
The meaning of the symbols of the parable - different eras of Christian preaching and the people's response to it
Saint Theophylact of Bulgaria gave a decoding of the symbols that are used in the parable:
- The King (“one man”) is God the Father;
- The wedding feast is a spiritual feast, union with Christ;
- Groom, royal son - Jesus Christ;
- The Bride is the Church, the body of souls, or each one individually;
- The first slave messengers are Moses, the saints of his era;
- Those who were called but did not come are the people of Israel;
- The second slave messengers are the prophets after Moses;
- Taurus - Old Testament (referring to Paleolithic religious symbolism);
- Fattened - New Testament;
- The troops that destroyed the murderers were the Roman army.
Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria
The 3rd group of sent slaves in the parable symbolizes the apostles with their sermons:
- The third slave messengers are the apostles;
- People at crossroads are pagans;
- A man not in wedding garments is a hypocrite;
- Grinding of teeth - ineffective repentance.
14th Sunday after Pentecost. Parable of the Wedding Feast
14th Sunday after Pentecost. Parable of the Wedding Feast
M
Congratulations to you, dear visitors of the Orthodox site “Family and Faith”!
Congratulations on the holiday of Sunday!
On the 14th Sunday after Pentecost the Gospel parable about the Wedding Feast is read:
spoke the following parable: The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man king, who held a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those invited to the wedding feast; and didn't want to come. Again he sent other servants, saying: Tell those who are invited: behold, I have prepared my dinner, my bullocks and what is fattened, slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast. But they despised this and went, some to their field, and some to their trade; the others, seizing his slaves, insulted and killed them. Hearing about this, the king became angry, and, sending his troops, destroyed their killers and burned their city. Then he says to his servants: The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy; So go to the crossroads and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast. And those slaves, going out onto the roads, gathered everyone they found, both evil and good; and the wedding feast was filled with those reclining. The king, entering to look at those reclining, saw a man there, not dressed in wedding clothes, and said to him: friend! How did you come here not wearing wedding clothes? He was silent. Then the king said to the servants: Having tied his hands and feet, take him and throw him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth; For many are called, but few are chosen. Matthew, 22, 1-14.
Saint John the Righteous of Kronstadt delivered a highly spiritual sermon after reading this Gospel in St. Andrew's Cathedral in Kronstadt.
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt
In the Gospel read today, the Lord Jesus Christ likens “the Kingdom of Heaven to a man-king, who held a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those invited to the wedding feast - and they did not want to come.” What inattention, what pride, ingratitude, insolence! But what forbearance and patience of the king! “He again sent other slaves, saying: “Say to those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my bullocks and what is fattened, slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast." What about those who were invited, how did they respond to the new invitation of their good king? “They,” says the Gospel, “neglected this too, and came, some to their field, and some to their trade; the others, seizing his slaves, insulted and killed them.”
But now listen to what the king did to these impudent and ungrateful people. Hearing about such insolence of those invited to the marriage, “the king became angry and, sending his troops, destroyed their murderers and burned their city. Then he says to his servants: “The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy; So, go to the crossroads and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast.” And those slaves, going out onto the roads, gathered everyone they found, good and evil; and the wedding feast was filled with those reclining. The king, having gone in to see those reclining, saw a man there, not dressed in wedding clothes, and said to him: “Friend! How did you come in here without wearing wedding clothes?” He was silent. Then the king said to the servants: “Binding his hands and feet, take him and throw him into outer darkness; There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:2-14). Here is the end of the current reading from the Gospel.
This legend is called a parable, that is, a similarity, or, as it were, a riddle. We need to guess it. Who is this king who held a wedding feast for his son? This is God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth and King of every creature. Who is the king's son? This is the only begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and His bride is the Church and, firstly, the Jewish people chosen by God, and secondly, the soul of every Christian believer. Christ loved the Church, it is said, and gave Himself for her (Eph. 5:25); The Apostle Paul says: I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you to Christ as a pure virgin (2 Cor. 11:2).
The wedding feast refers to the Kingdom of Heaven, in which true believers will be united forever with the Lord Jesus. The Jews were first of all invited to this marriage, or to the Kingdom of Heaven, through the prophets and apostles, but they refused the invitation - moreover, they even insulted the messengers of God and killed many of them. For this, God subsequently destroyed the Jewish people with the weapons of the Romans and destroyed their city and temple. Instead of the Jews, God called pagan peoples, including us Russians, to marriage, or to His Church, through the apostles and equals of the apostles. But Christians from the pagans, and the Christian generations that follow them, will also not all enter the kingdom of Christ. Those of them who do not preserve the purity of the bright wedding robe of innocence and holiness, which they received at baptism, or, after desecration by sins, do not cleanse it with tears of repentance, will be cast out into utter darkness at the Last Judgment, where there will be eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Here is the interpretation of the above parable! But there may be another, similar, equally correct interpretation, and in a closer application to you and me, brothers and sisters. The wedding feast, which is spoken of in the current Gospel, is the Divine Liturgy, at which the faithful are offered not a slain calf, but the Lamb of God Himself, slain as a sacrifice for the salvation of us sinners, may we be fed with His most pure Body and Blood, may we be united with Him in the most intimate way union, that we may be flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones. This is the marriage of the royal Son - the union of Christian souls with Christ in the sacrament of communion! Here is a feast - eating His flesh and blood! Divine, most holy, incorruptible, heavenly and deifying feast! But how many people still rush to this divine feast! Doesn’t the majority of people even now shy away from attending this heavenly supper due to carelessness and laziness and various everyday calculations, for example, because of trade, or because of lack of faith and arrogance, or because of long sleep, etc.? Who doesn’t see this, doesn’t notice, doesn’t know? Such is our lack of faith, such is our spiritual feeble-mindedness, such is our addiction to the world, such is our inattention to the greatest mystery of faith, to the mystery of immortality and deification! Such is the vanity and ingratitude of Christians towards the Lord, who offers Himself as food and drink for the sake of cleansing, sanctification and immortal life! What are they worthy of? Is it not rejection from God, since we ourselves have been rejecting Him almost all our lives? But those who come to this marriage of the Lamb, to the Divine Liturgy, for the remembrance of His life, preaching, miracles, benefits, suffering, death, burial, resurrection and ascension into heaven, or for communion of His most pure Body and Blood - whether they come in wedding clothes, with Is it with a pure soul, with a pure heart? Are you with high thoughts, or in a holy mood? Is it not with earthly dreams and passions that many come to the temple, to this, as it were, the bridal chamber of Jesus Christ? Do we ourselves, the performers of the terrible, heavenly, bloodless Sacrifice, always come to the temple in wedding clothes of purity and dispassion of soul and serve in it? Alas! often we do not have wedding clothes and reverent thoughts and thoughts of the heart; and we often enter in the unclean rags of passions. Let us all hasten to repent and whiten the garments of our souls with tears of repentance and deeds of righteousness, especially almsgiving, which cleanses sins. I see Your palace, my Savior, adorned, and I have no clothes, but I go into it; enlighten the robe of my soul, Light-Giver, and save me. Amen.
9th Sunday after Pentecost. Sermon
11th Sunday after Pentecost. About mercy
13th Sunday after Pentecost. Parable of the Evil Vinegrowers
Interpretation of this parable: God calls a person to Him, and it is worth responding
Addressing his listeners, Jesus speaks to them in parables. And every image, parable in detail does not fully correspond to what it illustrates. It would seem, what is so special about a wedding feast? People often don't show up to weddings. Since people had a good reason, why condemn them?
It is important to understand here that the parable speaks about other things, spiritual ones. She only translates them into the language of images from life. Somewhere it feels better, somewhere worse. And the wedding feast is practically an invitation to enter the kingdom of God, and not some kind of holiday arranged by the king-father for his son. That is, this is a story about the fate of the soul.
The interpretation of this parable comes down to the fact that a person must respond to the call of God and start a new life. This is how Hieromonk Nikon (Parimanchuk) writes about it:
“By clothing, the “robe of the soul,” we mean the deeds of life by faith, that light, festive clothing that confirms our readiness for marriage, fidelity, union with God in service and love for Him. Clothes that will not be torn off by the wind of evil changes of times and tragic circumstances of our life.
Do we have such clothing, is it clean, is it not defiled, is it not stained with the dirt of unclean deeds and nasty heartfelt aspirations: exaltation over one’s neighbor, envy hidden or even openly living in the heart?
We often do not want to see our sins, considering ourselves already completely redeemed and forgiven in the sacrament of baptism.
Are we being truthful to ourselves, aren’t we covering ourselves with lies, an imaginary truth about ourselves, aren’t we being crooked at heart, don’t we want to appear to be someone we are not, just as in a brilliant crowd of those invited to a holiday, under friendly smiles, coldness of soul and indifference are hidden. There is no reality, but only spiritual laziness.”
Nikon (Parimanchuk)
hieromonk
This parable has become closely integrated into Church life in the following song, which is sung in the first days of Holy Week:
“I see Your palace, my Savior, decorated,
and the imam doesn’t wear clothes, but he’s wearing them,
enlighten the robe of my soul, Light-Giver,
and save me."
Many are called but few are chosen. Parable of the Wedding Feast
“Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14). And in this context, Jesus shares with us very frankly that He is the Lord of the harvest, and He sends out laborers into His harvest. And these workers at times turn out to be faithful, but at times they leave the distance. And, as it were, such a sad, not very cheerful conclusion, which appears several times in the Gospel: many are called, but few are chosen.
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
Every year it seems more and more difficult for me to say something new at our meetings; We have been living one common church life for so many years, we have been sharing feelings and thoughts for so many years, we have been hearing the same Gospel readings for so many years and growing into them together, that it seems that I can only repeat what has been said so many times.
And at the same time, if you think about what fruit we have brought over the years of our lives because we heard the words of God Himself, who became Man, then we have to admit: No! We must say the same thing again and again about the same thing!.. And we must speak, and especially we must accept into our own hearts, that the Lord calls, prays, convinces, demands - and we remain so insensitive and deaf.
We are even accustomed to such terrible things as the story of the crucifixion of Christ: when we hear it, in the depths of our souls something tells us: Yes, but He is risen!.. - and therefore the horror of this event, the darkness of the terrible night of Good Friday, barely barely reach our consciousness, our feelings.
When I say “us”, I think about all of us and about myself first. When I first read the Gospel, I was shocked to the depths of my soul, to the very depths of my being; it seemed: now that I know this, my whole life should become different; It’s impossible to live like everyone else lives! And looking back at my life, I am painfully aware that although this feeling has not extinguished, life has not changed to the absolute extent that it could and should have changed.
Gospel events often seem distant, almost ghostly to us; and at the same time they are addressed to each of us at every moment . We look for consolation and encouragement in the Gospel - and we pass by the severity, inflexibility of the Gospel word, how the Lord calls us. Now we are before Christmas. What joy could and should be for us - that God loved the world so much that he entered this world, became incarnate, loved humanity so much that he became One of us!..
But since He became One of us, we should be so similar to Him! We should strive with all our being so that He would not be ashamed, hurt by the fact that He is akin to us, His own... When in our family there is a person whom we honor, whom we marvel at - he is so wonderful that we would like to bow before him - How we try not to disgrace him in front of the people around us! And not even in front of others - we try so that he himself does not feel ashamed that we are not like him, do not strive for the same thing that he strives for, and that the high ideal, beauty, meaning by which he lives are indifferent to us .
Probably each of us knows how painful it is when something deeply touches us and worries us; We’ll tell our close friend about this, and he’ll shrug his shoulders, because he’s simply not interested, he doesn’t care about it, and he’ll move the conversation to another topic. The theme of Christ is His love for us, God's love for us, God's love addressed to each of us. This theme is why He became a man and for which He endured everything in silence and for which He died, saying: Forgive them, Father, they do not know what they are doing...
And in the face of this we live as if none of this ever happened; as if there was no Incarnation, as if God’s love on the cross had not revealed itself to us. It’s as if we are telling Him: we are not interested in this; We have other concerns, our own; we are interested in our earthly life as it is, we are attached to it; don’t tell us that it can open up and embrace heaven, earth, and eternity, and that its name should be “love”... Moreover, love is not the kind that is concentrated on me or in me, but spacious, capable love to cover ever wider circles of people, events, things.
During the weeks leading up to the Nativity of Christ, we read the Gospel story about those invited to the feast
When you make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed that they cannot repay you, for you will be rewarded at the resurrection of the righteous. Hearing this, one of those reclining with Him said to Him: Blessed is he who eats bread in the Kingdom of God! He said to him: one man made a large supper and invited many, and when the time for supper came, he sent his servant to say to those invited: go, for everything is already ready. And everyone, as if by agreement, began to apologize. The first one said to him: I bought land and I need to go and look at it; please forgive me. Another said: I bought five pairs of oxen and am going to test them; please forgive me. The third said: I got married and therefore cannot come.
And, returning, that servant reported this to his master. Then, angry, the owner of the house said to his servant: go quickly through the streets and alleys of the city and bring here the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And the servant said: Master! done as you ordered, and there is still room. The master said to the servant: go along the roads and hedges and persuade them to come, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you that none of those who are called will taste my supper, for many are called, but few are chosen (Luke 14:13-24).
Isn't this an accurate picture of what I was talking about? We are called to God's feast. This feast should have begun on earth if man had not betrayed himself and betrayed God.
When God created the world, He created it beautiful, in complete harmony with Himself and in the harmony of all creatures among themselves. And this world could have stood in its pristine beauty, could have grown from the beauty of innocence into the harmonious and already unshakable beauty of holiness - but man betrayed both himself and God. He was called to be the leader of the whole world from innocence to holiness; but he himself retreated from this path, and the whole world wavered and became the way we see it.
And at the beginning of this parable we are given three images that apply to each of us in this fallen world , which we have chosen as our homeland, while our homeland is the Kingdom of God, which could be earth and heaven at the same time, but remains only heaven, until God wins the final victory over evil, over discord, over sin.
The first of those invited says to the messenger from the owner of the house: “I acquired a piece of land for myself; I need to examine it, master it; he is mine”... This is what I just talked about: we chose the land and said: I want to develop it, it is mine; I want to possess her to the end; I want her to be what I am... And we don’t notice that, trying to hold on to the earth, to make it ours, we ourselves become its slaves, we belong to it . We cannot tear ourselves away from it, we are completely immersed in it; We grow our roots into it, we no longer look up, but look only at this earth: so that it is fruitful. And in the end, we belong to this earth so much that we lie down in it with our bones, we are buried in it, our body dissolves in it; what we thought was ours now possesses us. We have no time to go to the feast of God, to the feast of faith, to the joy of meeting, to the Divine harmony of everything, because we want to conquer the earth; and as a result it consumes us.
Another says: “I bought five pairs of oxen - I need to test them! I need to check their performance! And besides, I didn’t buy them so that they would stand in a stable, they must endure labor and bear fruit”... Isn’t that how we talk – each in our own way, but all the same – about the fact that we have tasks before us! We must accomplish something, do something on earth! How can we live without leaving a trace?.. And everyone tries, to the best of their ability, to work. Some of the ancient fathers see the image of these five pairs of oxen as a symbol of our five senses. We are given five senses - sight, hearing, smell, etc.: how can all this not be applied to earthly life? But the five senses apply only to the earth; you cannot catch the sky either by sight, or by hearing, or by smell; the sky is perceived with a different sense. Even earthly love is not covered by five senses - what can we say about Divine love, about eternity? We, as it were, put these five senses of ours into bargaining and acquire what we can - but only earthly things...
Sometimes through these feelings something more is revealed to us: earthly love. And so the third of those invited says to the servant: “I got married, I have my own joy, my heart is full to the brim - I have no time to come to the feast of your master, even my master - can’t he understand this himself? I have my own joy, how can I accommodate someone else’s joy?”
Attachment, love, which is on the verge of eternity, on this side or on the other side of eternity, depending on how we treat it, again becomes an obstacle: it keeps me on earth, I have nowhere to escape from it. Eternity - later, once upon a time; now - I would like to fill the time with this joy, this amazement, this happiness, and it is enough that my happiness is mine, I don’t need someone else’s... And the third person who is invited also does not go to God’s feast, because he is afraid that his temporary life will leave him. joy, drowning in eternity, in the eternal.
So what remains? What remains is the man who lives by clinging to the earth, which will swallow him up; the whole meaning of its existence relies on doing something with this earth and on this earth - temporary, which will also pass: the memory of people passes, buildings collapse, the whole world is covered with the remains of outdated, dead, collapsed civilizations. And a person still builds a new one - which also will not stand, temporary, aimless - because there is no goal in itself, no further goal. And instead of opening up through love, a person often closes himself in with love : his own and others... And this is very scary. Oh, these “others” and “ours” can be distributed very differently, there can be a lot of “ours”; but all the same, as long as only “others” remain, the Kingdom of God not only does not exist, it is denied.
I want to give you two images. The first is a story about a real person whom I remember, whose family I knew. A scientist, creative, gifted person died; he was buried. He had a son in a madhouse, a young man not yet twenty years old. His mother informed him of his father's death. He laughed and replied: “That’s not true! He couldn't die! Having exhausted all her explanations, his mother brought him to me so that I could explain to him that his father had actually died. Before I said anything to him, I asked the young man: “Why do you think that your father is not dead, when the witnesses of his death tell you that he died, the people who saw his dead body, who took part in his funeral, who saw how was his coffin lowered into the ground and covered with earth? Why do you deny his death? “Because,” he answered, “he never lived and, therefore, could not die...” And he explained to me that his father existed only by attachment to his car, to his television, to his collection of precious stones, to his books. As long as these things exist, said this boy, my father is as alive or as dead as he was before...
Only a young man who had lost the habit of thinking, as we would say, “reasonably,” that is, in an earthly way, could express himself this way; but he saw things as they were. This man, his father, did not live: he reflected the surrounding reality, was ignited by some kind of interest, moved from experience to experience; but experience is not life; it is an instant event that goes away like a candle goes out...
How similar we are all to this! He is rooted in the earth; his only interests were earthly, but he was dehumanized, there was no Man left in him, because he was completely lost in objects. And now each of us faces the same question: do I exist? Is there someone in me - or is there emptiness in me? or I, according to St. Theophan the Recluse about a person who is focused on himself - like wood shavings curled around his own emptiness? Is there anything in me that can go into eternity? Of course, neither the land that the first called one bought, nor the oxen that the second one bought, nor the work that the oxen did on this land will go into eternity. What will remain?..
And if we talk about love, then, again, what will remain if it is all reduced to the standards of earthly life, if there is nothing behind them, if it is as small, insignificant as our earth in this endlessly opening space, in which we live: a speck of dust - and in this speck of dust is a person with his feelings, thoughts. Yes, a person is more than a speck of dust, but only if he does not relate himself to this speck of dust, if he finds in himself a magnitude, a depth that only God can fill, a depth that can contain the entire universe and still remain empty, because that there is infinity in it and it can only be the place of indwelling of God Himself... Love should open us up like this; if it does not achieve this, then it becomes small, like a speck of dust.
Of course, we don’t know how to cover everyone, we don’t know how to cover everything; but we must open up more and more, and not close, close, narrow . We cannot and do not know how to love everyone; but do we know how to love those we love? Is our love for those we love a blessing, freedom, fullness of life for them, or a prison in which they sit like captives in chains?.. The prophet Isaiah has a word: “set the captives free.” And each of us will say: “I have no slaves, I hold no one captive, I have no power over anyone,” and this is not true! How we hold each other captive, how we enslave each other! How narrow we sometimes make life for each other, and, it’s scary to say, how often this happens because we seem to “love” a person and know better than him what constitutes his happiness and goodness. And no matter how much he strives for his happiness, no matter how much he strives to open up, like a flower opens in the sun, we throw our shadow on him and say: “No, I know better than you, what are your paths, what is your happiness...”. How often do you hear - maybe not in these words, but in essence: “God, if this person stopped loving me, how free I would be! I could live, the chains would fall off me, life would begin..."
The second image is a story from a French book about how a man wanted to create an earthly paradise. A certain Cyprian, having lived for many years among the savages on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, passionately loved the earth, nature, life, the creative forces of this nature and learned from the locals how to use the witchcraft of love to call to life all the living forces of the sometimes parched land. He returns to his homeland, buys a piece of rocky, lifeless soil and, as it were, envelops this soil with his love, calling forth all the living, creative forces in it and from it. And the soil, which has been dead for centuries, begins to come to life, to grow herbs, trees, flowers, it becomes, as it were, an earthly paradise.
And in this insight, in this light of love, animals begin to gather, because there love conquers their enmity, their mutual malice, their habits, instincts; they live as if in paradise. Only one animal remains outside this paradise - the fox. She does not want to join others, she remains outside.
Cyprian at first thinks about her with compassion: poor beast, he doesn’t understand where his happiness is! - and in every possible way calls on this fox: Come! This is paradise!.. But the fox doesn’t come. Then he begins to get annoyed with her; love for her begins to fade, and gradually indignation and hatred are born in him, for this fox is a witness that his paradise is not a paradise for everyone, not everyone wants to live in this paradise. And he decides to kill the fox, because when she is gone, all the animals, all the plants will be united in the paradise that he artificially created with his love. And he kills the fox... He returns to his plot - all the grass has dried up, all the flowers have died out, all the animals have fled...
And this is what we must remember: we are called to create the world and embrace it wider and wider with love, but not the kind that makes us slaves to an artificial paradise, but a love that can stretch further and further, leaving freedom to those who do not want to enter our paradise . This relates to our churchliness; this applies to our families, to our friendships, to our social aspirations. This poses before each of us the question of how, in what way, he is connected with those who surround him and with life. Again, we cannot embrace everyone with love, but we must love those few whom we love with a different love than the love of an artificial paradise of enslaved beings. Amen
See also:
- The parable of those invited to the wedding feast"
This parable echoes the parable of the vinedressers.
Closely related to this parable is another parable - about the evil winegrowers. It is in the three Synoptic Gospels, but it is not in the text of John. Here is its summary in the Gospel of Mark:
“And he began to speak to them in parables: A certain man planted a vineyard and surrounded it with a fence, and dug a winepress, and built a tower, and having given it to vinedressers, he went away. And at one time he sent a servant to the winegrowers to receive from the winegrowers the fruits of the vineyard. They grabbed him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent another servant to them; and they smashed his head with stones and released him in dishonor. And again he sent another: they killed him too; and many others were either beaten or killed. Having another son dear to him, he finally sent him to them, saying: They will be ashamed of my son. But the vinedressers said to each other: This is the heir; Let's go, kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. And they seized him, killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? “He will come and put the vinedressers to death and give the vineyard to others.”
Mark. 12:1–9
The son and bridegroom of the parables is Jesus Christ.
Here the meaning is more transparent than in the case of a feast. It is clear that the servants are prophets and saints, and the Son is Jesus Christ. The plot is very similar to the previous parable. A number of Christian interpreters, for example, the authors of Lopukhin’s Explanatory Bible, believe that these parables reflect different stages in the history of the relationship between man and God:
“John Chrysostom and others draw attention to the fact that in the parable of the evil husbandmen it was said that the Son was killed by the husbandmen. Despite this, in the parable under consideration, people are called again - to the wedding feast of the Son. This gives John Chrysostom reason to think that the first parable referred to events that ended with the crucifixion of Christ; and the second - to the events after His resurrection. “There He is depicted as drawing them (people) to Himself, before His crucifixion, and here - as urgently drawing them to Himself even after the crucifixion; and at a time when they should have been punished in the most severe way, He draws them to the wedding feast and honors them with the highest honor.”
A.P. Lopukhin
author of The Explanatory Bible
However, further in the text the authors admit that the parables may have a closer connection that affects deep spiritual levels.
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Parable of the Wedding Feast
“The kingdom of heaven is like a king, who held a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast; and didn't want to come. Again he sent other servants, saying: Tell those who were invited: behold, I have prepared my dinner, my bullocks and what is fattened, slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast. But they neglected this and went, some to their field, and some to their trade. The others, seizing his slaves, insulted and killed them. Hearing about this, the king became angry, and, sending his troops, destroyed their killers and burned their city. Then he says to his servants: The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy; So go to the crossroads and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast. And those servants, going out onto the roads, gathered everyone they found, both evil and good, and the wedding feast was filled with those reclining. The king, having gone in to see those reclining, saw a man there, not dressed in wedding clothes, and said to him: friend! How did you come here not wearing wedding clothes? He was silent. Then the king said to the servants: having tied his hands and feet, take him and throw him into outer darkness (pitch darkness); there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth; for many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matt. 22:2–14).
A wedding feast, where there is always a lot of light, joy and joy in the presence of the bride and groom, has been a symbol of the Kingdom of Heaven since ancient times. Old Testament Israel knew this symbol from the creations of King Solomon (see Proverbs 9: 1–6).
The Pharisees constantly said that the Jews were the chosen people of God, and that only they were destined for the coming kingdom of God. The people became so accustomed to this prejudice that they were offended to hear from the Savior a threatening word for them in the parable about the workers in the vineyard: “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who bear its fruits” (Matthew 21:43). The Lord, the knower of the heart, of course, knew about the confusion of His listeners, and in a new parable about those invited to the wedding feast, he explained to them what was needed in order to become a truly chosen person.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who held a wedding feast for his son. And he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast.” The guests were invited earlier; they already knew that the king would have a wedding feast at a certain time and that they would be let know when it was ready. But those invited were indifferent to the royal invitation and did not want to come. The Tsar complacently excused the guests who, perhaps, were delayed due to some misunderstanding. Out of his kindness, wanting those invited not to miss the opportunity to enjoy the holiday, he sent slaves to once again invite them to the feast. However, those invited treated the second invitation with the same coldness and disdain. Selfish, purely worldly calculations were more valuable to them than the honor of being among the guests at the wedding feast of the king's son. But this is not enough - among those invited there were also those who acted absolutely horribly: “The others, seizing his servants, insulted and killed them.” By offending the royal envoys, the subjects inflicted the greatest insult on the king himself. The high rank of the king and the important reason for the celebration increased the severity of the guilt of the offenders. The kind king could not bear this and was inflamed with righteous anger and immediately decided to punish the guilty and, “sending his troops, destroyed their murderers and burned their city.”
Meanwhile, the time for the feast had come, and the king did not want his joy to remain shared with his subjects. He ordered his servants to invite everyone they met to the wedding, without regard to their rank or condition. The royal servants began to call everyone - both worthy and unworthy - leaving it to the king himself to decide who to sit at the royal meal and who to remove from the feast. And soon the festive table was occupied by guests. Everything was ready.
Then the king went out to the feasters to please them with his presence, but he saw something that greatly upset him - “he saw a man there, not dressed in wedding clothes.” You need to know Eastern customs to understand why the king was upset at the sight of this man and why he threw him out of the wedding feast. The fact is that those invited to the feast, if they did not have their holiday clothes, received clothes at the entrance from the house manager. The newcomer who refused to receive such clothes expressed disdain and even contempt for the owner of the house, as if saying: “I will eat and drink with you, but I don’t care about you.”
The king asked the man “not dressed in wedding clothes”: “Friend! How did you get in here? He was silent, that is, he had no excuse; he had every opportunity to have these clothes, but neglected it. The depravity of his heart was reflected in this silence, and he made a sentence for himself. He was forever expelled from the royal feast.
The Lord concluded his parable with the words: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Among these called, but not chosen, are not only those who did not come to the wedding feast at all, but also many of those who came to the feast, but did not want to put on the wedding garment.
The parable of the wedding feast addressed to the high priests and Pharisees applied, of course, not only to the immediate listeners of Christ, His contemporaries, but also to all the historical leaders of the Jewish people, who always insulted and killed the prophets sent to them - the “servants of God.” The words about the “burning of the city” and the “extermination of the murderers” of the prophets are nothing more than the Savior’s first prediction about the destruction of Jerusalem and the death of ancient Israel because he “did not know the time of his visit.” But the Pharisees did not understand this prophecy.
In the parable of the evil winegrowers, the Lord only covertly indicated that the kingdom of God would be taken away from the Jews “and given to a people who bear its fruits.” The parable of the wedding feast makes it clearer that the time will come when baptized Gentiles will enter His kingdom. The call of the Word of God was addressed to all humanity. All nations were invited to the wedding feast.
Modern Christians are in many ways like those who refused to come to the feast and the one who came to the feast in inappropriate clothing.
The Divine Liturgy is a feast constantly taking place in the world, to which the Lord lovingly invites us. What prevents us from accepting the divine invitation to participate in the Holy Eucharist? Isn't it often the same concerns that prompted those invited to refuse to come to the feast in the parable? We often cover up this concern by citing our lack of preparation. But isn't this lack of preparation most often the result of undue concern? Do we remember what awaits those who refuse to participate in this wedding feast?
“Approach with the fear of God, with faith and love!.. Taste and see how good the Lord is.”
But even if we respond and enter the feast, another danger still awaits us. We may not be in our wedding clothes...
“I see Your palace, my Savior, adorned, and I have no clothes, but I will go into it” (Luminary of Great Monday). You need to be afraid, but you also need to enter. What is this non-marital garment? This, of course, is the clothing of the soul, a spiritual state.
He who comes in non-marital clothing is one who only outwardly accepts everything that the Lord and His Church teach, and considers himself already justified by works of external piety. These are, most likely, those whom we now call Pharisees, hypocrites or ritualists. Such people also look at the Sacraments themselves as magical means. These are legalists who have no true inner life.
Their fate is terrible and, of course, each of us is inclined to follow this easy, broad path of fulfilling only external rules. We must fight with all this, but not lose heart, repent, but also dare, for “God will not despise a broken and humble heart” (Ps. 50).
“Live in such a way,” teaches Saint Theophan the Recluse, “so that the God of love will love you with eternal love. Go out into your trade, but be careful not to sell your soul to the world through the acquisition of worldly goods. Go out into your fields, fertilize your land and sow seeds on it, so that with their fruits you can strengthen your body, but especially sow in the field the fruits of eternal life. Keep the clean, unspotted robe you received in holy baptism until the end of your life, so that you will be a worthy participant in the heavenly bridal chamber, where only those who have clean clothes and lamps burning in their hands enter...”
Parable of those invited to the feast
Peace be with you, dear visitors of the Orthodox website “Family and Faith”!
Happy Sunday!
The parables of Christ are short instructions, images for which the Lord borrowed from the life around us. The Savior especially explained some parables to the disciples in private, but mostly He told them without any additional explanation, leaving the listeners to delve into His words themselves and understand the meaning of the examples and similarities given. The genre of parables itself, as particularly invented instructive stories that serve to explain real situations, is known back in the Old Testament. Such parables include the story of Jotham about the trees choosing a king for themselves (Judges 9.7-20) or the story of the rich man who took the only sheep from the poor man, told by the prophet Nathan to King David.
The Gospel contains approximately thirty parables of the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as several short cautionary tales, some or all of which are often classified as parables.
Since Christian antiquity, the shepherds of the Church have turned to the parables of Christ. The word of Christ the Savior, proclaimed by Him in parables, as before, continues to resound in the Church today and ignite people’s hearts, for, according to the words of the Apostle, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13.8).
Today's Gospel reading is dedicated to the parable of those invited to the wedding feast. Let's read this passage of Scripture.
“ And he said to him: One man made a great supper and invited many, and when the time for supper came, he sent his servant to say to those invited: go, for everything is ready. And everyone, as if by agreement, began to apologize. The first one said to him: I bought land and I need to go and look at it; please forgive me. Another said: I bought five pairs of oxen and am going to test them; please forgive me. The third said: I got married and therefore cannot come. And, returning, that servant reported this to his master. Then, angry, the owner of the house said to his servant: go quickly through the streets and alleys of the city and bring here the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And the servant said: Master! done as you ordered, and there is still room. The master said to the servant: go along the roads and hedges and persuade them to come, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you that none of those who are called will taste my supper, for many are called, but few are chosen” (Luke 76, XIV, 16-24).
Saint Luke of Crimea interprets this Gospel passage as follows:
“Who were these chosen ones, whom the Lord called first to the wedding supper of His Son?
These were the leaders of the people of Israel, these were their teachers - the high priests, scribes, Pharisees, members of the Sanhedrin, the elders of the people - the Lord called them first of all to His feast.
He didn’t even limit himself to a one-time invitation: when everything was ready for the feast, He again sent a slave to say that everything is ready, go, go to the feast.
And how did these chosen ones, these leaders of the people of Israel, respond?
“And everyone, as if by agreement, began to apologize. The first one said to him: I bought land, and I need to go and see it; Please forgive me."
And in Slavic it is said much better: “I pray you, have me renounced,” - I renounce your supper.
He bought land and therefore considered the wedding feast of Christ, the supper of the Son of God, completely uninteresting. The land he had bought was dearer to him, for only on earthly things did he place all his hope, only on earthly things did he turn his heart, only on earthly goods were all his aspirations, all his thoughts directed, and therefore he did not want any supper in the kingdom of God; uninteresting, what’s more important is the land you bought.
“Another said: I bought five pairs of oxen and am going to test them; I pray to you, have me renounced.”
He bought five pairs of oxen, which means he was not a poor man: he was rich, and because of these five pairs of oxen he refused to sup in the kingdom of God.
O accursed covetous man! O unfortunate one, attached with all his heart only to wealth, only to earthly blessings.
We know, we know that whoever once sets out on the path of covetousness never leaves it, for covetousness completely takes possession of a person’s heart, makes this heart insatiable by anything, for the more a person acquires, the more his passion for acquisitions flares up, the more insatiably he wants new wealth.
“The third said: I got married; and that’s why I can’t come.”
The first two still apologized, but this one didn’t even apologize, he simply and rudely says: I don’t need your supper. I got married, I have the joys of marriage ahead of me, which are much dearer to me than your supper. Have me renounced.
Again a man devoted with all his heart to earthly things.
“And when that servant returned, he reported this to his master. Then, angry, the owner of the house said to his servant: go quickly through the streets and alleys of the city and bring here the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And the servant said: Master! it has been done as you ordered, and there is still room.”
Who are these blind, lame, poor and wretched whom the host of the supper gathered through the streets of the city?
These are the ones about whom the Apostle Paul speaks in his letter to the Corinthians: “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the strong things; And God chose the base things of the world and the base things, and the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are...” (1 Cor. 1:27-29).
These were poor in both body and spirit, they were humble, simple people who did not boast of their wisdom, for they did not have book wisdom, they were uneducated people.
But you know that the Lord Jesus Christ chose His holy apostles precisely from such people, from those who knew nothing of science, of human wisdom, simple fishermen. Then he elected 70 more.
They were among those who followed Him, and there were crowds of people with a completely different attitude than the leaders of Israel, who hated Christ out of envy towards Him.
These were simple people, although sinful and gravely sinful, like tax collectors and harlots, but who washed His feet with their tears and wiped them with their loose hair.
These were not wise, not noble - they were humiliated.
They felt in their hearts, although sinful, but retaining sensitivity, the holiness of the Lord Jesus, they felt a huge contrast between Christ, the Most Holy of Holies, and themselves, vessels of sin and uncleanness.
And this holiness of Christ attracted them to Him - all these lame people, stumbling in their sinful ways; all these blind people who saw nothing in their hearts that they should have seen, that they should have repented of.
It was they - the poor, the lame, the blind, the wretched - it was they who turned their hearts to our Savior, they were gathered by the master's servant along the streets of the city. But there's still room left.
And then “the master said to the servant: Go out along the roads and hedges and persuade them to come, so that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:17-24).
Whom did He order to look for along country roads, along country paths, along hedges?
These are the pagans, among whom the word of the Gospel spread so quickly, these are the pagans who lived far, far from Jerusalem, these are the pagans of that great Roman Empire, which conquered the entire world of that time. It is they who were conquered for three centuries by preaching about Christ, it is they who shed so much blood in this process of their knowledge of Christ, the martyrs of Christ are they, the dark pagans who wandered along the crossroads.
It was the Lord who called them.
Do you know that the Gospel of Christ over the course of three centuries conquered the entire pagan world of that time. This is who filled the upper room prepared for the feast.
St. Matthew adds something more important, which Luke kept silent about: “The king, coming in to see those reclining, saw a man there, not dressed in wedding clothes, and said to him: friend! How did you come here not wearing wedding clothes? He was silent. Then the king said to the servants: Having tied his hands and feet, take him and throw him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:11-13).
And who is this: not dressed in wedding clothes? This is one of those, of whom there are many even among today’s Christians, one of those who do not understand that “the kingdom of God is taken by force, and those who use force delight it.”
This is the one who believed that having received remission and forgiveness of sins in the sacrament of baptism, he was already clean; This is one of the bigots who think that only by external observance of rituals, by external piety alone can one earn the kingdom of God.
They don’t want to see the dirt that is so much in their hearts, they don’t want to realize that they are dressed in dirty rags, stinking rags woven from their sins, and yet they dare to go to Christ’s supper.
Oh, how we must drive them out, and not tolerate their presence! How to allow them to participate in the great evening?! In the kingdom of God there is a place only for saints and no one else.
Well, shall we say that the parable of Christ applies only to those ancient people, the enemies of Christ, the leaders of the people of Israel, and the wicked scribes and Pharisees?
We will not say, we will not say: the words of Christ are eternal, they have an eternal and unceasing meaning both in our days, and for us, living almost two thousand years later, they have a deep meaning. For truly, are not all the people whom He redeemed with His Divine Blood called to supper in the kingdom of God?
How many people respond to the call?
Oh, how few of them, how few!
Oh my God! How terrible it is that Christ’s supper is being despised!
A huge, huge multitude of people do this: they don’t care about the Kingdom of Heaven, they don’t believe in an eternal afterlife, they don’t believe in God and His eternal Kingdom; they go their own way, rejecting the path of Christ.
Well, let them go - their will, but let them see where they come. They will see, they will see, they will understand what they rejected, what they laughed at and mocked.
But not everyone in the human race is like that.
Of those who rejected Christ’s supper, there are many, many who believe in God, who love Christ and would like to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
But they do not go to the supper, but to Christ, who calls him to the supper, they answer: “Have me denied.”
Why, why don't you go?! They answer in embarrassment: how should we go, because they will laugh at us, they will mock us. Can we go against the flow, can we not live the life that everyone else lives? Can we stand out from among the people of this world? After all, we depend on them in many respects; we are afraid of losing what we have if we go against them.
And they don’t want to go against the flow... And they swim with the flow...
Swim, swim, just look where you swim - you will arrive in complete despair.
You were afraid of the ridicule and mockery of the people of this world, but weren’t you afraid of the words of our Lord and God Jesus Christ Himself: “Whoever is ashamed of Me before men, I will also be ashamed of him before My Heavenly Father.”
Aren’t you afraid of this? Does this mean less to you than the ridicule of the people of this world? Doesn't this encourage you to swim against the current?
It is not in our power to restrain such people, but in our power to realize the horror of renouncing the kingdom of Heaven, from the supper of Christ.
We need to realize that we will deserve the renunciation of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself if we dare to say to Him: “have me renounced,” if we do not decide to swim against the tide, if we do not put the commandments of Christ above all else, without fear of what they will say about us people of this world.
Oh, how I would like that among you, my little flock, there would not be a single one who would deserve condemnation from Christ, who calls you to His eternal supper, so that no one would be expelled from the supper of Christ for crawling there in the dirty, stinking clothing of sin.
Life is short, we will all die soon, so let us think that our remaining days must be used to cleanse our hearts and become worthy participants in the great and eternal supper of Christ.
May our Lord and God Jesus Christ vouchsafe us all this joy!
Saint Nicholas of Serbia wrote that the whole world is one long parable, composed of countless parables. Just as every parable has an end, so this world and everything that is in the world is transitory. But the spiritual core, hidden in the shell of all parables, remains strong and does not rot.
People who feed only their eyes and ears with these parables remain hungry in spirit. For the spirit feeds on the core of these parables, but they are not able to get to this core. The unspiritual, carnal man feeds on the green leaves of numerous proverbs and is always hungry and troubled by hunger. A spiritual person seeks the core of these numerous parables and, feeding on it, becomes full and calm.
All existing things are also parables, for all of them, like green leaves or like shells, surround the hidden core. Parables are also all the events that take place, for they too are only clothing for spiritual content, a spiritual core, spiritual food.
And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself often used parables depicting nature, that is, the things and events of this world, to teach people. And often He took ordinary things and ordinary events for teaching in order to show how nutritious the core and how deep the content is hidden in all of them.
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
