PLEASE HUSBAND AND WIFE ALLOW STRANGERS TO ATTEND YOUR WEDDING

PLEASE HUSBAND AND WIFE ALLOW STRANGERS TO ATTEND YOUR WEDDING

By Fr. Felix (African Times Guest Writer)

A wedding is a time of joy and completion after

long preparation, a time of love and of complete

satisfaction.

In Judaism at the time of Jesus the coming of

the Messiah is often compared to a wedding-

feast.

The marriage-feast at Cana must have been

some party! At Mary’s request Jesus produced

200 gallons of wine.

The Letter to the Ephesians teaches that the

love in a human wedding is only a pale shadow

of Christ’s love for his bride, the Church.

In this story of the royal wedding, however, two

things go drastically wrong. First, the original

wedding-guests refuse to come.

Not only do they refuse, but they brutally

maltreat the innocent messengers, and the king

(who must stand for God) relentlessly burns

down their city.

This must be an adjustment to Jesus’ story,

applying it to the Sack of Jerusalem, captured

and burnt by the Romans in 70AD, a few years

before Matthew was writing.

Secondly, the man who has no wedding-

garment is slung out. A wedding-garment is a

standard Jewish image for works of generosity

expected of every faithful Jew.

For us Christians, too, the story constitutes a

double warning.