The Wedding Banquet Parable in Luke and Matthew Essay

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Parables constitute a large portion of Jesus’s ministry. The parables of Jesus are allegorical, meaning they contain rich, complex, and multi-layered symbolism. The Bible’s enduring nature is partly attributed to the medium of the parable as a primary means of delivering universal truths. Parables involve human characters making important and challenging moral choices. Fables can be equally as constructive in relaying moral messages, but fables frequently feature anthropomorphized animal protagonists. The messages of parables are often grander and more spiritually meaningful than those delivered in fables, particularly true with the Biblical parables. A fable can deliver raw commentary about human nature, but a parable takes that commentary a step further with the allegorical message. One of the reasons parables became instrumental in Jesus’s ministry is that symbolic storytelling of this type would have been as ubiquitous as social media is today. Parables were simply one of the best and most familiar means of communicating. Even now, parables are an important way to deliver messages to large and diverse groups of people. Because parables are metaphorical, they can be retold and applied to different situation. Finally, parables also tease readers or audiences of the Bible, luring them into deeper readings of the text.

For example, Matthew 22:1-14 draws readers in with a story of a typical wedding banquet so that Jesus can deliver the more abstract message: “For many are invited, but few are chosen.

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” The parable teases the reader with unanswered questions: why are the villagers reluctant to attend the wedding? Why is the King’s pride so fragile that he must commit murder? Why did the one man show up to the wedding in his plain clothes? The conventional world described in the parable is one that Jesus largely refutes. The King comes to symbolize God, and the villagers represent non-believers or those who do not fear God. Although the level of violence seems disproportionate, Jesus uses the medium of the parable to convey the strong message at the end.

Donohue (1988) suggests that the wedding garment “stands for Christian life and those qualities which are to characterize those invited to the banquet after others refuse,” (p. 95). The wedding banquet allegory also becomes a metaphor for Christian missionary work, with the King representing the missionary and the villagers representing those who shun the word of God. The banquet itself represents “God’s eschatological banquet,” (Maloney, 2012, p. 139).….....

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