Two elderly nineteenth-century Danish spinster sisters accepted a refugee from the French Revolution into their home as their housekeeper and cook. Their father was a pastor of a stringent religious tradition, and the daughters followed their father’s harsh religious customs that rejected all earthly pleasures.
The religion of the area made people hard and cold towards each other and afraid to enjoy or relate to one another.
The impoverished French refugee was a famous gourmet chef before she was forced to leave France. She worked for the two sisters for 14 years.
As luck would have it, one day she won the lottery. In gratitude, she decided to spend all her winnings on enough decadent ingredients for a huge banquet. She worked for many days, fixing an enormous, delicious, exquisite feast for the two sisters. She also invited all of the people of the town to the banquet.
At first, they were reluctant to come but grudgingly agreed to attend.
That evening, as they began to taste and enjoy the food, the smug and humorless people from the town were unable to resist the pleasure of the epicurean French delights. More importantly, the sisters and all the people began to enjoy each other and to communicate with each other.
They even ended up dancing together.
The name of the chef was “Babette,” and the name of the movie was Babette’s Feast. It was the first Danish film to win an Oscar, winning Best Foreign Language Film in 1987.
I share this story with you today because I see similarities between this film and the huge feast we heard about in today’s gospel.
I doubt if the king was a gourmet chef, but we are told that the king himself prepared a sumptuous feast for his son’s wedding. However, the invited guests had numerous reasons and excuses for not coming to the wedding feast, including family obligations, business affairs or simply a lack of interest.
Can you imagine giving a huge wedding for your daughter or son and no one shows up? How would you feel? Probably pretty empty and alone.
The king then sent other servants out to invite to the feast whomever they could find.
The servants gathered the good and the bad to come to the prepared banquet. The hall filled with guests.
This story is about God’s goodness:
God’s eternal banquet is not a Members Only Club. All of us are on God’s guest list.
But there is also a second parable in our gospel today. We can call it The Guy without a Wedding Garment.
This one is a bit more challenging to understand. After all, the servants went out and invited every single person, the good and the bad. So, do you think it is unfair that the king dumped the guy without the wedding garment?
To understand this second parable, you must know that wedding garments would be provided at the door by the host, free to all who came to the reception. This was to maintain the dignity of the occasion. Remember when restaurants with strict dress codes would have sports coats available for men who were not suitably attired?
Evidently, this person simply refused to wear the proper attire. That was his free choice. But it was a choice that clearly showed disrespect. When the king saw him, he addressed him, “My friend, how did you come here without a wedding garment?”
Notice how he was called “friend.” Regardless, the man was speechless and was thrown outside.
What do you think caused the king to react so strongly and to be so furious? Perhaps because the man was the king’s guest, and the minimum thing he had to do was wear the wedding garment. To reject the garment would be to reject the generosity and expectations of the host.
In this parable, the change that is required is clothing. Since Jesus is telling the story, I believe He is warning us that the change required of us is a change of heart.
We need to discard the clothes of indifference, prejudice, hatred, judgment, cruelty and coldness. Instead, we need to clothe ourselves in Christ ... charity and kindness instead of selfishness.
It is good for us to remember that:
All are called.
Many make excuses.
A few are chosen.
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