10/11/2026
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
(Isaiah 25.6-10, Philippians 4.12-14, 19-20, Matthew 22.1-14)
A BANQUET OF RICH FOOD; HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?
It is always an honour to be invited to a banquet. Most times people would feel offended if you do not honour their invitation to a meal. In my culture, if you meet people eating, they must invite you to come and join them and might take offence if you refuse. However, in some other cultures, no one expects you to join a meal if you did not say on time that you will be part of the meal or you were invited before it was prepared. I guess this is to avoid waste. According to a renown Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, ‘a man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see the moon in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so’.
The idea of rich food in the readings of today is very inviting. It is always an honour to be invited to a banquet. When you mention the name of a meal, it equally shows how serious the meal is. There is a difference between a lunch and a buffet. There was a time I heard there would be a lunch in an event, I was having in mind the normal lunch I used to know, at the event, we were given bread and soup, I thought the real lunch/food was still coming, when I heard people asking ‘delicious?’, I asked the person next to me if that was the lunch and he told me yes. I actually felt disappointed; some people will not take bread and soup as lunch in an event. However, the next time there was an event, I was told there would be a buffet, meaning it would be assorted food, when I went for the second event, it felt like a real lunch, what we might liken to today’s banquet in the readings.
We see that the picture of the banquet in the first reading is full of great expectation, it is something you would not like to miss; the meal, the consolation, wiping away of tears, taking away of shame, removing mourning veil, etc, no one would like to miss it. Yet, in the gospel, we saw that people actually refused to come for this great feast. Why on earth would people refuse to attend such a feast? Why would they prefer to go to farm, to business, instead of going to the banquet? As if it was not enough, those who had no place to go even resorted to beating the messengers up. This shows that the people were not happy with the feast, something must have happened.
Like most parables of Jesus, there is something missing in this story. It is most likely that the people had other issues, maybe they had waited for long, maybe they have developed hatred for the king, something must have made them to lose interest, it is also possible that someone had poisoned their minds about the feast, they might be thinking that it would be like my experience lunch of bread and soup instead of a buffet. However, what is even more touching in this story was the ending where the king had to cast one of the guests out for not wearing the wedding garment. He asked the man an interesting question, ‘how did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?’ The man’s silence reveals his bad attitude; it is most likely a sign of guilt.
We would have thought that the king would not be concerned about the garment since the people were gathered in a hurry from everywhere. Yet, the king was angry with the man for not wearing the wedding garment; he even had to bind him and threw him out. This banquet of rich food represents the great gifts of God, the promises of God are rich and free, but the truth is that most people reject it for one reason or the other. For example, have you not noticed that in some Churches with beautiful choir singing wonderful songs without any charge or payment, only few people attend. If the same choir goes to a theatre and sings the same songs, the theatre will be full of people who paid to come and listen, just like people pay to fill stadium and watch football.
People have their excuses for rejecting the gifts and offers of God, maybe they are disappointed with God’s messengers, or they have lost interest. However, we should not focus only on those who refuse the gifts of God; we should also pay attention to those who come to the banquet without wedding garment. This is because, sometimes, we think that by coming to the church, we are better than those who did not come at all, we therefore feel that God should not mind our dressing or attitude, after all, we tried to come at all. This is wrong thinking, God expects us to treat the banquet with the due respect, we should not treat it as if it is not a serious thing, we should not think that we are doing God a favour by coming, no, we are rather favoured because, this banquet is that of a king.
Those who are happy to be called, should do everything in their power to make sure they are equally chosen by dressing very well and being fully prepared for such a great banquet. Most times when things are offered free of charge, we tend to take them for granted; we therefore fail to appreciate and give the expected respect and preparation for such gifts. This message calls us not only to answer the Lord’s invitation but to give it a well-deserved attention and preparation, to value it and be grateful for such an invitation. May we be found worthy to be called and be chosen for the great banquet through Christ our Lord. Amen.
‘A CHRISTIAN IS NOT AN ORDINARY PERSON’
