The Parable of the Wedding Feast, which is the Gospel Reading for today, is a part of a larger narrative arc in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has entered Jerusalem in triumph. He has cleansed the Temple, and now he is teaching before the Temple, instructing the crowds who have gathered in the city for the Passover celebration. The atmosphere is tense and highly charged, because the Passover was the commemoration of the liberation of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, but now the feast has to be held while the people of Israel are under Roman occupation. The Roman occupiers know full well that the city might go up like a tinderbox during these days, so they have reinforced their garrison with sufficient numbers to subdue any unrest.
As Jesus is teaching in the Temple, the religious leaders, most of whom have already decided to reject him, take turns at challenging him. Their goal is to trip him up, getting the crowds to turn on him or drawing the Roman soldiers in to arrest him. Jesus, for his part, has harsh words for the religious leaders, who are leading the people astray.
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Image Credit: Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven, from Fra Angelico Wikimedia Commons.
