Hard Teaching 8 - Why is God mean in the parables?

Why, in some parables, does the character who represents God not show mercy and instead punishes the wrongdoer?

This was one of the questions posed on the day when I asked my congregation to tell me things that puzzled them about their faith.

I'm going to take a specific example: the parable of the great banquet, which in Matthew's version comes in Chapter 22. Here it is:

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

By talking about "a king and his son," we get a powerful clue that this is meant to represent God. So God invites people into his house for a party to celebrate his son's wedding. But when the day comes, they all make excuses and fail to turn up. Disappointed and angry, the king asks his servants to go and find anybody to come in and fill up the party, and soon the party hall is heaving, and everybody is set to have a good time. 
But one party goer hasn't bothered to dress up, and the king asks how he even got in, without being dressed appropriately. When he has no answer, he is unceremoniously trussed up and tossed out, where there's not much he can do except - in one of Matthew's favourite words - gnash his teeth. 

I swear that if Matthew told a fluffy bunny story, he'd put gnashing of teeth in there somewhere. Anyway, how do you gnash your teeth?

Sorry, I digress.

The point is, it sounds pretty mean on the unfortunate guest who'd violated the dress code. For all we know, he might not have owned a tuxedo, or whatever the first century equivalent was.  What's going on?

To answer that, we have to understand who the parable was originally aimed at. If we look back at chapter 21, we see that Jesus was in conversation with the chief priests, after having annoyed them no end by pulling the stunt with the donkey and the palm branches. 

He was telling them that originally God's invitation had been for them, but they'd made their excuses, so God was throwing the doors open to others. In Luke's version, it's the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame who are invited. Matthew isn't specific who the new guests are, but the religious leaders would still have been incensed to be told that they weren't going to be at God's party, and others were.

So the first point is, God in this story is passing judgement on those who have rejected his offer. He's slamming the door in their faces, because they've had their chance and they said no.

But what about our badly dressed boy? Well, just because you've been offered a late pass to the best party ever, doesn't mean you can just breeze in without taking it seriously. This is a pretty impressive offer God is making, and we need to appreciate it properly. 

Sometimes, we Christians can think that God is such a cuddly grandpa figure, so keen to forgive and overlook any wrong doing, that it doesn't matter how we behave. But he has a little more backbone than that. Even those who think they're on the inside of God's plans need to remember they have responsibilities too.