Matthew 22:5-9, the feast is ready, the sacrifice is finished, nobody has to earn a seat and the people who already said yes are about to do something, the Greek calls “amelesantes,” it does not mean they refused, it means something worse. And went away, one to his field, one to his business, the English language says they made light of it, they paid no attention, they did not regard it, but the Greek is sharper, because of the Greek verb “ameleo,” meaning to care, the negation of caring. They did not argue with the invitation, they did not challenge it, they did not even hate it, they simply did not care, that is the devastation of amelesantes.
Active rejection at least acknowledges the invitation exists, amelesantes is the moment the invitation arrives and you glance at it and keep moving. The call comes and you look at it and set it down, not hostility, apathy and in the structure of the parable, apathy is the first and most common form of refusal. You know this, not the dramatic rejection of something important, the quiet drift, the slow forgetting, the thing you said yes to that you let die by simply not caring enough to show up, amelesantes names that drift. But then, the invitation goes to the crossroads, to the place where every path converges, the most open, most public, most universal location imaginable. The invitation that was first given to those who already said yes, now goes to everyone and the text tells you exactly who shows up.
Matthew 22:10, the servants gathered all they found, both “ponerous” and “agathous,” two Greek words meaning evil and good. Ponerous, that word should stop you, it is the same Greek word used for the evil one in Matthew 13:19, the same word used for the devil himself in the parable of the sower, not slightly flawed people, not morally ambiguous people, explicitly wicked people and they feast, they sit at the table, they eat the prepared meal, they recline in the hall of the king. Nobody checks their past at the door, nobody asks for a resume, the hall fills with the evil and the good side by side and nobody, not a single one of the ponerous guests is thrown out for being wicked. This is the detail that should stop every sermon that reads this parable as a morality filter.
Active rejection at least acknowledges the invitation exists, amelesantes is the moment the invitation arrives and you glance at it and keep moving. The call comes and you look at it and set it down, not hostility, apathy and in the structure of the parable, apathy is the first and most common form of refusal. You know this, not the dramatic rejection of something important, the quiet drift, the slow forgetting, the thing you said yes to that you let die by simply not caring enough to show up, amelesantes names that drift. But then, the invitation goes to the crossroads, to the place where every path converges, the most open, most public, most universal location imaginable. The invitation that was first given to those who already said yes, now goes to everyone and the text tells you exactly who shows up.
Matthew 22:10, the servants gathered all they found, both “ponerous” and “agathous,” two Greek words meaning evil and good. Ponerous, that word should stop you, it is the same Greek word used for the evil one in Matthew 13:19, the same word used for the devil himself in the parable of the sower, not slightly flawed people, not morally ambiguous people, explicitly wicked people and they feast, they sit at the table, they eat the prepared meal, they recline in the hall of the king. Nobody checks their past at the door, nobody asks for a resume, the hall fills with the evil and the good side by side and nobody, not a single one of the ponerous guests is thrown out for being wicked. This is the detail that should stop every sermon that reads this parable as a morality filter.