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PARTY PRECEPTS: The Parable of the Marriage Feast by Brunswick Monogrammist

Banquets are often celebrated to mark important events or occasions. They are suitably featured in the Bible as well. Right from Abraham who called for a great feast when Isaac was weaned to Jacob’s wedding party. Not forgetting the first miracle of Christ at the wedding feast of Cana and of course Herod’s birthday bash that terminated with the tragic execution of John the Baptist.

Biblical Banquets also entailed certain characteristics. They were partaken at dusk and generally included a second call to those who had already been invited. Occasionally it involved supplying each guest with a robe to be worn at the feast. The guest sat in accordance to seniority and rank. The halls boasted of viands and wines, of exotic spices and perfumes, of brilliant robes and flowers, of merry singers and dancers and of indulging jest and jollity.

Reckoning these party precepts, today’s painting invites us to the parable of the marriage banquet. It echoes the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, verse 1 to 14. This painting is executed by Brunswick Monogrammist, an anonymous Netherlandish painter of the 1500’s. It was his forte to paint complex works of art that featured secular revelry and a discreet message.

At first glance however we are lost! The Gospel scenes are sprinkled across the painting. Swarms of colourful figures sweep the exquisite set. The palatial plush indicates that this is no ordinary banquet. It is the royal wedding of the King’s son. An invitation to such an event should inevitably find room on one’s calendar. The date would be circled and saved. But what happens here is the contrary.

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When fortunes are not found in a cookie- Saturday, 27th week in ordinary time- Joel 3:12-21

The devastation that rained upon the people of Israel was disastrous to say the least. The prophet enumerates not only the damage but the extent of devastation caused by the locust plague.  What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.

For Joel, this devastation becomes a lever to call the people to repentance.  But Yahweh’s anger is also mirrored by His mercy. God had not abandoned his people even though they had turned away from Him. The prophet Joel assures the people that God was still in their midst.

The last word for the Israelites was not to be a word of despair (or for that matter for a Christian) for God is a God of hope. He that had permitted the devastation (not caused it) and now would bring about a reversal of fortune on seeing the repentance of His people. The locust plague or the drought was not going to be the last word; for Yahweh is.

Chapter four of the book of Joel speaks of this reversal of fortune. With the locust and drought now gone, Yahweh will perform even greater wonders for His people.  This reversal will include the judgment of the nations who have persecuted God’s chosen people. The offending nations will be summoned to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There is a play on words here as ‘Jehoshaphat’ means God has judged. This valley is also known in New Testament times as the Kidron valley, a place where idols were ritually destroyed.

Now Yahweh will sit as judge and prosecutor and will avenge the sufferings which the nations have inflicted upon Israel. The day of the Lord will now be a day of terrible punishment for the nations of the world while His beloved people, Israel, will experience salivation; with a promise that the mountains shall drip new wine and the hills shall flow with milk.

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When a disaster becomes a lever- Friday, 27th week in ordinary time- Joel 1:13-15, 2:1-2

The prophet, after whom this short book is named, is called simply “Joel” meaning Yahweh. The prophet was, in all probability, a citizen of Jerusalem in Judah, which is the focal point of the book’s substance.  He may have been a priest or cult-prophet and it may be assumed that Joel was a person of some education, for his poetry has literary power and his words reflect familiarity with the writings, or sayings, of other prophets.   

The book was written after the building of the temple in 515 and before the destruction of Sidon in 343 and after the time of Obadiah and Malachi. Though the date of the prophet’s ministry remains shrouded in mystery, the event which prompted the ministry, from the human perspective, is perfectly clear; it was the horrifying experience of a locust plague. The prophet describes in vivid terms the recent experience of the devastation caused by locusts (1:2-2:17) and takes that historical reality as the launching point of his prophetic ministry.   

That the prophet describes a real infestation of the land by locusts need not be doubted, though there was a tendency among the older interpreters to understand the tale of the locusts to be merely symbolic or allegorical.  Not only in ancient times, but also in the modern era, Jerusalem and its surrounding lands have been vulnerable to the ravages of locusts.  In the spring of 1915, Jerusalem, Palestine and Syria were subjected to terrible devastation as a consequence of an influx of locusts  

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Fighting spiritual boredom- Thursday, 27th week in ordinary time- Malachi 3: 13-20b

Malachi is the last of the twelve prophets and is the final book of the Old Testament in its present ordering. The book is described as an oracle, or burden. The message of this book is addressed to ‘Israel’; the word being used here is used in its broad sense to encompass all the chosen people of God.

Malachi, simply means, ‘my messenger’. Hence, many interpreters have supposed that Malachi is simply a title for an otherwise anonymous prophet, the title indicating clearly enough the prophetic function.  But it is also quite possible that Malachi is simply a name, albeit a rare one.  

The general period of the prophet’s ministry can be determined from the substance of his writing.  The date was approximately 460 B.C. and a little more than half a century had passed from the time of the ministries of men like Haggai and Zechariah who motivated the people to rebuild the temple after the exile.

The rebuilding of the temple, which was so central an issue for the prophet’s predecessors, was now a thing of the past; the restored temple stood and its worship was conducted on a regular basis.  However, the chosen people were still a colonial people under the Persian Empire. The Persian rule however was relatively benign and the international situation gave a few grounds for concern.

For all the tranquility of Malachi’s world, it was not a particularly happy time for the chosen people.  Times of international crisis bring with them their own stimulus to action and thought, but calmness can dull the spirits and destroy any sense of vitality.  Israel floated on these still waters of international calm, with little sense of direction and the collapse of internal discipline.

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Mercy without measure – Wednesday, 27th week in ordinary time- Jonah 4: 1-11

How well do we know God? Jonah for one knew God very well and that accounts for his tantrums all through this book. Jonah knew God so well that he not only knew that God is merciful but he knew the inner depths, the quality of that mercy. This is why in today’s passage he says, “I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loath to punish.” Jonah knew that God’s heart would melt if Nineveh, the hated enemy of his people, would as much as blink; and blink they did.

The prophets of Israel were for the most part nationalistic; God was the Lord of Israel and, through his prophets, addressed the chosen people.  But in addition, as Jonah’s; book makes clear, God was also profoundly concerned with the behaviour and lot of all mankind.  The violence and evil of the gentile citizens of Nineveh were of no less concern to God than was the evil of his own people. 

Yet the mercy of God always seeks to turn aside evil and offer mercy to those who repent.  The story of  Jonah Is the story of a reluctant prophet who was sent to Nineveh  to demonstrates the concern of God for gentiles and the possibility of gentiles repenting and finding God’s mercy.  Thus, for the gentile reader of the Old Testament, the book of Jonah reveals the grand nature of a compassionate and universal God. Ironically, The Assyrians did what the Israelites took a long time to do; repent at the first invitation from God.

So Jonah does not only highlight God’s mercy but a particular quality of that mercy; a mercy that is unmerited and above all a mercy that God is free to give it to whomever he pleases.  This book is an excellent book to study the theology behind ‘divine mercy.’ God would not be pleased by mere recitation of prayers if our lives mirror the behaviour of older brother in the parable of the Prodigal son, or for that matter that the attitude of Jonah.

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