Put On Thy Strength, O Zion

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Elder Bednar from conference:

Parables are a defining feature of the Lord Jesus Christ’s masterful approach to teaching. Simply defined, the Savior’s parables are stories used to compare spiritual truths with material things and mortal experiences. For example, the New Testament Gospels are replete with teachings likening the kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustard seed,¹ to a pearl of great price,² to a householder and laborers in his vineyard,³ to ten virgins,⁴ and to many other things. During part of the Lord’s Galilean ministry, the scriptures indicate that “without a parable spake he not unto them.”⁵

The intended meaning or message of a parable typically is not expressed explicitly. Rather, the story only conveys divine truth to a receiver in proportion to his or her faith in God, personal spiritual preparation, and willingness to learn. Thus, an individual must exercise moral agency and actively “ask, seek, and knock”⁶ to discover the truths embedded in a parable.

Here Elder Bednar implies that there is just one meaning, but as becomes clear in his discussion of the parable of the wedding feast, parables have lots of meaning packed in tight.  Because you have to think about them and feel them to get the meanings, parables are on the border line between messages delivered through experience and messages delivered through words.

Now lets talk about the parable of the royal wedding feast. 

You know the story.  The king throws a huge celebration for his son’s wedding but no one he invited will come.  Instead, the king sends out his guards to bring in strangers passing by on the highway.  He clothes them royally and calls them friends.

1. Contrast gospel equality with secular equality. Secular equality is tearing everyone down to the lowest common denominator.  Even equality of opportunity either results in very unequal outcomes—i.e., its not equality—or else folks decide that the opportunity is broken and adjust it until everyone gets the same bad outcomes.  In contrast, as Elder Bednar explains, the custom at wedding feasts was for guests to all wear a simple standard outfit so there would be no distinctions among them.  But the king’s guests were just traveling, they aren’t dressed that way.  The king’s solution? Dress them all royally.  They are all equally dressed now and appear of equal station because they all appear to be royal.  The divine version of equality is raising everyone who will up to the highest possible level.  Note that this kind of equality requires a superior being to do the raising, though.  These people are all equal to each other because the king made them so.
2. I have this feeling that the great and good of the world, especially of America, are the invited guests. They were called to glory and abundance and they have refused.   Instead, the kingdom is given into the hands of schlubs like us.  Mene men tekel upharsin.  Their stewardship shall another take.
3. The odd episode of the guest who doesn’t have a wedding garment—I don’t have a handle on it. Elder Bednar’s explanation, while true, doesn’t seem like the whole story.  He is leaving stuff out.