(This is the first Evangeliad portion I've posted in months; forgive my lassitude. Evangeliad posts, along with occasional essays, should resume with a more-or-less weekly frequency now that my patristics article and the greater part of my book-editing are done. The stanzas below continue a parable of Jesus, begun in the previous sections: Part 1 / Part 2.)
Section 30:16-20 (corresponding to Matt. 22:4-7; cf. Luke 14:21)
But the good king sends even more servants out,
To deliver another message about
The joy of his son, the table prepared,
The lavish event he was longing to share.
But instead of the righteous deference they owe,
The invited ones all contempt start to show.
Some laugh at the servants, some walk away,
Some murder them rather than hear what they say.
Then what will the king, in all his wrath, do?
He'll send armies to where his servants went through,
Root out the murderers, burn down their homes,
Wreak judgment on all the cruelty they've shown.