Matthew 22:1-14
And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.” [i]
Like any good story, Jesus’ parables are full of surprises that usually come at the end. That’s what we find in this parable of the wedding feast. It’s a wedding reception that somehow ends with “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (22:13).
Many parables Jesus tells can be considered difficult to interpret, particularly when preachers treat them like allegories (where every person and thing in the story has a higher, spiritual meaning). But you all know that parables are not allegories. Jesus tells them to irritate his accusers and judge them for their distrust. You also understand that parables are not stories that tell us how to live the Christian life. They are simple comparisons of one thing alongside another that point to who Jesus is and what his Kingdom is about.
The parables in Matthew 21 and 22 are quite plain and pointed – the parable of the two sons, the parable of the wicked tenant farmers, and the parable of the wedding banquet. All of these parables are judgment parables Jesus tells in response to the temple leaders’ who questioned by what authority he has cursed the temple and invited in the undesirables to be healed.
This parable is found in Luke as well as in Matthew, though with some differences. The fullest form is Matthew’s; Luke does not mention the guest who is cast out. But Luke 14:15–24 contains an elaboration of the excuses made by those who refused the king’s invitation. In Luke, Jesus tells this parable at an actual dinner party hosted by a local Pharisee and Luke pictures all the guests jockeying for social position at the dinner table. Since Jesus was an itinerant preacher, he often preached the same points in different settings.
THE PARTY POOPERS
The parable begins with the king who has prepared a wedding banquet for his son and sends servants to those who have been invited to confirm their attendance. They refused to come. Naturally, their refusal is an insult. It dishonors the son, the king, and even the servants who carried the King’s message. Initially, the king was patient. He sends other servants seeking the RSVP: “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” (22:4).
Again he invited guests, who again refused. This time, however, they don’t simply reject the invitation, they also abuse the messengers and kill some of them. The king sends an army to destroy the murderers and burn their city (22:1-7). If that reaction seems over the top, remember that this is a parable, and parables contain over the top examples. After that, the king invites others to be his guests.
The reason this parable is so easy to understand is nearly every part is discussed in plain terms elsewhere. The son in this parable is Messiah Jesus. The banquet is the great marriage supper of the Lamb. The messengers are the early preachers of the gospel, the prophets, the writers, and psalmists – and later, the apostles. Those to whom the invitation was first given were practicing Jews, with the particular eye toward the religious leadership. Those who eventually come to the banquet are the outcast and poor of Israel, and even gentiles. John 1:11-12 says, “He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
That verse suggests on one level at least a number of Christ’s parables deal with the refusal of the majority of Jews to receive Jesus when he first came to them, again in particular, the leaders of Israel against whom these parables are directed. The older son in the parable of the prodigal son makes this same point. So do the workers in the vineyard who were hired early but paid the same wage. So does the Pharisee in the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18: 9-14). They are self-satisfied bookkeepers. These parables all explore the mindset of those who thought they had worked long and faithfully for God, unlike the common people or the gentiles, and were resentful when the grace of God was shown to people they considered unworthy of it.
The unique element in this parable of the wedding banquet is the stubborn refusal of those who were invited. It was not that they could not come. Rather, they would not come. The reason for their refusal is not spelled out (only their excuses), but the way the servants were treated gives us a strong hint. The servants were seized, mistreated, and killed (22:6). If the invited guests felt that way toward the servants, they obviously hated the king who had sent the servants. And they would have seized, mistreated, and killed him if they could have done so. Though they claim otherwise, they would not come because they despised the king.
The leaders of Christ’s day deeply and bitterly resented this portrait of them because that is precisely the way these religious leaders thought and acted. In the story immediately before this (21:33-46), Jesus told of tenant farmers who beat, killed, and stoned the owners servants. At last they murdered his son. In chapter 23, Jesus will pronounce prophetic curses on these same people:
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. [ii]
We know the ending, these rebellious subjects of the King of Heaven killed Christ. As Stephen would later preach, “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”” (Acts 7:52,53).
Those invited in the Wedding Banquet parable are way too busy living their reasonable lives to even consider dying to their plans in order to join the real party. The worthiness (or worthlessness) of the alternate guest list (poor, crippled, blind, and lame) doesn’t drive the invitation; the host’s compulsiveness to fill up his house is his sole motivation.
“…the reason for dragging the refuse of humanity into the party is not pity for its plight or admiration for its lowliness but simply the fact that this idiot of a host has decided he has to have a full house. Grace …is not depicted here as a response; above all, it is not depicted as a fair response, or an equitable repose, or a proportionate response. Rather it is shown as a crazy initiative, a radical discontinuity.”[iii] There is no right-side-up solution that will do to salvage the party.
In Luke’s version, the host’s plans for his great party have been shipwrecked by a list of reasonable responses by reasonable, right-handed people refusing to die to their reasonable plans for successful living. The host instead chooses to throw a shipwreck of a party. He creates the kind of party his initial, reasonable guests wouldn’t be caught dead attending. The kind of party a respectable older brother refuses to enter because being “caught dead is the only ticket to the Supper of the Lamb.”[iv]
Today we find the same class of people among the children of godly parents that pray over their children faithfully teach them the gospel, and yet the children remain unsaved. We, naturally long for them to feast upon the provisions of grace and rejoice in Christ Jesus. But how often it is the case they will not come. They have reasonable excuses: “Religion is fine for you, but I don’t need it. That’s your truth and your truth works for you. But it’s not my truth. I have other and better things to do with my life.”
Some who were invited to the great gospel feast do not openly express their hatred of the host, they simply make excuses. In Luke’s Banquet parable, all of those on the original guest list have sensible, legitimate reasons they cannot attend. Inspecting newly-purchased property is good business practice. Test-driving your new fleet of oxen is important. Being on your honeymoon in San Francisco is a very reasonable justification for declining a party invitation back home in San Antonio. But Jesus says, “the master of the house became angry….”[v]
The host is angry because this just isn’t ANY old party. This is like an invitation to dinner at the White House plus a night at the Academy Awards followed by the Governor’s Ball, plus a dinner-dance with all the world’s kings and queens in attendance. It’s the kind of party any of the people shoving each other out of the way for a good seat at the Pharisee’s table in a tiny Palestinian town would literally kill to attend because, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” (Luke 14:15).
Do you fit that pattern? Are you more interested in your good credit rating than in Christ? Do you read stock quotes more than you read your Bible? You don’t have to murder a prophet to miss out. You have only to fritter away your time on things that will eventually pass away and so let your opportunity for repentance and faith, your death to your bookkeeping self, allow you to enter the great eternal party.
THE PARTY PARTICIPANTS
Half this parable has been devoted to the party poopers who despise the king and refused to come. But verses 8-14 tells of those willing participants. The king said, “Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find” (Matt. 22:9). Luke makes it clear that these guests were drawn from the lower ranks of life. “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame…. Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full” (Luke 14:21, 23).
If God wills for his house to be full, he cannot and will not be denied. The person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ is not ineffective. God must be honored. Jesus must be effective in his work. All that the Father gives him will come to him and to whoever comes he will never drive away (John 6:37). God does not consider himself dishonored by the kinds of people who show up to the party. These are not the important, the wise, the strong, or the mighty. These people are, as the apostle Paul would write, “the foolish things of the world [chosen] to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).
The people who give up their bookkeeping to enter the party are more grateful than the first group of bookkeepers. The bookkeepers were convinced they had great things already. But the poor beggars picked off the streets welcomed the sumptuous meal. They were immensely grateful for the veal, the roast beef, the steak and kidney pud, and the fine whiskey they knew they could never afford no matter how well their books were balanced.
The banquet became more famous than it would otherwise have been had the feast gone on as usual with the original guest list of people who were certain they deserved to be there. Beloved, when the Lord saved some of us by his grace, it was no common event! When he brought us great sinners to his feet, and washed us, and clothed us in the wedding garments of trust, and fed us, and made us his own, it was a wonder to be talked of forever and ever! The angels will never stop celebrating. That which looked as though it would defame the king turned out to his honor and glory. His house was full. His party was in full swing.
THE SHABBY GUEST
At this point, the parable seems to be over, which is the case in Luke. But Matthew is not quite finished. The Lord gives a much-needed warning concerning the one who showed up to the feast without a wedding garment. It shows that the poor and disadvantaged can have an inverse pride. Because their books are not as thick with assets, they believe they deserve the King’s favor. They believe their assets may be smaller, but their balance sheet is still acceptable. Yet the man who brought his own bookkeeping to the party was immediately thrown “outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (22:13).
Unfortunately, there are a number of preachers who identify the proper wedding garment as Christian works that prove their true faith. But you know better, because you know that Jesus does not tell parables as a checklist for our Christian duty. This is a parable of grace and judgment. It is not a recipe for anything other than how we get into the party. And we do not enter the party based on any kind of bookkeeping, even Christian bookkeeping. We enter only by the performance and person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone provides the proper party outfit.
As Paul writes in Galatians 3:27, “Far as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” If we are clothed in Christ, then we have thrown away our ledgers and are trusting solely into him. Isn’t it interesting that we read in verse 12, “the man was speechless”? Paul writes in Romans 3: 19, when he concludes his indictment of the human race, that “every mouth [will] be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.”
Do you hear what Jesus is saying? He is saying that real confession is not a fudging of our assets and liabilities, but an admission that our books are only worth damning – no assets at all, only huge and eternal and unpayable liabilities. Trust into Christ is surrender to death. Death to self is the only ticket to this grand eternal party.
Confession is NOT a transaction. It has nothing to do with getting ourselves forgiven. There is no negotiation to secure forgiveness. It’s the last bit of air expelled from a corpse squeezed by the Father in a joyous, gracious hug. “Forgiveness surrounds us, beats upon us all our lives; we confess only to wake ourselves up to what we already have.”[vi] We are forgiven already; and only for one reason: because the One telling this parable set his face toward Jerusalem to die and rise again.
We’re not forgiven because we make ourselves forgivable, or because we make a decision to trust Jesus (this is why a sizable portion of Jesus’ Church still baptizes infants, by the way). We are forgiven because there is a Forgiver, and he loves to throw parties!
There is no subsequent forgiveness, no additional act or sign. Nothing new needs to be done because EVERYTHING was done, once for all, by the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. Or, in this parable, the slaughter of the fatted calves and oxen represents the death that celebrates death and resurrection; the veal is the Christ figure; this is the one death that makes the party possible.[vii]
Those who bring their ledgers to the party will be completely silenced by their lack of merit. When they see the king in his glory and understand what true righteousness is, they will feel so foolish that they have no reply at all. No reply, that is, other than weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.
What is the wedding garment? It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, of course. It is that perfect righteousness that God provides freely to all who repent of sin and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. We sing about it in a hymn of Nikolaus von Zinzendorf, translated by John Wesley:
Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
’Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.[viii]
Grace operates ONLY by raising the dead. The judgment pronounced will be based only on our acceptance or rejection of our resurrection from the dead. Everybody will be raised up in the final judgment and nobody will be kicked out for having a rotten life because then, only the life of Jesus will matter.[ix]
Of course, tragically, there will be plenty of older brothers, plenty of religious leaders, plenty of folks in the wrong garments waiving their books around and trying to prove they never died in the first place. “…there is a place for such party poopers. God thinks of everything.”[x]
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.[xi]
[i] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 22:1–14.
[ii] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 23:29–36.
[iii] Capon 290.
[iv] Id.
[v] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Lk 14:21.
[vi] Capon, 297.
[vii] Id.
[viii] James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 470.
[ix] Capon, 301.
[x] Id.
[xi] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Eph 1:7–12.
