The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

Matthew 22:1-14 (CSB)

1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come. 4 Again, he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ 5 But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city. 8 Then he told his servants, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.  9 Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ 10 So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests. 11 When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. 13 Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Today we are looking at the Parable of the Wedding Banquet. Jesus tells this parable directly after telling the Parable of The Two Sons and the Parable of the Vineyard Owner. The first being about the father who tells his sons to go work and one says no at first, but then goes and does what his father asked. The other son says yes, but then does not work. Jesus agrees with the listeners who conclude that the one who went and did the work is the one who did his father’s will. The second parable is about tenant farmers who killed their landowner’s son. Jesus asks the people listening what will happen to them and they answer that the landowner will destroy the people who killed his son and give the land to other farmers to work. Jesus concludes that parable by saying, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit” (Matthew 21:43). I think it’s important to have those two parables in mind as we read through the Parable of the Wedding Banquet.

Something I’ve mentioned before is worth mentioning again: we must be careful to not add to Scripture. Commentators often present their opinions as facts, which is problematic, because then someone else will quote from that commentary and they will restate that ‘fact’ as proof of their conclusion. I’m sure I’ve done it myself. It’s something I am working really hard to not do, though. The only solution I see to this problem is that we have to go back to the Bible and read what it says. Then, and only then, can we make fact statements. This particular parable is a great example of this pervasive problem. Let’s look at it again, this time taking it section by section.

Verses 1-3 say, “Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come.’”

When Jesus told this parable, He was telling it to a crowd of people. In that crowd were Pharisees. Immediately following this parable, verse 15 tells us, “Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to trap him by what he said.” Jesus knew they were listening, and He knew they would understand this parable and be angered by it. Why? Because they would have known whom He was describing in this parable. The people who were already invited to the banquet, but when summoned did not want to come, those people are God’s chosen people: the Jews. They had been invited to worship God. So in this parable, Jesus could be referencing the people back in the Old Testament time who did not obey God. Or, He could be describing what was currently happening right then. The people who didn’t want to come to the banquet could be the Jews who were waiting for the promised Messiah, but now that the Messiah was here, they did not want to worship Him.

Jesus then either describes further what happened to prophets of old whom were killed for their messages of repentance they brought to the Israelites, or Jesus is prophesying and telling what will happen in the future. Verses 4-7 say, “Again, he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city.”

If He is prophesying, then Jesus is either describing what was about to happen with His impending death on the cross, or He is speaking about all the persecution the early believers would suffer. The words about the king being enraged and burning down the city seem prophetic of what happens in 70 AD in Jerusalem with the destruction of the Temple. But again, it could also be a reference to the destruction of the temple and the captivity of the Israelites by the Babylonians. Either way, the Jews, God’s chosen people who were invited to the banquet, did not want to come. The point of what He is saying is: my chosen people have rejected the invitation I have given them. They aren’t coming to the banquet. They’ve heard the summons to come, and they have responded with apathy or violence. And whomever Jesus was specifically describing, we know that the Jews in leadership did not believe Jesus’ message that He was indeed the prophesied Messiah, come to save them. Rather than believe Him, they called for Him to be crucified. Then Jesus continues. Verses 8-10 say, “Then he told his servants, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests.”

This parable is so profound because we know what the people who refused the invitation were missing out on. Whether it was Jewish religious leaders, the Old Testament time Jews, the Jews living in the Galilee when Jesus was there, or all the multitudes of people who have heard the invitation to follow Jesus since then and yet refused, we know they are missing out on the greatest opportunity they could ever receive. Yet, when we issue this invitation today, I don’t know if we are doing a very good job of presenting just how wonderful of an invitation it really is. The kingdom of God is one of joy. We were made for God. In Him, we find who we really are and who He made us to be. When we surrender our lives to Him, He gives us a life that is so much better than what we could have come up with. He gives us life in Him. John 10:10 says, “A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” There is abundant life, joy and peace in the Kingdom of God. Jesus came to bring us joy. There is no greater joy to be found than in being made a child of God. When we repent and believe in Him, He forgives our sins and washes us clean. That is cause for joy and rejoicing.

So many people think Christianity will take away all fun and turn them into boring, uptight people. That is not what the kingdom of God is like. I’ve followed Jesus for many years, and I can tell you, following the Lord is far from boring. Following Jesus has given me far more joy and happiness than anything I tried to fill my life with before I became a Christian. More proof of the joy that Jesus has brought us is seen in the first recorded miracle that He performed. He turned water into wine at a wedding. There are few occasions that are as joyful as a wedding. He publicly displayed His power at a wedding, and provided more wine for the celebrating attendees, further gladdening their hearts.

But just like then, as it is today, so many people do not want to come to the party. Worse than that, they attack anyone who gives them an invitation. People still hear the message of salvation and they don’t want anything to do with it. It is as John 3:19 tells us, “This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.” People don’t want to come to Jesus because they would rather stay in the darkness with their evil deeds. They don't want to change. That is why they will lash out at Christians and attack Christianity. The world is fine with hearing about other religions, but the world is not tolerant of Christianity because Christianity is not just a religion, it is the only path to eternal life. It is a matter of life or death.

That is why we are to issue the invitation to come to the wedding feast, even though we know many people will reject the invitation. And as we see in the parable, we are to issue the invitation to all people. Originally, had all the Jews followed Him, they would have been a witness to the whole world, but they rejected Him, and so, as part of God’s plan, He extended the invitation of salvation to the whole world directly. All people are invited. That day when Jesus spoke this parable, the Pharisees were angered by His words. They didn’t want to extend this invitation. They did not associate with Gentiles. And, they would have taken offense at the idea that “both evil and good” were invited to the wedding. Just as they were angered at the end of Jesus’ Parable of the Two Sons. Jesus had asked His listeners in Matthew 21:31-32, “Which of the two did his father’s will?”

They said, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; but you, when you saw it, didn’t even change your minds then and believe him.” Then, picking up a little further in verses 45-46, the text says, “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew he was speaking about them. Although they were looking for a way to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because the people regarded him as a prophet.”

The Pharisees did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. They were angry with the idea that salvation could be given to all people who believe. They didn’t like the idea of all people being invited to the party. We know they were wrong to think that. We rejoice when hearing this story that all the ‘rif-raff’ of society is welcome. If we are being honest, we know we are those people; the good and the bad. And since we are being honest, I also think this is where we hope this parable of the Wedding Banquet ends. All the good and bad people are invited, show up, and celebrate together at this amazing party. The end. But that’s not where the story ends though, is it? What happens next? Verses 11-14 say, “When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

There is a lot to look at in those verses, isn’t there? I think we have to read this parable carefully and thoughtfully to understand what Jesus is saying here. I see a tendency among some theologians to read this parable, or others like it, and then try to form doctrinal statements from it. We have to read this parable within the context of all of scripture, and we have to look at what Jesus was saying directly before and after the parable. There is not enough information in this parable to form doctrines of belief. It is an illustration. We are to fit this parable into the greater doctrines we see clearly told to us throughout all of Scripture. This parable should agree with what Scripture teaches, but we shouldn’t look at this parable and conclude, for example, that this is exactly what salvation is like, nothing more to it. A parable is an illustration used as a teaching tool, but it is not comprehensive in and of itself. I want to clarify this because when reading about this parable in commentaries or on-line blogs, I kept seeing people reading a whole lot of doctrine into this parable that I simply don’t see in the text. For example, most commentators suggest that the king provided the clothing. They want to add this information because, rightfully, they know Jesus provided salvation for us. I don’t see the clothing as representing salvation, though. The invitation and response to the invitation is the salvation metaphor. The clothing is the proof of being a child of God.

That idea, though, that the clothing is something we have to put on, contradicts some people’s doctrinal beliefs and so they add that the king provided it. But, let’s say that the king provided the wedding garments for the guests. Even in that scenario, the man still failed to change into the garments that the king provided for him. If the king had placed the garments on each guest and clothed them, then all would be properly clothed, including that man. And if you argued that the man could have been properly clothed by the king and then changed back to his old clothes, that still means that a decision had been made by that man to wear or not wear the garments. He would have first put it on, gotten into the banquet and then taken it off or soiled it so badly it was unrecognizable. Even at the end of that argument, we are still left with a man who is not dressed for the wedding. He is there, but he has either never changed his clothes or has changed back. I think the text implies he was still wearing his old clothes. Given clothes or not, the fact was, he was in his old clothes. He was unchanged. That leads me to ask this question: can we really think we are following the Lord if we are unchanged?

This wedding banquet that Jesus references isn’t just a metaphor, by the way. We really do have a wedding banquet to look forward to. Revelation 19:9 says, “Then he said to me, ‘Write: Blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb!’ He also said to me, ‘These words of God are true.’” There will be a marriage feast after Jesus returns. All people are invited to come. All are welcome to attend. But in order to get in, we will be judged. Hear what Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’”

We must be clothed in wedding attire. Anyone who tells people that you can keep wearing whatever you were wearing when you accepted the invitation is misinformed or deceiving you. The king was absolute. Look at his response to the guest who was not clothed appropriately. He says, “Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This is a description of hell. In the Gospel of Matthew alone, Jesus uses this phrase “weeping and gnashing” 6 other times. We see it at the end of the parable of the Wheat and Weeds, the Parable of the Net, the parable of the Talents, and when Jesus describes what happens to servants who are not faithful but wicked. Every time it is spoken to describe what happens to those whom Jesus describes as not acting righteously. Matthew 13:41-43, which is another time it is found, says, “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom all who cause sin and those guilty of lawlessness. They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Let anyone who has ears listen.”

Yet again, I must emphasize: there is only one thing needed to stay at the party. Everyone there has to wear the wedding attire. N.T. Wright, in his book Matthew for Everyone, says, “God’s kingdom is a kingdom in which love and justice and truth and mercy and holiness reign unhindered. They are the clothes you need to wear for the wedding. And if you refuse to put them on, you are saying you don’t want to stay at the party. That is the reality. If we don’t have the courage to say so, we are deceiving ourselves, and everyone who listens to us” (p.85).

In the parable, there is only one man who is singled out for not wearing the wedding clothes. He is representative, though, of all people who were not wearing the proper garments. I think just one person is addressed, though, because we are not judged collectively, but individually. And the answer to the question, “How did you get in here without the garment” will be answered differently for each person to whom it is asked. At the last judgement, which is what this parable seems to be about, every person will have to answer for him or herself.

Remember what Galatians 1:6 warns us about? It says, “I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.” It is possible to hear the call, respond positively, and yet turn away from the gospel. That is why we are warned repeatedly that we must not turn away. We must put on Christ and pick up our cross each day and follow Jesus. We must bear good fruit and grow the fruit of the Spirit. We are told to clothe ourselves with good works and righteousness. 1 Peter 5:55 says, “All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Also, Ephesians 4:20-24 says, “But that is not how you came to know Christ, assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.” Those are just two of many passages telling us to put on the characteristics of the kingdom of God.

Yes, salvation is a free gift from God and we can do nothing to earn it. We don’t deserve it. We didn’t earn it. But we cannot say yes to the party and then stay unchanged. We have to put on the garments. In Revelation, we see exactly what this garment is. Revelation 19:6-8 says, “Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying, ‘Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty, reigns! Let us be glad, rejoice, and give him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has prepared herself. She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure.’ For the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.”

The garment is the righteous acts of the saints. Again, we cannot earn this place at the party. It is given to all people freely, but if we accept this invitation, we then have to change. We must change out of our former clothes and put on garments of righteousness. All the good and bad people are invited, but we don’t stay that way. We are made new creations in Christ when we repent of our sins and are forgiven and washed clean. Let us not turn back to our former ways. Let us not pick up our soiled and ruined garments. Let us wear the new garments washed clean by forgiveness and grace. So many people want to come to the party still wearing their old clothes. Throughout all of Scripture, not just this parable, we see that is not possible. We must be clothed in righteousness, given to us first through faith in Jesus. Let us not lose our faith, but show our faith by our actions. Romans 13:14 says, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.” If we are truly following Jesus, we will be changed. A lot of people say yes to Jesus, but then never do anything else. Like the son in the Parable of the Two Sons, they say yes but change their minds. We must be like the other son and do what the Father says. We must let go of our old garments and put on the new. We must not think we can show up to the “party” unchanged. We must continue to say “yes” and obey each day.

Pray: Heavenly Father, we want to be changed. We do not want to hang on to our old garments, our old ways of living. We want to be washed and clothed in holiness. Thank You for washing us clean through the blood of Jesus. We pray that You would move on us by the power of the Holy Spirit to say “yes” to Your leading every day. Help us to live each day for You. We love You and thank You for Your unending great love for us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.