Did You Get The Invitation? Did you RSVP? The Parable of the Wedding Banquet Matthew 22:1-13

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

22 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 

Jesus again uses his favorite method of teaching with parables.  Parables, in short, are an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.  This parable is a follow up to the previous parable.  They both point to the Jewish leaders and their rejection of him, which was not God's will. 

2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.

The marriage feast is often used as a metaphor for the church, which is this bride of Christ and Jesus the bridegroom. Ephesians 5:25 The king represents God. Like the previous parable where the landowner provided everything needed for a fruitful vineyard, the king in this parable prepares a glorious wedding banquet for his son. 

"A wedding was (and often is today) the most significant social event of a person’s life. The wedding of a prince would be a spectacular event, and an invitation would normally be prized."

3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

Like the previous parable, the king sent out his servants to invite the guests to come. "As in the parable of the Vineyard (Matthew 21:33-46), the servants represent the aggregate work of the prophets up to the time of the Baptist." Ellicot

"It seems strange that those invited refused an invitation to a royal wedding. This illustrates the principle that there is no logical reason God’s good gifts are refused." (Guzik)

4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘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.’

Even though the first invitation was spurned, the king reaches out again, clearly signalling how important it was for the guests to come to the wedding banquet, he had so carefully prepared. He gave more details about the dinner to make the party even more attractive to his prospective guests.  

"Barclay says that when a great social event happened in the Jewish culture of that day, people were invited but without a set time. On the appropriate day, when the host was ready to receive the guests, they sent out messengers to say that all things were ready and it was time to come to the feast."

5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 

But they spurned the second offer as well, making excuses about having to go work. They not only neglected the second invitation, but seemed to do it in a "cavalier" fashion. 

"So people are engaged so much in their worldly employment that they pretend they have no time to attend to religion. The world is, in their view, of more value than God." (Barnes)

6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 

They not only rejected the invitation, but were hostile to the messengers and even killing them.  This is an obvious reference to the prophets, who like in the last parable, were killed when sent to collect the fruit of the vineyard 

7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

Similar to the last parable, this is a reference to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in A.D. 70, some 35 years after the Jewish leaders rejected and killed Jesus.  

8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 

'The king was determined that he would not have an empty banquet hall, so an invitation was given to all who would hear.' Guzik

Those who refused the king showed that they did not deserve to come in the first place. 

9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 

The king makes it clear he does not want the banquet hall to be empty.  He is determined to invite as many people as necessary to fill the hall.  If the king is God, and the guests are those invited to believe in Jesus, we can see God wants heaven to be full.  God has prepared a place in heaven for everyone who would accept His invitation, but he won't make people come to the banquet in heaven. 

"Upon rejection by the Jews, the offer is now sent out to all people.  We know this to be the Gentiles, many of whom received Christ upon the preaching of the Gospel by the apostles."

The highways - "Literally, the "exit" or "going out" of the "paths or roads." It means the square or principal street, into which a number of smaller streets enter; a place, therefore, of confluence, where many persons would be seen, and persons of all descriptions. By this is represented the offering of the gospel to the Gentiles. They were commonly regarded among the Jews as living in highways and hedges cast out and despised." (Barnes)

10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Whether one was good or bad did not affect this final invitation.  The servants obey the king's wishes and make a fearless search until new guests are found.  For those of us who are servants of Christ and the gospel, we are reminded that our principal duty is to help God by inviting all people to the banquet. 

(1) the universality of the offer of the gospel, so that none were shut out through any previous sins; (2) that the assembly of the guests so gathered answers to the visible Church of Christ in which the evil are mingled with the good, waiting for the coming of the King “to see the guests.” Ellicott

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 

This is the curious part of the parable and difficult to interpret.  The gracious nature of the king seems to change a little bit when a man comes in not dressed appropriately for the occasion.  His choice of clothing shows obvious disrespect to the host, the king. Charles Spurgeon, the famous preacher, offers a helpful interpretation.

"He came because he was invited, but he came only in appearance. The banquet was intended to honor the King’s Son, but this man meant nothing of the kind; he was willing to eat the good things set before him, but in his heart there was no love either for the King or his well-beloved Son.” (Spurgeon)

Another interpretation points out that in Middle Eastern culture, wedding clothes were given by the royal prince as people came to the wedding.  His wealth often included thousands of such garments to hand out.  

"On this assumption, the act of the man who was found “not having a wedding garment” was one of wilful insult. He came in the “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) of his old life, instead of putting on the “white linen” meet for a kingly feast (Ecclesiastes 9:8; Revelation 3:4-5) which had been freely offered him. Even without this assumption, the parable pre-supposes that the man might easily have got the garment, and that it was, therefore, his own fault that he had it not."  Ellicott

12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

When confronted the man was ill prepared to answer the question.  Clearly he did not think it was a big deal.  The man was speechless, or in another translation says is, "struck dumb". 

Many have interpreted the weddding clothes as the "robes of righteousness". These were robes Jesus gave to us as an exhange of his righteousness for our own.  Isaiah 61:10.  The idea implicit in the story is the the wedding clothes were provided but the man didn't wear them.  

As Isaiah 64:6 says, 

"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away."

13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Despite all the overtures of the king and the provision of the wedding clothes, the man paid a steep price for rejecting the king's invitation.  "Weeping and gnashing of teeth" has the connotation of deep sorrow and regret that never goes away.  The man accepted the invitation on his own terms, not the king's terms.  Though the king clearly wanted him there, the man was prideful and self absorbed. 

14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

This is another challenging statement.  Though the king wanted the many to come, relatively speaking only a few enjoyed the feast.  

I think David Guzik sums up this parable quite nicely when he says, 

"This parable demonstrates that those indifferent to the gospel, those antagonistic against the gospel, and those unchanged by the gospel share the same fate. None of them enjoyed the king’s feast."

Why do you think people reject God's free offer of salvation in Christ?  Why do some prefer to do it on their own terms?  I.e. the one who came without the proper wedding clothes.  Do you as a servant of God invite people to banquet? Do you think God still wants the banguet hall filled today? Why or why not?