The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
Matthew 22:1-14
The events in Matthew 22 take place during the last week of Jesus’ life. Earlier in the week, Jesus had come into the city of Jerusalem while His disciples and other Jews praised Him as the Messiah and King. The next day, Jesus went into the temple and cleansed it, driving out those who had made His Father’s house a marketplace and a den of thieves. The following day, He’s back in the temple teaching the people when the chief priests and elders confront Him about His authority to do these things. And He silenced them, as He always did. And then Jesus spoke three parables, one right after the other.
In the parable of the two sons, Jesus condemned their hypocrisy and unbelief, saying, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you…” (Matt. 21:31), because they believed, but you did not repent and believe (Matt. 21:32). Then in the parable of the vineyard, He exposed their treachery and told them, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.” (Matt. 21:43).
Now, in the parable of the wedding banquet, Jesus explains that statement. There are two scenes in the parable. They both have invitations, responses, and then judgment. The first scene in the parable focuses on those who refuse to come. The second scene focuses on those who do come. And then at the end of the passage Jesus applies the parable, saying, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt. 22:14).
First, we see …
1. The Invitation Refused (Matt. 22:1-7)
Look at Matthew 22:1-2:
1 And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son,“ (Matt. 22:1-2)
Jesus is teaching about “The kingdom of heaven,” and He compares it to “a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son” (Matt. 22:2). It’s obvious that the king in Jesus’ parable is symbolic of His heavenly Father, and Jesus Himself is the ‘bridegroom son’. The “marriage,” or wedding feast, was a way of illustrating the entry into the full blessings of the kingdom of heaven. The ‘invited guests’ are His covenant people—the Jews and particularly the Jewish leaders of that generation. The parable illustrates how Jesus came and presented Himself to them as the Messiah, the Son of God, and how they rejected Him.
A wedding and the wedding banquet is usually a blessed and joyful event in the life of any family. In the time of Jesus, it included many days spent feasting and celebrating. But this was no ordinary the wedding. It was the royal wedding of the king’s son. To receive an invitation to such a prestigious event would have been the highlight of your life. It’s not the sort of thing you miss, if you are allowed to go.
When the time came for the royal wedding feast, the king “… sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding,” (Matt. 22:3a). The king would have sent out invitations in advance, and the people would have been expected to prepare to attend. Then, once the event was ready, he sent out his servants to tell everyone it was time to come.
But then, we are shocked to hear that “… they were not willing to come” (Matt. 22:3). You can almost hear the gasp of the crowd Jesus when Jesus says this. Not only were these people missing out on the greatest event in the kingdom, but they took the risk of insulting the king himself! Their will was set against it.
Even so, the king was gracious and patient. He sent out his servants again, this time urging them, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.” (Matt. 22:4). The servants explain the lavishness and the urgency of the wedding. Everything is ready. You need to come now!
But again, inexplicably, the response of the invited guests in Matthew 22:5 is “But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business.” The phrase that is translated “they made light of it” comes from a word that means “to have no care or concern; to be neglectful.” The careless guests neglected the king’s invitation. They were more concerned about their own lives than attending the banquet. One had his farm that needed his attention. Another had pressing business to attend to. But think about it! Compared to the royal wedding feast, these everyday, mundane things are insignificant.
In Luke 14, Jesus gave a similar parable, where three different people gave three different excuses for not coming to the feast. One said, ” I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused” (Luke 14:18). Another said, ” I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused” (Luke 14:19). A third said, “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come” (Luke 14:20). What lame excuses! Who buys a filed without seeing it or oxen without first testing them? In the minds of these people, their land or animals or wife were more important than the wedding feast. How incredibly self absorbed these people were! When the king invites you to a royal wedding, you can take time off of your daily activities to honor him. The land will be there tomorrow. You can test out your new oxen later. Your wife can come with you.
Then, even more inexplicably, Jesus says in Matthew 22:6, “And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them.” Jesus is illustrating the same thing here that He just showed in the parable of the vineyard. The owner of the vineyard was gracious and patient with the wicked vinedressers. Yet, “the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another” (Matt. 21:35). They were ungrateful and obstinate.
I wonder if you can see in this the great patience of our heavenly Father toward those to whom the Lord Jesus was sent as King. The Jewish nation had been given promises in the Scriptures and from the prophets, who told them again and again that their King was coming. The announcement had already been sent out to them. Then, God sent a mighty herald to announce coming of the King in the person of John the Baptist. He preached in the wilderness of the Jordan to the Jewish people and made it clear to everyone who could hear him that Jesus was the Christ, calling people to repent of their sins. But again, they didn’t listen. King Herod had John beheaded, and the Jewish religious leaders refused to repent at his message.
Then Jesus came preaching the kingdom and proving that He was the Son of God through miracles, signs, and wonders. God was inviting the Jews to receive their King, but for the most part, His invitation was met with indifference. And with the religious authorities, Jesus faced violent opposition. Even now, they were plotting to destroy Him.
And for most, their obstinate unbelief continued even after God raised His Son from the dead. They continued to persecute the apostles and all who believed in Jesus. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ had invited His covenant people to receive their King, and to enter into the full blessings of His kingdom reign. But His invitation had been met with indifference, and then with scorn, and then finally with violence. And yet, He patiently continued to issue the invitation. What a horrible thing—to harden one’s heart against the greatest invitation ever given! But what a patient God it is that gives the invitation again, and again, and again!
When God calls you to the kingdom, it is foolish to refuse to come. How many people today are just indifferent to the call of the gospel of Christ? They are so caught up with concerns and pleasures of this life that they refuse to even think about God’s eternal kingdom. Some today are still violently opposed to the gospel. But whether you are just indifferent or violently opposed, the judgment is the same.
Jesus says, “But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.” (Matt. 22:7). To scorn the gracious offer to attend the joyous wedding feast of the king’s son was to rebel against the king himself.
And likewise, to refuse the offer to receive God’s Son as King is to reject God Himself. As Jesus said, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:23b). And there comes a time when the Father’s patience is exhausted toward those who persist in disregarding His Son and scorning His rights as King. And sadly, the day came—within forty years of our Lord speaking these words—when the Roman armies came and destroyed the city of Jerusalem. “Not one stone” of the temple, as Jesus had warned, would be left upon another, “that shall not be thrown down” (Matt. 24:2).
When we snub God’s invitation, we open ourselves to judgment. God in His grace makes repeated invitations, but the day will come when the invitation is withdrawn, and those who refuse to come will face judgment. That is the fate of those who refuse to come to Christ.
Next we see…
2. The Invitaton Received (Matt. 22:8-13)
8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 ‘Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ (Matt. 22:8-9).
Notice that the wedding feast had not been canceled. It would go on as scheduled—even though those who had been invited had shown themselves unworthy of the great privilege of attending. The king graciously sent his servants out onto the highways and into the outer reaches to find as many people as they could, and invite them to come to his son’s wedding feast and fill his son’s banquet table.
Matthew 22:10 says, “So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.” There were no qualifications. Whoever they may be, wherever they were, they were gathered in. And when it was over, the banquet hall was filled with happy guests—people who perhaps were beggars, or common laborers, or sinners, or even foreigners from far outside the king’s realm—people who never would have expected that they would be so privileged as to sit at the wedding feast of the son of a king. And yet, there they were!
In truth, when it comes to God’s kingdom, none of us are worthy to come. We are all sinners who have broken God’s laws. None of us deserve to come. But when it comes to God’s kingdom, the worthy are those realize they are not worthy! The worthy are those who respond to God’s free gift of grace. Those who are brought into the kingdom, unworthy as they are, arrive as special guests to the wedding feast.
And that brings us to a very serious note. The invitation to come to the wedding feast was open to all who would receive it. But there was a problem. Jesus tells us, “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment.” (Matt. 22:11). This is the most difficult part of the parable to understand, and the most disturbing. It is meant to be disturbing. You read this and say, “Wait a minute! How did this guy get in if he didn’t have any wedding clothes? And why was he thrown out? Does this mean we can get thrown out of heaven?”
When a great king would put on a feast, he would not only provide the invitation and all the food, but sometimes he would also provide the necessary garments to wear at the feast. The wearing of a wedding garment was an important expression of the dignity of the feast. This man had no such garment on. All that he wore were the filthy rags of his own provision. And when the king saw him, he said, “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?”
The man in Jesus’ parable was “speechless”. This would have been a perfect opportunity for the man to say something like, “Oh; please tell me how I may get a wedding garment, so I can enjoy your gracious offer to attend the feast of your son!” But he didn’t. He has nothing he can say in his own defense. He presumed himself to enjoy the benefits of the feast, while refusing to be adorned with the proper garment. And as a result, the king ordered that he not be merely shown to the door. Rather, he was bound “hand and foot” and “cast into outer darkness”, where, as Jesus says, “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 22:13).
This is a warning. We must not think that we can enter into the blessings of the Kingdom of heaven apart from being adorned—by faith—with Christ’s own righteousness. When the Bible speaks of that great future day of the wedding feast of Christ, it says, “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9). But it also says that “His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints” (Rev. 19:8).
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Christ took our filthy garments of sin upon Himself on the cross. He suffered and died to redeem us. He is our propitiation, God’s willing sacrifice to remove His wrath against our sin. When we trust in Christ, we receive by grace the righteousness of Christ. Chris Anderson’s hymn puts it beautifully,
His robes for mine: O wonderful exchange!
Clothed in my sin, Christ suffered ‘neath God’s rage.
Draped in His righteousness, I’m justified.
In Christ I live, for in my place He died.
Revelation 22:14 (NASB) says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.” We come to Jesus as we are, but we don’t stay that way. He imputes to us His righteousness and washes us in His blood. He makes us righteous by His ongoing sanctification through His word. Jesus not only saves us from the penalty of sin. He also saves us from the power of sin.
So, what was wrong with the man who tried to enter the wedding banquet without a wedding garment? He thought his own clothes were good enough. He thought he didn’t have to change. He is a picture of those who think they don’t need Jesus. He pictures those who trust in their own righteousness instead of Jesus’ righteousness. The only garment that the Father will accept at His Son’s wedding feast is that of His Son’s own righteousness. Anything less than that will result in being thrown out into outer darkness.
Finally, we see..
3. The Parable Applied (Matt. 22:14)
Jesus closes by saying, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14).
The first part is that “many are called.” The gospel call goes out to all, and the Bible says whosoever will, may come. We read in Revelation 22:17, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” So, that’s the first part: many are called.
But the second part is this: “few are chosen.” In other words, the invitation goes out to all, but not everyone who is invited comes. Why do some people respond while others do not? Remember the guests in the parable? Jesus said, “they were not willing to come” (Matt. 22:3). Their wills were set against it. That is all of us. Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, our wills are set against God. We don’t want to come. And so, when the gospel invitation comes, we make all sorts of excuses. We put our own plans and priorities first. Some even get hostile towards those who are sharing the good news.
Just as none of the original guests in the parable came to the wedding, so none of us can come to Christ on our own. Jesus says in John 6:44: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” Jesus also says this in John 6:37: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” And He says in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” Put it all together, and this is what Jesus is saying. No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him, and everyone whom the Father draws will come. We did not choose him, but he chose us. Many are called, but few are chosen.
So, this is the application of the parable. The gospel call goes out to everyone. No one is excluded. There is a paradox here. Whosever will may come, but no one comes unless the Father draws them. He calls us to repent and believe in Christ. We love God because He first loved us. Many are called, but few are chosen.
And you may say, “How then do I know for sure that I’m among the chosen?” The answer is simple. How have you responded to the call? Have you repented and believed in Christ? When you heard the message of His sacrifice for you on the cross, did you place your trust in His sacrifice as payment for your sins? Do you, by faith, count on His righteousness alone to make you acceptable in God’s sight? And in response, are you progressively turning from sin and following Him in loving obedience?
If so, you are among those who He not only called, but also chosen. You have a place awaiting you at the table of the joyous wedding feast of God’s Son!
And what a place at the table it is! What a great celebration it will be! Because behold, you are the Bride! Give God the glory!
