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.” Matthew 22: 1-14 ESV
Matthew 22: 1-14
A King Who gave a wedding feast for His Son - Jesus gives yet another analogy, a parable about the Kingdom of Heaven. We just finished another comparison of the Kingdom to a vineyard, where those that rented it did not produce fruit for the landowner as agreed. They beat those who came to collect this fruit, even killing those who came in the name of repentance, giving another chance to produce fruit. Eventually this all culminates in the killing of the Landowner's Son. Now we have a wedding, which like the vineyard is analogous to a type of relationship with God.
So here is a king who puts together a massive celebration for the wedding of his son. And as I said, sometimes it appears in the plural as it does in verse 2. It actually reads, “who gave wedding feasts,” a series of them. Other times it appears in the singular, and that’s because weddings in those days lasted about seven days; that’s right. They started with breakfast on the first day, and culminated on the final day with a final feast. And the bridegroom then took the hand of the bride, turned it over – the friend of the bridegroom, rather, took the hand of the bride, turned it over to the bridegroom, and they went away to consummate the marriage and the guests went home. But it was at least a seven-day event. And so it was the celebration of all celebrations. The singular could refer to the whole period, the plural use of the term to all of the feasts going on within the whole period. So here is a king who puts together a celebration for his son.
I don’t think that the issue here is that it was a wedding. No bride is ever identified or mentioned, and no marriage ever takes place. The reason that our Lord chose the term which reflected a wedding feast was because it was that term which described the greatest celebration they had in their society. And so we would not be unjust in asserting that the emphasis here is on the celebration, not the fact that it was a wedding. - J Mac
Sent His servants to call those who were invited - Those invited would be Israel, the covenant nation, those who were given notice far in advance. This is no ordinary celebration, it is majestic, a week in the palace, a royal arrangement. Israel had received an invitation through the covenant, through the knowledge of the law and the words of the prophets. They were expecting Messiah, and marriage makes another good comparison in that it is an institute created by God with the expectation of fidelity between the participants. Read this from Deuteronomy 29 and you will get an idea of the relationship between God and Israel:
These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.
2 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 3 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. 5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. 6 You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. 7 And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. 9 Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
10 “You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, 12 so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, 13 that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, 15 but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, and with whoever is not here with us today.
16 “You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. 17 And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. 18 Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, 19 one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. 20 The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. 22 And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, will say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick— 23 the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath— 24 all the nations will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’ 25 Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, 26 and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. 27 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book, 28 and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.’
29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29 ESV
They would not come - You have been invited to something good, and you already knew that it was coming, but not exactly when. The expectation from the OT would be that when the time arrived there would be an announcement, a herald of the good news, someone letting you know, like John the Baptist, it's time, repent and be saved. They had looked forward to this for some time, but now that the day has arrived they are indifferent.
My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered - There is a sense of urgency here because the preparations for the meal are already underway. This is before the time of refrigeration, so the notice goes out once all the major components have arrived. A wedding back then was a big deal, Jesus's first miracle was changing the water into wine at a wedding, and this is happening now, it can't be stalled, if you are coming you have to come now.
One to his farm, another to his business - Such indifference, and this is like a once in a lifetime opportunity, and a staggering comparison to spiritual fidelity, along with the reaction to the most defining moment in all of history. It probably goes amiss with us, because we have so much leisure time these days, entertainment, refrigeration, but the invitation of a king to an event like this would have been monumental back then.
…17But they themselves have no root, and they remain for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18Others are like the seeds sown among the thorns. They hear the word, 19but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.… Mark 4: 17-19
While the rest seized His servants...killed them - This is much like the world today, most would be indifferent when it comes to God, and think anyone who looked into such matters a Bible thumper. It all seems like a waste of time to them, and they have more important things to do. Often that indifference extends to the way these Christians are treated by the second group, those that militantly go after them, accuse them of bigotry because they believe the Bible to be God's word and believe what He says. I watch today, and it's not enough for some that I will happily do things for them, treat them with respect, love my enemies and pray for them as God commands, yet they would accuse me of hate for the very truth that is required by love. They have no tolerance for those who don't conform to their values, who won't bow to their ideologies. Often they are the same that beat the drum and sing the songs of diversity and inclusion, but it's all feels, knee jerk and band wagon, too shallow to be called damp even.
1“I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. 2They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. 3They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me.… John 16: 1-3
…10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.… Matthew 5: 10-12
The King was angry and sent His troops, destroyed those murderers and burned their city - This is a frigid warning which should send chills down their spine; their fathers persecuted the prophets, labeled them enemies of the state, and God sent warning after warning till they finally went into the Babylonian captivity. They truly have a rich history and the writings of God to draw upon, yet they are hell bent on rejecting the righteousness that stands before them. In 70 A.D., the very thing Jesus speaks of here will be carried out by Titus Vespian. God used the Egyptians, sent the Assyrians, the Babylonians, then Persia, Greece and Rome. What they intend for evil against Israel or any other nation God yet uses for good. They bring justice, as all have sinned and the wages of sin is death, and they were often instrumental in spreading the Word of God, building the Roman roads which the gospel was carried on, and bringing the lost on some occasions to repentance. If you will learn to see the hand of God no matter what the circumstance, then you will know both His mercy and His correction, and that it is the same hand.
Those invited were not worthy - Now the Pharisees had already judged themselves in the last chapter, when Jesus asked what will the landowner do to those tenants? In both parables, the unwilling, those who did not do what they were supposed to, what they knew to do, agreed to do, were treated with more patience than any of the Pharisees would have had, myself included, yet in the end they did not make it right. God will be glorified through the obedience of His people or through justice to His infinitely Holy nature. To refuse grace is to embrace unworthiness. To be indifferent about the greatest, most expensive gift in all of history and eternity, the Son of God, is to be eternally ungrateful, to be offensive toward an eternal being, it is rebellion against the infinite, and so the punishment is eternal. To be indifferent toward the Infinite God is to throw away, to scorn every positive attribute of His nature, and so you are angry that God is just, yet you forfeit His infinite love, His infinite beauty, and you have no interest in Him Who is of His nature infinitely interesting.
Both bad and good - The servants went out and extended the offer of the Kingdom, the feast, to anyone who was willing to come. They heard the offer, saw their state, some considered good by earthly standards and some bad, yet all became willing. The people who originally had the promises, the prophets, they refused the Son of God, the Messiah.
…13I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14in the hope that I may provoke my own people to jealousy and save some of them. 15For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?… Romans 11: 13-15
The wedding hall was filled with guests - The preparations weren't for naught.
Who had no wedding garment - This reiterates the narrowness of the call, the exclusive nature of entry, not on one's own merits, clothed in one's own righteousness. You need to be clothed in proper wedding attire, the righteousness of Christ. The first thing God made for Adam and Eve after they had sinned was proper clothes, of skin from an animal He killed. The fig leaves they put together wouldn't do.
…20Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God. 21God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5: 20-21
…9Their descendants will be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed. 10I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom wears a priestly headdress, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11For as the earth brings forth its growth, and as a garden enables seed to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.… Isaiah 61: 9-11
Many are called but few are chosen - This man slipped in, but was easily detected, discerned not to be a guest, though he tried to play one. This is the difference, you must be born again. God will have those that worship Him do so in spirit and in truth.
…26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances. 28Then you will live in the land that I gave your forefathers; you will be My people, and I will be your God.… Ezekiel 36:
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