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1 Jesus also told them other parables. He said, 2 “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. 3 When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come! 4 “So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ 5 But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. 6 Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them. 7 “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. 8 And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. 9 Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ 10 So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. 13 Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.” ~ Matthew 22:1-14
Today, we transition into our study of Matthew 22 where the Lord Jesus is still contending with the religious leaders of Israel. Oh, the lengths God has been known to go to in order to awaken us to Him spiritually. For me, God went to great lengths to capture my heart. Having said that I do not want to pretend that my heart does not wander, it does all too often. But, to some degree my heart has been garrisoned by God. He used most profoundly the death of my mom at age five and the death of my dad at age seventeen. Those were two very painful experiences but they have been used of the Lord to navigate me to Him and for that I am most grateful.
In today's passage the Lord Jesus gave yet another parable. In fact, this is now the third parable that the Lord Jesus directed against the religious leaders. In the first parable he accused them of hypocrisy because they did not repent and believe. In the second parable he told them that God will take the kingdom away from them and give it to others. Now in this third parable he warns them that although many are invited into God’s kingdom, few are chosen.
The hope was that the religious leaders would come to faith in the God of the Bible through their expanded understanding and themselves and God. The Lord Jesus was at a luncheon provided by a very prominent Pharisee who wanted to trap Him into healing a man on the Sabbath who was retaining a lot of fluid in the tissue of his body. This wealthy man invited a huge number of people to this meal. It was a huge event.
In New Testament days, invited dinner guests were invited a few days before the meal but they were not told the exact hour. A host had to know how many guests were coming so he could butcher the right amount of animals and prepare a sufficient amount of food. When the day came that the feast was to begin, the host sent his servants to each of the guests to tell them the banquet was ready and they should come. Each of the guests in this parable had already agreed to attend the banquet. Instead of coming to the feast, all of the guests gave flimsy excuses for not coming.
The initially invited guests found excuses for not attending the celebration. According to Luke, the Lord Jesus identified one man who had to go look at some property he had purchased. In that day, the purchasing of property was a long and complicated process, and the man would have had many opportunities to examine the land he was buying. And, since most banquets were held in the evening, the man had little daylight left even for a cursory look at the property.
Also, according to Luke's account of this story, another man had also made a purchase, five oxen, and he had to check out the oxen's quality. No one would purchase that many animals without seeing them first and making sure they were right. Then another man, according to Luke, couldn't come because he had just gotten married. Jewish weddings were never surprises, so this man knew well in advance that he was getting married. That being the case, he should not have agreed to attend the feast in the first place. Since only Jewish men were invited to banquets, the host did not expect the wife to come as well.
It was at this point that the king in this parable became angry and ordered his servant to go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in whoever would come. Having prepared a great dinner for many guests, the host did not want all that food to go to waste, so he sent his servant out to invite a crowd to His banquet hall. So, the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame, the kind of people that the Lord Jesus came to save, these were the ones invited.
This parable had a special message for the proud Jewish people who were so sure they would enter the kingdom of God. The good news of the gospel would soon be rejected by the Jews, by and large, and it would be presented to the Samaritans and the Gentiles. This message of this parable applies to all of us today. God still invites whosoever will come because the Lord Jesus has paid the penalty for that which separated us from Him in the first place. In fact, nothing more needs be done for our salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ has finished the work of redemption when He died for us on the cross and arose from the dead. The feast has been spread, the invitation is free, and all are invited to come.
But, the religious leaders of Israel resisted the Lord's message. And, in response, the Lord Jesus shattered their false religious hope. He never has encouraged us to believe that God will accept our religious efforts for our entry into His heaven. No, the Lord Jesus always confronts false religious security at every level. Anybody who lives under some kind of misguided assumption that they're headed for heaven based on their unique goodness needs to know that is not true. The claims of the Lord Jesus are to the contrary to religion.
People today make the same mistake that the people in this parable made: they delay in responding to the invitation. There is certainly nothing wrong with owning a farm, examining purchases, or spending a week on a honeymoon with your wife. But if these good things keep us from believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and enjoying a personal relationship with God, then these things become bad things. If we do not respond positively to the Gospel, we will spend eternity in Hell.
Notice there is a proper clothing for entry into heaven. The only clothing that will get anyone into heaven is the clothing of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 61:10 we read, "Let me tell you how happy God has made me! For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and draped about me the robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels." We were admonished in Matthew 6:33 to "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Then in 2 Corinthians 5:21 we read, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." It is only the applied righteousness of God that will get anyone into heaven.
As indicated in the final verse of today's passage, the invitation of the gospel has gone out to all. God had delivered this invitation to believe on His Son, but not everyone who was invited to believe has responded in a positive way with faith in the Son. My friends, don't wait any longer. Trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior today if you have not already done so. Right now, call out to God, ask for His help. Invite Him to come into your life. Believe that the Lord Jesus, God's Son died on the cross so that your sin could be forgiven.
