Matthew 22

¹ 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.”

 Here is something I have not quite seen before and that, frankly, gives me pause. In the back of Peter Stoner’s 1944 book, Science Speaks, he presents two options to the reader. He calls them “contracts.” The reader is asked to sign or date one of these contracts.

Consider the two following statements as contracts between yourself and God. One of these contracts is in effect as you finish reading this book. Which one do you now choose?

1. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him as my personal Savior. By this act my sins are all blotted out and I become a son of God, a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. I now have eternal life and shall spend eternity in heaven with Christ.

Signed……………………….. Dated ………………………..

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? – Hebrews 2:3

2. I will not accept Jesus Christ as my savior. I realize that this is the greatest sin against God that any man can commit and in so doing I affiliate myself with Satan. I shall live a life in sin against God, and for this decision I shall spend eternity in hell with Satan.

Signed……………………….. Dated ………………………..

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord – Romans 6:23[1]

I do not pause because I disagree with Stoner’s conclusion that everybody must choose either “1” or “2.” I pause because, if I am honest, this is not usually put quite so jarringly in modern Christian practice, certainly not in a way calling for a signature. I suppose we could debate the merits of this approach, but one thing seems clear: Jesus told stories which offered the same decision and the same results for whichever decision was made. And Jesus’ stories were no less jarring than Stoner’s contracts. I suspect in our day we might say that Stoner’s approach risks being too confrontational. Maybe. Maybe not. Regardless, our day appears to be one that can never quite get down to the basic confrontation that is inherent in the gospel: Will you accept Jesus or not?

To be frank, many who heard Jesus’ parable in the first fourteen verses of Matthew 22 would have been as offended as some would be at Stoner’s contracts. Yet, there it is: a choice, a decision that needs making, two roads, and two destinations. Listen to Jesus’ story of the wedding feast.

The tragedy of the rejected invitation.

Jesus continues His parables demonstrating what the kingdom is like. Now he turns to a parable about a wedding.

¹ 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.”’

The interpretation of this parable is made clearer by the events of Matthew 21: Jesus’ clash with the religious authorities, His cleansing of the temple, His cursing of the fig tree, and His parables about how the religious leaders were, in fact, far from the kingdom while those they considered far away were near. In this parable, the kingdom is likened to a wedding feast. The son is Jesus. Those invited are the Jews. The sent servants should likely be understood as the prophets. And the rejection of the invitation should be seen as the rejection of Jesus.

The New Testament depicts Jesus as a bridegroom on a number of occasions, both in the gospels and in the remainder of the testament (Matthew 9:15, 25:1–10; John 3:29; Ephesians 5:22–32, etc.). The wedding feast, as we will see, is for the union of Christ and His bride, the church.

The invitation of the King is God’s invitation, first, for Israel to come to Him, and, through them, the entire world. If you read the parable carefully you will see that there was, first, an invitation and then a summons for those invited to come to the feast, now ready. Frank Stagg has written:

Although issued as an invitation, a king’s invitation is more than just a social courtesy. To spurn a king’s invitation is to reject his authority. This cannot be done with impunity.[2]

The rejection of the divine invitation to union with the Son is therefore depicted as impudence, blasphemy, treason (as they were rejecting their King in rejecting his invitation), and a great tragedy. Jesus had highlighted the tragedy of this rejection before, in Matthew 11.

¹⁶ “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, ¹⁷ “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ ¹⁸ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ ¹⁹ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

And He will most famously grieve this rejection in our next chapter, Matthew 23.

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁸ See, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

In our day of latitudinarianism, of pluralism, and of the common belief that all roads lead to Heaven, the tragedy of disbelief in Jesus may be lost on many modern people. But let us be clear: a tragedy it is. This text establishes what the New Testament as a whole makes abundantly clear: the one true God is calling all of humanity to His one Son, Jesus Christ, and the rejection of His Son is therefore the rejection of the one path to life that God has provided for humanity.

The shocking reality of the degrees of rejection.

Those who reject are all of the same group, but verses 5–7 reveal that their rejection appears to differ from the outside. Take note of the difference:

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.

In verse 5, we see those who reject passively, by omission, without any obvious hostility to the King. They are busy. They have farms and businesses. They do not attend the feast.

In verse 6, however, we see those who reject in an active and hostile manner. They seize the servants and kill them. They are seeking to attack the King by attacking His servants and His plan for His people.

Verses 5 and 6 are foundational to our harmartiology (or harmartology), that is, to our doctrine of sin, for they reveal a key truth about sin: whether the sinful rejection of God is culturally respectable or socially odious, the result is the same: the wrath of God and the loss of entry into the kingdom.

⁷ The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

The “murderers” are specified, but “their city” at large is destroyed. It is a sobering and necessary truth. Whether dressed up in the garb of busyness or displayed obscenely in all of its horrible ugliness, sin of all types leads to the same dire result. The kingdom can be missed by focusing too much on your farm or by killing the prophets.

Here we find the end of self-righteousness. We can no longer say, “Well, yes, I may tend to my business more than I should, but it is not like I am a criminal.” But what good does that do when you end up in the same place as the unrepentant murders.

Sin can smell like the sewer or the corner office with the amazing view, but, in the end, it destroys us either way.

Beware “respectable” sins and beware the temptation to placate yourself with the thought that, after all, you have avoided the “unrespectable” sins. It is the same disease and leads to the same grave.

The surprising guest list of the kingdom.

The Lord responds to the impudence of His people in a surprising way, and it leads to a most shocking guest list.

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.

Of all the confrontational aspects of this amazing story, this element would likely have been most unsettling to the religious authorities. Those initially chosen are found “not worthy” and the invitations are now offered indiscriminately far and wide. They move from the narrow road of Israel to “the main roads” of the Gentiles.

This must not be misunderstood. In the economy of God, the Gentiles are not a “plan B.” God’s desire was always for the entire world to be invited to the wedding feast and not exclusively Israel. The book of Jonah makes this clear. Salvation was always intended to get to Nineveh. But Jewish priority is a well-established biblical fact. It was through God’s chosen people, the Jews, that the good news was to reach the world!

Jewish priority, yes. Jewish exclusivism, no!

The parable is highlighting the fact that those the leaders consider outsiders and unclean are now welcomed into the feast. The excluded are now the included. Once again, those nearest the things of God are shown to be farthest away and those considered far away are shown to be near.

There is very good news here for us: the door to the wedding feast is open. The Bridegroom bids us come!

But, first, there is a curious aspect in our text’s conclusion.

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.”

What does this mean? Who is the man with no wedding garment and why does the King treat him so harshly? In our casual culture this sounds odd indeed. Michael Wilkins has offered some helpful insights.

Drawing on some evidence for a king in the ancient world supplying festal garments for guests (Gen. 45:22; Est. 6:8–9), some have understood this as an allusion to the imputed righteousness that Jesus hinted at early in his ministry (Matt. 5:20), and which Paul will later enunciate (e.g., Rom. 3:21–31; 4:22–25). Others suggest this refers to clean garments as opposed to dirty ones, symbolizing not works meriting salvation but evidential works of righteousness. In any case, since the individual is addressed as “friend” and is left speechless when confronted by the king (22:12), the implication is left that the guest had proper clothing available, but declined to wear it. This once again points to the culpability of both the privileged religious leaders, the populace in Israel, and even Jesus’ professing disciples such as Judas (called “friend” in 26:50), which is the point of all these parables.[3]

That is helpful. I believe it is important that Jesus included this element of the story. The man with improper attire is the man who appears in the assembly, who has joined himself to the festivities, but who clearly has not given his true allegiance to the King. He is there for the party, but does not honor the King.

This is the superficial believer, the one who associates but does not truly believe, the one who attaches himself but does not become a disciple. What is more, I think that Wilkins’ point about Judas is quite insightful, for Judas fits the mold perfectly. In four chapters, Jesus will look at one who attached him without truly becoming a disciple and will call him “friend” even as that one betrays him. One can be part of the band and have one’s heart far far away.

Let us end, however, with a beautiful thought: We are invited to the wedding feast! Our hearts thrill to think of it. We unworthy souls on the main roads of life are invited to come in to the great feast of the King and His Son! And more than that, we are invited to be the bride, the church, the people of God! This happens when we place our faith in the Bridegroom. Then we are able to look forward to that beautiful scene depicted in Revelation 19;

⁶ Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. ⁷ Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; ⁸ it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

This is grace upon grace! This is the love of the Father displayed through the Son! This is the gospel!

 

[1] Stoner, Peter W. Science Speaks. (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1944), p.59. https://yearofourlord.org/1_bible_ divinity_of_christ/ScienceSpeaks.pdf

[2] Frank Stagg, “Matthew.” The Broadman Bible Commentary. Gen. ed., Clifton J. Allen. Vol.8 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1969), p.204.

[3] Wilkins, Michael J. “Matthew.” Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. Volume 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), p.134–35.