Matthew 22:1-14

Matthew 22:1-14 NIV

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
“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.’
“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’
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.
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
“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.’
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

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Jesus continues in His confrontation with the chief priests and Pharisees in the temple courts. They had challenged Jesus about teaching the people in the temple. Now Jesus is challenging them, in a public fashion, by teaching them and the crowd parables which illustrate the sort of men who are leading Israel's religious institution.

The parable of the wedding banquet can be understood as a retelling of Israel's long history with God. God chose Israel from all the peoples of the earth as His own treasured possession. God nurtured them and increased their number until they became a mighty nation able to take possession of Canaan, the land promised to their forefathers. God formed them spiritually in the desert. He gave them the law. He taught them to have faith and to keep His covenant. He gave them sacrifices to perform when they failed to keep the law, so that God may continue to dwell among them. But once they had established themselves in the land they began to chase after other gods. This pattern is repeated frequently in Israel's history.

In peace and plenty, the people forget about God and keeping the law. Instead they worship the idols of the neighboring nations. God hands them over to their enemies because they have abandoned their loyalty to God. In their oppression they cry out to God for mercy. God has compassion for them and sends a deliverer to save them from their enemies. Peace is restored. Then, after a time, the people forget about God and keeping the law and begin to worship other gods. The cycle repeats.

The parable of the wedding banquet reflects the period prior to the Babylonian exile, perhaps the single most shameful event in Israel's history. God had established the kingly line of David and promised to keep a son of David on the throne, so long as he was faithful to God and kept the law. Israel's history shows many faithful kings, but many more that were not. These unfaithful kings led the people into idolatry.

God sent prophets to warn them, but they did not listen. This is like the invited guests who refused to come to the wedding banquet of the king's son. Jesus is referring to Himself as the king's son in the parable, for He is the Son of God, who is the King of the Universe. The servants that the king sent to compel the invited guests to come are the prophets. The invited guests are, of course, Israel, God's chosen.

The invited guests refuse to come to the wedding banquet, but instead tend to their own affairs, their farms and businesses. How often have I ignored God's call to come to Him and celebrate His Son in loyal reverence and went about my own business? In what ways has my own business become an idol that I pursue, rather than God? It's easy to do. Career building can become an idol. Family can become an idol that consumes our lives and takes us away from God. Sports and entertainment can become an idol that turns our hearts away from God. Any person, place or thing can become an idol that turns us away from fully committing our lives to God as His faithful servants. What are the potential idols in your life? What keeps you from coming when God calls? What distracts you from even hearing the invitation?

The invited guests torture and kill the servants the king sent. The unfaithful leadership of Israel killed some of the prophets God sent to warn them of what will happen if they don't repent and return to keeping the covenant. In the parable, the king was enraged, sent his army and burned their city to the ground, a clear reference to God's punishment of Israel through Babylon. After many warnings from the prophets God allowed Babylon to sack Jerusalem. The Babylonians tore down the temple and drug the Israelites of into exile.

In the parable, the king then sends his servants to invite anyone they can find to the banquet, the good and the bad. This now is pointing to what God is doing through Christ and the church. A new era of grace is upon us. God has chosen both Jew and Gentile, the righteous and the wicked. In Christ all are invited to God's great banquet.

So many come, but not all who come to the banquet are dressed for the occasion. The king sees a man not wearing wedding clothes. He wants to know why, but the man had no answer. So the king had the man thrown out. What do you suppose is the appropriate attire in the kingdom of heaven? It is to be clothed in Christ. To be clothed in Christ is to reveal that faith has transformed your heart.

You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as Godʼs chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Colossians 3:7-14 NIV

Notice the language of taking off the old self and clothing in the new self in Christ? The kingdom of heaven belongs not to those who say they believe and show up to celebrate, but to those who are transformed by the love and mercy of God. Let this parable do for us what it was meant to do for the chief priests and Pharisees. Let it pierce your heart and bring you to repentance. With God's grace you can take off the clothing of you old life ruled by sinful temptations and fleshly weakness. In Christ you have all the power you need to resist temptation and live as the love of God directs you. Are you dressed for the wedding banquet?

The man without wedding clothes had no excuse and neither will any of us on the Day we stand before our Maker. Stop delaying and start this moment to make the change God is calling you to make. Begin your journey with Jesus to become like Christ. For those who do not change, though they be welcomed to the party, will find themselves shut out from all the blessings of life in Christ. Our churches are filled with unhappy and lonely people who have never taken hold of the victory Christ won for them. They remain victims of their sins rather than conquerors over all that comes between them and God. I struggle too with the same weaknesses. Yet I know in Christ we have power over sin and even death itself. Therefore I pursue Christ's transformative grace to grow me as His disciple. There is no salvation without transformation. The bad will become good if they are truly clothed in Christ. For the love of God lives in the one who fully trusts in Jesus.

Don't be shut out. Don't chase after the things of this earth. Come to the wedding banquet dressed in the love of God shown to you in the cross of Christ.