Matthew 22: 1-14
A woman and her young daughter were attending the wedding of a relative. This was the first time the little girl had ever seen a wedding ceremony. She was in awe by the pomp and beauty of everything; the music, the formal atmosphere, the decorations, the bride and groom and their attendants in fine gowns and tuxes. At one point during the ceremony the little girl leaned over to her mother and whispered: “Mommy, mommy?”
“What dear,” her mother replied.
"Why is the bride dressed in white?"
The mother thought about that for moment and struggled to come up with a simple explanation her daughter would understand. Finally, she smiled and said to her daughter, "The bride wears white, because white is the color of happiness, and today is the happiest day of her life.”
The little girl thought about this for a moment, and then said, "So why’s the groom wearing black?"
Weddings; some know them well and others know them too well. They know them too well because marriages are entered into like they are the fad of the day and then thrown away like the worn out fashions of yesterday.
But the wedding banquet mentioned in our scripture is different. It’s different because it’s located in one of Jesus’ parables and Jesus’ parables are not what they seem to be on the surface. There is a hidden meaning in this wedding story that today we will seek to understand.
The first clue we are given to help us understand this parable comes when Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” What Jesus meant by saying this is “this is how the kingdom operates and this is what it looks like.”
Well, what is the kingdom of heaven? The kingdom of heaven is what Jesus talked more about that anything. When Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven it was usually accompanied with an announcement of judgment and a call for people to turn their lives to God and be saved from that judgment. It is the saving significance of being a part of the kingdom that Jesus emphasizes the most.
Secondly when Jesus announces the kingdom of heaven he wasn’t just talking about a place where all the saved will be one fine day, but a reality that was already present, and could be seen and experienced in His own person and in His ministries. For Jesus and His followers the kingdom of heaven had landed in Jesus and was now in the process of taking over the world. In Jesus the ultimate victory over the world is guaranteed.
The kingdom comes to view in the preaching of the good news concerning Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. The kingdom is seen when the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and prisoner is set free. The kingdom is more than a place, and more than just a people; it is the reign and power of God that storms into the lives of people who are lost, hurting, and caught in sin and sets them free.
Let’s get one thing straight. The church is not the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven can become the reality the church experiences only if it lives under the reign of God and in the power of God.
We hear first in the parable that a king has prepared a wedding banquet for His son. The king in this parable is God and the Son is Jesus. For most of us this is obvious. This hints at how the kingdom of heaven on earth has come to be and the final goal of its existence.
In verse three it says the king sent his messengers with invitations. Throughout biblical history God’s messengers have been the prophets and disciples who took forth God’s gracious invitation. We shouldn’t think those messengers are long gone. Today every member of God’s church is called to be a messenger who proclaims God’s invitation or God’s Good News.
What is this invitation? It’s the same invitation that Jesus proclaimed. It is the announcement of God’s judgments and the call for people to turn their lives around from wrong ways of living and thinking. They are to turn to God’s new life and way for them established in the miraculous life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In this way they can receive forgiveness for their sins and find supernatural help from God. Ultimately it’s an invitation to enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s an invitation to the banquet.
Originally Jesus and the disciples took this message only to the nation of Israel. It is this same nation that Jesus refers to in this parable. They are the ones who initially refused to accept the invitation. Jesus states in some degree why they refused. They were overcome by worldly beliefs, concerns, and pursuits.
In Jesus’ time to refuse a king’s invitation was a sign of mutiny. It was a sign of rebellion; it was a sign of great disrespect. To treat the king’s servants badly was the same as treating the king badly. Here the king of the land gives an invitation, because He has prepared a banquet, an offering of His best for those He invited and they dishonored him by shrugging Him off so they can dawdle away their life with worldly beliefs, concerns, and pursuits.
People still do this today. God’s invitation is still being proclaimed by His servants for people to come to the wedding banquet of His Son, to enter into the kingdom where all the provisions and promises of God can be feasted upon and yet people because of worldly beliefs, concerns, and pursuits foolishly cast the gracious invitation off. To reject the invitation is a sign of rebellion against the God of the Universe. It dishonors the One who sent the invitation. And God does not take lightly the rejection of His invitation.
You see what happens. He sends his “army and destroys those murderers.” The Bible tells us He will return one day and do the same to those in the world who have shrugged off His invitation.
In Ancient times before a man could marry a woman he usually had to pay a dowry. In other words the bride came with a price tag. In this parable Jesus is the groom and His bride is, as we read in scripture, the church. We Christians know the dowry price that Christ paid for His bride. He gave his own life for her by being hung on a cross, so that she could be presented wholesome and clean and pure, so that the bride, the church, could be cleansed and forgiven of her sins. It is this wedding banquet that celebrates Jesus union with His church that all people are invited. Here’s the kicker. It turns out that the people who are invited and attend will also become and are Jesus’ bride.
In verse 8 God gives new instructions to his servants. He says those I first invited did not deserve to come, because they spurned my invitation. Go now to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you can find. We then read they went out and gathered all they could find both good and bad and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Here’s the part of the parable I really want to focus on. The king, God, noticed a person who was not wearing a wedding garment. The king asked the man, “Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” The man was speechless. The king told the attendants “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Many are invited, but few are chosen.” It seems the chosen in this passage are the ones who have a wedding garment.
In Jesus’ time it would not have been uncommon for a king to give everyone attending the wedding a garment to wear that was appropriate for the occasion. Today many couples getting married will purchase or rent garments for their attendants. To be invited to a wedding banquet by the king and be given a garment to wear and then show up not wearing it was not only a sign of disrespect towards the king, an act of rebellion, but a prideful stance that says the clothes I have are better than the clothes you gave me to wear.
This parable is telling us that unless we are wearing the garment that God has given through Jesus, then there isn’t anything you can do, wear or say that will be sufficient so that the king will permit you stay.
Unfortunately there are many in the church today that are mistaken in what they believe the wedding garment actually is. Some believe it is the blood of the lamb, others believe it is the righteousness of Christ given to us so we can stand worthy before a Holy God. I pick this last one, but it needs clarification. Revelation 19:7-8 however gives us the clarification to help us understand what the wedding garment is.
Revelation 19: 7-8, “For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. (She made herself ready because) Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints) In other words God gave the bride fine linen or righteous acts to perform so she can be made ready.
But what does this mean? Did you ever notice in many of Jesus’ other parables and even in the gospel there is a pattern where Jesus comes, Jesus goes away, and Jesus returns and holds His servants accountable. (Jesus in other parables (Handout))
It is when an individual who has answered the invitation doesn’t use the talents, or the gifts that God entrusted them with, that this same individual fails to put on the garment given to them in order to be an accepted guest at the wedding banquet. The garment or linen is the righteous acts that God prepared in advance and gave every believer in Christ to perform in kingdom authority and power, in Jesus name, before the world was ever created.
This is why it is important to know what gift or talent God has given us and to use it in proportion to our faith.
Listen to this illustration. A man was once shipwrecked and floating out at sea. He prayed that God would rescue him. A few hours later a boat with a couple of fisherman came by and the man told them. “No thanks, I prayed for God to rescue me. I’m waiting for Him.” A few hours later a luxury liner came by and he told the captain no thanks. I prayed for God to rescue me, so I’m waiting for Him.” A few hours later a helicopter came by and he told the pilot, “No thanks, I prayed for God to save me, so I am waiting for him.” A few hours later the man drowned.
In heaven he stood before God and said, “Hey I prayed for you to save me. How come you didn’t?”
God said, “I sent you fisherman, a luxury liner and a helicopter. It’s your own fault you didn’t recognize and use what I gave you.”
And it will be that person’s own fault if they show up at the wedding banquet of Jesus and find that they are not wearing the garment God gave them to wear.
There are things that the world claims is good. We like to practice them and be involved in them and count them as credit before God. There are things that the church does, and jobs inside the church, that may have nothing to do with the things God has called us to do. And we like to think they count as something before God. There are groups we belong to that hold up honorable services before humanity and we like to think this stands as something before God. Some of these things that people trust in and count as righteous acts before God may be but filthy rags before His eyes. Why? Because they are not the garments He gave them to wear in and through Jesus Christ. Or in other words, they are not the righteous acts He prepared for them to do to make the church ready in and through the righteousness that comes from being in relationship with Jesus Christ.
(Handout) The Kingdom of Heaven is Like…
Matthew 18: 23-35 A merciful and forgiving king who will hold his servants accountable for the mercy and forgiveness they extend to others.
Matthew 22: 1-14 A king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son and offered invitations. Those who refused the invitations are destroyed. Those who show up dressed improperly will be cast out to a place where there will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 25: 1-13 Ten Virgins betrothed to a man, but only five were wise enough to prepare and be ready for his return and call. The other five were shut out.
Matthew 25: 14-28 A king who left and returned one day to settle accounts with his servants to see if they have been faithful with what he entrusted them with. He will punish the unfaithful and cast them out to a place where there will weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 24: 45-51
We have one of two choices after accepting the invitation
1. Be faithful and wise and give God’s household their food at the proper time. (Faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted us with)
2. Or, Be unfaithful and unwise by embracing the wanton foolishness of the world while we waste our time, service, and ignore our Christian duty. (Unfaithful stewards of all that God has entrusted us with)
