The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
Matthew 22:1-14
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
10-23-2022
What a Wedding!
The biggest wedding that Maxine and I have ever attended was her friend Amy and Chris in Florida. There were over 300 guests, a sit-down dinner reception with prime rib, and the Miami Heat mascot, (whatever this thing is) was even there.
This morning, we are going to study a parable of a wedding reception that would blow Amy’s wedding away.
What a week!
Jesus told this parable on the Wednesday before His crucifixion. The day before, He had scattered the money changers in the Temple and the religious leaders had a question for Him:
“By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?” (Matt 21:23)
Jesus doesn’t answer directly but gives them three parables in a row.
The parable of the two sons
“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” (Matt 21:28-32
B. The parable of the tenets
Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” (Matt 21:33-41)
When the Pharisees heard these parables they were enraged:
“When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.” (Matt 21:45-46)
Remember, that a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly point.
Then Jesus told the third parable that we call the parable of the wedding feast. This would a stinging indictment of the religious leaders’ hypocrisy and hostility toward Him and His rescue mission.
Turn with me to Matthew 22.
Prayer
A Royal Invitation
“Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.”
I remember watching Diana and Charles’ royal wedding on July 29, 1981. It is estimated that one billion people turned in between television and radio to see the ceremony.
It cost over 100 million dollars and they had 27 wedding cakes!
We love royal weddings and millions watched as their kids William and Harry got married.
A wedding was the biggest celebration of Jesus’ day. It normally lasted for a week and food and drink were provided for all the guests. It was only at the end of the seven days that the actual ceremony would take place.
Jesus has been teaching about the Kingdom of heaven - the rule and reign of Jesus on earth and in our hearts.
This King prepared a wedding banquet for His son. The King is God. The Son is Jesus. The wedding banquet is for the invited guest - the Jewish people.
The wedding banquet’s main point is to bring honor to the Son.
“He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.” (v.3)
There would be the initial invitation and then, when everything was ready, the servants would go and remind them.
But they were not willing to come. To those listening, this would have been unthinkable.
An invitation from a King was more of a command that you really couldn’t refuse.
Paul quotes Isaiah:
“All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” (Romans 10:21)
God choose the Jewish people and sent out His servants, prophets, to have them come to the wedding feast - but they were stiff-necked and refused.
The Second Invitation
“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.’ (v.4)
What an amazingly patient king! More servants are sent out and the invited guests are told that they don’t have to bring anything, everything has already been prepared. All they have to do is come. Hey, free food!
“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.” (v.5)
Some were indifferent. They were busy in the field or at their store. They didn’t have time to attend.
That’s the majority of people in our culture today. They are so focused on the here and now that they just ignore the invitation.
Others were hostile, seizing the servants, mistreating and killing them.
There are those in our culture today that are hostile to the invitation.
Jesus told the religious leaders:
“Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.” (Luke 11:47)
Tradition says that Isaiah was sawn in half. Jeremiah was put into a cistern to die.
John the Baptist was beheaded.
Stephen was stoned to death as he said;
“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One.” (Acts 7:51-52)
The Apostle Paul was beheaded. Peter was crucified upside, at his request. Andrew was crucified. Thomas was run through with four spears. Andrew was executed because a wife of a Roman proconsul responded to the Gospel. James was stoned and clubbed to death. Simon was executed after refusing to sacrifice to the sun god. Matthias, who replaced Judas, was burned to death. John was exiled to the island of Patmos.
It’s been said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
Jesus was telling them these things in advance. But that’s not His biggest reveal in the parable.
The Wrath of the King
“The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” (v.7)
The king was rightfully enraged at the disrespect shown to him and took his troops and killed them all and burned down their city.
This actually happened less than 40 years later, ten years after Matthew wrote his Gospel.
Titus invaded Jerusalem with his legion of Roman soldiers and killed everything that moved. It is estimated that over one million Jewish people died in Jerusalem during this siege.
But what was even worse was the burning of the Temple. The Jewish historian, Josephus, described it this way:
“At which time one of the soldiers, without staying for any orders, and without any concern or dread upon him at so great an undertaking, and being hurried on by a certain divine fury, snatched somewhat out of the materials that were on fire, and being lifted up by another soldier, he set fire to a golden window, through which there was a passage to the rooms that were round about the Holy House, on the north side of it. As the flames went upward the Jews made a great clamor, such as so mighty an affliction required, and ran together to prevent it; and now they spared not their lives any longer, nor suffered anything to restrain their force, since that Holy House was perishing, for whose sake it was that they kept such a guard upon it.”
The Romans razed the Temple to the ground and it remained that way for over 600 years. The remaining Jewish people scattered to the four corners of the world.
God was patient with them for centuries, sending prophets to warn them of the consequences of refusing to honor the Son. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that God is a consuming fire and Deuteronomy tells us that God is a jealous God.
The Jewish people refused to RSVP and experienced God’s wrath.
But the prophet Hosea said, “In wrath, remember mercy.” And so another invitation goes out, this time to everyone.
Another Invitation
“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.” (Matt 22:8-10)
The ones that scorned the invitation showed themselves to be unworthy to attend.
So He sent more servants out to the street corners and the highways - where the streets converge and lead out of the city.
The invitation was for everyone - good and bad. This invitation included the Gentiles.
The Son will be honored at the wedding banquet.
Who are these servants? It’s us! And what is the invitation?
Come to the banquet. Everything is ready. You don’t have to do anything except respond.
That’s our job now. To invite others to the wedding banquet of the Son.
I gave out coins last week and asked you to give them away. Cheryl Stevens gave hers away and I want to ask her a few questions about that experience.
We are either a missionary, a mission field, or an imposter.
The Imposter
“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.
Have you ever been underdressed? When I was a sophomore in high school, I was invited to prom by a junior on the day of the dance. I had no time to get a tux so I wore my suit. I felt self-conscious all night because I was the only one without a suit on.
The King walked through the banquet hall, taking in the sight. That’s when he noticed him. He stood out like a sore thumb.
Most people didn’t have time to go back home and change into their suits or fancy dresses.
So the king provided wedding clothes for them. You couldn’t come into the king’s presence in normal, everyday clothes. So, in his grace, the King presented wedding clothes to each guest as they entered.
But this man didn’t have wedding clothes on. Maybe he didn’t like the feel of the material or the look of the cut. It’s most likely he told the attendant, “I’m not going to wear that. I don’t need it. I’m good enough to come into the King’s presence without them.”
Spurgeon wrote:
“He came because he was invited, but he came only in appearance. The banquet was intended to honor the King’s Son, but this man meant nothing of the kind; he was willing to eat the good things set before him, but in his heart there was no love either for the King or his well-beloved Son.”
The King politely asked how he got in without the wedding clothes. 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.’” (Matt 22:11-13)
If he was tied hand and foot, he would not have been able to get back in.
The wedding banquet was in full swing and the tent would have been lit up and visible for miles.
The attendants are to throw this man into the darkness of the night.
In this darkness, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Greek literally reads, “the weeping” and “the gnashing.” This is a picture of the final judgment of hell.
The Rabbis told the story of a king who invited his guests to a feast, without telling them the exact date and time; but he did tell them that they must wash, anoint, and clothe themselves that they might be ready when the summons came.
The wise prepared themselves at once and took their places waiting at the palace door, for they believed that in a palace a feast could be prepared so quickly that there would be no long warning.
The foolish believed that it would take a long time to make the necessary preparations and that they would have plenty of time. So they went, the mason to his lime, the potter to his clay, the smith to his furnace… and went on with their work.
Then, suddenly, the summons to the feast came without any warning. The wise were ready to sit down, and the king rejoiced over them, and they ate and drank.
But those who had not arrayed themselves in their wedding garments had to stand outside, sad and hungry, and look on at the joy that they had lost.
That rabbinic parable tells of the duty of preparedness for the summons of God, and the garments stand for the preparation that must be made.
What are the “wedding clothes” that allow you to come to the banquet? It’s the righteousness of Christ.
Isaiah wrote of this seven hundred years before Jesus was born:
“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” (Isaiah 61:10)
Jesus told his followers:
“…unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:20)
The Pharisee's “righteousness” was on the outside only. Isaiah says that even our righteous acts are “filthy rags.” Jesus isn’t into behavior modification but total heart transformation. While we were dead in our sins, God made us alive in Christ.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)
On the cross, Jesus traded our filthy rags for His righteousness. He covers you with His righteousness so that when God looks at you, He sees Jesus.
The old hymn, “The Solid Rock” ends with these words:
When He shall come with trumpet sound
Oh may I then in Him be found
Dressed in his righteousness alone
Faultless to stand before the throne
Few are Chosen
Jesus ends the parable with these cryptic words:
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.” (Matt 22:14)
Isn’t it a good feeling to be chosen? Scripture makes it clear that God has chosen those who will be saved.
Many “hear” the call of god through creation or the preaching of the Word of God.
Remember what Jesus has said after many of the parables:
“He who has hears to ear, let him hear.”
The Jewish people had been called but they refused to come, showing they didn’t have spiritual ears to hear the invitation.
The many “hear” the Gospel but are indifferent to it or respond with outright antagonism toward God.
Many are invited into the Kingdom but no one can come on their own.
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:44)
Humans are not capable of saving themselves. But God, in his mercy, chose those who would be saved before time began:
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”
And all those God has chosen will be saved:
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew (loved) he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8: 28-30)
Somehow God’s Sovereign choice and our response work together mysteriously.
How do we know if we are chosen? Have you heard the invitation to come to Christ? Then there is a pretty chance you are chosen! God is reaching out to you.
Speaking of the wedding banquet in Revelation, John wrote:
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Rev 19:7-8)
Notice that the bride makes herself ready but it is God who clothes her with the wedding garments.
Are you indifferent to the invitation to the wedding? Are you hostile to God’s love for you? Do you have the RSVP on the fridge but haven’t responded yet? Today is your day!
How do you respond to the invitation?
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved…Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:9;11)
Ending Video: “Chosen” by Sidewalk Prophets
