Matthew 22:1-14
Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “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.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 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.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “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.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
You’re Invited!
What kind of tickets would I have to have in my hands for you to drop everything and change your plans and attend this event? How about the Heritage Classic coming up on October 29 – Calgary v. Edmonton outside at Commonwealth Stadium? Sign me up. I don’t care what’s going on that day. You got tickets? I’ll be there.
How about Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Monday, November 6 at Rogers Place. Do you want to go? Or if Bruce isn’t your beat, how about KISS’s End of the Road World Tour; same place, just a few days later?
There are certain moments and events that become available in a person’s life that you’d have to be crazy to miss.
What if I told you that you were invited to a wedding? Where would that rank on your list of social calendar priorities? If it helps, it’s not just any wedding. It’s even better than a family wedding. It’s a royal wedding. The King himself wanted to invite you personally! Would you go? You’d be crazy not to!
Imagine the food. I mean, I loved my wedding, but we just offered the option between chicken or pork. The King is going to serve nothing less than Grade-A Alberta beef, if not better. You might get lucky and get Wagyu beef. Or if that’s not your thing, you know that the King isn’t going to limit his options to one. Seafood buffet. Sushi bar. Desserts of every kind and variety. Appetizers that’ll make your taste buds sing. Drinks that’ll make your head spin. Who could say no to that? You’d have to be crazy.
But that’s exactly what the Jews did to Jesus. And that’s why Jesus told the parable that we heard a moment ago from Matthew 22.
It was a parable, so it wasn’t exactly direct – it was a story filled with symbolism – but as parables go, it was about as transparent as a parable gets. The king who was throwing a wedding banquet for his son is God the Father. The son whom he is celebrating is the Son of God, i.e. Jesus himself. The invited guests are the Pharisees, to whom Jesus is telling this parable – and really, the whole nation of Israel. And the servants whom the king sends to extend his invitation to the wedding banquet are the prophets, i.e. the proclaimers of God’s Holy Word.
Already by the time that Jesus was telling this parable, God had sent countless prophets to his people – prophets like Moses and Isaiah, Elijah and Elisha, even prophets as recent as John the Baptist who was Jesus’ contemporary. The prophets were there to prepare the people to enter heaven, to encourage them to be true to God, to call them out on their sin and to call them to repentance trusting in God’s forgiveness.
It was a gracious thing that God. It demonstrated his love and commitment to a people who, frankly, didn’t reciprocate it. You think of Moses; the Israelites were constantly grumbling and complaining. And when Moses turned his back for 2 seconds, he turned around to find them worshiping a golden calf. You look at Elijah; he had epic showdowns with false prophets and definitively showed that there is only one true God, but the people didn’t care; they kept worshiping Baal instead. John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for Jesus, and what did he earn for his faithfulness? Beheading and martyrdom.
To people who were lukewarm in their love for God, to people who murdered his prophets, God continued to send more and more servants extending the same gracious invitation to join him in an eternal celebration in heaven, but incredibly they refused to accept. They paid no attention. They went off and occupied themselves with other business, and almost without fail, they persecuted the very prophets God sent to show them his love. They even refused to accept God’s own Son, whom he had promised to send to save them from their sin, but instead of celebrating him, they crucified him.
It's not a stretch for us to understand the king when he approached his servants in v.8 of Jesus’ parable:
“The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.”[1]
How could they not see? How could they be so disrespectful? How could they be so crazy to reject God’s gracious invitation so many times in a row?
It’s not a stretch for us to understand how they were unworthy of being welcome to the wedding. What’s harder for us to understand is what happens next. The king, in his graciousness and in his desire to have a full wedding feast to celebrate his son, isn’t deterred by rejection. He tells his servants to go find more people to invite – anyone they could find. That’s beautiful. And the response is beautiful too. The wedding hall was filled with guests.[2] The servants finally found people who understood how special this invitation was and how crazy they’d have to be to turn it down.
But what’s strange is to hear this bit about the man who was not wearing wedding clothes and, as a result, was bound hand and foot and thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.[3]
Christian, that’s a warning a to you. That’s a warning that you don’t get too judgmental about those ancient Jews – who were crazy to reject Jesus – that you neglect to see the danger lurking in your heart.
What was the problem with those first invited guests? It wasn’t the invitation. The king had done everything. He prepared a feast. He killed his oxen and fattened cattle. He signed and labeled the envelopes and didn’t entrust them to Canada Post but put them in the hands of his own servants, not once but twice to make sure that those invitees had every opportunity to come. The problem was that they didn’t want to. The problem was that they valued other things more – the silliest of things, e.g. their businesses and occupations. The problem was their hearts.
That was the problem with the man without wedding clothes too. He didn’t care about the king or his son. He wasn’t concerned with showing respect or honour. He got an invitation to a nice meal and he came on his own terms. He abused the gracious invitation of his king and suffered the consequences for it.
Do you? Abuse God’s gracious invitation? How many times have his servants come to you inviting you to his house and you’ve been unwilling and apathetic? “Meh, I’ve got better things to do.” How many times have you convinced yourself that those “better things” include silly things like sleep or work or playing sports or watching sports? How many times have you walked in these doors or engaged in devotions or Bible studies wanting it to be on your terms instead of God’s? How many times have you folded your hands in prayer saying “My will be done,” instead of, “Thy will be done”?
Like this man without the wedding clothes, have you ever told yourself or someone else, “I’m sure God understands.” “I’m sure he knows how busy I am, how tired I am.” “I’m sure he knows that I’m sincere, even if I don’t really want to change anything about my faith or life.”
If we’re honest with ourselves I think we’d have to admit that the king’s assessment of those first invited guests applies to us too: “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.”[4] But do you know what’s amazing? You may not be worthy, but he invited you anyway and continues to invite you day after day as long as you live.
Did you catch that in the parable? The king says to his servants,
“So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” So the servant went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good.[5]
God does not limit his invitation to the “good.” He invited you too. He wants you to be part of the celebration of his Son. And even more than that, he clothes you in robes of righteousness that you could have never pulled out of your own closet. As one of those prophets whom the Israelites ignored and rejected once said:
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.[6]
God wants you to be dressed appropriately for the feast, but he doesn’t expect you to furnish the clothes yourself. He provides them for you in a visible, tangible way that you can rely on:
All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.[7]
In Baptism God not only washes all your sins away, he clothes you with Christ. We sang it a moment ago:
Jesus, your blood and righteousness
my beauty are, my glorious dress;
mid flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
with joy shall I lift up my head.
It was the blood of Jesus that those first invited guests shed on the cross that now covers over all your sin and makes you worthy in God’s eyes.
None of us deserves that invitation. None of us deserves to be here. None of us deserves to receive the body and blood that Jesus poured out for you and me, and yet, in his infinite grace and persistent mercy he nevertheless extends that invitation to you today and every day: Come. Celebrate my Son, your Saviour, Jesus. Come, I have heaven prepared for you with joys unending and happiness unimaginable. Come, not as you are, but as I’ve made you – clothed in the robes of Christ’s righteousness, with hearts filled with love for him.
You’re invited. Accept that invitation with joy and eagerness. Mark that event on your calendar as the top priority – greater than the grades you get in school, the performance review you get at work, the amazing places you get to visit on God’s green earth. Heaven is better than all of them put together and God has given you free tickets through his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. In him and through faith in him you may accept his invitation with joy. Amen.
[1] Matthew 22:8
[2] Matthew 22:10
[3] Matthew 22:13
[4] Matthew 22:8
[5] Matthew 22:9,10
[6] Isaiah 61:10
[7] Galatians 3:27