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Pastor Pastor Lars Larson, PhD                                                                                   FBC Sermon #620
First Baptist Church, Leominster, MA                                                                          July 17, 2011
Words for children: marriage, feast, parable                                                                 Text: Matthew 22:1-14
Scripture reading: Philippians 3:1-14

The Gospel of Matthew (84)
Parables of Resistance to the King (cont.)

Our current progress through Matthew:

I.  Prologue (chs. 1, 2)
II.  The Kingdom Comes (chs. 3-7)
III.  The Works of the Kingdom (chs. 8-10)
IV.  The Nature of the Kingdom (chs. 11-13)
V.  The Authority of the Kingdom (chs. 14-18)
          A.  Jesus’ Character and Authority (chs. 14-17)
          B.  The Fourth Discourse:  The Character and Authority of the Church (18:1-35)
VI.  Kingdom Blessings and Kingdom Judgments (chs. 19-25)
          A.  From Galilee to Jerusalem (chs. 19, 20)
          B.  The King enters Jerusalem (chs. 21-23)
                    1.  Triumphal Entry and Cleansing the Temple (21:1-22)
                    2.  Parables of Resistance to the King (21:23-22:14)

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                        We have recorded before us in this section of Matthew’s Gospel a series of parables that our Lord Jesus spoke before the gathered people in the Jewish temple courtyard of Jerusalem.  These parables have been described as “Parables of Resistance to the King.”[1]  Through these parables, our Lord was instructing His disciples, informing the crowds of their privilege and opportunity of having Him before them, and revealing the hypocrisy and the wickedness of the Jewish leadership who were opposed to Him.  The parable that we will consider today is “The Parable of the Marriage Feast”, which is contained in the first 14 verses of Matthew 22.

            I.  The Parable of the Marriage Feast (Matt. 22:1-14)

          Let us read the parable given by our Lord.

          1And 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, 3and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.  4Again 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.’  5But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.  7The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.  8Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.  9Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’  10And 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.
          11But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.  12And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’  And he was speechless.  13Then 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.’  14For many are called, but few are chosen.

                        There are two major parts to this parable.  The first is in verses 1-10, in which our Lord continues the theme that He had presented in His earlier parables in Matthew 21, that the Jews, who had anticipated the arrival of the promised kingdom, rejected it, and so God purposed to give it to others.  The second section of the parable is in verses 11-14, in which our Lord spoke about the others who were to be invited, that they have the responsibility to be prepared for the arrival of the kingdom.

            A.  The rejection of the invitation to the wedding feast and its offer to others. (22:1-10)

          Our Lord stood in the temple courts and gave this parable regarding the kingdom of God.  He uses the metaphor of a wedding feast that is provided by a king for His son.  This wedding had been planned in advance.  Wedding invitations had been sent; we may assume to the notable people of the land.[2]  The time arrived, so the king sent His servants to call in the invited guests.  But those who had been invited refused to come.  He sent to them again, urging them, telling them of the great celebrative occasion that had been prepared that they would not want to miss.  There would be a great feast, with “oxen and fatted calves.”  But they still refused to come.  The insensitivity and ingratitude of the invited guests is emphasized.  Some were too busy with their own affairs of life.  Verse 5 reads, “But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.”  Others who had been invited were more callous and treacherous.  Verse 6, “while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.”  The king was justifiably angry.  He sent his troops and killed the murderers of his servants, destroying their city.  But the king determined that the wedding feast for his son would take place.  So he sent his servants to the common people.  Of these there were some who were apparently not wise according to worldly standards, not many powerful, and not many of noble birth.[3]  When the wedding feast occurred, the wedding hall was filled with guests (verse 10).
          Now, let us first consider the metaphor of the wedding feast itself to the kingdom of God.  Here our Lord is describing the great blessing that He bestows upon sinners in bringing them salvation.  The gospel is compared to a feast.  But it is not an ordinary feast, but rather a marriage feast.  And it is not like an average marriage feast, but it is like the feast of the marriage of a king’s son.  Several months ago we witnessed the great pomp of a royal wedding in Britain, in which Prince William and Catherine “Kate” Middleton were married at Westminster Abbey.  The morning of the wedding, Queen Elizabeth conferred a Dukedom on Prince William, making him His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, with Catherine becoming Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge after the wedding.  They celebrated with a great feast.  This is the kind of metaphor suitable for the kingdom of God, for our Lord said, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son” (verse 2).   

                    1.  The state of the kingdom that our Lord likens to a feast-- present or future?

          An important question needs to be answered:  In what manifestation of the kingdom of God is it like the wedding feast of a king’s son?  Is the Lord Jesus speaking of the kingdom after He returns at His second coming, or is He referring to our present enjoyment of the kingdom in this life as believers, who are now enjoying the blessings of salvation?  The metaphor of a feast is used elsewhere to describe the blessings of believers in the kingdom of God after Jesus Christ returns and the kingdom is seen in its fullness.  Our Lord said of Gentile believers when he had seen the faith of the Roman centurion,

When Jesus heard this (the centurion’s expression of faith), He marveled and said to those who followed Him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.  11I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven…” (Matt. 8:10f)

          On another occasion our Lord told His disciples:

          “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.  37Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.  Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.  38If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! (Luke 12:35-38)

          In Luke’s Gospel there is recorded a parable that is similar in some ways to this one in Matthew 22 but it should be understood as different in detail and given by our Lord on a different occasion.  He taught the people,

          16Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, 17and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’  18But they all with one accord began to make excuses.  The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’  19And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of  oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’  20Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’  21So that servant came and reported these things to his master.  Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’  22And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’  23Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.  24‘For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’” (Luke 14:15-24)

          We also see this idea of the messianic banquet outside of Scripture in early Jewish and Christian writings.  This is from a 1st century writing which dates to the 1st century AD called 2 Enoch:

When the last one arrives, he will bring out Adam, together with the ancestors; and he will bring them in there, so that they may be filled with joy; just as a person invites his best friends to have dinner with him and they arrive with joy, and they talk together in front of that man’s palace, waiting with joyful anticipation to have dinner with delightful enjoyments and riches that cannot be measured, and joy and happiness in eternal light and life; --and I say to you, my children:, Happy is the person who reverences the name of the LORD, and who serves in front of his face always, and who organizes his gifts with fear, offerings of life, and who in this life lives and dies correctly! (2 Enoch 42:4-6)

          The book of Revelation records the event called “the marriage supper of the Lamb”, which will take place after the Day of Judgment and all of God’s people are safely resting in the full manifestation of the kingdom.

          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; 8it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure-- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.  9And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”  And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (Rev 19:7-9)

The metaphor of a great feast is commonly used to describe the blessing that believers will enjoy when they enter into their full and final state of salvation. 

          But the question, again, is this: Did our Lord use the metaphor of the feast here in Matthew 22:1-14 to refer to the blessing of His people when the kingdom comes in its fullness, or is He describing the present blessings of the kingdom for those who are His disciples, who are now citizens within His kingdom?  For the New Testament does elsewhere describe our present enjoyment of salvation in terms of a feast.  We read Paul’s words in the context of advocating exercising church discipline on a sinning church member:

          It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles-- that a man has his father’s wife!  2And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.  3For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed.  4In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.  6Your glorying is not good.  Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?  7Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened.  For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.  8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Cor. 5:1-8)

Paul describes our gathering as a church as a feast, which is based upon the imagery of the Old Testament Passover meal in which the Israelites feasted on the paschal lamb the night that God redeemed them from bondage in Egypt.  We too, celebrate our salvation in every church service as though we were having a Passover meal.  Every time we gather to worship our Lord, it is like we are gathering for a great feast in which we may “dine” together in fellowship with our Lord and with one another. 

          And so, to answer our question we posed earlier, it would seem to me that both the present and future aspects of the kingdom are contained in this metaphor.  There is a present aspect.  The formerly invited guests, which are the Jews, who had been invited are turned out and their city is destroyed (AD 70).  Others “from the roads” are brought in that they might enjoy the feast.  But there is a future aspect also.  When the “king” comes into the feast and sees the inappropriately dressed man, he is consigned to “outer darkness” where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  This speaks of a future event when the Lord will remove all hypocrites from His people at the final judgment.  Perhaps it would be most accurate to say that we are still in stage of summoning those “from the roads” to come to the banquet, so that His wedding hall will be filled on the day of the wedding feast, when Jesus returns in His glory.

                    2.  The details of this parable of the wedding feast of a king’s son.

          Let us next consider the details of this parable.  The interpretation of the parable must be derived from the context of the passage in which it was given as well as the history of the first century in which the Gospel was written and circulated.  The theme is the same as what our Lord was declaring in His other parables in this setting.  The “king” who planned the wedding feast, is to be understood as God the Father.  The king’s “son” is the Lord Jesus.  The “wedding feast” is the celebration and enjoyment of the blessings of the Kingdom of God, including the forgiveness of sins and the enjoyment of everlasting life.”  The initial invited “guests” were the leaders of Judaism, including the Pharisees, the Sadducees, their scribes, and the priests, who refused to believe and respond to Jesus as the promised Messiah and therefore forfeited the blessing of God that comes with entrance into God’s kingdom.  It is not unreasonable to conclude that our Lord’s reference to the angry king who “sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city” is a prophecy of Jerusalem’s destruction that would occur by the Roman army that took place 40 years later in A.D. 70.  And then the others who were invited who filled the wedding hall were believing sinners those like the “tax collectors and harlots” that our Lord referenced back in His parable of the two sons in Matthew 21:31.  But these should also be understood as future Gentile believers who would come to faith in Christ after Israel largely refused and failed to believe on the Lord Jesus.  This is the opinion of William Hendriksen, a commentator of Matthew’s Gospel that we highly respect.  He wrote,

“The meaning is clear.  When the Jews who had been invited refuse to accept Christ, other people in great numbers are brought in.  These others are mostly Gentiles, though Jews are not hereby excluded.”[4]

          There is one more matter of interest that we might consider from these first 10 verses.  Our Lord spoke of three occasions in which these guests were invited to the wedding.  First, there was the initial invitation in which the people were informed that a wedding and feast would occur.  Second, the king sent forth some of his servants to announce that the time had arrived for them to come.  Third, after the refusal to come by the invited guests, the king sent other servants to invite the people of the streets.  These three “invitations” has led some to surmise that the initial invitation is first, when God Himself spoke to the Patriarchs, promising Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that they would have a kingdom to inherit, the second was the calling of the Old Testament prophets, whom God sent to Israel to announce the coming kingdom and the need for them to have faith in God’s promise and to be prepared for the arrival of the kingdom, and the third calling of the final “servants” were John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Himself, and His apostles.  I think that this is probably pressing the details of the parable beyond what our Lord intended.  The point He was making is that God gave Israel every privilege and opportunity, but they refused to respond to His Son.  “He came unto His own and His own received Him not” (John 1:11).

                    3.  The feast itself as a picture of salvation that God has prepared for us in Christ.

          And so, it is clear that the wedding feast of this parable is intended to picture God’s salvation which He had been preparing and anticipating for many centuries.  God had planned it in eternity and prepared for it in history.   Jesus now says, “Come and enjoy the blessings of salvation.”  Long before we ever thought of God, God thought of us and made preparations that we would enjoy His presence. 
          That preparation was needed is clear from Scripture.  For there were many things barring man’s entrance into “the wedding feast” which had to be readied.  First, there were barriers from God’s perspective.  As sinners we had challenged His authority.  We had transgressed His laws.  His holiness had barred our entry into His presence.  His justice required satisfaction.  But second, there were also barriers with respect to us.  We were legally guilty and under condemnation due to our sin.  We were morally averse to coming to Him; being rebellious in our nature.  We were spiritually unable to respond to Him; being sinful, unholy.  We were powerless to do the things commanded of us; we were in need of His Spirit to empower us.  And so, thirdly, preparations were made.  God chose a people and prepared salvation for them and them for salvation.  God gave many promises and made many invitations.  When it was the right time, He sent He sent His Son to be their Savior; Jesus Christ became the Passover Lamb for their paschal feast.  At last Jesus had come, and He had died.  Now all things were ready.  Jesus had come!  The Messiah, the Anointed One was now here!  Christ says “Come, for everything is now ready.”
          If you hear His voice, respond by coming to Him in faith.  Everything is now ready and He bids one and all to come.  I may stand and give this general call to all without distinction, “It is now ready, come and dine with us in the presence of God.  Come and experience the life of joy, peace, and righteousness, that He has provided in Christ.” 
          But we would urge all to come “now”, for there is no gospel offer assured you for tomorrow.  Today is the day all things are ready.  And so, if you hear His voice you are to respond fully to His free offer of salvation.  Come for cleansing, come for forgiveness, come, and be purified of sin.  But come now.  Come today in faith and humility.  If you say, “not today, perhaps tomorrow”, you have already begun that hardening process, for there will always be another tomorrow.

          B.  The rejection of one without a wedding garment (22:11-14)

          11But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.  12And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’  And he was speechless.  13Then 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.’  14For many are called, but few are chosen.

          Here was a man who had responded to the king’s invitation and arrived to the wedding feast.  But he was not properly dressed for the occasion.  The king calls for the man to be bound hand and foot and cast into the outer darkness.  There he would suffer punishment characterized by “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  One might ask, “Why was the man to be faulted, since he had been extended an invitation on the spur of the moment and it seems that he came as he was?”  I believe that they are right who have said that in the ancient world when a royal wedding was conducted, the host (king) would provide and offer appropriate wedding garments to his guests.  If this were so, then our Lord in His parable has presented a man who had refused what had been graciously offered him, perhaps he had believed that he was dressed suitably as he was.  He was without excuse.  What is demonstrated by the man is an absence of concern and respect for the king and His son and for the importance of the occasion.  The point is that the man was not prepared to attend the wedding feast.
          To what was our Lord referring that this man failed to have a wedding garment?  There are many references in both the Old and New Testaments to garments which depict the blessing of righteousness unto salvation.[5]  We might site one reference, Isaiah 61:10,

          “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Here “garments” are a metaphor of salvation.  The garments are clothing like the celebrative dress of a bridegroom for like the jewels on a bride on their wedding day.
          Of course the most common understanding of this wedding garment in our Lord’s parable is to see the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ that is credited to every sinner that believes on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  In many places the apostle Paul speaks of the gift of righteousness that God freely bestows upon believers, but we might cite Romans

19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.  20Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.  21But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. (Romans 3:19-22)

          But the question may be asked, “Can the absence of wedding garment only refer to someone who does not have imputed righteousness through faith alone?  Or, may the garment speak also of God’s imparted righteousness, the good works of sanctification that accompany justification?  Hendriksen does not limit the garment to imputed righteousness only, but of imparted righteousness as well.

Does this mean, then, that the wedding garment is to be limited to “the imparted righteousness which is ours by faith”?  Not at all.  God not only imputes righteousness but also imparts righteousness to the sinner whom He pleases to save.  Although these two must be distinguished, they must not be separated.  Careful study of those passages in Scripture that mention the robe with which the sinner must be clothed makes it clear that not only guilt must be forgiven but also the old way of life must be laid aside and the new life to the glory of God must take its place.  Briefly, the sinner must, by God’s grace, “put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).  There must be a complete turn about, a thorough-going renewal or “conversion,” exactly as Jesus Himself had taught (Matt. 4:17), and as the apostles after Him were going to teach.[6]

          In short, this man without the wedding garment is a picture of the hypocrite.  He is the one who claims to be a Christian, who is among the people of God professing faith in Christ, but in truth his soul is yet unconverted to Christ.

          His presence was tolerated till a certain solemn moment: when the Kingcame in to see the guests.  Then the eye, which looks over all things, but overlooks nothing, spied out the daring intruder: he saw there a manwhich had not on a wedding garment.  The wedding garment represents anything that is indispensable to a Christian, but which the unrenewed heart is not willing to accept.  The man who had not on the wedding garment was out of sympathy with the assembly, out of harmony with its object, devoid of loyalty to the King, yet he braved and brazened it out, and thrust himself in among the wedding guests.  It was a piece of defiant insolence, which could not be allowed to pass unnoticed and unpunished.  In some respects he was worse than those who refused the invitation; for while he professed to accept it, he only came that he might insult the King to his face.  He would not put on the garment which was freely provided, because by doing so he would have been honoring the Prince, whose marriage was to him an object of contempt and scorn.
          It is well to remember that there are foes of the heavenly King, not only outside the professing church of Christ, but also within its borders.  Some altogether refuse to come to his Son’s weddings, but others help to fill the banqueting-hall, yet all the while they are enemies to the great Founder of the feast.  This man without the wedding garment is the type of those who, in these days, pretend to be Christians, but do not honor the Lord Jesus, nor his atoning sacrifice, nor his holy Word.  They are not in accord with the design of the gospel feast, namely, the glory, of the Lord Jesus in his saints.  They come into the church for gain, for honor, for fashion, or for the purpose of undermining the loyal faith of others.  ‘The godly can often see them: this man must have been conspicuous amongst the wedding guests.  The traitors within the church, however, have most to fear from the coming of the King; he will detect them in a moment, even as the royal Host in the parable, as soon as he came in to see the guests, saw there the man who had not on the wedding garment.

          In the parable the king declares to his servants regarding the one inappropriately dressed, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness.  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’” (verse 13).  A king in the ancient world would not have given a literal order of this kind; he did not have such a place of punishment for his enemies.  Our Lord had his character in the parable, the king, pronounce the judgment that God will one day sentence unbelievers and hypocrites.  The terms “outer darkness” in a place characterized by “weeping and gnashing of teeth” is a description for the punishment of the ungodly in hell fire.  Our Lord used the same words on an earlier occasion to describe Jews who would receive the sentence of damnation.

I tell you, many will come from east and west (i.e. Gentile believers) and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom (i.e. unbelieving Jews) will be thrown into the outer darkness.  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt. 8:11f)

He will use these same words later as recorded in Matthew 25.  In His parable of the talents, the Lord said of the one who had failed to make use of his one talent,  “Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness.  In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 25:30).

          Our Lord concludes this parable with the words, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (verse 14).  Although many are invited, God has only elected some of them, and they are relatively few in number to the ones invited.

            II.  Some doctrinal lessons of our passage

1.  God has been gracious and merciful in His repeated overtures to our fallen race.

2.  The sinfulness of man is seen in his inability and unwillingness to come to Christ for salvation.

3.  We are all in need of God’s grace if we are to inherit salvation.

4.  Hell is real and is the just desert of those who refuse to come to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith.

5.  Consider the great plan of God in bringing us salvation.

6.  We owe our salvation to the sovereign grace of God who chose us to receive His salvation. 

            III.  Some practical lessons of our passage

1.  Let have full concern and let us put forth full effort to tell others of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2.  Let us hear the invitation that He is extending to each and every sinner.

3.  Let us beware of hypocrisy.

4.  Let us bask in the glory to which our Lord has called us. 

5.  Let us always affirm our great need and God’s great provision for us of the righteousness of Jesus Christ that is given us freely through faith in Jesus Christ.  Let us as Paul repudiate any hint of a righteousness of our own, but let us see ourselves in Christ alone.  As Paul wrote, let us each affirm,

                  “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Phi 3:8-11)

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Footnotes