One of the helpful things about Scripture is how frequently you’re able to find truths presented in different literary forms and images. For example, the Bible clearly teaches (in propositional form) that Jesus has done everything to accomplish our salvation. He was “delivered up for our transgressions and raised for our justification,” as Paul says in Romans 4:25. But the Bible also gives us a picture in Revelation 5 where no one is found worthy to open the scroll that would be the unfolding of God’s work of salvation and judgment. So John weeps. However, he is then told to stop weeping as he turns and sees the Lion of the tribe of Judah as a lamb who had been slain. The point is the same: Jesus Christ has done everything necessary to accomplish God’s work of salvation and judgment. But it’s presented to us in an additional, powerful form that is not easily forgotten.
Narrative texts and parables in the Bible can do the same. They present to us truths that we know, understand, and articulate in propositional form. For example, we heard read earlier in the service that the Son took on flesh, came to his own people, and they did not receive him. That’s a powerful statement. But we saw last week that same truth presented to us in the form of some tenants in a vineyard, murdering the owner’s servants, before finally rejecting, killing the owner’s own son, and throwing him out of the vineyard. The imagery is disturbingly powerful, isn’t it?
Well, this morning, as we look at Matthew 22:1-14, we see the same thing. Jesus is teaching about the nature of the kingdom of heaven, and his Father, the king in the parable. But instead of simply stating truths, he tells a powerful story about a king planning a wedding feast and inviting people to attend it. And in the end, it teaches us about the nature of the gospel, the Great Commission, our privilege in it, and of the nature of salvation and judgment. This is then what I want us to see this morning. But first, let’s start with the parable.
In the parable, Jesus tells the story of a king who was planning a wedding feast for his Son. He worked for a while, got it all ready, and had a nice dinner ready with oxen and the fat calves served. And he’d sent word out ahead of time to certain invitees who were shown honor by the mere invitation to the wedding feast given by the king. Therefore, when the day had come and all was ready, the king sent out his servants to go and tell the invitees that the time had come, and they could come and enjoy this glorious wedding feast.
However, in a surprising move, we are told that those who had been invited “would not come” (v. 3). Now, this makes absolutely no sense. Who in the world would turn down an opportunity to come to a wedding feast put on by the king himself for his son? You might compare it to the British Royalty inviting you to an all-expenses-paid feast at Buckingham Palace. If you turn down that offer it must surely be that you’re just not understanding what’s going on.
And that’s how the king approaches it. These people simply just must not understand. So, he makes the details plain, saying to his other servants, “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’” (v. 4).
But their rejection of the king’s invitation wasn’t based in some misunderstanding. Rather, we are told, that a number of thing paid no attention to this invitation and simply went on with their business affairs, while others actually took hold of the king’s servants and abused them, while still others went all the way to the point of killing the king’s servants. This is clearly no misunderstanding. This is personal rebellion and assault against the king.
Therefore, as we would expect, Jesus tells us, “The king was angry.” So the next time he sent his servants to those who’d been invited to the wedding feast, it wasn’t to issue a third invitation or clarify the details of the feast. It was to destroy these murderers and burn their city. And that’s just what they did.
But that didn’t mean that the king was content to have no one at the wedding feast he had prepared for his son. Rather, he called his servants to himself again, saying, “The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you can find” (vv. 8-9). So the servants went out into the roads and “gathered all whom they found, both bad and good,” meaning most likely that those coming to the feast were made up of people respected in society and individuals like tax collectors and prostitutes. Therefore, though the group is made up of respected people and less respected people, at least they come. And the wedding hall is then filled with guests.
At that moment when the wedding hall is full, the king then enters to observe and engage the guests. However, as he first walks in, he sees a man with no wedding garment. That is, he didn’t have appropriate clothing. In this day, this would have most likely been just some decent outfit, probably white, that most anyone would have owned.1 But this man had not had the courtesy to put on such an outfit. Again, we might compare it to attending that feast at Buckingham Palace but refusing to dress up for it, and instead trying to come in with ratty jeans and a tank top.
Thus, the king questions him, asking, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And the man was speechless (v. 12), which was his way of acknowledging that he had no acceptable answer, no good excuse or response. Therefore, the king says to his attends, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (v. 13). Then, Jesus concludes with the words: “For many are called, but few are chosen” (v. 14).
Now, before diving in to what this parable teaches us, it’s worth pausing and making sure we understand what the story represents. After all, we know that the story represents greater realities for Jesus begins by saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to …,” showing that this story may be compared to other realities. So, what then are these other realities? Well, it’s no altogether unlike the parallels we saw in the previous parables at the end of chapter 21. The king represents, of course, God the Father, and his son is therefore God’s Son who took on flesh, Jesus. The wedding feast represents the details of eternal life. We might say that it represents entering God’s blessed kingdom, as we have seen so often in Matthew. Or we can say it represents inheriting eternal life. Or perhaps, even more closely, we can say that it represents the wedding feast of the Lamb where all believers in Christ throughout the ages will gather as his bride in a glorious, heavenly feast.
The servants, then, we can say (as in the previous parable about the tenants) represent the prophets of God, who were sent to the people again and again, leading up to John the Baptist, who is the last in the line of Old Testament prophets. The first invited would represent those Israelites who rejected Jesus as the Messiah, most notably at this point in the gospel, the Chief Priests and elders or Pharisees, who had denied Jesus. And the second group of invitees represents, then all the nations to whom the gospel eventually went and continues to go today. And that’s probably enough to get us going.
What then does the parable teach us? It teaches us much about the nature of God, his kingdom, and his works. Specifically, I think we’re to see the following truths in this text:
That is, though the many in the parable reject the king’s invitation, none are excluded by being offered the glorious gospel whereby they may repent, believe, and have eternal life. Can you imagine the surprise on that second group’s face when they unsuspectingly hear, “The king is inviting you to his wedding feast”? That is the glory of the gospel. The Lord’s invitation to repent and believe isn’t offered merely to a select few. Yes, the gospel came first to the Jews, but now it is to go everywhere. Specifically Jesus tells us in the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that he has commanded. There is none excluded.
Even as in the parable, both good and bad are invited, so we can say that it does not matter who you are, what your standing is in society, or what you’ve done; you can have eternal life and become a child of God if you will but repent of your sins and trust in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. The offer of the gospel is universal.
And the news gets even better. We who repent and believe, get to be messengers from God himself to go out with the gospel message and compel others to bow the knee to Christ. In other words, until the actual day of the wedding feast of the Lamb, when we are with Christ forever in eternity, we cannot pretend that the job is done. We have a privilege and responsibility to go make disciples of others.
Let me say this personally to us as a church. The Lord has done something remarkable in this fellowship that we know as Cornerstone Community Church. His grace toward us has been rich. And he’s created love among this body, so that it is nothing artificial or superficial when I hear you on Sunday night prayer gathering confess to the Lord your love for one another. What a gift of his grace that is!
But as a church, we can never grow comfortable merely with the fellowship that is here and lose sight of our mission to go, bring others into the kingdom, baptize them and bring them into the membership of the local church, and within that context teach them to obey everything that Christ has commanded. Until the day of judgment comes, we bear the privileged responsibility go and make disciples through planting churches all over this globe.
Simply put, we believe that the mission of our church and any local church is the Great Commission. Jesus didn’t leave us to guess concerning what should be our mission. Moreover, we that Jesus’ mission of making disciples is necessarily accomplished through the local church. His mentioning that disciples are first baptized and then taught to obey all that Christ commands is one element whereby we see Jesus’ vision for people being taught to obey all that Christ commands within the context of a local church, where they have oversight, fellowship, discipline, and faithful encouragement. Therefore, the effort of missions is an effort in planting churches so that the work of making disciples can continue long after any one individual is gone. And if we ever turn from this effort, we will have lost our bearings for what is our mission as a church.
Furthermore, as we’re reminded in the Great Commission and through the words of this parable whereby the king tells his servants to invited “as many as you find,” there is no area on the globe where our mission does not reach, which is why the front of our bulletins read: “Making disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that Christ commands, to the ends of the earth.”
And we have this glorious privilege to the end of this age. The good news of the gospel is to be proclaimed everywhere. The call of the gospel to repent and believe in the one who lived, died for our sins, and was raised from the dead is a universal call.
It is a universal invitation from the King, and because it comes from the Lord, it is an invitation that should also be heard as a command, even as we see in the king’s judgment in the parable, which brings us to our second point.
As we read in John 1:11, though Israel actually had been given the promises, the covenants, and many messages about the coming Messiah, when Jesus finally stepped onto the scene as God’s promised king, he was rejected. Those among Israel who didn’t believe were in the long line of those who had rejected God’s messengers, abused them, and even killed them. Now, they would do the same thing to his Son, turning him over to Roman authorities to be crucified.
But the point is clear in this text: all those who, through their moral rebellion against the Lord, reject his call to eternal life will face terrible judgment. In the parable, we see individuals representing unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, who face judgment. The initial invitees face the wrath of the angry king, as they destroyed in his fierce judgment. And the unbelieving Gentile (represented by the man without proper attire – which I’ll discuss more momentarily) face the king’s judgment as he’s bound and cast into outer darkness.
In both cases, there is no excuse. The Jews cannot say they were without understanding, for, as the parable shows, the details were made clear. They weren’t ignorant of the promises of God. They had been given the Old Testament Scriptures, which clearly spoke of the Christ. But, even the Gentiles will be without excuse and every mouth stopped on the day of judgment (Rom 3:19).
You see, on that day, there will be no legitimate excuse if you have not accepted the invitation to bow to the Son in faith and have eternal life. Unbelieving Jews will have no excuse, for they were given the Old Testament Scriptures. Unbelieving Gentiles will have no excuse, for the law was written on their hearts. And everyone has been given the testimony of God in the created order that bears witness to who he is. But instead of seeing the created order and seeking to know him, no one seeks for God but instead suppresses the truth of God in their unrighteousness and, therefore, will face his just judgment in the end (Rom 1:18-25). No one, even the man who never heard the gospel, will have an excuse. He will have to stand speechless, knowing that even the truth he did see, he suppressed it in his unrighteous moral rebellion against his Maker. All those who have not believed in the crucified and risen Lord will face God’s just and eternal judgment.
Moreover, we are also reminded in this parable that not everyone who says yes to the invitation will actually get to be part of the feast. Or, translating that, we might say,
I’m gathering this point from verses 11-13 where the man is found having said “yes” to the invitation only to lack the appropriate wedding garment and being cast out. I think this is an example of one professes faith but lacks the subsequent fruit of righteous obedience to Christ. In other words, this is one who says he believes, is baptized, etc., but then gives no evidence through a life of obedience that shows his faith is genuine saving faith, for as it has often been said, “We are saved by faith alone, but saving faith never comes alone.” That is, it is always accompanied by works. Righteous obedience is the vindicating evidence of one’s profession of faith.
Now, there are a few reasons why I think that’s what this inappropriately addressed man represents. First, it just fits with the story. He said yes to the invitation but in the end is judged. That simply fits the person who professes faith and then shows himself not to be a true believer. Second, this imagery of a garment at the wedding feast worn by those present comes up in the description of the actual wedding feast of the Lamb given in Revelation 19:8 where it is an image depicting our deeds of righteousness. We read in Revelation 19:7-8, “’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; it was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” Consequently, it is most reasonable to see this garment as representing one’s righteous obedience. Finally, I could note that in Matthew 25 we will see a judgment scene where our righteous deeds are pointed to as evidence of genuine saving faith.
Thus, the point is that not everyone who professes faith (i.e. says “yes” to the invitation) will actually have eternal life. Rather, it is those who profess faith and then show that this faith is real and genuine by living a life of obedience to the Lord, pursuing the Lord and repenting when one sins. As Jesus elsewhere says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom.”
So, the call of the gospel invitation/command is to go to all men everywhere. Those who reject Christ will face terrible judgment. Those who believe and bear fruit of righteous obedience will have eternal life. But there’s one more note we need to add.
The text ends with Jesus saying, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (v. 14). Interestingly, he says that as an explanation, it seems, for why this one is excluded from the wedding feast after failing to bear the garment of righteous deeds. So, what are we to make of this?
Well, Jesus is affirming here that those who respond to his message with saving, persevering, obedient faith are merely the objects of his gracious choosing. In other words, Matthew is here referencing another reality in addition to this general universal call of the gospel that has been noted in the church’s history as the effectual call.
Here’s what I mean. In this parable, Matthew has been referring to the “called” in reference to all of those who hear the general call of the gospel. That is, if you go out on the street this afternoon, encounter someone, and preach to that person the gospel, then you can say that that person heard the call of the gospel, and, as Jesus says here, “Many are called” in this way.
However, if you read Paul’s letters and you see the word “called,” you will see that Paul always means “saved.” For Paul, to be called means to be saved. And this is because Paul uses “call” in the sense of what I’ve noted the church has historically called the effectual call.
Here’s how it works. The general gospel call goes out to all of those to whom we preach the gospel. And, many reject it. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:23, to Jews the gospel is a stumbling block and to Greeks it is folly. But for some, there is another call that comes from the Lord himself that gives life to their dead hearts, opens their blind eyes, and produces a newfound love for Christ that leads the person to respond in repentance and faith to the gospel command. That is, there is a call that causes what it commands.
Remember when Jesus said in John 10 that he had many sheep who would hear his voice and would come to him? This is a reference to that call. The difference between two people who both hear the general call but only one responds in faith is that the one who responds in faith has heard this effectual call from his Lord, and that call has created life. This is why Paul says, going back to 1 Corinthians 1, “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (vv. 23-24).
Now, as Matthew uses “called” here to refer to this general, universal call, it wouldn’t make sense to say, “Many are called but few are called.” Thus, we see, “Many are called, but few are chosen,” which is to say, those who respond in repentance and faith are the objects of God’s gracious choice. They’ve heard his effectual call that has produced life in them and said, “Yes.”
Therefore, if you and I have indeed responded in repentance and faith to the gospel call, even having hearts that long to obey the Lord and repent when we’ve sinned, we owe it all to the Lord’s gracious, undeserved, choice of us. And the reason the Lord reveals this to us is so that we might not boast but be humbled and boast only in the Lord.
But, how do we know we are among those whom Jesus refers to as “chosen?” The answer, of course, is that we respond to the gospel in repentance and obedient faith. Therefore, this morning, understanding that the gospel must go to all men, for those who do not respond with obedient faith to Christ will perish, let’s renew our hearts again to playing our part in the Great Commission. And understanding that it is as a result of God’s rich, undeserved grace that we’ve both responded to the gospel and get to be servants of the king in taking the gospel to others, let us stop, humble ourselves, and give thanks to God this morning, boasting not in our works but only in his grace. Let us even do that now as we come to the table. Amen.