Sometimes the Bible confuses me.

In my daily Bible reading, I recently covered Matthew 22. This parable of the marriage feast has always left me with questions. So I decided to dig into the meaning of it and figure out just what Jesus was trying to say.

Here’s the passage; 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. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

“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.’

“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. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 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, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without 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.’

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

This has always raised several questions in my mind. Why did the king get so angry? What caused the people to refuse his request? Why such destruction?

This part is the easy part. The King is God. And the feast is the kingdom of God. God has extended an invitation to the nation of Israel to be a part of the kingdom. However, “they paid no attention and went off.” They ignored God’s invitation. Just take a look at the Old Testament, where the people of Israel turned their backs on God time after time.

God’s patience and forbearance are almost inexhaustible, but not quite. This passage tells us twice that the King sent out his servants with the invitation. The first time the invitation was refused. The second time, it was ignored by some, and the servants bringing the message were mistreated and killed by others. The King’s patience had just run out.

He sent his army and destroyed those people and their city. Why would he do this? His vast patience was finally exhausted. Enraged, he judges them, and finds them guilty. This could be a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

But then, the king invites some other people to the banquet. His feast is still going to happen, and he wants to share it with whoever he can. And so he invites others, indiscriminately.

What an offer! The Kingdom of God isn’t simply for the nation of Israel; it’s for everyone!

And here is where my questions really start to pile up.

The king invites anyone and everyone to come to the feast. But there is one man who isn’t wearing wedding clothes. Why not? And why does the king react so harshly to him?

All, without exception, were invited to the banquet, so this man isn’t to be seen as simply a common party-crasher. In fact, all of the guests were hastily rounded up from the streets and therefore none of them could be expected to come to the banquet with the proper attire. They simply didn’t have it. That means that the wedding garments must have been supplied by the king himself. This man’s lack of the proper garment indicates that he had purposely rejected the king’s own gracious offer of provision. This seems like it might actually be a greater insult to the king than the refusal of the first people to come at all, because he committed this offence in the presence of the king himself.

The idea here seems to represent those who identify with the kingdom externally, professing to be Christians, belonging to the church in a visible sense – and yet spurn the garment of righteousness that Christ offers. Ashamed to admit their own spiritual poverty, they refuse the better garment that the King graciously offers. And that means that they are guilty of sinning against the King’s wonderful goodness.

The man was speechless. He had no excuse for not accepting the king’s offer of proper clothing. And as a result, he was cast out into the darkness, farthest from the light, where he would suffer from inconsolable grief and unending torment because of his rejection of the King’s offer. Jesus often used this description of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” to refer to hell.

“For many are called, but few are chosen.”

This call is a summons to repentance and faith. It is inherent in the Gospel message. And it is extended to all who hear the message. Sadly, many hear it; few respond. This shows the balance between human responsibility and divine sovereignty: the ones who reject the invitation choose to do so willingly. Those who respond to the call enter the kingdom only because of the grace of God in providing the proper clothing.

Look at Isaiah 61:10:

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 righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

This clears up some confusion about this passage for me. I hope it helps you as well.

Now, on to the next challenging passage…