October 15, 2017 Matthew 22:1-14 COJLBC Called and Chosen by Mark Jarvinen The Parable of the Wedding Feast 22 And 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, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again 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. 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. 10 And 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. 11 But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13 Then 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. 14 For many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:1-14 - ESV) INTRODUCTION A number of years ago I shifted away from a pocket Daytimer to my mobile phone for use as my personal calendar. I ve been very happy with the switch. For one thing it makes it easier to accommodate the growing list of self-reminders I find necessary to use as an antidote for forgetfulness. I imagine most of you have some form of date book to keep track of upcoming events in your life. You probably don t keep track of your routine schedule, such as work or 1
school, but things like healthcare appointments, birthdays, social events, gatherings with family and friends, special meetings and assignments in your life as an employee or volunteer, not to mention leisure activities and vacations. All are worthy of a calendar entry. However, there s one day that none of us will miss, yet, I m sure it won t be on our calendars since none of us know the exact day or the hour. I m referring, of course, to the day Jesus comes for the Final Judgment. Revelation 1:7-8 says: 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. 8 I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Today s text is the last of three parables in this section of Matthew s Gospel, told by Jesus to help people understand what the Kingdom of Heaven is like, particularly the chief priests and elders of the Jews who questioned Jesus authority (Mt. 21:23f). Speaking of the Day of Judgment, Jesus compares it to a Great Wedding Banquet prepared by a king for his son. Of course, this is a reference to God the Father and Jesus, His Son. Prior to this day, the king (God, the Father) had already sent out invitations to the feast. Of course, they were not printed on fine stationery and mailed, or sent by e-vite to people s personal computers, as we might expect today. In this parable, the king sends out his invitations by messengers, the best, and most personal means possible at that time. It s likely that Jesus, in crafting this parable, had in mind the OT prophets as the messengers who had been sent out in days past. And so we see that 2
I. INVITATIONS HAD ALREADY GONE OUT The setting of this parable is a wedding banquet or feast. In our day, weddings are a blast. In most cases, we are honored by the invitation. We appreciate the tremendous amount of time, effort, and expense involved in planning and executing a wedding celebration.. The venue had to be secured, the food ordered, the cake chosen and delivered, the special garments for the bridal party picked out and fitted, and much, much more. In the parable, however, the king sends out his messengers the first time to announce that all is ready, but the invited guests refuse to come. Patiently, he sends out another group of servants to repeat the announcement with the words: See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. (v. 4) The picture of salvation painted by the parable is one of positive expectation. It s good news. EVERYTHING is ready! Go global in your thinking at this point and picture a huge table ready to feed millions of people. The readiness of the banquet is symbolic of the fact that the day of salvation for the world had come. In Galatians 4:4-5, Paul speaks of it saying: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. After years and years of preparation and making sure that the time was right, God was finally ready to set in motion His plan of salvation for the world. How would God unfold salvation s plan? By sending His Son. Jesus came to seek and to save a world lost in sin. The author of Hebrews, in 10:9, quotes Jesus as saying: Here I am, I have come to do your will. Then the author of Hebrews continues in the very next verse saying: 3
And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Jesus died on the cross once for ALL. In other words, God would never run out of forgiveness. There was nothing left to prepare. Everything necessary for the salvation of the world had now been accomplished ONCE FOR ALL, when Jesus died on the cross for the sins of humanity and then rose again from the dead in victory. Now, getting back to the parable, God had chosen the Jews as His people to be the first recipients of salvation, so that they could be a blessing to the entire world. However, as we have already seen, they refused the invitation to the banquet. But, intent on honoring his son, the king said to his servants, in vv. 8-9 Those I invited (referring to the religious elite and unbelieving among the Jews) didn t deserve to come. Go to the main roads and invite anyone you can find. The king s servants obeyed and the banquet hall was filled with a random assortment of people referred to in the text as both bad and good (v.10). In other words, God is no respecter of persons. One s past, including one s heritage and/or behavior, neither qualify nor disqualify a person from attendance at the banquet. 4 The invitation is not based on our performance or any other external criteria. Some people think to themselves, I haven t been a very good person. Why would God want me at His banquet? The answer is simply that he loves you. John 3:16, the gospel in a nutshell, says, For God so loved the WORLD, that He gave his one and only Son. This reference to the world includes you and me. We don t have to bring anything. Our background is immaterial. He wants all to be saved. That raises the question for all
II. DO YOU WANT TO COME TO THE BANQUET? Just because God wants everyone to be saved, and just because He has prepared a banquet big enough for the world to attend, doesn t mean that the whole world will be saved. Verse 14 of the parable ends with the words: For many are called, but few are chosen. Jesus, Himself says that although many are invited, comparatively few will end up in heaven. What is the first and foremost reason? The king (God) sent his servants to tell those who had been invited to come, but they refused. negative will and ignored the invitation. They exercised what theologians call In other words, they simply did not want to come. It s the same thing that Jesus said about Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37-38: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. God gives each and every one of us the ability to reject Him. When He offers Christ, people can say, No, I don t want Him. According to the text, the rejection plays out in different ways, with varying excuses. Verse 5, says that one group - paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business,. They were consumed with the tyranny of the urgent the pressing priorities of life in this world that are not of eternal consequence. Jesus, no doubt, had the Pharisees and the elders of the people in mind here, those brought up within the culture and tradition of the Jewish faith. When faith is merely a formality, holding a form of 5
religion, but denying its power to change lives, how easy it becomes for the stuff of everyday life to crowd out the truly important things, like worship that proceeds from the heart and service that benefits others more than oneself. There s obviously application here to the Church of today, where it s possible to grow up in the familiarity of church culture, without a true desire to worship and serve as a matter of the heart. When this is the case, excuses become second nature and people find themselves spiritually adrift. But a second group was far more militant in their refusal. They seized the kings servants, mistreated them, and ultimately killed them. Why would they respond with such hostility? The answer is that they were too arrogant to have a king, much less come to a banquet for his son. Old Testament prophets underwent mistreatment by the Jews. Jeremiah, for example was called The Weeping Prophet, because the Word of the Lord that he proclaimed was in large part ignored and even opposed by many. Through the ages, messengers of the Gospel have been mistreated in similar ways, experiencing hardship and persecution as a result. In the parable, this active resistance enraged the king and brought on their own destruction. In short, the parable points to the fact that those whose whole life has become an excuse aren t rejecting just any wedding invitation. This is the wedding banquet of the king s son! Those who put their entertainment and work ahead of their spiritual lives and in effect turn down his invitation are dishonoring the king himself and liable to judgment. Those who kill the king s messengers are 6
trampling on the king s glory and will surely be punished. This leads to the all-important question posed by the parable III. HAS GOD CHOSEN YOU TO COME? By now, it would be easy for us to feel that we have been so unfaithful and so busy that God is ready to give up on us. In all honesty, on the basis of how easily distracted we are, He should have given up on all of us a long time ago. But God is more gracious and patient with us than we can even imagine. Even though we re capable of putting Him off, He still wants us until the day we die. Good or bad, He loves us, and He always will. He wants us at the banquet. He wants us to taste His forgiveness. His invite is still there. So what does it come down to? Wanting it badly enough to try harder, to do better? I ll double-down on my effort. I ll do more to make God pleased with me. I have good news for all of us. God is more gracious than that. Look at the final part of today s parable. When the king comes in to see the guests, he noticed a man not wearing wedding clothes. He was improperly attired. Verses 12-14 read: And he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13 Then 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. For many are called, but few are chosen. What I m about to say is extremely important, so make sure to listen carefully. Here was a man who WANTED to be at the banquet. He had accepted the invite. He had made a good decision, BUT HE 7
WAS STILL REJECTED. WHY? Listen to this. Salvation is not based on the quality of our desire or decision to be at the banquet, it s based on wearing the right wedding clothes. Stay with me. Allow me to explain. In ancient times, the host of a wedding would provide his guests with the proper attire of his choosing. Thus, we conclude that Jesus parable teaches us that salvation depends not on our acceptance of the invitation, but on the CLOTHING and the CHOICE of the Lord. Jesus said, in John 15:16, You did not choose me, but I chose you,. Therefore, the one man who somehow found a seat at the banquet didn t want to put on the clothes the host had given him to wear. Even though the host regarded him as a friend, the man didn t want to eat at the banquet on the host s terms. He wanted to maintain his own identity and individuality, which was unacceptable to the king. This was a banquet for the king s son, not just anybody, so he wanted his guests to look perfect so much so that he provided the clothing for the occasion. What s being said here? Simply this when we come to the banquet offered by God, get baptized, study the Bible, receive the Lord s supper, and participate in the things that promise us the blessings of God s grace, salvation boils down to one thing. Are you wearing the clothing that God has provided you Christ s robe of righteousness? Paul describes this clothing in Galatians 3:26-30: 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. 8
When we come to the banquet, either feeling unworthy of such an invitation, or arrogant enough to think we can come on our own terms, it all comes down to Christ. When we are brought to faith in Christ and baptized into His blood, it s as if we re all wearing the same clothing, which is Jesus robe of righteousness, the clothing of holiness and perfection that He alone provides. Therefore, Judgment Day isn t going to be about how good or bad we ve been, or how often we ve attended church or partaken in Holy Communion, or performed enough good works. God will judge us on only one thing, whether or not we re wearing the wedding clothes that He provides for all who have received His invitation the robe of Christ s righteousness, His sinless life and sacrificial death and resurrection, imputed to us as a free gift of grace. Those wearing these clothes at the wedding feast are both called and chosen. A-men. 9