TEXT [Commentary]

11. The parable of the wedding feast (22:1-14)

1 Jesus also told them other parables. He said, 2 “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. 3 When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!

4 “So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ 5 But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. 6 Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them.

7 “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. 8 And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. 9 Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ 10 So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. 13 Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

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

NOTES

22:1-3 Here Jesus again speaks in parables, uttering the third in a set of three parables that put forth an authority figure’s problems with his subordinates (cf. 21:28, 33). The parable in Luke 14:15-24 is similar but probably reflects a different event in the life of Jesus.

The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by. This is a standard introductory formula (13:24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47; 18:23). In the previous two parables, the main character was a vineyard owner who dealt with his sons and tenant farmers respectively. This time the main character is a king who sent his slaves to summon those he had already invited to his son’s wedding feast. Amazingly, those whom the king invited were not willing to come (cf. 23:37). Given the preceding context, there can be little doubt that this is intended to portray the recalcitrant religious leaders, who did not believe the prophets sent by God and who ultimately rejected the Kingdom announced by Jesus, God’s Son. Elsewhere in Matthew the Kingdom is spoken of as a great banquet at the end of the ages (8:11-12; cf. 26:26-29; Luke 13:29; Rev 19:9).

22:4-6 The feast has been prepared. The king patiently sent out other slaves to reaffirm the invitation. This time the slaves were instructed to point out in detail the nature of the preparations that had been made. Surely this would entice the invited guests to come.

bulls and fattened cattle. The second term is more lit. “fattened animals” (sitista [TG4619A, ZG4990]) and occurs only here in the NT; BDAG (925) posits that the fattened animals were cattle. The slaves announced that all preparations were complete and repeated the invitation, but those who had been invited paid no heed. Some were too busy with everyday concerns, such as their farms and their businesses. Others were subversive and revolted against the king by apprehending his slaves, mocking them, and killing them (cf. 2 Sam 10:4; Josephus Antiquities, 9.263-266). This horrible turn of events could not have been anticipated. The second group of slaves here answers to the second group in 21:36. The nearness of the Kingdom is portrayed by the servants’ repeated statement that the feast was prepared (cf. 3:2; 4:17:10:7). The recalcitrance of the religious leaders is habitual; they had regularly killed God’s messengers (cf. 5:12; 23:29-36).

22:7 he sent out his army to destroy the murderers. His army put their city to the torch (Judg 1:8; Isa 5:24-25; 1 Macc 5:28). The king’s angry treatment of his treacherous subjects portrays the judgment of the Jerusalem establishment (cf. 21:41-45). The burning of the Temple in AD 70 is at least a partial fulfillment of this veiled prophecy (Blomberg 1992:328).

22:8-10 go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see. He told his slaves for the third time that the feast was ready but notes that those previously invited were not worthy (on being “worthy,” see 3:8; 10:10-11, 13, 37-38). He sent the slaves out into the byways to invite everyone they could find. The term NLT renders “street corners” (Gr. diexodous [TG1327, ZG1447]) more likely refers to the places where the streets leave town and go into the surrounding countryside (BDAG 244).

22:11-12 he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes. When the king greeted his guests, he discovered a man who was not wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. He called him “friend,” which, in view of 26:50, may be ominous. It is possible that it was the custom in that day for kings to provide suitable clothing for such feasts (Gen 45:22; Judg 14:12; 2 Kgs 25:29; Esth 6:8-9; Luke 15:22; Rev 19:8; Josephus War, 2.128-133; Gundry 1994:439), but some scholars deny this (Carson 1984:457; Hagner 1995:631).

the man had no reply. The man was at fault for insulting the king because he could not explain his inappropriate attire.

22:13-14 throw him into the outer darkness. The man was arrested and severely punished (8:12; 13:40-42; 24:51; 25:30). This horrible outcome pictures eternal punishment. The parable was told to prepare the listeners for the conclusion: “many are called, but few are chosen.” The point of this parable is similar to that of the two sons. The established leaders of Israel had rejected Jesus and the Kingdom, but some from the dregs of society had repented (9:10-13; 21:31-32). But even among these who overtly respond to the Kingdom message, there are both good and bad (cf. 13:19-23, 38, 48). God calls many, good and bad alike, into his Kingdom, but relatively few of them are truly obedient to the call (7:13-14).

COMMENTARY [Text]

Matthew 22:1-14 comprises a narrative introduction (22:1), the parable itself (22:2-13), and a general conclusion (22:14). The parable itself contains four cycles of activity by a king (22:2, 4, 7, 11). As noted above, the parable of the wedding feast is the third in a set of three parables that share many themes and together make a case against the leaders of Israel. All three parables are about failure, whether that of the second son, the tenant farmers, those originally invited to the wedding feast, or the man without wedding clothes (Davies and Allison 1997:188-189).

According to a common interpretation of this parable, the king (God) sends his servants (prophets) to invite his subjects (Israel) to a wedding feast for his son (Jesus, cf. 8:11). The subjects refuse to come, and they kill the king’s servants. The king sends his armies (Rome) and destroys the city (Jerusalem). Then the guests are secured from the main highways (Gentiles). A wedding guest without wedding garments (a hypocrite) is punished. There is truth here, but it is doubtful that the parable is intended to portray a redemptive-historical transition from Jews to Gentiles (as, e.g., Hagner 1995:632). Those who seized, mocked, and killed God’s messengers are not Israel as a whole but the leaders of Israel (Overman 1996:300-302). “The exegete must be careful not to assume that the allegorical destruction of Jerusalem terminates Israel’s role in God’s story” (Davies and Allison 1997:202, cf. 207 n. 76).

Theological Significance. The conclusion of the parable is that “many are called but few are chosen.” This must be understood as summarizing the point of the whole parable, not just 22:13. The parable stresses the contempt with which the religious leaders treated God’s rule in Jesus the Messiah. Some had merely been indifferent (22:5), but others were growing more and more hostile (22:6). The invitation had gone out to many, but only relatively few responded. However, this “surprising” turn of events was not unexpected to God; he has his elect (cf. 11:25-30; 24:22, 24, 31). The biblical concept implied by 22:14 is that of the remnant (e.g., Isa 1:9; 10:20-22; Elliott 2000). Such a concept seems to be contrary to that of the Mishnah in m. Sanhedrin 10:1, where it says, “All Israel has a place in the world to come.”

The disastrous end of the man without a wedding garment adds a dimension not found in the previous two parables (Davies and Allison 1997:207-208). The fate of this man vividly pictures the horrific end of those who finally reject Jesus and the Kingdom, whether they appear to be righteous or not. In this respect, 22:11-13 portrays the final judgment. This man had evidently responded to the invitation to the wedding feast and had assembled in the banquet hall, but his garment showed that he did not truly belong there. His fate reminds the reader of the false prophets in 7:15-23 and of the lawless ones in 13:42. Through this part of the parable, Jesus warned his disciples that their troubles will not come merely from outside opponents. They cannot become complacent and assume a notion of divine approval that overrides the necessity of obedience to all that Jesus had commanded. Later, the betrayal of Jesus will make this point crystal clear—Judas Iscariot is another who was called but not chosen. The future will bring many troubles to the disciples from the outside, but they must also beware of defectors within the church. Only those who endure to the end will be saved (24:10-13).