Matthew 22:1-10 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. So 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, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.”
In the above parable Jesus talks about the Jewish community and their elite who were chosen to lead the people to God, but they failed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. They filled their lives with rituals and daily tasks, so they were not interested in attending the wedding of the son. The son did not mean that much to them even though the son was very dear to the king. He would be the next heir, so the king was placing all of his interest, desires, and love into his son. He wanted his son to be respected by all the people he chose to be at the wedding banquet. But the chosen were not in tune with the king’s will. Their own activities and will were more important than the king’s desires. The paths in their lives because of their own activities and interests were more important that the king’s will; they were hardened to the king’s authority and went their own way. Their hearts were so hardened by their own desires and routines that they did not take heed to the king’s request. In the parable of the seeds, they are the hardened ground where the seed cannot penetrate the beaten down soil. Jesus told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. (Matthew 13:2-4) Some seed lay so long, so persistent on the beaten path that the birds came and devoured the seed. In the above parable, we see the birds as people who resented the intrusion of the call to the banquet, so they “seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.” They were as the evil farmers who desired to seize the land for their own by killing the farmer’s son. As Jesus ministered to the people, He realized that the leaders of the Jewish community were not ready to open their lives to his work as the Messiah. They cared more for their own way of life than to attend to Jesus’ call for repentance and to accept his ministry as from God. As in the above parable, “They paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business.” They wanted to be left alone, to carry out their daily routines and activities as if they had not been invited to the feast. Because of their unwillingness to accept God’s call on their lives, the king turns to others who were not chosen to attend the banquet. “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ The invitation went out to the bad as well as the good. This time the invitations land on good soil, soil that was willing to heed the call to the banquet. Jesus was criticized by the chosen for eating with people of ill repute, but He knew this was good ground for his message of Good News. They would receive thankfully the message to attend the banquet; heaven’s door would be opened to them. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:15-17) Jesus understood who would answer his call, and He went to them; He ate with them.
Those who were righteous in their perspective were in need of nothing. Life’s design was perfect for them. Their religious activity, their routines in life, elevated them above anything Jesus’ words would provide for them in their daily lives. They did not need his words, the Messiah’s words; they were already receiving great benefits in this life. The Jewish elites held important positions of power in society. They received adulation wherever they ventured. And because of their leadership roles, they accrued wealth and power. For them, what else does anyone want out of this life? Attending the king’s banquet in the parable would not have provided the chosen anything more in life than what they already had. However, what their refusal to attend reveals clearly about them is their lack of love for the king. This deficit of love for the king (God) is exposed clearly by Jesus’ many parables about the Jewish leadership. The leaders were content with their religious lives and their many activities—real affection for God was not in their souls. They had no love for the king. His authority over them was not appreciated. Because of their lack of devotion to the king, they snubbed his invitation to the marriage feast. If they had loved the king, or God as Jesus is focusing on, they would have dropped everything to celebrate the Son’s marriage. However, in reality their lack of love for God and his Son would lead them to killing Jesus. Their rebellion to God’s authority, as it was in Adam and Eve, would lead them to the heinous act of killing the Son. The cross reveals the hatred of mankind towards God. Even though Jesus healed many and did nothing but good, the chosen, mankind itself, put him on a cross, hoping to get rid of him forever, and by that remove God’s authority over them. Jesus, the Messiah, was rejected by the leaders of the community of man. This leadership had already rejected John the Baptist’s message of repentance; now they were putting to death on the cross the only path of redemption. They felt they had need of nothing; their existence was good enough for them. Their hearts were hardened to the call of Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” (Matthew 21:31-32) The good soil with deep roots growing in it was for those who knew they were not pleasing to a righteous, perfect God. They pleaded with God for forgiveness, and they found a way to God’s household through faith in Jesus Christ’s and his works. Jesus fulfilled what God demanded of people: complete righteousness. The banquet would be attended by people from the side of the road, not the chosen. They would attend in garments of righteousness, celebrating with God the marriage feast. Those who hear and accept the invitation of God are saved by faith in Christ’s work at the cross.
The good and bad were called, indicating God loves everyone. The people of the law and the people who did not know the law were invited. Obeying the law reflects goodness; following self-will reflects badness. The banquet was opened to all after the chosen turned down the invitation. Their unwillingness to love the king beyond their own love for self caused the kingdom to be opened to all people. This plan of God from the beginning of time, allowing all people and all of creation to come under the shackles of sin was for the purpose of making children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. The elite who were chosen to know the face of God through the revelation of the law failed to fall in love with the God of creation. And those who never knew the law or the face of God through the law were born as natural enemies to God. All of mankind, along with creation itself, lived under the burden of sin. Jesus came as the Good News announcing freedom from sin. The burden of sin could be rolled away in the hearts of men and in creation itself. The lamb would lie down with the lion. Man could find absolute freedom in God’s grace, given through Jesus Christ, without one fault, bringing humankind perfect before the Creator of all things. The robe of righteousness would hang from men and women’s frames, Christ’s robe of righteousness. Those willing to heed the invitation would attend in these robes. Salvation would be written on their invitations. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 8:12-13) We who are reading this breakfast have this invitation in our lives. Written on it scrolled by love, Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. (Matthew 25:34) We are most blessed, for God’s intentions for us have always been that we would be with him in an intimate relationship, known as his children. All angels and principalities will know this too. “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.” Yes, the banquet is open now, attend dear friends with joy, with the appropriate garment, the robe of righteousness washed in the blood of Jesus Christ.
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