NOTES for Mat 22:1-14
1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, |
2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, |
3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. |
4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. |
5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: |
6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. |
7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. |
8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. |
9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. |
10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. |
11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: |
12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. |
13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. |
14 For many are called, but few are chosen. |
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After the Lord told the people the parable of those invited to the wedding feast, the Pharisees, as Matthew the Evangelist writes, went and plotted how to trap Him in His words. So it was after this parable that the Pharisees' patience ran out, and they began looking for a respectable pretext for doing away with Jesus. Why? What is there in this parable that annoyed the Pharisees so much? We can answer that question if we apply the parable to ourselves. The parable needs no special explanation, at least not for religious Israelites, including the Pharisees. The king and the royal feast are familiar images of the Kingdom of Heaven and reward. Those invited to the feast are the ones whom the king could not fail to invite. They are his military commanders, governors, chief priests, cupbearers, landowners: the whole elite of the kingdom. It is clear that the Pharisees considered themselves and their people to be precisely that elite, since it was Israel that had been told that it was the Almighty's chosen portion, the God-bearing people.
But the Teacher from Nazareth says something impossible: not that the King did not want to invite his close associates and friends, but that they themselves did not want to come to the royal feast. They preferred their own affairs and their own pride, and they rejected the royal invitation. The Pharisees expect that in such a situation God will value their historical and personal merits and wait for them alone in the banquet hall. But Christ says that the king sends servants to bring in anyone at all, and the royal feast is filled with all kinds of riffraff, but with people ready to answer the royal call. For us this means that you can gain the favor of the Heavenly King only when you personally answer His call and go to Him, counting everything else as less important. But if you suppose that He will wait for you because you are such a good person, you may end up outside the door.
Readings for 17 May 2025
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