Recapitulation
It was Jesus’ final week of ministry before His death. It began with an enthusiastic parade which
soon fizzled into apathy and rejection when the people realized he didn’t fit
their expectations. By Tuesday, the
temple authorities were itching for an excuse to arrest the man who had upset
their commercial interests and usurped their authority. We have already examined their initial
challenge to Him and have already looked at two of the three parables Jesus
used to answer them.
In the first parable, The Tale of Two Sons, the leaders
were compared to the son who initially agreed to work for his father but, in
the end, did not do it while the prostitutes and the tax collectors who
repented at the preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus were compared to the
son who initially refused to work but changed his mind and eventually obeyed.
In the second parable, The Parable of the Unjust Sharecroppers,
these same leaders were compared to the murderous tenants who reneged on the
terms of their lease and killed the owner’s son. There was also a bonus from Psalm 118 in which
Jesus compared Himself to the rejected stone that eventually became the
marvelous temple capstone.
The Parable of the Perfidious Party Poopers
Now, we will examine the third parable, The Parable of the Perfidious
Party Poopers (and the Rejection of the Messiah). All three of these parables highlight the
awful mistake the nation of Israel was making.
God’s own covenant people had been granted a glorious place in the
history of the redemption of the world and yet they did not live up to that
hope. It wasn’t God’s fault. He had given them mercy and grace and plenty
of time and yet generation after generation of Israelites had, by and large, failed
to heed the pleading of God. Some
precious few had repented but most had acted like the unjust sharecroppers who
killed the prophets whom the Lord had sent.
First Twist
Now in Matthew
22:1-14 we have the tale of a king who gave a great banquet for his
son. Matthew calls it a marriage
banquet—a royal wedding. I recall the
great fanfare that accompanied the wedding of Charles and Diana many years ago
now. Everybody that was anybody was
there. All the newspapers and news media
were filled with reports on what everyone was wearing. It was termed a “fairy-tale wedding.” More recently, the wedding of William and
Kate was all about the splendour and the extravagance. In like manner, this parable is focusing on
the splendor of the wedding feast and the shock that the invitations were all
ignored. Verse 5 says, “they paid no
attention.” It was literally business as
usual for the invited guests. Jesus’
hearers would have been shocked.
Jerusalem loved their feasts.
They had three big ones every year which included international travel
for many pilgrims.
Apathetic Response
Instead of going to the feast of all feasts what did they
do? One went to his farm and another to
his business. They went to work instead
of taking the day off! What should have
been a time of vacation and partying was just another day of toil. It’s as if the king did not even exist!
Angry Response
Some of those invited weren’t wrapped up in apathy but were
actively insulting and terrorizing the king’s servants who were handing out
invitations. Not satisfied with teasing
and insults, they even killed some of the king’s servants!
The result is quite predictable. The people listening to Jesus had already
suggested in The Parable of the Unjust Sharecroppers that the owner would
execute vengeance on the murderous tenants who had killed the owner’s
servants. So, it is no surprise to Jesus’
listeners that the king would do just that in this parable. The king executed justice against the city
that had killed his servants. He “burned
their city.” (By the way, in 40 years,
Jerusalem would be burned to the ground!)
So, since his invitations were largely ignored, the king
decided to widen the invitation to whoever they found out on the
highway—because those who had ignored his invitation “were not worthy.” His servants brought in lots of people —
“both bad and good.” “The wedding hall was
filled.” (This is much like the parables of The Dragnet or The
Wheat and the Weeds.)
Second Twist
Now, there is a surprising twist to the story. The king goes into the hall to examine the
guests. He found one who had “no wedding
garment.” Apparently, like any royal
affair, the apparel had been specified.
And as the king examined his guests, he was displeased to see someone
without the specified clothing. “How did
you get in here without a wedding garment?”
And the guest had no reply. He
was ordered to be thrown into “outer darkness” where there is “weeping and
gnashing of teeth.”
Jesus adds a final summary statement: “For many are called
but few are chosen.”
The Fruitless Invitees are Apathetic or Rebellious
Once again Jesus is obviously talking about the Jewish
leaders but also about the nation. Like the
fig tree that He cursed earlier in the week for being fruitless, like the
leaders he had just pronounced fruitless in the Parable of the Unjust
Sharecroppers and told them their place in the kingdom would be given to others
who produced fruit, so now He points out that not only are they fruitless but
they are either ignoring God or actively rebelling against Him and so the
kingdom is opening to all who will meet God’s criteria.
The Kingdom Criterion
In the
parable, the criterion is a wedding garment.
This cannot refer to our good works— at least not directly. We cannot earn our entrance into the kingdom
of God. We are all invited and Jesus says, “Many are called.” But remember, Ephesians 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5 say
salvation is “not of works.” There are many
who are attracted to the call of God.
They are
attracted to the kingdom—to the feast—but not to the King. It’s a “come as you are” invitation but to be
chosen to enter the kingdom requires a “wedding garment.”
In the first
book of the Bible, Adam and Eve tried to provide themselves a covering for the
shame of their sin before God—a covering of fig leaves. (It is interesting that Jesus has just cursed
a fig tree for its fake fruitfulness. It
has leaves but no fruit.) But God had to
provide them an acceptable covering of the skins of innocent animals. In the last book of the Bible, those who
enter heaven wear “white robes” washed in the blood of the Lamb of God. Yes, the blood of the innocent King’s Son made
them worthy to enter.
Knowing Jesus
Some come to
the party but never embrace Jesus as their Savior. Earlier in Matthew 7, Jesus spoke of some who
will be shocked to find they will not enter the kingdom of God despite all the
nice things they had done—in Jesus name!
He will say to some on that day, “Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you.” The key, then, is “Do you know Jesus?”
The Extended Call of the Jilted Messiah
For the
Jewish nation, their jilted Messiah is extending His call to the world. Many are called but even so, few will be
chosen to enter. The call to eternal
life requires but one thing in order to be chosen. This is why Jesus is called the Way, the
Door, and the Life. There is no other
name under heaven by which we must be saved.
© 2018 Eric
Thimell
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