Nov 12, Parable of the Marriage of the King's Son

Nov 12, Parable of the Marriage of the King’s Son, Matthew 22:1-14

As Jesus’ time on earth became increasingly short, much of His teaching revolved around His passion (suffering, death, and resurrection) and the way of salvation for the Gentiles and the Jews. The Old Testament seemed to present the plan that the Jews would be saved and through their testimony, the entire world would be reached with the message of the Kingdom. However, Jesus repeated taught the disciples that the scriptures (in this case they only had the Old Testament scriptures) predicted that the Messiah would be rejected, suffer, and die. This was God’s “Plan A” all along. Something had to be done about the sin problem. We could not cleanse ourselves from sin. The Jewish servitude to sin was vastly more important to deal with than to the Romans.

In these last four parables, Laborers in Vineyard, Two Sons, Wicked Husbandman, and the Marriage of the King’s Son, we see a similar theme of the first being last and the last first. Those originally called were rejected and those originally not called become the chosen. God’s plan was to bring the Messiah to earth in fulfillment of His covenant with the Jewish people, but through their rejection, to offer the Good News of the Kingdom to the Gentiles. Most of us believe that in the end, the Jewish people will recognize Jesus Christ as their Messiah even if this only occurs at His second coming.

Let me comment on one particular passage from the Parable of the Marriage of the King’s Son: After “anyone” was invited to the banquet, they gathered both bad and good to the fill the wedding hall (verse 9-10). Verses 11-14 describe a puzzling occurrence. One guest did not have wedding clothes. He was bound and thrown outside into the eternal punishment described by “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” If he was known to be bad but was invited anyway, why was he thrown out and condemned?

Jesus Christ came and paid the price for our sins. Both the good and the bad have sinned. Jesus will clothe all who call upon Him with a robe of righteousness. Remember the parables of the Dragnet and the Wheat and Tares. In the Kingdom of God, there is a mixture of believers and imposters. Those who have not been washed in the blood of Christ and clothed with His righteousness will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. They were invited. I think this supports the Arminian position that all can be saved, and salvation is available to everyone. Only those who respond to God’s offer of salvation and trust Christ as Savior and Lord will be saved. The few chosen refers to those who are truly converted.

¹ Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ² “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴ “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.’

⁵ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”—Matthew 22:1-14