EPISODE 235 GOSPEL OF MATTHEW CHAPTER 22 "Come To The Wedding"

Welcome to Share the Word. We are so excited that you're joining us as Pastor Paul Nitz continues with chapter 22 of the Gospel of Matthew, focusing on one of my favorite parables with a very prophetic overtone, especially in light of it coming days before he goes to the cross. Paul? Matthew chapter 22. Come to the wedding. Weddings are such big deals for a lot of people, aren't they?

We had one in my family not too long ago, and it was a pretty big affair, although you probably never heard about it. But weddings of celebrities and important people often draw tons of attention. Then again, how about the wedding of a prince and princess? Now that's the stuff of fairy tales. I remember all the hoopla surrounding the wedding of Prince Charles of England to Lady Diana Spencer. This was in the early 1980s.

It seemed like the whole world was mesmerized by that. It was broadcast live all around the globe and was the most watched event in television history when it happened. In chapter 22, Jesus is continuing his day of teaching at the temple. The chapter division, by the way, between 21 and 22 is not a time division. He is still talking to a crowd there early in the week, the week of his arrest and crucifixion, actually, and more directly to a group of temple priests and elders who had confronted him about the things he was doing and saying. Remember, they wanted to know by whose authority he did and said the outrageous things he did those couple days.

They said, Who gave you this authority? Whose authority are you acting under? They knew Jesus was not a grad of one of their rabbinical schools, didn't have any diplomas, no recognized credentials. So these jealous and offended religious leaders vehemently objected to him even being there, presuming to teach people. Much less all that went along with it, including his scathing remarks pointed at them. Jesus didn't care what they thought, obviously.

He came back each day. It was almost like he was daring them to arrest him, intentionally provoking them. When they demanded to know by what authority he was acting and teaching, he didn't even answer that. He posed his own question back about John the Baptist, his cousin who had been recently killed, another in a long line of prophets who had been killed by the authorities in Israel. I have a question for you, Jesus said, regarding John and the things he was doing and preaching. Were they from God?

Crickets. They didn't know what to say to that question. Matthew insightfully comments in chapter 21, if they admitted that John the Baptist was from God, then they would rightfully ask, Why didn't you get on board with his message then? But if they said no, he's a pretender, a man acting on his own initiative, then people would turn on them because the murdered prophet was held in high regard by people, like those people in the temple courtyard that day. So they finally responded after a moment's consultation, We can't say for sure. My word.

I wonder if Jesus smiled at that, or some of the crowd around them chuckled at that. Anyway, that's what triggered this trilogy of parables Matthew retells: the parable of the two sons, the parable of the vineyard workers, both in chapter 21, and this doozy we're going to get into today, the parable of the wedding feast, found in the beginning of chapter 22. Listen as I read it from the Legacy Standard Version, beginning at verse 1. And Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.

Again, he sent out other slaves, saying, Tell those who have been called, 'Behold, my dinner is all prepared, my oxen and fattened livestock have all been butchered, everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.' But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized the slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged when he heard of this, and he sent armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city afire. Then he said to the slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were called were not worthy. Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find, call to the wedding feast.' And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.

In this third parable, Jesus set up a scenario everyone listening to him that afternoon could imagine: the wedding of a king's son, which then as now would be a huge affair. Such an event takes a great deal of planning, as you can imagine. Many things have to come together for such a shindig to be a success. And by the way, as we've probably discussed before, weddings in Jesus' culture were the biggest social-cultural event of anyone's lifetime, and often they lasted up to a week in that society. Because of that, the guests had to be invited well in advance so they could make arrangements to attend. In Jesus' story, the king had sent out those invitations well in advance to those he wanted to be there, and when the day to start the celebration finally approached and everything was set, he sent servants to tell his invited guests everything is now ready.

Come to the wedding feast. But no one came. When Jesus said that, no one came, his listeners must have thought, That's not real. Who would dare ignore the invitation to such a prestigious event? It would be a great honor to have been on the king's guest list. But that's what happened in Jesus' story.

The patient and gracious king, learning of that response, nevertheless decided to send his servants back out to the same invited guests and reiterate that the banquet hall was ready, the food was all prepared for the feast, everything was ready for their arrival, everything was ready but them. So come now. But those invited had one excuse and another. My business is really swamping me right now. I just can't get away to attend. Or, It's approaching harvest time at our farm and we can't get away right now.

One excuse and another. Jesus' listeners had to be thinking, That's crazy. That would never happen. Who would respond to a king's invitation that way? What a stupid story. But that wasn't even the most outrageous twist.

Some of the invited guests the king had his servants return to were so angry that they were imposed upon again, they seized his messengers and beat them and even killed them. Oh my word, his listeners had to be thinking, That's nuts. That would never happen in a million years. But Jesus kept on. The king, he said, was enraged learning about that, so he dispatched soldiers to find and kill those who had murdered his servants and to burn down the towns of those who offended him and spurned his gracious invitation. And then, the most surprising turn of events.

He sent his servants onto the streets and the highways, willy-nilly, or wherever, with instructions to invite whoever they ran into, Come be the king's special guests at the wedding for his son. Didn't even matter who they were, the king told them. That's what they did until the royal venue was packed with commoners and strangers. The wedding customs at that time, especially for an event that grand, would last several days, as I said. The invited guests would arrive, they would feast and enjoy entertainment for several days, and then the actual wedding ceremony would take place. And it was during that period, that lead-up period, Jesus continued that the king—well, let me continue quoting from Matthew.

This is verse 11 and following. But when the king came in to look over these dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding attire. And he said to him, Friend, how did you come in here without the proper wedding attire? The man was speechless. The king said to his servants, Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness, in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.

Many of you have a good sense of what this parable is about, I bet, while others are wondering, What in the world? Well, the king represents God. His son, the one to be married, is Jesus. The first invited guests, the Jewish nation. They had been called by God over and over throughout prior history, called to be God's chosen people since the days of Abraham, called out of Egypt as a nation during the time of Moses, called back to God time and time again by one prophet after another throughout unfolding Old Testament history. And now, to Jesus' own generation, they had been called by John and by Jesus himself.

And by the apostles he sent out from town to town announcing, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Just like the servants in the parable who went out saying, The time has arrived. Come to the king's dinner. The Jewish people believed that when the Messiah arrived, it would initiate a time of unparalleled blessing and favor from God on Israel. In fact, it's described in exactly this kind of wedding feast imagery in their Talmud.

You know, I realized as I was thinking about this parable, this connects to something enigmatic Jesus had said earlier, found in chapter nine. When some people asked Jesus why he and his disciples attended dinners and banquets while the disciples of John the Baptist and those of the Pharisees fasted, you know, lived a more austere lifestyle, Jesus' response was, Should the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? Interesting. Yes, Jesus was the king's son in the story, the bridegroom. The Jewish people had been called for three or four years now to come to him, to accept him, because everything was ready for the kingdom. There were a lot of things pointing to the fact that he was the Messiah.

He had done enough to prove that. But most, and especially the powerful in Israel, were just like the ignorant invited guests in the story who spurned the king's invitation. In fact, they in particular were the ones Jesus was pointing to when he said, Some became angry and killed the king's servants. Yeah, they had killed John the Baptist. They soon killed Jesus, and soon after that, they started killing the apostles. Jesus was, I bet, looking right at those religious leaders in the crowd when he said that.

Those men who had confronted him, and when he said, the king was enraged at those who murdered his servants and sent his armies to destroy them and set their city afire. That was nothing short of prophetic, because after that rejection and crucifixion of Jesus, and after their continued rejection and persecution of the early Christians that we read about in the book of Acts, God, like the king in the story, had had enough. And the emperor Vespasian dispatched armies who destroyed Jerusalem, massacred a lot of people, burned and tore down their temple in 70 A.D. That ended the Jewish nation for almost 2,000 years. They had rejected and killed their Messiah, and they had proven themselves, in Jesus' words, unworthy. And then a big unseen turn of events.

Guess who those are who were invited from here, there, and everywhere, and who came and who ended up filling the king's banquet hall? That's all of us, beginning with those who responded in faith in the first century to the apostles' preaching about Jesus, his life, his death, his resurrection. They were the servants of the king who went everywhere carrying the gospel message, and his servants are still issuing the invitation to this very day. As the apostle Paul explained in Romans chapter 11, by the Jews' rejection of Jesus, salvation has come to the Gentiles. There's so much in this one parable, isn't there? But don't miss the interesting things Jesus said about this new crowd the king had his servants round up from all over to fill the banquet hall.

He said in verse 10, those servants went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests, both evil and good. Why would Jesus say that? The rest of the story suggests the answer. Remember, the king himself joined his new dinner guests at the wedding banquet and noticed there a man who did not have on appropriate wedding attire. And the king called him out, How did you get in here dressed like that? The man was speechless.

He had no excuses. He shouldn't have been there. And the king ordered his servants, like security when a wedding crasher is spotted, Throw him out of here. When he says to the place of outer darkness, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, that's a reference to hell. He's in the future now. Jesus is telling us something about the future now.

The banquet hall and the wedding feast are a reference to the kingdom of God and ultimately heaven, and outside is hell. I love that the king's instruction in Jesus' story was not to go out and find some really good people, some clearly worthy people, some people appropriate for this kind of celebration. No, he said, Invite everyone you come across. And he even underscored, Don't worry about whether they're good or bad people. Invite everyone. And he just told the men in front of him a little earlier, The tax collectors and prostitutes will be in the kingdom of God before you.

And doesn't the New Testament continue to stress this, like Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, where after listing off every imaginable kind of sin, he writes, And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God. Yeah, that's Brittany De La Mora and all kinds of others few would expect, and that's me. And I hope that's you too. But what about that guy the king threw out, the guy Jesus described as not dressed in the proper wedding attire? That guy is representative of those who imagine they can come into the kingdom of God on their own terms, their own way. They may be religious.

They may be church members. It doesn't really matter. There are certainly people who are among us who are not really of us, as 1 John puts it. The only proper attire for those who enter the kingdom of God—make sure you understand this—the only proper attire for those who will enter the kingdom of God is the righteousness of Christ. Talking about the righteousness God credits to our account, the actual righteousness belonging to Jesus that God credits to those of us who put our faith in Him. Whether Old Testament or New, the only righteousness that will save anyone is the kind of righteousness God graciously gives us on account of faith.

None of our own righteousness will ever measure up. No one will be in God's kingdom because of their own righteousness. Isaiah 61:10 says, I will rejoice greatly in Yahweh. My soul will rejoice in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has wrapped me in a robe of righteousness. And as a New Testament key passage puts it, this is Romans 3, But now God has manifested a righteousness apart from the law, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

Looking forward to the book of Revelation, when all that Jesus is talking about at the end of this parable becomes reality, that is, when everyone who has responded to God's invitation, all true believers, will be together in heaven at the marriage supper of the Lamb, as it's called, it says we will be wrapped in robes of white linen that were washed in the blood of Christ. Don't worry if that sounds strange. We'll get to all that. I'll explain all that. We're not very far away from the book of Revelation. We'll be there shortly.

I realize someone reading these verses in Matthew 22 might be troubled by the last line, the kind of coda to the parable, where it says at verse 14, Many are called, but few are chosen. Don't be worried. The whole story is about a king who invites and invites and invites, ultimately anyone to come to the celebration, good or bad. Don't interpret the whole story by one line at the end. Interpret the one line at the end in light of the whole story. If you want in and will come in on God's terms, you will never be turned away.

God's Word promises that. The only problem in the story arises when someone comes in imagining they can do it the way they want. In other words, try to get in and participate in the celebration on their own terms. God has provided the righteousness of Christ as a free gift, and the offer is repent and believe the gospel. Turn in your heart from sin and self and embrace by faith the Savior God sent for you. That's how you're included.

But be sure you understand that's the only way into the kingdom of God. We don't decide ourselves how to get in, or force our way in, or somehow sneak in. There's no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved, the name of Jesus. The apostles preached that at the very beginning. I'm still teaching that today, and so is everyone who really believes the Bible. That's still the gospel message.

If this part bothers you, the exclusivity of Christianity, that the righteousness of Christ applied to sinners who have placed their faith in Jesus is the only way. I hope you will come to see it this way. This is how someone explained it to me, and it immediately made sense to me because this circumstance actually happened to me. If you're confronted by a doctor, they said, who tells you that you have a serious illness like, say, cancer, and he says that you really need to get on this particular drug because it's the only drug that can possibly cure you, would you respond by saying, You sound like you're giving me an ultimatum? Or would you be wise enough to understand he was offering you a great opportunity at life? Wow.

I was in that exact chair several years ago, and believe me, I heard my doctor's message as an opportunity, and I'm glad I trusted him and responded to what he said. I'm still alive. The gospel invitation is a much, much greater opportunity, an amazing opportunity not just at a few more years, but at eternal life. And it's for everyone, no matter who we are, everyone who will repent and believe the gospel. That's how you become worthy, in Jesus' words. You just sincerely respond in faith and obedience to God's invitation to come.

When you do, you will be clothed in the robes of righteousness He provides. The King Himself is still inviting friends. Everything is ready. Come to my son's wedding party. Have you responded? This is Paul for Share the Word.

Thanks, Paul. So, are you going? Are you going to the wedding? Have you responded to the invitation yet? And if you haven't, what are you waiting for? We all know someone who keeps saying they'll get to it later.

And there's no excuse because everyone has gotten the invitation. But at some point, it's going to be too late. And like Pastor Paul said, this is an opportunity. It's an opportunity at life, everlasting life. We're all here and ready to talk about this and anything else you would like. Email us at info at sharetheword.org.

Until next time.