Sunday Sermon - Matthew 22:1-14

Matthew 22:1-14 1And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: 2“The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, 3“and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. 4“Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.” ’ 5“But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. 6“And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. 7“But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9‘Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ 10“So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12“So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13“Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14“For many are called, but few are chosen.”

”The Kingdom of Heaven” – God’s kingdom. It is a very exclusive place, admittance to and retention in the kingdom are both on God’s terms. We will be discussing the parable of the wedding feast today and let us not forget that this was given days before the cross. In these last discourses He is going to challenge us exactly where we live. He is not interested in the debate anymore, He is only going to pronounce judgment upon them for their lack of service to God.

This parable is the third in a series of judgment parables that Jesus is giving the priests and Pharisees:

Matthew 21:28-32 Judgment because of disobedience.
Matthew 21:33-44 Judgment because of rebellion
Matthew 22:1-14 Judgment because of rejection

It is also unique in the three because it starts of with “The kingdom of heaven is like…”, there is no question as to what Jesus is talking about. He is about to tell us what kind of people make up His kingdom. It is also unique in the fact that it ends without a “what do you think?” statement. The point of the parable is clear, God’s kingdom is full of people who recognize His lordship and those who reject His lordship will be judged.

The parable starts off with a description of a wedding feast for the king’s son. In this time a normal wedding feast would last a week. How much grander would the party for the king’s son be do you think? What kind of food where there be? The best you can imagine… What kind of entertainment would there be? The best you can imagine… Who would be there? The elite of the elite; foreign dignitaries, heads of state, any matter of celebrity you can imagine. This is a once in a lifetime event that would take pages to describe in its opulence and grandeur.

The description of the feast is followed by an unbelievable statement in vs. 3 – “they were not willing to come”. You’re kidding right? Who would not be willing to go to a party thrown by a king? Let’s look at the rejection from two points of view. From a plainly carnal perspective, who would turn down this kind of invite? A week long party with the best that the kingdom has to offer at no cost and people were “unwilling to come”. The mind reels. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sample royalty and no-one in their right mind would turn this down. From a practical perspective, who would turn down an invitation from the king? The concept of royalty is lost to us today but typically a king is not used to being told “no” from his subjects. To do so is an act of contempt for the king, especially in light of him wanting to include you in such an event as the marriage of his son. This rejection by his servants is an act that should bring judgment.

The king in our parable is a very patient and gracious man however. He sends his servants out again in vs. 4 with another invite. He is in essence saying, “Everything is ready, the only thing missing is you. The food has been prepared. The banquet hall is decorated and the band is tuned up. All I’m missing is my subjects that I love and want to include in this celebration”. How patient is the Father in His dealings with us? Let’s look at 2 Peter 3:

But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

God is extremely patient with His creation. His will is that we all come to repentance. I don’t know if this is good theology or not but I’m convinced that God is heartbroken over every sinner that goes to Hell. It is a place of torment created for Satan and his angels and never a place intended for man. We cannot be with God because of our sin and Hell is where we go because of our rebellion against God. How far did man fall in the garden? He fell to his death and it is only by Christ’s work on the cross that man can have life again. God is patient with His creation because He wants to redeem man to Himself.

But the patience of the king will only go so far. In our parable there is yet another unbelievable response from two different sets of people. It tells us of the first set that they “made light of it and went their ways”. They simply had better things to do than to go to a party the king has thrown. Is that still true today? Are we too busy with our own interests to be bothered with God? I’m only 40 years old and I remember a day when you couldn’t do anything on Sunday except go to church. If you wanted a soda, you had better have some in your icebox. If you wanted a meal you had better have food to prepare. I’m not talking about simply “honoring the Sabbath”, I’m just using this as a point to demonstrate that we as a society have become too busy for God, too wrapped up in our own desires to recognize His call on our lives. Look with me at Luke 17 for a second:

For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

These verses deal with Christ coming back in judgment. We could look at both the examples of Sodom and the world before the Flood and rightfully discuss about how they deserved judgment for their sins. I feel the bigger point of these verses is the actions of the people as described by Christ. They were living their lives, going about their every day business without honoring God. Both of these people were surprised when things started falling from the sky. They had been judged by God and found wanting.

If the first group’s response is unbelievable because of its selfishness then the second group’s response is unbelievable because it is deplorable, “treated them spitefully, and killed them”. This second group is so upset that the king expects them to attend the banquet that they kill the servants. Does that truth still apply today? I may be biased in my view but it seems as if the only religion you can’t be is Christianity. We are constantly attacked and abused. We have it pretty good in America as far as persecution goes but as I type this there are brothers dying for the gospel in other places in the world. (If you don’t believe me check out “The Voice of the Martyrs” website at www.persecution.com). Jesus is addressing His own people in this parable but the truth applies to all inhabitants of the world. I think you can lump people into one of these two categories; those that are too busy for God and those who hate Him.

We finally come to something that makes sense in this parable in vs 7. The king’s patience is at end and he sends his armies out and destroys those who were invited to the party for their rejection of him. Jesus warns His people that they can no longer rely on their status as God’s chosen people. Judgment is coming to them because of their rejection of Jesus. For a season Israel has been set aside as God’s chosen people and when Jerusalem fell in AD70 it fell hard. Look at Flavious Josephus said of the destruction of the temple in Jewish War:

That building, however, God long ago had sentenced to the flames; but now in the revolution of the time periods the fateful day had arrived, the tenth of the month Lous, the very day on which previously it had been burned by the king of Babylon…One of the soldiers, neither awaiting orders nor filled with horror of so dread an undertaking, but moved by some supernatural impulse, snatched a brand from the blazing timber and, hoisted up by one of his fellow soldiers, flung the fiery missile through a golden window…When the flame arose, a scream, as poignant as the tragedy, went up from the Jews…now that the object before they had guarded so closely was going to ruin…While the sanctuary was burning,…neither pity for age nor respect for rank was shown; on the contrary, children and old people, laity and priests alike were massacred…The emperor ordered the entire city and sanctuary to be razed to the ground, except only the highest towers, Phasael, Hippicus, and Mariamne, and that part of the wall that enclosed the city on the west.

Let us take no pleasure in the fall of Israel. I wonder sometimes if the church today hasn’t become too much like them in our service to God. Complacent in our service too Him and expecting the world to treat us special because we are God’s children. Have we too lost our first love? Have we forgotten Jesus and His call to us to spread the gospel message? I digress however and that topic will have to be a post for another day.

Let’s look again at the king and his gracious call in vs. 8-10. It was the king’s will that a feast in honor of his son happen and his will has not changed. He sends his servants out with a command of “as many as you find, invite to the wedding” because the previous guest list was “not worthy”.

Some time should probably be spent about that “not worthy” statement. Was there anything special about the people on the guest list? Not that the parable alludes to. Was there anything special about Israel and God’s choice of them? Not according to Scripture. Look at Ezekiel 16:

As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ “I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful…

When God chose Israel they were akin to a just born baby left in a field to die, unloved and unwanted. It was God Himself who grew them into a mighty nation and made them beautiful. There was nothing special about them except for the fact that God chose them. They were found to be “not worthy” because of their rejection of Him and nothing more.

The guest that replaced the original list also have nothing to brag about. The servants were sent out with a command to grab anybody, in our parable they brought in both the “bad and good”. None were excluded from the invite. There is a lesson to be learned for us today there as well. We are not to discriminate in our sharing God’s message of peace. We are all sinners saved by grace and we should not forget that. Look at 1 Corinthians 6:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Paul reminds us that none of us were perfect before we came to Jesus. The focal point however is “And such were some of you”. The only thing common about the background of Christians is the fact that we have all repented of our sins and turned toward Christ. We walk with Him living in His strength and power.

We see one final demonstration of the king’s patience and compassion in vs. 12. To be quite honest, I’ve never really understood this portion of the parable until I read John MacArthur’s commentary on Matthew. He contends that the king must have provided wedding garments for all who attended. That thought seems to track in my book. Follow with me for a second…

The servants were given a command to grab anyone they could find and invite to the wedding. What would the chances be that these people would have garments fit to attend a royal gala? Slim to none. The king himself must have made provision for those he invited to also be covered with clothes that he himself would have found acceptable.

That also tracks with the Father, doesn’t it? He is too holy to look upon us because of our sin which makes the cross even that much more beautiful. When God looks upon us now He sees us clothed in Christ’s righteousness and not our own filthy rags of sin. He sins His own perfection reflected back at Himself. What a wonderful thing the cross is! It hides all of our imperfections and makes us beautiful before the Father! No wonder this man in the parable stuck out like a sore thumb. He decided to come to the party on his own terms and in his own way. He presumed too much upon the king.

Look at the king’s response in vs. 13. He has him bound and tossed into the “outer darkness”. God will not be mocked. We serve Him on His terms and never our own. Let us not presume to come to the Father with our own righteousness, let us instead rest upon Christ’s work on the cross and God’s amazing grace. One of the scariest passages for me as a young Christian was Matthew 7. Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” enters the kingdom, only those that Jesus actually knows on a personal level. It is not enough to simply be “in church” doing “good things”. The church is made up of redeemed people who fully rely upon Christ for everything.

We’ll close today with vs 14, “For many are called but few are chosen”. We talked earlier about God’s patience and the idea that God is patient with His creation so that He can redeem mankind to Himself. We also talked about the idea of being part of the kingdom of God. All have a call upon their lives to repent from their sins and enter into God’s glory but the sad truth is that only a few actually make that decision. Look at the questions and answers below and then I’ll close.

What is the way into the kingdom of heaven?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Why has this way been made available?
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

How do we come to the kingdom?
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

The banquet has been prepared and you have been invited to attend. God Himself has done all the work. He has made a call upon your life. He has provided a way for you to be in His presence through the work of His Son, Jesus. He has provided you grace and mercy when you did not deserve it. He asks you to respond to Him in faith and if you are willing He also gives you the very faith you need to respond.

Everything is ready and waiting in the kingdom of heaven. The only thing missing is you…

Grace and Peace to you all.