Matthew 22:1 – Jesus also told them other parables. He said, 2 “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. 3 When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!
4 “So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ 5 But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. 6 Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them.
7 “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. 8 And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. 9 Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ 10 So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. 13 Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” (NLT)
In today’s passage we have the parable of the great feast. In rabbinic teaching, God is often compared to a king, and clearly God is represented by the king in this parable. Notice that the king/God has prepared a great wedding feast for his son. We might want to note that in Revelation 19:7, the Church is referred to as the bride of Christ: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself”.
So, here we have a king/God preparing a wedding banquet for his son/Jesus. And the Church is the bride of the king’s/God’s son. The king/God first invited those who appeared to be the obvious guests, and this would have been those who were known as the people of God. Those invited, however, did not attend the wedding. They failed to attend not because they were doing anything bad. We are told that they returned to their farms and businesses. In other words, they were just busy with their lives. To reject a king’s invitation is a strong insult, but let us ask ourselves: what invitations from our king have we passed by? Do we become so busy with life that we neglect our King’s invitations?
In verse eleven, a man showed up at the banquet and was not properly dressed. Who attends a wedding reception not properly dressed? This was no wedding crasher, this man believed he had a right to be present, but he was not properly prepared to attend. Are we properly prepared? Have we gone about our lives giving the things of God our attention only when we can ‘make the time?” If so, then we most likely are not properly prepared for the things of God.
Once again, this parable is cautionary reading for those who would call themselves the people of God. Today, let us be attentive to the things of God so that we are always prepared and do not miss any invitation from our king.
Posted by Ramón Torres