“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The Ritual of a festive wedding reception exists in virtually every culture in the world with its origins apparently going back to the dawn of history. It has been said that Adam and Eve and their immediate children are probably the only couples who did not have to put up with their respective in-laws at their wedding reception!
A great occasion
The wedding feast was, and is, ingrained in Jewish culture. It was, and is, both a solemn religious occasion and also a time for much rejoicing with singing, drinking and dancing.
The very first miracle performed by our Lord Jesus Christ was at a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee (Jn. 2:1). It is also evident that the figure of great rejoicing at a wedding feast is intimately connected with the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. “And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9).
Hence the figures used in this parable of the wedding feast of the King for his son were familiar to the Jews in the first century. Moreover, since the idea of a festive meal to celebrate the union of a new couple transcends almost all cultures throughout history, this parable relates directly to brothers and sisters regardless of time or place, and has especially important lessons to teach us today. Finally, the connection with the metaphors used in Revelation 19 make it evident that this parable has a deep spiritual significance that will have its ultimate fulfillment at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This parable is yet another in the series explaining what “The kingdom of heaven is like” (Matt.22:2), and once again we are told nothing about the physical details of the kingdom. Instead, the emphasis is on the character that we need to develop to be part of that kingdom.
Selective invitations
A certain king is about to give his son in marriage and sends out his servants to announce to those who “were bidden” to prepare themselves and come to the wedding reception. The implication is that not all of the king’s subjects were summoned. Some very specific guests were singled out and invited to this feast, but they had not been told the exact time the reception would begin.
When the time arrived, his servants were instructed to fetch the special guests, but they would not come. In fact, they were so immersed in the affairs of this world they resented the intrusion into their lives and treated the servants horribly. The Lord God of Israel had chosen the children of Israel from among all peoples of the earth to come to the wedding reception He planned for His son (Deut. 7:7,8). But when the fullness of time had come and the groom, our Lord Jesus Christ, was revealed, they were not prepared to attend the reception.
A Jewish parable
There are several parables about wedding feasts in Jewish tradition. There is a particularly relevant Jewish parable attributed to Rabbi Ben Zakkai who lived in the first century of our era. In his parable, “a king is represented as inviting to a feast, without, however, fixing the exact time for it. The wise adorn themselves in time, and are seated at the door of the palace, so as to be in readiness, since, as they argue, no elaborate preparation for a feast can be needed in a palace; while the foolish go away to their work, arguing there must be time enough, since there can be no feast without preparation.” (The Midrash has it that the foolish went about their daily business as before.) “But suddenly comes the king’s summons to the feast, when the wise appear festively adorned, and the king rejoices over them, and they are made to sit down, eat and drink; while he is wroth with the foolish, who appear squalid, and are ordered to stand by and look on in anguish, hunger and thirst.” 1
A common lesson of preparedness
The parables of Ben Zakkai and of our Lord Jesus Christ appear to be very similar and to have almost identical messages. That message is one of preparedness. We have been bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb and we have not been given the exact time for the beginning of the wedding ceremony and subsequent festivities, but we have been told to prepare ourselves accordingly, for he will come “as a thief in the night” (I Thess. 5:2). We have been invited to partake of heavenly things. We cannot spurn this calling with impunity; if we do there waits a fearful day of judgment (I Pet. 4:17).
Unpreparedness a disaster
“But they made light of it” having rejected the “Son” they went about their daily business. In retaliation the king sent his armies (v. 7) to destroy them and burn their city.
This seventh verse can also be regarded as a prophecy. Our Lord was giving them a distinct warning so they would know what would happen to them as a result of their refusal. The Lord sent his armies in 70 AD; led by the Roman general Titus, Jerusalem was destroyed and the inhabitants slaughtered. This was the beginning of the end for the Jews in the land of Palestine and it would be almost 2,000 years before they would once again administer within its precincts.
The king will have guests
The next section of the parable appears to have no analog in the ancient Jewish writings. God has prepared a wedding feast; the “prime directive” is that He intends to fill the earth with His glory (Num. 14:21). The failure of Israel as a nation would not, could not, detract Him from that purpose. So He turned to others. “Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage” (Matt. 22:9).
This was intended to be a more indiscriminate process. By this calling, the Gentiles were given, in effect, an engraved invitation to the wedding supper of our Lord (Isa. 62:2; Isa. 60:3; Acts 17:30).
Earlier God prepared a special nation for His purpose (Amos 3:2), but they first rejected that calling by lusting after other gods and finally, when they put that behind them, they developed a tremendous arrogance about their peculiar status. Now God broadened the call to the “highways,” i.e. those who previously may only have passed through His land but had no part in it.
They must have proper clothing
This calling finds both “bad and good” men and women out on the highway of life. It is important, however, to realize the facts of their previous state could not be used as an excuse to come to the wedding feast unadorned. Unfortunately some show up to the wedding not fitly dressed. This was totally unacceptable! Once they had accepted the calling they were expected to show up at the wedding feast properly attired, out of respect for the king and also for the bride and groom.
It should be the same when we show up for the memorial supper of our Lord. We come on a Sunday morning to eat and drink with him; “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20).
The proper adornment is not only one of dress, though it is that, too, but especially one of the spirit. How sad it is to see an ecclesia where all dress neatly for meeting, but on arrival at their hall give others a figurative dressing down!
Jewish emphasis on external purity, not action
There is a parable in the writings of the rabbis that describes the proper preparation for wedding garments. In the Jewish story, there is a king who commits to his servants the royal robes. “The wise among them carefully laid them by while the foolish put them on when they did their work. After a time the king asked back the robes, when the wise could restore them clean, while the foolish had them soiled. Then the king rejoiced over the wise, and, while the robes were laid up in the treasury, they were bidden go home in peace. But to the foolish he commanded that the robes should be handed over to the fuller, and that they themselves should be cast into prison.”2
The emphasis in the Jewish parable is on preserving the purity of the garments by essentially not using them. This approach is quite contrary to the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Other parables, such as the parable of the pounds, address this issue of no activity (Luke 19:12-27). The Lord does not expect us to bury the treasures He has given us. It is this attitude of expecting to live without sinning that permeated the thinking of the Pharisees, and the same rationalization has led to monasticism in some religions.
This quest for perfect obedience — to keep one’s garments perfectly pure — seems laudable, but not when it is combined with a doctrine that teaches “only perfect obedience” will give one a place in the kingdom of God. What one might call the “perfect obedience” doctrine pushes a commendable idea to an extreme and in so doing casts out the work of “forgiveness,” for which cause our Lord died on the cross for us “sinners.”
These ideas, fostered by the Pharisees, required them to purge from their community all who were, in their view, impure. It was exactly on a charge of blasphemy that they sought to condemn our Lord Jesus Christ. Such excesses can occasionally happen in our ecclesial life when we forget the ecclesia is a hospital for sick people (whose illness comes from the virus “sin”). The ecclesia is the place for us to heal each other (Matt. 9:12, Mark 2:17). How careful we must be about whom we exclude on the charge of “sinner.” Let “him that is without sin” among us cast the first stone (John 8:7).
Being prepared
Let us return to those who were bidden from the highways, heeded the call and showed up at the wedding feast, unprepared. The king examined each of his newly invited guests and each was individually responsible for his own garments. No garment would be lent at the door to those unprepared, which definitely destroys the idea that somehow one can enter the kingdom of God by some action after our demise. “Life is the time to serve the Lord.”
Being called is one thing, but rightly responding to that calling is an entirely different matter. In the metaphor of the parable, accepting the invitation to the wedding reception and choosing to put on proper attire for the festivities are two very separate and equally important actions. It is not as simple as some would make it, nor is it as impossible as others would have it.
Televangelists would have us believe all we have to do is utter a few words acknowledging Jesus as our personal savior and nothing else matters. Others would put us on a mountaintop cloister, living in an isolated world far removed from reality. The course of action for the true believer is neither.
What must we do then? Our Father in heaven has called us from the highways of life, either by circumstances of birth or by hearing the word from others. We must respond to that call and prepare ourselves properly for the wedding supper of the Lamb of God. First, by doing what any reasonable person would do prior to dressing for an important occasion: namely, we must cleanse ourselves by bathing away our sins in the waters of baptism and then by putting on clean garments of righteousness. Second, we must do our best to keep the garments unspotted from the world until the day comes when the door to the wedding reception opens.
As we accumulate spots and stains in the interim, until he come, then we must wash them out thoroughly with the detergent of forgiveness, keeping the wedding garment on, for we know not what day or hour our Lord will come.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One