Matthew Chapter 22
This begins right after the parable of the tenants, which had angered the chief priests and other elite greatly. They dearly wanted to arrest and kill Jesus, but the crowds provided too many witnesses.
This chapter opens with the parable of the wedding feast. The feast in the parable is prepared by a king, and is a celebration of the wedding of the king's son. I had not seen that before. When the feast is ready, the king sends servants to invite the guests for whom it was prepared. They not only refuse to come but they abuse and even kill some of the servants sent to invite them. This is appalling. Then there is this verse, which again, I had never seen:
7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. [Mat 22:7 ESV] This is surely a reference to God's wrath against Israel, active at this time, punishing them with the double punishment, blinding them to their own Messiah, dispensing justice for the breaking of the Sinai Covenant. Surely a line like this must have an important meaning and is not one of those "don't read too much into it things". The MSB note on 7 says it anticipated 70 AD. Indeed it does, but MSB does not mention that this is the culmination of God's double punishment of Israel.
9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. [Mat 22:9-10 ESV]
The invitation to the kingdom is generalized, broadened. ALL are now invited. Good AND bad. So we shouldn't be surprised about who we run into at church. They may be just as surprised to see us there!
There is an attendee at this feast, though, who did not dress for it. He was undeserving, yet invited, and though he joins the celebrants, he is not really committed to the cause. He won't even trouble himself to dress for the occasion. Though all are invited, all are still obligated to the king that invited them. He is still the king, and attending his party while disrespecting him lands you in a very bad place - as bad as those who rejected to start with. We owe our invitations to those who rejected the first invitation. If not for their arrogance, we would all be standing around outside staring at the light coming through the windows. But if the door is opened for us, we better be dressed for the occasion!
2020 - 14 For many are called, but few are chosen." [Mat 22:14 ESV] This is how the parable of the wedding feast ends, after the one who attended but did not dress for it is thrown out. I think the verse means that many hear the gospel, but only the elect can respond to it. Perhaps the poorly dressed guest is there to let us - Gentiles - know that since we are "substitute" guests, if we reject the gospel, our punishment will be greater. If your child disobeys he is still your child. If your neighbor's children come over and get belligerent, you will have no patience at all, throw them out, and never let them come over again. This poor guest at the feast represents so very many in the world today, who spurn the gospel, the Bible, that Jesus was virgin born, that his miracles were real. How many Gentiles will have a hotter place in hell because they had no appreciation of the kind of grace it took to offer them a place in heaven with the children of God?
2021 - Frankly, I am still not clear about who this poorly dressed wedding guest represents. How was he in the celebration hall? How did he get in there if he was not sincere? Reading the MSB notes on this didn't really help all that much. MSB says this guest "seems to represent" those who adopt the trappings of church membership and salvation but don't really believe. Despite the offer of the gospel, they still prefer to depend on themselves and their own accomplishments to save them. They won't accept the gift offered, though they accept the invitation to attend the wedding. There is arrogance in this. There is self-reliance in this. This is non-participation in the wedding. I had thought of this also - that he only seems to be a guest. But he is in the hall....He got in through the door. And it seems that if he was a "false guest", he would have worn the nice clothes so as to appear to be a proper guest, and keep his reservations to himself. But this guest is "showing off" his reservations, his disbelief to all the other guests. He is creating a scene with his overt refusal to be a part of the celebration. He is a detractor stealing the joy of participation from those who did readily and sincerely embrace their invitations. The king burned the city of those who killed his servants...70 AD is in view. AFTER 70 AD, these other guests are invited. Maybe this is not about salvation at all, but about the nation of Israel being replaced by the church as the vehicle of God's plan? Back to what MSB said, perhaps this guest represents the false teachers that will infiltrate the church - not salvation, but the body of the church - on their own terms and try to steal away the joy of the Gentile converts. I think this might be closer to what is in view here. The false teachers are an infection, but they are not the majority. They are "one" guest, not a crowd of detractors. This parable is about the reason for the Age of the Gentiles, and this guest represents the other side of the battle that will continue between the world and the spirit. (((When enough individual Jews reject the covenant represented by the city, then the whole city gets burned down - with everyone who was in it, not just those who killed the servants. That whole institution as represented by the city is burned down. And a wholly new guest list is created, from among other cities and peoples and times. And instead of staying in their cities, they all gather in the hall - which represents the church. This is not about the individuals, this is about the city and the hall.)))
2022 - I have not reread the text yet, but I reread my notes. At this point, I think I was more on target about the poorly dressed guest in 2020. He was lucky to get an invitation at all. Rather than feel honored and very lucky indeed to be invited to a wedding reserved for others, and rather than be fearful of disrespecting the King because of what the King had done to the invited guests who spurned him, this guest struts around as if he should have been there all along. He behaves as if the only requirement for him is that he show up. He is present, but he is not responsible. He accepts the blessings and the gifts, but he rejects the other side of being a guest - take up they cross, rejoice in persecution, put on the clothes that identify you as a guest of the king. As Gentiles, we were just passing through town out on the bypass, when the King's messengers offered us a wedding reception, gifts, and a feast. We are in a castle for dinner instead of McDonald's. So don't dress like you're at McDonald's!
This is too good not to post! I think it might take two or three posts...First, the cost to the Jews of rejecting the King. 22:7. Then, maybe, the invitation to us Gentiles. The good AND the bad, and the line about not being surprised by who we see at church! Then third, the ungrateful guest, and his fate.
2023 - Again, I haven't read the text yet, but I've reread my notes again. A couple of thoughts...When the real guests are so hostile to the King, he is willing to let anyone come to the wedding. "Both good and bad" tells us that the gospel is offered to anyone and everyone - to rich and poor, black and white, honest and convicted. God calls all men through the gospel. This is a church age, a Gentile thing. Under the OC, you had to be Jewish, or to live with the Jews as a servant or a foreigner. But you were not up to standard if you were not Jewish. Now, under the NC, ALL are invited. So that's what that part means. This year, I am leaning towards the false teachers as the ones represented by the poorly dressed guest. They want the benefits and blessings - the feast - of being part of the wedding, but they WILL NOT submit to the King's requirements. They move among the grateful, but they keep themselves separated from them by not submitting to the King. These are not saved, but they are among the saved, and they are a bad example to the saved. These are sent to hell, because they were offered the feast, but they did not embrace the King. Hell is where they'd have gone before, since they are not Jews, and now, after rejecting something so undeserved and yet beyond price - something free - they go to a very bad place. A worse place. Hell has degrees, and these will be in the hotter part. That's this year.
2023 - Or...what if I'm just reading too much into it. When the invited guest reject, different guests are invited. SOME of them arrive and recognize that they are receiving an undeserved banquet. But not all Gentiles come. And those who hear the invitation, but don't accept it gratefully, go to a worse hell than the Gentiles before 70 AD, who were not invited anyway. Sounded better in my head than it does written down. Does not account for a number of the details in the parable.
2024 - "Called" is Greek "klay' toi", Strongs 2822. It is an adjective, NOT a verb! It is a description of a subset of the many. Many are called. Are is the verb. It means invited, or called - especially as a guest. In this sense, those who did not come the first time were called also. The slaves were sent to invite them. "Chosen" is the Greek work "ek kleck toi". It is an adjective also, and is a completely different Greek word. This is not about a shade on the meaning of one or the other. This means something else. Here is Strong's definition of G1588 - select; by implication, favorite:—chosen, elect. The second time, everyone was invited, both the evil and the good. All were called. But there is still a standard in place. Both evil and good are called, but only those who submit to the terms are elected. They are invited to a special gathering, with no regard for who they are or what they've done. These don't have to be Jews, don't have to be circumcised, don't even have to be good people. But they do have to submit to the one who's invitation they accept. There is no "playing at" being a wedding guest. It must be real. ALL are invited, but only those who dress for the occasion, who give homage, who are grateful to the point of honoring the one who called them are elected. That's what it means. Adjectives, NOT verbs! It is about those who come, not about the caller.
2025 - This time, I read the text first, and then my notes on this parable, from beginning to end. Interesting that there are notes every year. Here is what I think in 2025...Yes!!! 2024 has it right! Christ died for ALL MEN. He paid for ALL SINS. But that is not a "pass". You must still acknowledge the King, submit to his laws and commands, realize that you would never even have been invited were it not for the sacrifice of Christ! You don't have to start off as "a good person". You can be anything. You do not get more credit for being a good person. Both the good and the evil were invited! Prior behavior was irrelevant, current behavior was irrelevant. The servants went out and invited absolutely everyone. This is the church age, this is where we are now. A lot of those invited in this round didn't come at all. They went on with their lives, doing what they were doing anyway, whether good or bad. Some were thrilled to be invited, and went to the wedding, and were forever grateful. And then there is this other group...the one who believed that he somehow deserved the "position" without feeling any gratitude. The Pharisees were like this weren't they? They had "fixed" the rules so they could earn their way in, and no thanks to anyone for it. For those with this attitude...outer darkness. Further from the light than even those who would not come at all. They knew enough to get it right, and instead chose their own rules.
Just look how long it has taken me to see this clearly. But I think I have it right now. It is a far more broadly applicable parable than I ever saw before. It says so very much in just a few words.
Render unto Caesar. Even if it is guns that he wants. The attempt to entrap Jesus by showing him a threat - a lawbreaker - to the Romans - fails miserably.
The Sadducees make their attempt. They construct what they believe is a dilemma about resurrection - which they do not believe in. They fail as miserably as the first group did.
These are Jesus' words in answer to "which is the great commandment?":
37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." [Mat 22:37-40 ESV]. All the Law and the Prophets, that is, all the Old Testament, all of the Sinai covenant, with all the sacrifices and ritual and tedious laws, is still built on just these two "rules". Love God. Love others as yourself. Note that it doesn't say not to love yourself. Loving yourself is built in. It is part and parcel to being human. And it is ok to have self-preservation high on your list, because we are made that way. But you love others just as much. This would still be in effect for Jews also, even those who don't recognize Jesus as Christ. These two laws should still apply to their behavior, as to the behavior of Christians. This remark was addressed to the Jews.
Jesus poses a question of his own to the learned assembled:
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." [Mat 22:41-42 ESV]
Jesus quotes Psa. 110:1. The Lord said to my Lord... And asks how David can call his own son his Lord. It could only happen if the Messiah predated David, and was incarnated as his son. Though his son physically, still his Lord spiritually. 2020 - Only if the son of David is God. Ahh...the Son of God, not only the Son of David, and the Son of Man. THE Lord said to my Lord...
After these three incidents, the elite gave up asking Jesus questions and trying to trap him. When intellect fails, physical attacks take over. They are about to get brutish and violent.