The Wedding Banquet
Read the parable
- Matthew 22:1-14 Primary account
Context
A royal wedding feast was the grandest occasion the ancient East knew, and invitations were issued twice — an advance invitation, then a summons when the meal was ready — so the refusals here are calculated public insults to the king. Some interpreters hold that wedding garments were supplied by the host; at minimum, arriving without one showed contempt for the occasion. Jesus told it in the temple, the third of three judgment parables aimed at the religious leadership during his final week.
Meaning
God's kingdom is a feast in honor of his Son, and the tragedy of the parable is refusal: the invited guests — Israel's leaders first of all — make light of the summons, and some abuse the messengers. So the invitation goes out to all, "both bad and good", picturing the gospel's reach to sinners and Gentiles. Yet the man without a wedding garment warns that entrance is not presumption: those who come must come on the King's terms, clothed in the repentance and righteousness he provides. "Many are called, but few are chosen."
Go deeper
Two free lessons walk through the parables as a whole: The Parables of Jesus and Interpreting the Parables.