You have to be invited into the kingdom. God’s call to come in is going out to you right now.

This is your time of salvation. It is time to say yes.

Before we begin the exegesis …..

Quick definition of a parable:

Literally, the word parable (parabolē in Greek) combines para– (pronounced pah-rah) and means “alongside” and bolē (pronounced boh-lay) which means “put” or even “throw”). Therefore, a parable puts two or more images or ideas alongside each other to produce a new truth. […] The Shorter Lexicon says that the Greek word parabolē can sometimes be translated as “symbol,” “type,” “figure,” and “illustration,” the latter term being virtually synonymous with parable.

For more information on what a parable is and its purposes, click on this link:

What Is a Parable?

The translation is mine. If you would like to see other translations, click here:

biblegateway.com.

If you don’t read Greek, ignore the left column.

I often quote scholars in print because I learn many things from them. They form a community of teachers I respect (1 Cor. 12:28), though I don’t agree with everything they write. But they do ensure I do not go astray. There is safety in numbers (for me at least).

Now let’s begin.

Parable of the Marriage Banquet (Matt. 22:1-14)

1 Καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ Ἰησοῦς πάλιν εἶπεν ἐν παραβολαῖς αὐτοῖς λέγων· 2 ὡμοιώθη ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀνθρώπῳ βασιλεῖ, ὅστις ἐποίησεν γάμους τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ. 3 καὶ ἀπέστειλεν τοὺς δούλους αὐτοῦ καλέσαι τοὺς κεκλημένους εἰς τοὺς γάμους, καὶ οὐκ ἤθελον ἐλθεῖν. 4 πάλιν ἀπέστειλεν ἄλλους δούλους λέγων· εἴπατε τοῖς κεκλημένοις· ἰδοὺ τὸ ἄριστόν μου ἡτοίμακα, οἱ ταῦροί μου καὶ τὰ σιτιστὰ τεθυμένα καὶ πάντα ἕτοιμα· δεῦτε εἰς τοὺς γάμους. 5 οἱ δὲ ἀμελήσαντες ἀπῆλθον, ὃς μὲν εἰς τὸν ἴδιον ἀγρόν, ὃς δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν ἐμπορίαν αὐτοῦ· 6 οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ κρατήσαντες τοὺς δούλους αὐτοῦ ὕβρισαν καὶ ἀπέκτειναν. 7 ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ὠργίσθη καὶ πέμψας τὰ στρατεύματα αὐτοῦ ἀπώλεσεν τοὺς φονεῖς ἐκείνους καὶ τὴν πόλιν αὐτῶν ἐνέπρησεν. 8 τότε λέγει τοῖς δούλοις αὐτοῦ· ὁ μὲν γάμος ἕτοιμός ἐστιν, οἱ δὲ κεκλημένοι οὐκ ἦσαν ἄξιοι· 9 πορεύεσθε οὖν ἐπὶ τὰς διεξόδους τῶν ὁδῶν καὶ ὅσους ἐὰν εὕρητε καλέσατε εἰς τοὺς γάμους. 10 καὶ ἐξελθόντες οἱ δοῦλοι ἐκεῖνοι εἰς τὰς ὁδοὺς συνήγαγον πάντας οὓς εὗρον, πονηρούς τε καὶ ἀγαθούς· καὶ ἐπλήσθη ὁ γάμος ἀνακειμένων. 11 Εἰσελθὼν δὲ ὁ βασιλεὺς θεάσασθαι τοὺς ἀνακειμένους εἶδεν ἐκεῖ ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἐνδεδυμένον ἔνδυμα γάμου, 12 καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· ἑταῖρε, πῶς εἰσῆλθες ὧδε μὴ ἔχων ἔνδυμα γάμου; ὁ δὲ ἐφιμώθη. 13 τότε ὁ βασιλεὺς εἶπεν τοῖς διακόνοις· δήσαντες αὐτοῦ πόδας καὶ χεῖρας ἐκβάλετε αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ σκότος τὸ ἐξώτερον· ἐκεῖ ἔσται ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων. 14 πολλοὶ γάρ εἰσιν κλητοί, ὀλίγοι δὲ ἐκλεκτοί.

1 And in reply, Jesus again spoke in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a man, a king, who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to call the ones who had been invited to the wedding banquet, and they did not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Say to those invited, “See! My feast has been prepared. The bulls and fatted cattle have been slaughtered and everything is ready! Come to the wedding banquet!”’ 5 But they ignored them and left, one to his field and another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants and mistreated and killed them. 7 The king, becoming enraged, sent out troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he told his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is prepared, but those who were invited did not deserve it. 9 Go therefore into roads outside of town and whomever you may find invite to the wedding banquet.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered everyone whom they could find, both the bad and the good, and the wedding banquet was filled with those reclining at table. 11 The king, going inside, inspected the guests and saw there a man not dressed in wedding clothes. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you enter here without having wedding clothes?’ He was speechless. 13 Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his feet and hands and throw him out into outer darkness.’ In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14 For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Let’s look at this parable as one whole, instead of verse-by-verse. It is the third polemical (hard-hitting) parable designed to provoke the temple establishment; the previous two are in the last chapter.

Jesus was replying to the reaction of the religious leaders in the last two verses in the previous chapters. The word “reply” or “respond” is not meaningless as some commentators or various translations may say.

Luke 14:16-24 has a similar story about a wedding banquet, but the details are sufficiently different (for me) to conclude that Jesus told those two parables at different times, to different audiences. This parable was tailor made for the elders, chief priests Pharisees and probably teachers of the law, whom he was addressing in Matthew 21.

Here are the main elements in the story and what or who they symbolize. We shouldn’t overinterpret the details, but the following ones are clear enough.

King: God

Son: Jesus, but he is in the background; his Father is the one who preserves his Son’s honor.

Servants: prophets and other messengers in Israel’s past:

²⁵ From the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. ²⁶ But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their ancestors. (Jer. 7:25-27, NIV)

First Invited Guests: Israel and more specifically its leaders, the ones listening to this parable and introduced in Matthew 22.

Second invited guests: converted Jews (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 6:7; 21:20) and converted Gentiles; people of no special status. They are the new nation or people who produce fruit (Matt. 21:43). “His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace” (Eph. 2:15, NIV)

Ejected Guest: Anyone who does not repent and become a disciple and a true citizen of the kingdom

Burned city: Jerusalem (Matt. 24:2)

“kingdom of heaven”:

5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully

Bible Basics about the Kingdom of God

Questions and Answers about Kingdom of God

Basic Definition of Kingdom of God

1 Introducing the Kingdom of God (begin a ten-part series)

With those preliminaries concluded, now let’s look at the gist of the parable.

This is a parable about those initially invited not responding to the original invitation of the king, who is God. The invitation had been given, and now the slaves / servants went out to announce that the preparation had been done. These invited guests should have been ready, even standing outside the king’s palace. However, they “take no notice” or “ignore” or are “unconcerned,” “neglect,” “take no regard” (the Greek verb is ameleō and pronounced ah-meh-leh-oh). They blithely went on their way to conduct their business. The king graciously invited them, but they rejected his call or invitation.

Their disrespect for the king is shocking. Worse than that, the first group of invited guests mistreated the messengers, a gruesome element which closely resembles the last parable about the vineyard, so it is clear we should draw the same conclusion in the two parables. One key point: when an improbable element surfaces in a parable (they mistreated and killed the slaves for no apparent reason), we need to pay close attention to it. Therefore, the king is justified in taking military action against the first batch of disrespectful invited guests and burning their city. This must refer to Jerusalem (Matt. 24:2). Luke 21:5-9 and 20:24 say that armies will surround Jerusalem and destroy it. And sure enough Roman armies began their attack the city in A.D. 66 and finally conquered it in A.D. 70. Judaism as it was then practiced was over, finished. No more animal sacrifices in the temple, to cite only one example. The Jerusalem establishment was also done away with.

And here we have another instance of their (see 4:23; 7:29; 8:34; 9:35; 10:17; 12:9; 13:54; 22:7; 22:16). He burned their city, as if they were foreigners. Why does Matthew keep saying “their synagogue or their city or their teachers of the law? My opinion: his community has moved well past Judaism and must distinguish between the newly formed Christian community and the Jewish community.

When the first invited guests are nonchalant about the king’s invitation, Matthew refers to the preaching of John the Baptist:

⁸ So then produce fruit in keeping with repentance, ⁹ and do not think to say among yourselves, ‘We have Father Abraham.’ For I tell you that God is able from these rocks to raise up children to Abraham! (Matt. 3:8-9)

The next wave of guests were people of no special status, but were both the bad and the good, relative to the religious leaders who dominated the temple and Jerusalem. In this element of the parable, Jesus draws from a pronouncement he spoke back in 9:13: “For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Then the king inspected the guests—those reclining at table—and saw one without proper wedding clothes on. Commentators says that back in those days, people readied their finest garment, in order to attend the festival held by a king! One commentator said the garment should have been white. However, he sneaked in, unprepared, getting past the porter, somehow. As a punishment, the man was bound by his hands and feet and thrown out into outer darkness, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus may be referring back to these verses:

²¹ “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one doing the will of my Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name? And in your name expel demons? And in your name do many miracles?” ²³ And then I’ll declare to them, “I never knew you! Depart from me, you practitioners of lawlessness!” (Matt. 7:21-23)

So what kind of clothes should he have been wearing, spiritually speaking? The clothes of repentance and discipleship. Matthew introduced the idea through John the Baptist: “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven has drawn near!” (Matt. 3:2). Jesus on repentance: “From then on, Jesus began to proclaim and say, ‘Repent! For the kingdom of heaven has drawn close!’” (Matt. 4:17).

In these next two passages Jesus boils down discipleship:

³⁸ “And so anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not deserving of me. ³⁹ The one finding his life will lose it, and the one losing his life because of me will find it. (Matt. 10:38-39).

Then he says:

²⁴ Then at that moment, Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and pick up his cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ²⁶ For what shall it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but damages his life? And what will a person give in exchange for his life? (Matt. 16:24-26)

Repentance and following Jesus, even to the point of denying yourself and your will, is how a follower of Jesus is not thrown into outer darkness.

Let’s discuss the place of punishment.

It is outside the lit-up wedding feast that often went on through the night, even for days. Here are some options for you about what all of this means, as I noted at Matt. 8:12. The Greek says ekei (pronounced eh-kay), which means “there” or “that place.” Unfortunately most translations don’t pick up on the ambiguity in their translations: “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Here it is more awkwardly but accurate: “The weeping and the gnashing will be there.” The standard translation (“there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth)” makes “there” into the wrong kind of adverb, or at least it is not clear in English. The clearer translation is as I have it.

So where is “that place”? Some see it as a spiritual dimension, but away from God so far that his light does not reach it, so that place is dark. Others see it as far outside the banquet, but they can see the lights coming from the feast; they are not invited in, but remain outside. Others ask: how can the lake of fire, which produces light, coexist with farthest or outer darkness? They cannot. Therefore, some interpreters conclude that punishment in the afterlife takes on different dimensions: fire in one place, and darkness in another. Still another interpretation is possible.

Darkness is reserved for those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority: “These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them” (2 Peter 2:17). Thus, fire is not the only place for them.

If you want to take the images of darkness and fire literally, you may certainly do so. It’s up to you. It should be noted that Jesus says nothing about the outer darkness lasting for eternity here.

Please read a three-part series:

1. Hell and Punishment: Eternal, Conscious Torment

2. Hell and Punishment: Terminal Punishment

3. Hell and Punishment: Universalism

“weeping and gnashing”: In their comments at 8:12, Keener says that weeping means mourning over damnation, and gnashing of teeth may indicate anger or a strong emotion similar to it. Carson says weeping may indicate suffering, and gnashing indicates despair, and Osborne agrees. In any case, existence in punishment is unhappy and produces despair and even anger. Perhaps the gnashing can also mean cursing in anger. (See these verses for gnashing: Acts 7:54; Job 16:9; Pss. 34:16; 36:12; 112:10; Lam. 2:16). Since weeping indicates remorse, it is not quite accurate to claim that hell is locked from the inside as if people want to be there, though maybe only the enraged do want this.

It is best to avoid such punishment, whatever it entails, by putting your faith in Christ and remaining in union with him.

Jesus tags his long parable with a line-drawing statement that says:

Many are called, but few are chosen.

Commentator Craig Blomberg is on target. We should not over-read “many” and “few.” He writes:

Many people hear the summons of the gospel, but only a certain percentage responds properly. In light of the imagery of the parable itself and in view of common Semitic usage, “many” here may well mean all. “Few” may thus imply nothing about how many are saved except that the number is noticeably less than all. This is interesting use of election terminology. Klētoi (literally, called) is not to be taken here as irresistible calling, … but in the sense of “invited.” Those responding properly may be said to have been chosen. The elect are the true community of the people God chooses to save, even as Israel had once been so chosen, but those people must freely respond to the Spirit’s work in their lives. The imagery here is in fact more that of corporate than of individual election, but the former cannot exist without the latter. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are again finely balanced. Neither can be jettisoned at the expense of the other. The man’s behavior demonstrates he is not elect. Election does not violate free will nor occur irrespective of the man’s conduct.

So “few” just means that the ones who enter the kingdom are fewer than those who are invited in. Key line in the excerpt: “Those responding properly may be said to have been chosen.”

Is the Atonement for ‘Many’ or ‘All’ People?

So it works out like this:

Invitation → The corporate community enters → They were chosen

People also choose to enter. They responded properly. This does not mean, however, that God himself acted to exclude the ones who were unwilling to respond to the general invitation. In the parable, the man who was “disinvited” into the kingdom or ejected did not have the right garments on. He sneaked in. The whole context of the parable reveals a corporate calling (Israel or Gentiles), not individual salvation.

We need to be cautious about overinterpreting this tagline as if it reveals that some are predestined to hell. The truth is much more contextual. Those who belong to the Israelite community, especially the leaders, are invited, but not necessarily chosen. More broadly, Jesus is referring to these words in the Sermon on the Mount:

¹³ Enter through the narrow gate because wide is the gate and broad is the road leading to destruction, and many are the ones going through it, ¹⁴ because the gate is narrow and the road is restrictive leading to life, and few are the ones finding it. (Matt. 7:13-14)

Not everyone will willingly walk through the narrow gate while they are being wooed by the Spirit and Word.

Commentator D. A. Carson says of v. 14:

Many are invited, but some refuse to come, and others who do come refuse to submit to the norms of the kingdom and are therefore rejected. Those who remain are “chosen” … a word implicitly denying that the reversals in the parable in any way catch God unawares or remove sovereign grace from his control. At the same time, it is clear from all three parables (21:28-22:14) that not the beginning but the end if crucial.

R. T. France writes of v. 14, and notes how many times nations and groups are referenced:

[This epigram] picks up the language of the parable: the first group of guests had all been “invited” (vv. 3, 4, 8), but that did not mean that they would enjoy the feast. So in their place others have been “invited” (v. 9), but now even one of them has failed to make the grade. Who then are the “chosen”? The term will recur in 24:22, 24 to designate God’s true people, threatened but protected through time of trial, and in 24:31 for those summoned from all over the world to make up the new people of God after the failure of the old regime. It is a term with strongly ideological overtones deriving from the OT concept of Israel as God’s chosen people, But its use here and in 24:31 introduces a radically new element to that ideological concept: the true “chosen people” is not automatically identified with those who belong to the Israelite community, not even those who are its official leaders: these are the invited, but not necessarily the chosen. The “many” and the “few” speak of a wedding process, whereby many of those invited will not make it to the feast. The chosen are new tenants who will produce the fruit, who, as we have seen in the last parable, may be Jewish or Gentile; their chosenness does not depend on their racial origins but on their response to God’s summons and their readiness to give God their due. The principle applies both to old Israel (vv. 3-7) and to those who have taken their place (vv. 8-13)

So France is wisely saying that we must not look at this parable in any other way than corporate chosenness: Israel or the Gentiles or both. We must steer clear of an interpretation that reduces the parable to individual salvation.

G. R. Osborne writes of the corporate nature of the parable more succinctly than France does:

This [v. 14] tells in a sense “the moral of the story” and provides a deeply theological conclusion to the parable. “Many” … and “few” … should be interpreted in Semitic fashion as equivalent to all / not all,” meaning all Israel was called by God but only some (including Gentiles) were actually chosen for the Messianic banquet.

The play on words [in Greek] between “called” and “chosen.” The “called” are those “invited” (see the cognate … in vv. 4, 8, 9) and refers to the sense of election Israel claimed as the special people of God. However, the leaders and those following them in rejecting God’s Son were not truly the “elect” / “chosen” of God. Here there is both human responsibility and divine sovereignty at work, a fitting conclusion to the parable. “Called” … catches it well: the people must respond to God’s summons with both repentance and right living to be part of God’s elect! (comment on v. 14)

So the parable is corporate, not individualistic, and human free will and God’s sovereignty are at work. And I like how he says that we must not be overly literal with “many” and “few.” In other places in Jesus’s discourses (e.g. Mark 1:34; 3:10) the two words just mean all / not all. God invites everyone, but not all respond out of their own free will. They can resist his call or invitation or summons. And even when they enter the kingdom, they must not insult God by not being dressed properly; that is, “only those who respond worthily [to the call of repentance] will share the inheritance of the chosen, covenant people” (Keener, p. 523).

I read Carson’s comment in the same way.

D. L. Turner reminds us that the man who was not dressed properly may be the false prophets and charismatic followers who produced bad fruit and practiced lawlessness (Matt. 7:15-23).Matthew 7:21-23: “I Never Knew You, Depart from Me!”

As I read things, the call or invitation of the gospel potentially goes to all, but some won’t respond in faith, while some will. Grace is resistible, because God in his grace gave humankind a significant degree of free will (though not enough for people to save themselves).

Once again, for more information on this topic, please click here:

Is the Atonement for ‘Many’ or ‘All’ People?

GrowApp for Matthew 22:1-14

A.. You have entered the wedding feast. Do you wear the wedding clothes of repentance and discipleship? What are they?

SOURCES

At this link you will find the bibliography at the very bottom:

Matthew 22