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Matthew 22:1-14







Lesson Focus

It is not enough to merely respond to the invitation of God’s salvation; we must ensure that we grow in grace and holiness.


Learning Outcomes

Through this lesson, students should:

  1. Understand that responding to God's invitation requires acceptance and active growth in grace and holiness to be properly prepared for His kingdom.

  2. Understand that this parable highlights God's persistent call to humanity, emphasizing the importance of responding to God’s invitation while being open to transformation through the Spirit.

  3. Be encouraged to grow in Christlikeness in our Christian journey.


Catch up on the Story

Jesus is still in the Temple, confronting the Jewish religious leaders of the day. They have asked Jesus questions that challenge his authority to teach and preach. In many ways, they challenge Jesus’ claim that he is the Son of God. Jesus, by way of response, launches into a set of three parables, all of which are connected thematically. The first parable was the parable of the two sons. One son is asked to go and work in the field. He says that he will but then doesn’t go. The next son says he won’t go but then does. The second son is the faithful one. The Jewish religious leaders are like the first son.


The second parable is about a landowner who buys land and plants a vineyard. He hires some farmers to work the land for him and then leaves. When harvest time comes, the owner sends a servant to collect the fruit. The farmers mistreat the servants and kill other servants that are sent. Finally, the owner sends his son, thinking he would be respected. The farmers kill the son, too. Jesus asks the religious leaders what the owner will do when returning to his vineyard. The religious leaders pronounce judgment on themselves by saying that the owner will do away with those wicked servants and give the land to others who will bring forth the fruit when it is harvest time.


This final parable, the parable of the wedding banquet, shares similar themes and outcomes with the previous two parables.


The Text

Before we begin, it would probably be best to remember that this parable is most likely intended to be an allegory representing the history of God’s working of salvation for Israel and the world. As such, some of the details will strain its credibility as a story of something that actually happened. For instance, it would seem preposterous for a king to wage war on his own people while keeping the food warm for a wedding banquet. In a sense, though, this story did and is happening for Israel and us. The table is set, the food is prepared, and we are invited. How will we respond?


Once again, Jesus begins this parable with the familiar phrase, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to…” Remember, when we see this phrase, Jesus is comparing a known world and rule to living in the reign of God. In other words, Jesus is painting a picture of life as it should and will be when Jesus’ kingdom is fully established.


To what is Jesus comparing the kingdom of heaven this time? The kingdom of heaven is compared to a king with a son getting married. The king planned to hold a great feast to celebrate this joyous occasion.


Two things need to be noted here. In the previous parable, the son in the story was obviously Jesus. In this parable, Jesus will again make a case for his sonship. God is his Father, and he is the Son, the messiah for which Israel has been waiting. This leads us to the second thing that needs to be noted: the image of the wedding banquet was common in Jewish thought. It became the dominant image for the time when the Messiah would come and finally establish his kingdom fully and completely in Israel. Israel would live in perfect unity and harmony with God forever, always feasting at his table. The image maintains a prominent place in Christian theology moving forward. The messianic wedding banquet will occur when Christ has returned and has gathered his followers for eternity. Those who have not responded to the invitation or have not properly prepared themselves for the banquet will be left out.


So, the day of the banquet came, and the king sent out his servants to call in those invited to the banquet. At this time, it was common for two invitations to be sent. A first invitation was sent to inform guests that a banquet was being thrown. It would not have included a specific time for the event; rather, it was a general call to be ready when the time came. Then, when the time had come, when all of the food was ready, and the table had been set, a second invitation would be made. Guests would be summoned to respond to the initial call because the time for the party had come (Bruner, 386).


The guests in this parable are obviously Israel and her religious leaders. Israel has been called to be God’s people, to join God in the time of fulfillment when the world will be restored to all that it was created to be, and there will be abundance, peace, joy, and celebration forever. Israel had accepted the general call. “Yes, we will be ready when it comes time for the party!” This initial call works not just for Israel but also for those of us in the church. We have been issued an invitation of our own to God’s end-time banquet. As the church, we have responded that, yes, we will be ready to join the party when it begins. In some sense, with the coming of Jesus, the messianic wedding banquet has begun. Jesus is ushering in the kingdom of heaven and calling Israel and us to the party.


The first set of servants goes out. They are met, not with a joyous reception from those called but with excuses. In verse three, the phrase, “but they would not come,” is in the imperfect tense, conveying repeated and continual rejection of the invitation (Hagner, 629). The first servants were persistent but to no avail.


The servants come back and report that those who have been called are not willing to respond. So, the king instructs his servants to tell his guests that everything is ready and the time is now. The food is on the table, and the party is beginning! The second batch of servants met with no greater success than the first. This time, the called guests made fun of the situation and provided more excuses. It’s important to note that these excuses were legitimate activities. They were not refusing to come to the banquet to engage in shady or immoral activities. Some servants met worse fates than rejection; some were beaten and killed.


As with the previous parable, the king in this parable exercises great patience by offering multiple invitations. If Israel and her religious leaders are the guests in this parable, what emerges is a picture of God’s faithfulness to Israel even after repeated rejections of God’s invitation. Many of Matthew’s first readers would have been familiar with Israel’s history, especially the history of the prophets.


While Matthew continues to paint a picture of God’s patience and faithfulness, even to those who reject him, he also warns us of the reality of God’s judgment. While God’s forgiveness and grace are unimaginable (The parable of the Merciful Master, Matthew 18), there comes a time when the call must be either finally and fully accepted or rejected. For Israel and her religious leaders, that time has come. Jesus is issuing the invitation now: the time has come, the food is ready, and the table is set.


When the king in the parable learns that his servants have been mistreated and some even killed, he reacts with judgment. He sends his army into the streets to bring justice to those who killed his servants. The murders are dealt with, and the city is burned. Some commentators believe that this refers to the Temple and Jerusalem destruction by the Romans in 70 CE. Others think it is merely a part of the story with no correspondence outside the story itself. However, it might have been impossible for the readers of Matthew’s gospel, who lived after 70 CE, to not see Jerusalem's destruction in this statement.


I think a word of warning is due at this point. Our sense of justice almost always desires that those who are evil or unfaithful deserve their judgment here and now. We call for justice, which often looks like revenge. The point in this parable and the previous one is that God exercises great restraint, continually pursuing those who reject him. Judgment finally comes when the time is right, and the wicked have finally and fully rejected God’s invitation. The judgment often takes the form of self-destruction. After repeated rejections of God, Israel brought destruction upon themselves (in the Babylonian exile). God is always seeking out and pursuing those who reject him.


The king in the parable is not done calling or inviting those who would respond to his wedding banquet. He gathers his remaining servants and, once again, reiterates that everything is ready. The time is now, the food is ready, and the table is set. The servants are to go out into the streets to invite anyone they can find. The stress here is on the “anyone.”


So, the servants make their way out into the city streets, even leaving the city to invite the poor and outcasts living outside the city. The good and the bad were invited, and all sorts of people responded. The wedding banquet hall is finally filled.


As with the previous parable of the vineyard, Israel’s religious leaders are found unworthy and left on the outside. In the parable of the vineyard, the land is given to another person who will faithfully bring the fruit to the owner. In this parable, however, while Israel is left on the outside, the summons is to anyone who will respond, the good and the bad alike. This points to the mixed nature of the church for Matthew. Israel has not been completely rejected; only those, like the religious leaders, who fail to properly respond to the invitation will be rejected. For Matthew, the church and the kingdom of heaven will be filled with Jews and Gentiles alike.


Jesus could have stopped the story right here. It would be enough good news to know that God relentlessly pursues those whom he calls, even when they reject him. It would be enough good news to know that the invitation to participate in God’s kingdom is extended to everyone. But the parable raises another question for Israel’s leaders and us as the church today. What does responding to God’s invitation mean now that the time has come?


The king is now mingling with his guests, rejoicing that so many responded to his invitation. He looks across the room and sees a man not properly dressed for the occasion. The king wanders over to the man and asks how he got in without properly dressed. The man is speechless in the face of this question. Seeing that the man has no response, the king has his servants bind the man and throw him out of the party into the darkness.


Jesus ends the parable with a warning, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” We need not have a conversation here about predestination, the understanding that God chooses who can respond, electing some to an eternity with him. The inclusive nature of the parable will not allow that kind of reading of Jesus’ final saying. Rather, the point of the parable stresses the response of those who have been called. All have been called, but only some have responded appropriately.


This one that the king has thrown out into the streets, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, has not properly responded to the king’s call. Sure, he has come to the party but has not made himself presentable. Much could be said about the nature of the “wedding robe” mentioned in verses 11 and 12. The wedding robe represents the inner and outer transformation of those called and invited to participate in God’s kingdom.


At the heart of our Wesleyan theology is that we cannot be saved apart from God’s grace (the invitation and call). At the same time, God’s grace will not save us without our “grace empowered, but uncoerced” participation (Maddox, 19). In other words, the wedding robe we can choose to put on is our Spirit-guided growth in holiness. To try and put it plainly, the man in the parable had accepted God’s salvation but refused to grow in the likeness of Christ.


So What?

Israel’s religious leaders had accepted the initial call but were not interested when the second invitation came. Their understanding of what it meant to be a recipient and participant in God and his kingdom had blinded them. Jesus clearly states that they were given many chances to respond. As the parable ends, it is clear that some responded to the final invitation but had not allowed themselves to be properly transformed to be prepared for participation in God’s kingdom.


The warning in Jesus' parable stands for us as well. We have heard and responded to Christ’s initial call of salvation. We have received God’s grace and promised to be ready when the second and final invitation comes. It’s easy, I believe, not to press forward in our growth and transformation into the image of Christ. We get complacent. We’ve said a prayer; perhaps we even read our bible, but we have not sufficiently made ourselves available to the Spirit’s attempts to transform us. Or, worse yet, we have felt the nudges, some subtle and some not so subtle, but have not exercised the self-discipline necessary to cooperate with the Spirit’s work in our lives.


The work of being a Christian is hard. We do not work to earn our salvation, but we need to work to ensure we are properly dressed for the wedding. Or, perhaps to change the image a bit, as the Apostle Paul says, “So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:27-28) After responding to the initial call and invitation of Christ, May we allow the Spirit to empower us to do the hard work of growing in holiness and Christ's likeness.


Specific Discussion Questions

Read the text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very unfamiliar with the story.