Thrown Out of His Kingdom: Matthew 22:1-14

During Jesus’ final week leading up to the crucifixion, He shares a parable that has a number of fascinating characteristics. In this parable, we discover that simply having an invitation is not enough to guarantee our salvation. Instead, we discover that there is another detail present that we need to include when discussing salvation.

To set the stage for discovering this big truth, let’s read Jesus’ parable before unpacking what it means for each of us. Our passage is found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, and we will be reading from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us that:

¹ Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ² “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴ “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵ “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸ “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

We can learn many things from this parable, but the one I want to focus our time on for this episode is specifically on the last section. While Jesus could have ended the parable after the banquet hall is filled with everyone the servants could find who were willing to come, He continues by describing how the king then enters the banquet only to find someone who isn’t properly dressed.

At this point in the parable, all the king’s “friends” who had rejected his invitation are dead and their city was burned, and the banquet hall is full of random people from off the streets and this assorted group of people contains both bad and good people.

Setting the stage in this way leads us to a somewhat obvious conclusion: I doubt any of those who ultimately came to the wedding hall were dressed for a wedding when they accepted the king’s invitation. The timetable of this parable suggests that those who were invited, if they were to get a place in the hall before it was full, would need to come immediately, and not go home to get ready for a wedding.

We find this idea in the detail that when a banquet is ready, there isn’t any time to stop to actually get ready. If those the king invited had gone home, taken showers, gotten into their best clothing, and then came, chances are the food that had been prepared would no longer be good. Those who were invited at the last minute only had time to come.

But this gets tricky when we transition to talking about the king’s harsh response to someone who is present who doesn’t have the proper clothing on. The only way this makes sense with the details included in this parable is if the king offers wedding clothing for everyone to change into when they arrive.

If the king invites anyone and everyone to fill his banquet hall, he shouldn’t be surprised if some of those he invited were not wealthy enough for clothing. We don’t know anything about the man who the king confronts, but the question the king asks seems ridiculous if the king expects something that the man could not afford while accepting the invitation that was “free”.

In contrast, if the king offered everyone wedding clothes on their arrival, then he does have a say regarding who should be included. Accepting the invitation is free and the wedding clothes the king offered are free as well. Why this man decided to accept one gift and not the other is as informative as his “speechless” response. The only rational explanation is that he believed one gift was significant while the other one was not.

However, this detail is powerful for us to pay attention to because it describes how many Christians believe their faith in Jesus works. Many people today believe all they must do is accept God’s invitation through Jesus’ crucifixion. These Christians accept the first gift of salvation correctly, but when they are offered new clothing – the King’s clothing — which represents the King’s character, they determine this gift is optional. They are represented by this man who ends up standing speechless before the King of the universe when He calls them out for refusing one of His gifts.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to accept the invitation Jesus gives us through His death on the cross, and accept the gift of His character that is freely offered to all who decide to come to Christ. We accept the gift of clothing by intentionally focusing on God, on Jesus, and on growing closer to Him. We accept Jesus’ life when we put our sinful lives in the past and start fresh with God. When we accept Jesus’ invitation, we would be fools to not accept the free gift of His character, because Jesus’ character is sinless, perfect, and it is the only thing that makes us “safe to save for eternity”!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

If you haven’t accepted Jesus’ invitation, or the gift of His character, do so today. Know that God has done everything necessary for our salvation, but we must accept His free gifts in order to be accepted into His kingdom.

Also, be sure to pray and study the Bible for yourself because it is through prayer, study, and walking with God that we demonstrate we have accepted His character and “clothing” into our lives.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or outright reject where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!