My sermon text for this weekend is Matthew 22:1-14. Its the parable of the Wedding Banquet. The first part of the parable is broken down into three invitations. The first was made prior to the beginning of the story (v3 - "those who were invited"). The second was the "call" to tell them everything was now ready(v2). Finally, when those who were initially invited chose to reject the invitation, a third invitation is made to those in the streets, "both bad and good" (v10). There is a ton of great material there in those ten verses - stuff I could talk about for hours. The arrogance (or ignorance) of people who blew off an invitation to the wedding of the son of a king is beyond words. I understand that in Jesus' day, to do so was terribly unwise. I guess the response of the King to their actions was not that surprising to the original audience. But, beyond the invitations, what intrigues me (and probably Jesus' hearers) is the interaction between the King and the guest (vs11-13).
Here is a guy who DID respond to the invitation, and he ends up in "outer darkness." What is up with that? The text says that his failure was that he "had no wedding garment" (v11), and when questioned about it, he was "speechless" (v12). Seems a little harsh, doesn't it? Some commentators say that the host of a wedding banquet would hand out wedding garments to the guests and apparently this guy refused, thinking his own clothing was sufficient. They liken the putting on of the wedding garments to receiving God's righteousness. D.A. Carson, a New Testament scholar that I highly respect, thinks that position can't be supported. He notes that whatever the reason, the guest in question simply wasn't prepared and that lack of preparation was seen as a serious failure by the king. (See EBC, Vol 6. Carson's work on Matthew is worth the price of the whole volume!)
I think these last five verses carry the weight of the whole parable. I believe the point is, entrance into the Kingdom of God isn't about just accepting the invitation. Its about HOW you accept the invitation. You see, those who in pride, ignorance, or arrogance, flat rejected the invitation (and brutalized the king's servants) rightly brought judgment upon themselves. But judgment also came to one of the men who accepted the invitation... because he wasn't dressed right.
I think the issue is grace. He didn't recognize it.
Those who were invited last, were out on the street. They weren't anyone, or anything special. They were "both bad and good." The truth is, they didn't deserve to be invited any more than the original invitees. The only reason they were invited was because of the grace of the king. In their humility and gratitude for the invitation, you would think they would have done whatever was needed to reflect how thankful they were to be there - even wearing a wedding garment. But apparently, this one guy didn't think it was that special. By not wearing the wedding garment, he was revealing the level of his gratitude for the invitation. He accepted the invite, but didn't recognize his unworthiness to even receive it. When the king saw that lack of gratitude, the man was tied up and tossed out into darkness.
We need to think about this in our evangelistic efforts. Salvation (entering the Kingdom) is, according to Jesus, more than just "accepting" the the invitation (see v14). It is more than just walking an isle, or raising your hand, or getting baptized. It is about understanding how unworthy (sinful) we are to even be offered such a gift, and then responding by clothing ourselves in broken hearted gratitude, humility, and worship.
It is about recognizing grace. Amazing grace.
