Section 108, D

Section 108
IN REPLY TO THE QUESTIONS AS TO HIS AUTHORITY.
JESUS GIVES THE THIRD GREAT GROUP OF PARABLES.
(In the Court of the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, A. D. 30.)
Subdivision D
PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING'S SON
MATT. 22: 1-14

Summary 

A king is giving a wedding feast for his son.  Those who have been invited are notified by servants that the feast is ready;  they "call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come" (Matt 22:3). What type of person disregards a feast thrown by a king for his son?  Some invited are merely indifferent, distracted by their own land and affairs.  Others are actively hostile to the messengers, abusing and killing them. The king's justifiably angry response was to send some to destroy the murderer and burn their city.

How bizarre this is when I take pains to think about it and relate it to real life. If I prepared a lavish meal to celebrate the marriage of our son and had that type of response!

The guests reject the invitation because they feel self-sufficient and self-absorbed.  Vincent's Word Studies points out that the phrase "his own farm"  stresses "the contrast between his selfish interest and the respect due to his king."  Their reaction is one of indifference; they have better things to do.  Like the Jews, we risk getting caught up in the "more important" affairs before us to His neglect and provision.

The Echo of Hezekiah's Passover Celebration

Vincent's Word Studies cross-references Hezekiah's efforts to re-institute the Passover were met with this type of scorn.  I don't know why I'm newly impressed each time I glimpse the unity of the old and new testaments---His word is seamless, telling one truth and of one God from beginning to end:

"Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were faithless to the LORD God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see. Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.” So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them." -2 Chronicles 30:7-10

Unity of heart is also from the Lord:

"The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD."  2 Chronicles 30:12

Those who did respond came to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem under Hezekiah, yet many were not ceremonially pure. The mercy of God and the outreach of Hezekiah here for his people is touching:

"For a majority of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good LORD pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, even though not according to  the sanctuary's rules of cleanness.” And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people."  2 Chronicles 30:18-20

Come to the Banquet

"behold, I have prepared my dinner." Matthew 22:4

As John Gill points out, it's no ordinary banquet:

 "The ministry of the word and ordinances under the Gospel dispensation, is signified by a "dinner"; of God's preparing and providing; which is a full meal at noon, and in it is plenty of food, and of that which is wholesome to the souls of men, sweet and savoury to a spiritual taste, and very nourishing and satisfying; and this dinner is a feast, a rich banquet, a grand entertainment; in which are a variety of provisions, suited to all sorts of persons, and plenty of the richest dainties, attended with the largest expressions of joy; and this feast is a marriage one, and that not for an ordinary person, but for the king's son, the son of the King of kings; it is large, grand, and noble, rich and costly, and yet all free to the guests; it is kept in the king's palace, the banqueting house, the church, is common to all, and of long continuance, it will last unto the end of the world." -John Gill

The Preparations of the Guest, Our Preparations

"And went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: they all turned their backs on the Gospel, and the ministration of it, and pursued their own worldly inclinations, ways, and methods of life: those that were brought up in a rural way, lived a country life, and were concerned in meaner employments, went everyone to their "village", as the Vulgate Latin, and Munster's Hebrew Gospel read it, and to their farms, there to manage their cattle, and till their ground; and others, that lived in larger towns and cities, and were concerned in greater business of life, betook themselves to trade at home, or traffic abroad; placing their happiness in the affluence of this life, which they preferred to the word and ordinances of Christ."

Returning to this parable, the guest who is "caught" not wearing proper clothing is a sobering image.  It brings me back to those painful moments in my childhood when I forgot something important inadvertently--a horrible feeling.  I'm not sure this is the right parallel however.  In this instance, it's more that the guest does not bother to prepare fully knowing the need and responding in apathy.  He does not have proper respect for the party or host.

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment." Matthew 22:11

Vincent's Word Studies teases this out:

"When the king addresses the guest, he is thinking not so much of the outward token of disrespect, as of the guest's mental attitude toward the proprieties of the occasion. It is as if he had said, “What were you thinking of, where was your respect for me and for my guests, when you allowed yourself to come hither not (μὴ) having the proper garment, as you knew you ought to have? It implies, as Dr. Morison observes, that the man was conscious of the omission when he entered, and was intentionally guilty of the neglect.”

"A person must respond not only outwardly, but also he must be rightly related to God the King by appropriating all the King provides." -BKC

"The feast denotes the present and future kingdom of God; the entrance to this is a matter of free grace; the garment is moral fitness, the life and conduct dependent on the due use of God’s grace. This is in the power of all who have received the call; they have to act up to the high calling, to be wholly, heartily, really what they profess to be." -Pulpit Commentary

Free Will, the Issue of the Called and Chosen

"For many are called, but few are chosen.” -Matthew 22:14

While the kingdom had now been expanded to include individuals from all races and backgrounds (many are invited), there is an election (few are chosen). And yet individual response is essential. -BKC

"God the Father sent His Spirit to woo a bride for His Son. The ministry of the Spirit is to call people to the wedding, to win a bride for Jesus Christ. Who did He call first? Salvation is to the Jew first and then the Gentile (Rom_2:9-10)." -Courson

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. -Rev 22:17 

My brother-in-law referenced this analogy years ago, and I finally found the source the other way. Here it is so that I don't forget it:

"The famous American Bible teacher Donald Grey Barnhouse (1895–1960) often used an illustration to help people make sense of election. He asked them to imagine a cross like the one on which Jesus died, only so large that it had a door in it. Over the door were these words from Revelation: “Whosoever will may come.” These words represent the free and universal offer of the gospel. By God’s grace, the message of salvation is for everyone. Every man, woman, and child who will come to the cross is invited to believe in Jesus Christ and enter eternal life.

On the other side of the door a happy surprise awaits the one who believes and enters. From the inside, anyone glancing back can see these words from Ephesians written above the door: “Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.” Election is best understood in hindsight, for it is only after coming to Christ that one can know whether one has been chosen in Christ. Those who make a decision for Christ find that God made a decision for them in eternity past." -Phil Ryken & Justin Taylor,The Gospel Coalition, June 11, 2010

"The wedding is ready. God’s great design is not frustrated by the neglect of those first invited, only the guests are changed."  Meyer

 This is the fruit of sin, and especially of the abuse of faith and grace" (Quesnel).