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.”
This Sunday’s gospel continues the theme of the heavenly feast. This parable operates on as an allegory where the king represents God and his son Jesus. The invited guests symbolize the chosen people of Israel, who are called to acknowledge the arrival of their Messiah. The king sends out his servants (the prophets) to invite the guests to the banquet, but they refuse to come and even mistreat the messengers. As John Proctor has pointed out in his book on Matthew, refusing to attend the wedding of the king’s son would signify that one refused to recognize his authority. To make matters worse, in verse three we learn that the original guests had already accepted the invitation – the king was simply telling them that all was ready. So, they go back on their original promise. In verse four he sends more messengers with the added incentive of a description of the feast. Note that, while no one attends, their responses are different: some people are simply indifferent while others are actively hostile. In response, the king orders the destruction of the city, which is a prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
In verse nine, the king sends out his servants a third time, telling them to bring in everyone they find. This represents the Church and its universal mission. But note that good and evil exist together within the Church and will only be sorted out by God at the end of time. Indeed, the last judgment is portrayed in verse eleven. There is some debate about what the wedding garments represent: some argue they signify good works while others see it as meaning the resurrected body. In any case, this guest may be in the Church, but he is not prepared for the banquet – so simply being part of the Church does not guarantee salvation. Being unable to give any excuse for his condition, the man is then tied up and thrown into the darkness.
In this parable, Jesus repeats his criticism of the Jewish leaders, but he also announces the call of the Gentiles and thus the universal mission of the Church. That makes this a fitting gospel for the start of a week dedicated to the missionary task of the Church. However, we must never forget that Jesus clearly tells us that we should not feel any superiority or self-satisfaction, for belonging to the Church does not guarantee salvation. We must always ask ourselves if we resemble the first guests or the man without the wedding garment.
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