Parable of the Wedding Feast

Text and Content

This is a parable of Jesus Christ found in Matthew 22:1-14. It is one of the parables Jesus told in the temple before the chief priests and Pharisees after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is the third in the sequence, following the Parable of the Two Sons and the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen.

The story unfolds as follows:

• A king prepares a wedding feast for his son and sends his servants to call those who had been invited, but they will not come.
• He sends servants again, but one goes off to his farm and another to his merchandise. The rest mistreat the servants and kill them.
• The king sends his armies, destroys those murderers, and burns up their city.
• The king sends his servants into the highways, and they gather all they find, both bad and good, so that the wedding is furnished with guests.
• Among the guests is a man not wearing a wedding garment. When the king asks him why, he is speechless; he is bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness.

The parable ends with the words "For many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14).

Luke 14:15-24 contains a similar "Parable of the Great Banquet." It differs from Matthew's account in the following ways:

• The host of the banquet is not a king but "a certain man."
• The invited guests decline, offering as excuses that they have bought a piece of ground, bought oxen, or married a wife.
• The host first has the poor and the disabled brought in. He then says, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled" (Luke 14:23).
• The wedding garment scene does not appear.

Background

The custom of the time is said to have been to issue an initial invitation in advance and then, once preparations were complete, to send a servant to summon the guests again (compare Esther 5:8; 6:14). The two summonses in the parable are thought to reflect this custom. The Greek expression translated "wedding garment" literally means "garment of the wedding."

The Old Testament speaks of a feast that God prepares for all peoples (Isaiah 25:6). It also uses marriage as an image for the relationship between God and his people (Isaiah 62:5). These two images form the background of the parable.

Significance in the Wider Biblical Context

The parable likens the kingdom of God to a feast. As in the preceding Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, those called first refuse, and others take their place. For this reason it is commonly read as depicting the rejection of Jesus by Israel's leaders and the extension of the gospel to sinners and Gentiles.

The "marriage supper of the Lamb" in Revelation 19:7-9 takes up this imagery. Some interpreters connect the burning of the city with the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, though scholars differ on whether to accept this connection.

Interpretation and Debated Points

• Meaning of the wedding garment: In the Reformed tradition, the garment is commonly read as the righteousness with which Christ clothes believers, that is, justification. Other interpreters, citing Revelation 19:8, "the fine linen is the righteousness of saints," understand it as the life that accompanies faith, or sanctification. Augustine interpreted the garment as love, and John Wesley is said to have interpreted it in a sermon as holiness.
• A commonly added explanation: Sermons frequently add the explanation that "in those days the host provided wedding garments for the guests." However, the text says nothing of this, and historical evidence for such a custom is unclear.
• Verse 14 and election: Calvinism draws on this verse to distinguish between the outward call extended to all people and the effectual call that actually becomes effective in the elect. Arminianism and Wesleyan theology tend to read "the chosen" as those who respond to the call and are properly prepared (see predestination).
• Relationship between Matthew and Luke: One view holds that the two Gospel writers each shaped the same parable to suit their own purposes. Another holds that Jesus told different parables on different occasions.
• The history of "compel them": Augustine appealed to Luke 14:23 to defend state coercion against the Donatists (a church that separated in North Africa in the fourth and fifth centuries). This episode has since been cited critically in discussions of forced conversion and religious persecution.

In the Korean Church

Luke 14:23, "compel them to come in, that my house may be filled," is frequently quoted in sermons urging evangelism and at evangelistic meetings. The wedding garment scene in Matthew is used in sermons warning that church attendance alone is not enough, or in sermons addressing assurance of salvation.