The Wedding Feast
1 Jesus answered and spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My cattle and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding feast!”’ 5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise; 6 and the rest grabbed his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited weren’t worthy. 9 Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the wedding feast.’ 10 Those servants went out into the highways and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. The wedding was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn’t have on wedding clothing, 12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?’ He was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’ 14 For many are called, but few chosen.”
The invited will not come, the streets are swept for guests instead — and one man is thrown out for what he is wearing.
2 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.
The third parable in the sequence is Matthew's, and it raises the stakes: a vineyard becomes a wedding, and a landowner becomes a king. Guests at such a feast were invited well in advance and summoned when the food was ready, so the refusal is not a decision not to attend. It is a promise broken at the last hour.
But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise;
The first refusals are not hostile. They are ordinary — a field, a business, things that genuinely needed doing — and indifference does as much damage here as violence, which arrives in the next verse when the rest kill the servants.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited weren’t worthy. 9 Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the wedding feast.’
The feast does not get canceled for lack of guests. That is the parable's central claim: the celebration is going ahead, and the only question is who is in the room. The servants are sent to the road junctions to gather whoever is there — both bad and good Matthew 22:10, which is the dragnet again Matthew 13:47, and the hall fills with people who were not on any list.
Then the ending that troubles readers. "He saw there a man who didn't have on wedding clothing" Matthew 22:11.
The difficulty is obvious: men brought in off a highway could hardly be expected to be dressed for a wedding. Which is the point of it. Everyone else in the room was in the same position and is properly dressed, so what was needed was evidently available — nobody there provided their own. This man came in and declined it, and when asked he has nothing to say. He was speechless Matthew 22:12. Not defiant, not aggrieved; there was no answer to give.
The king calls him friend, which in this Gospel is never a warm word — it is what the vineyard owner calls the grumbling laborer Matthew 20:13 and what he will call Judas in the garden Matthew 26:50.
"For many are called, but few chosen" Matthew 22:14. The parable ends by holding two things together that are usually pulled apart. The invitation went to everyone standing at the crossroads, with no qualification asked; and coming in on one's own terms is not the same as coming.
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