And Jesus answering spoke to them again in parables, saying,
Jesus begins another parable. This time the King is not asking anyone for anything — He is giving. Two questions follow. Why does He answer a question nobody asked? And what changes when God stops making claims and starts inviting?
Older translations open this verse with "Jesus answering spoke to them again"; the ESV has simply "spoke to them." Yet no one had asked Him anything. One writer explains why:
We often read in the Gospels that Jesus answered when no one had asked Him a single question. Why does the Spirit of God say Jesus answered, when nobody asked Him? Because He knew the thoughts of their hearts. He answered not what they said, for they said nothing, but what He knew they would say if they dared — what He knew was at work inside them.
In the parable just before this one, God was demanding fruit from men. Here the Lord handles a completely different case.
This parable gives what the last chapter never gave: a likeness of the kingdom of the heavens. In it we see God acting in grace, not man standing under His just claims. God no longer asks fruit from man, though He may and does produce fruit in those who receive His grace in Christ. The parable presents Him in sovereign majesty, making a marriage feast for His Son. This means a total change in His ways. He does not demand from men what is due. His own grace blesses them in honour of His Son.
Read the two parables side by side and they expose the same heart twice over.
The former parable gives the history of Israel under the law. This one shows how they behaved when divine grace came to them. Together, the two parables show that human nature fails completely under law and under grace alike. Such is man: if God asks him for something he will not give it; and if God offers him something he will not accept it.
In the parable, a king holds a wedding feast for his son. Notice who that feast is for.
The King is God; the son is the Lord Jesus. Notice that the bride does not appear in the parable at all: everything serves the pleasure of the son. God is acting on this principle in His dealings with men today. When He sends salvation to us, with all its priceless blessings for eternity, His first aim is to give joy and honour to His beloved Son. All God's purposes centre in Him.
If the King provides the feast, any offer to add to it misreads the occasion.
This is something the king is doing, and inviting people to. He tells them that he is going to glorify his son. So around his son's marriage table he must have everything that would make the marriage glorious and blessed — everything that suits the glory of that son. It is all grace. It is clear that in a case like this everything comes from the person who makes the feast. No one could imagine the invited guests having to provide the meal. Why, it would be an insult to the king.
The parable then traces a path. It runs from Israel's refusal to a test at the door for those who do come in.
First the Jews, already invited, are called to the marriage feast. They would not come. This happened during Christ's lifetime. Afterwards, when all was ready, He sends messengers out again to urge them to come. This is the mission of the apostles to the nation, after the work of redemption was complete. They either despise the message or kill the messengers. The result is the destruction of those wicked men and of their city… Since they refuse the invitation, the destitute, the Gentiles, those who were outside, are brought in to the feast, and so the wedding has its guests… There must be fitness for the occasion. For a wedding feast there must be a wedding garment. If Christ is to be glorified, everything must match His glory. A man may enter the kingdom outwardly, by professing Christianity; but anyone not clothed with what belongs to the feast will be cast out. We must be clothed with Christ Himself.
- Answered. No one asked Jesus a question. He answered the thoughts working inside His hearers.
- Cause. The parable starts with the King's purpose to honour His Son, not with our need. There is no bride in view — only the Son's glory.
- Gift. God stops asking for fruit and starts inviting to a feast. At a feast the host supplies everything. To bring your own contribution insults Him.
- Refusal. Asked for something, man will not give it; offered something, he will not take it. Law and grace expose the same heart.
- Reach and result. Their refusal brings judgment on the city. The invitation then goes out to those on the outside. One test still stands at the door: the wedding garment, which is Christ Himself.
The kingdom of the heavens has become like a king who made a wedding feast for his son,
Jesus has just told a story about a vineyard and the fruit its owner looked for. Now He starts again, and this picture runs on other lines. A king asks for nothing. He throws a wedding feast for his son, and the parable turns on whose honour that feast is for.
The two central figures are not left vague. One writer names them, then draws out what such a host would put on the table.
As we think about it, we must be careful to notice the Holy Spirit's leading thought: "a certain king made a marriage feast for his son" (v. 2). The king — "the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God" (1 Tim. 1:17); the son — Christ Jesus, who "came into the world to save sinners" (v. 15). At such a feast everything would be of the best. It would be beneath such royalty to provide anything inferior, or anything that could even be matched.
In the parable just before, the owner came looking for fruit. Here the king hands out invitations.
Notice, at the start, how different the character of the parable is. It is not God's dealing with the natural conscience. It is not His looking for fruit as the owner of the vineyard. It is the king planning to honour his son out of the riches of his own house. Clearly the king is not presenting claims; he is giving — he is inviting... The one who gives a feast — especially if he is the king — provides everything. The guests are not expected to bring anything; nor is any return looked for. On the contrary, to think of such a thing would be to insult the king.
That difference shapes the message the servants carry, down to its key word.
In this parable the king gives instead of demanding. He too has a "Son" in whose honour He makes a marriage feast, sending out His servants to call men in. The call pictures the gospel message well: "I have prepared… everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast." Prepared through the sacrifice of Christ. Ready, since His is a finished work. So it is not now "Go, work," but "Come."
At a wedding you expect a bride. Here she is never mentioned, and that silence has a purpose.
Notice, it is the Marriage of the Lamb, not of the Bride, whoever she may be. God's object is Christ... In the same way, Matthew 22:2 gives us a lovely picture of God's grace to man: a marriage made by a king for his son. Here is a wedding feast described without even a mention of the wife. Is there anything like it anywhere else in literature? In this way God shows us something: when He provides good things for man, He is seeking first of all the joy and glory of His beloved Son.
Luke tells the same story in a shorter form. One writer compares the two, traces where the wedding picture comes from, and names the first guests.
We find the same parable in Luke's gospel (Luke 14:16-24), but in shorter form. In Luke it is simply a man who makes a feast; here it is the marriage feast of a king's son. In the Old Testament, marriage was a familiar picture of the covenant relationship between the people and their God. Here that relationship is with the Son of God — the Messiah. The bride, however, does not come into the scene. Only those invited to the marriage do, and the parable pictures the joys and blessings of union as a feast. The Jews are the guests already invited. But that message could go out only after the sacrifice of the Cross had made atonement: "See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast."
The two invitations fall on either side of the cross.
Here too we have an historical unfolding, not of the past under law, but of God's dealings in grace. We begin with the gospel of the kingdom before our Lord's death in verse 3. Next in verse 4 the gospel goes out on the ground of His finished work. Only then was the urgent message that "all things were ready."
If the feast is for the Son, then the guests are there for more than the food.
Have our souls entered, dear friends, into God's great thought? He is thinking about His Son. His heart is set on glorifying His Son, and He does it through the joy of those He brings in to the "wedding."... Were the guests at this table there merely to feast? Surely not. They were there for the wedding of the Son, and to do Him honour.
- The King gives. The previous parable looked for fruit; this one hands out invitations. The host provides everything, and bringing your own would insult him.
- The Son is the reason. The king makes the feast for his son. God's aim in blessing people is the joy and honour of His beloved Son.
- The bride is absent. A wedding described with no mention of a wife keeps every eye on the Son.
- The call widens. The first invitation went to Israel before the cross. Only after the finished work could the word go out that all things are ready.
- The guests join in. They are not there just to eat. They come to honour the Son and to share the King's own thought about Him.
and sent his bondmen to call the persons invited to the wedding feast, and they would not come.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.