Parable of the Wedding Feast

The Parable of the Wedding Feast is told in Matthew 22:1-14.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who prepared a wedding banquet for his son . He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come...
Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.'

God offered the Kingdom of Heaven to the people of Isreal first. Many refused because they were more interested in the things of this world, which is portrayed by the ones that went to their field or their business. Others were hostile to the servants which represents the religious class who believed more in their traditional ways rather than God's way of salvation as described by God's servants.

At this, God extended his invitation to all people, concluding that those whom he first invited were unworthy of the Kingdom because they rejected him. Looking back through history we can see how this happened. Through Jesus all people groups were welcomed into the Kingdom of God. However, at the time Jesus spoke the parable of the wedding feast it was not only a radical idea, but it was and extremist radical idea. In fact the first non-Jew didn't become a Christian until Jesus sent Peter to Cornelius's house in Acts 10, and even after that there was a debate on whether the Gospel should be extended to non-Jews. This happend approximately ten years after Jesus ascended into heaven and gave his disciples the great commission.

If Jesus had spoken strait up to the Pharisees, and not in parable form, telling them that they would be denied access to the Kingdom and that God was going to invite the Africans, the Asians, the Romans, the Greeks, etc. they would have crucified him on the spot. The pharisees did understand some of what the parable of the wedding feast and other parables meant and began plotting ways to arrest him.

We can rejoice that we are invited into the Kingdom of God. It is the greatest honor we have to be God's invited guest to the wedding feast of his Son. We must not take this invitation lightly and properly prepare ourselves to attend this great banquet. In the parable of the wedding feast there is one that didn't take the honor seriously. He showed up in regular clothes, unprepared in and insulting way.

In most cultures it is traditional to dress up at weddings. To show up in plain everyday clothes would be insulting to the wedding party because it shows lack of interest and respect. To dress in appropriate attire and look our best honors the wedding party. Dressing ourselves up and making ourselves look good takes time and effort. God has honored us by inviting us to the wedding banquet of his Son. Let us honor him by putting in the time and effort to make ourselves presentable at his feast. Not as a way of gaining salvation, but as a way of showing the earnestness of our love.