Matthew 22:1-14 Commentary

This is the third in a series of parables targeting the temple leaders. It all started as they confronted Jesus about his authority because of the way he disrupted their domain. Jesus first challenged them to consider their obedience to God, then he challenged them to consider the way they were abusing God’s gifts to them, and now he’s challenging them to see that they have rejected the very welcome that God has held out to them: they thought they were “in” but they are actually very “out.”

The parables have increased in their shock value and this final one is the same. Yet again, God’s messengers (the King’s slaves) are mocked and hurt and killed as the invitation to the wedding feast is turned down. This is the wicked tenants from last week all over again. The King has taken great steps to prepare this awesome thing that people only need to enjoy, and not only do they say no, but they add insult to injury.

The King takes violent action, sending his troops to bring vengeance upon those who murdered his messengers. Like the punishment that the temple leaders said the temple leaders deserved, the murderers are destroyed. This section of the story is particularly important to keep in the context of the parable—it’s part of the story that will connect with the immediate audience but is not the point of the story that the storyteller, Jesus, means for us to take home. We are not to make God out as a vengeful king.

Instead, the point is to understand that God has prepared all of this bounty for us to enjoy, to use in meaningful labour (like last week) and asks us to participate in his ways (the first parable about obedience). 

That message is clear from the second shocking part of the story. The third round of invitations (the first was the standard invite to the wedding, the second came through the in-person invites delivered by the slaves), the invitations go to any and everyone, good and bad. What a wonderful turn of events—like the tax collectors and prostitutes who listened to what God was saying and will inherit the Kingdom (akin to parable #1).

Everyone is able to join the feast, but joining means more than walking through the door. Joining God means joining God. Joining the feast means letting the invitation go deep to one’s heart, changing you from the inside out. Wearing the right kind of clothing is symbolic throughout the Scriptures for being righteous and pure, and here it signifies a commitment to that kind of life. The alternative is being an interloper—someone trying to steal an inheritance that does not belong to them (like parable #2).

Clearly, we’re hearing another warning. The last two weeks have included details that reveal the leaders’ response to Jesus’s stories. First, they tried to sit on the fence about where John the Baptist’s authority came from, hoping to keep their pie while eating it too. Then, when they realized that Jesus’s stories were about them and their lack of obedience to God (the very ground of their authority), they start to plot how to get rid of him but are held in check by their fear of losing the support of the crowd. Since they claim to be true believers in God, they have been warned to obey God, they have been warned about how they are abusing their role and all that God has given them, and now they are being warned that they are actually proving that they have rejected God altogether. But even more so, they are being warned that even if they think they are safely “in,” their lack of faith in who God truly is and what God is truly about, will be found out in how they show up and live their lives. Like the “bad” wedding guest who isn’t wearing the right robe, our loyalties, priorities, beliefs and actions are laid in the open and known by God. In a sense, faith is all in what we do with it.

Textual Point

The lectionary doesn’t include verse 15 in the selection but you might, since it flows so well from the previous weeks. Jesus has been building his accusation and outlining the consequences of what he is seeing among the leaders. After this third parable, they decide to go after Jesus—no more holding off because of the crowds—his threat is too real. 

Illustration Idea

I recently watched the series Life & Beth created by Amy Schumer; it is a semi-autobiographical comedy about a woman navigating her life with childhood memories replaying alongside major life transitions. Two sets of interactions reminded me of scenes in this text. First, there’s the way that the invitees respond to the slaves’ invitations. Can’t you just picture them scoffing and guffawing like a bunch of high schoolers making fun of someone who just went out on a limb to ask a very normal question? Beth had plenty of those sorts of experiences in the show… In another pattern of events, Beth’s partner John has a habit of showing up to events in inappropriate attire: he doesn’t wear shoes, or he doesn’t have a black suit for a funeral, or he doesn’t dress up at all to go to a nice restaurant. John is a person with undiagnosed autism, so his reasons are not nefarious, but Beth’s reactions (before she and John understand better what is going on) are appropriate. They also reveal the same sort of frustration that the King in the story might have had about how he is being treated.