Matthew 22:1-14
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 22
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet.[a] 1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent forth his servants to summon those who had been invited to the banquet, but they refused to come. 4 Then he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, my banquet has been prepared, my oxen and my fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.” ’
5 “But they ignored his invitation. One went off to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.
7 “The king was enraged, and he sent forth his troops who destroyed those murderers and burned their city to the ground. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy of that honor. 9 Go forth, therefore, to the main roads and invite everyone you can find to the wedding banquet.’ 10 The servants went forth into the streets and gathered together everyone they could find, good and bad alike. And so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 [b]“But when the king came in to greet the guests, he noticed one man who was not properly dressed for a wedding. 12 ‘My friend,’ he said to him, ‘how did you gain entrance here without a wedding garment?’ The man was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet and cast him outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”[c]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Matthew 22:1 The meaning of this parable is similar to that of the preceding one. The Messianic Kingdom is likened to a nuptial banquet. The king is God; the servants are the Prophets; the invited guests are the Israelites; the punishment of the city refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70; the new invitees are the Gentiles. Some retouches have made the parable a warning to the Church of Matthew as well as a statement of God’s judgment on Israel.
- Matthew 22:11 Scholars speak of these verses almost as another parable, that of the wedding garment. In this world the good and the wicked are mixed together, for it is the time of patience and mercy. During this time Christians must cooperate with God’s grace, which is tantamount to wearing the wedding garment.
- Matthew 22:14 Many . . . chosen: this does not seem to allude to the number of the elect, since that is a secret that the Father had reserved to himself. It means that all the Israelites have been invited, but only a few of them have accepted the Gospel.
