Matt 22:1-14 NLT.
Jesus also told them other parables. He said, 2 “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. 3 When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come! 4 “So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ 5 But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. 6 Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them. 7 “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. 8 And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. 9 Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ 10 So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. 13 Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The characters in this parable are easily identifiable. Israel was the invited guests and they turned down God’s invitation flatly. God in turn opened the invitation to the Gentiles. God was already displeased with the insolence of Israel and had ordered judgment. So God took issue with the further insolence of one who did not come to the wedding feast in proper attire showing how disrespectful he or she could be towards the invitation.
The parable is a serious reminder that though we accept the invitation to receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we cannot come in an insolent or indifferent attitude without repentance. We need to come with a repentant heart and a total commitment to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. God had gone through the ultimate sacrifice of giving His Son for our sins to appease His justice and wrath, it will be so insolent of us to come to Him without true contrition and repentance. That is a fool’s presumptuous false peace to think he is justified by coming to Jesus with selfish motives of seeking food, wealth, health and escape from hell fire.
In John 2:23-25, we learned that many began to believe in Jesus when they saw the miraculous signs He did. But Jesus did not trust them because He knew all about people. No one needed to tell him about human nature for He knew what was in each person’s heart. We can profess faith in Jesus but can He trust us if we come to Him only for selfish motives ?