The Crossroads of God's Generosity and Human Apathy

Matthew 22:1-14

Every master is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven upon a country.  As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities. --George Mason 

The First Great Invitation  

The Second Great Invitation

Again he sent other servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’” Matthew 22:4

But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. Matthew 22:5-6

The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.  Matthew 22:7 

Then he said to his servants, “The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.” And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. Matthew 22:8-10

Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and prostitutes go into the Kingdom of God before you.  Matthew 21:31

A Jarring Warning 

But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 22:11-13 

For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.  Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. Romans 11:21-22

The clothing expected at a wedding was not a special garment, but decent clean white clothes such as anyone should have had available. In that case, the man’s fault is that, even though invited to a royal wedding, he had not gone home to change into his best; to turn up in ordinary dirty clothes was an insult to the host. The symbolism is of someone who presumes on the free offer of salvation by assuming there are no obligations attached, someone whose life belies their profession: faith without works. Entry to the kingdom of heaven might be free, but to continue in it carries conditions. Even though this man belongs to the new group of invitees, he is one who produces no fruit, and so is no less liable to forfeit his new found privilege than those who were excluded before him. --R. T. France 

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. Matthew 21:43

There is no point in arguing about the marriage garment, whether it is of faith or a holy life and godly life; for faith cannot be separated from good works and good works proceed only from faith. --John Calvin   

The Moral of the Story 

For many are called, but few are chosen. --Matthew 22:14

Galatians 5:22-23

James 3:17    

John 15:1-17

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. Colossians 1:21-23

…and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:21-23 

Assurance of justification which penetrates and cleanses our consciousness of guilt is impossible to attain without an awareness that we are in some measure committed to progress in spiritual growth.  That assurance increases as we move forward in sanctification and weakens or vanishes as we move away from the light of holiness. 

--Richard Lovelace