Many are Called, but Few are Chosen: A Meditation on Matthew 22

And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king,

which made a marriage for his son,

And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding:

 and they would not come.

Again, he sent forth other servants, saying,

Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner:

 my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready:

come unto the marriage.

But they made light of it, and went their ways,

one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

And the remnant took his servants,

and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth:

and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers,

and burned up their city.

 

Then saith he to his servants,

The wedding is ready,

but they which were bidden were not worthy.

 Go ye therefore into the highways,

and as many as ye shall find,

bid to the marriage.

 So those servants went out into the highways,

and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good:

and the wedding was furnished with guests.

 And when the king came in to see the guests,

he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

And he saith unto him,

Friend, how camest thou in hither

not having a wedding garment?

And he was speechless.

Then said the king to the servants,

Bind him hand and foot, and take him away,

and cast him into outer darkness,

 there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

For many are called, but few are chosen.

 

There are few concepts which rile modern sensibilities like the concept of exclusion.  In today’s world, far too many see themselves entitled to everything, even those things that nature and creation have denied them in their very genetic construct.  The desire for equality of outcomes to all people has become a political rallying cry of those who see themselves excluded from opportunity by others, and not necessarily as a consequence of their own choices and actions.  As so often is the case, Jesus’ Word pierces to the center of mental and spiritual maladies both ancient and contemporary, teaching everyone who will listen how to think rightly on such things.

 

In Jesus’ parable of the King and the Wedding Feast, He noted a peculiar arrangement:  the King, who had no obligation to invite all his subjects of a particular city to the wedding party of his son, did so anyway.  The King’s subjects apathetically rejected this offer of unmerited grace, refused to come, and prioritized their own menial activities over those of the King.  The King increased his urgency in the call, pleading with them to come by noting all the preparations long promised were ready, but the subjects instead abused and killed the King’s messengers, returning insult and injury for grace and compassion.  Ultimately the King sent justice to that city of murderous and disrespectful people, slaughtering them all and burning the city to the ground.

 

As if that scene were not peculiar enough, Jesus added another.  The King then sent his invitation out to the whole countryside, and to the furthest reaches of His domain, noting that since those originally called to the wedding feast were unworthy, He would extend the call to everyone.  Thus the servants of the King went throughout the kingdom, calling everyone who would come to the feast, and the banquet hall was filled with guests of every kind.  And yet, as the King walked among his guests, he found one there without a wedding garment, apparently an interloper who was speechless at the King’s inquiry.  Then, in a scene most terrifying, the King commanded his servants to bind the errant guest and cast him into the outer darkness, declaring for all to hear that many are called, but few are chosen.

 

The displays of unwarranted grace and severe judgment in this parable are jarring to the ear, but they are worth consideration by every generation.  In its direct application, Jesus is referring to the Jewish nation and specifically the city of Jerusalem, who had been the beneficiary of all the messianic prophesy of Jesus’ coming and the wedding of God and man which the King of the Universe had been preparing since the fall of mankind.  However, this advent of grace was rejected by the Jewish religious leaders, and it was in the environs of Jerusalem that Jesus would be betrayed, beaten, and slain on a Roman cross.  For this horrible rejection of God’s gracious calling, judgment would fall upon the city of Jerusalem within that same generation, as the Romans would utterly destroy it less than 40 years after Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  Yet even before that judgment would fall, Jesus extended the calling and inclusion in His wedding feast, the reconciliation of God and man by grace through faith in His Vicarious Atonement for the sins of the whole world upon that same Roman Cross, by sending His Apostles out into the world to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus name alone.

 

Even so, this calling continues to this very day, and will continue to the end of time.  The messengers of Jesus’ Gospel of salvation and redemption continue to carry the invitation of God to His wedding feast of reconciliation and eternal life into the whole world, making no distinction of the peculiar circumstances of any given soul—not by race, by wealth, by advantage, or prestige.  Every soul receives the same calling of God to come in Faith and Repentance to the wedding feast of His only begotten Son, where His victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil is consummated for eternity.  Everyone is called to the wedding feast of Jesus, just as He has died for the sins of the whole world, and of every person of every time, tribe, and place.

 

And yet, what are we to make of the conclusion of the story, that many are called, but few are chosen?  How is one to ensure that as the King surveys His banquet, he is not singled out for exclusion, bound hand and foot and cast into hell with every form of evil and malicious rebel against the King of the Universe?  The key is to understand the principle of the wedding garment, something only the King could give, and which a person could only possess by grace.  Only a guest who has heard and responded to the call of faith and repentance, and who arrives not clothed in his own merit to be judged by the works of the Law, but clothed in the robes of Jesus’ righteousness by grace and forgiveness through faith in Him, is found to be at the wedding feast according to the terms of the King.  We must never forget that the wedding feast belongs to the King, and He alone sets the terms for those who would participate in His bounty.  And it is this King who has declared that there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved, except Jesus Christ alone.

 

It is certainly true that many are called, and few are chosen, for though the Gospel goes out to every soul of every nation, not all will respond with faith and repentance to receive the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  Such are the terms of inclusion and exclusion set by the Word of the King, so that no one may stand before Him on the merits of their own works of the Law and demand payment for their labors.  For as all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, so all need the grace and forgiveness of Jesus to be reconciled with God, so that our salvation can only be by grace through faith in Him.  No other wedding garment of our own construction can match the infinite beauty of the garment made by Jesus through His life, death, and resurrection, and no other garment of our own making is worthy to be worn in the King’s presence.  We stand reconciled to God by grace through faith in Jesus, or we fall before His judgment seat to receive the condemnation we have earned on our own.  Thus our inclusion or exclusion in the wedding feast is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, which we know for certain through His Eternal Word alone.

 

And so the call of the Gospel comes to you, and to every soul in every community and nation across this globe.  Hear the Word of the Lord, turn in repentance from your path of evil and delusions of entitlement, and in faithful trust of Jesus receive the free gift of His grace, that you might have forgiveness, life, and salvation in Him forever.  Come to the wedding feast of the King which has been prepared from before the foundation of the world to reconcile God and man forever in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  Come, but only on His gracious terms, that you might never present yourself before His holy Law to be judged upon your own corrupted merits, and thus be sentenced with all the wicked to the eternal fires of hell’s inescapable prison.  Come to the feast of gracious redemption, where all who repent and believe, shall live.  Amen.