Parable #40 ~ Matthew 22:1-14 ~ Wedding Banquet ~

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is
like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to
those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to
come.

“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited
that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered,
and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his
business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king
was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their
city.

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I
invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet
anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the
people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with
guests.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who
was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here
without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him
outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”