From time to time in our study of the parables I have noted that a particular parable is difficult to interpret, and have mentioned several ways the details of the story could be taken. That problem does not exist with the parable of the wedding banquet, however.
The unique element in the parable before us is the willful refusal of those who were invited. It was not that they could not come. Rather they would not. The reason for their refusal is not spelled out, but it is suggested in the way the servants were treated.
Some who are invited to the gospel banquet do not openly express their hatred of the one who gives it, but they make excuses. As the parable says, they go off “one to his field, another to his business” (v.5). Jesus elaborates that point in Luke’s version of the parable. There he says, “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me’
Half the parable (Matthew 22:1-7) is about those who despised the king and would not come to the banquet. But there is a second half (vv. 8-14), which tells of those who did come. The king instructed, “Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find” (v. 9). In Luke that is elaborated to show how those persons were drawn from the lower ranks of life.
At the point at which the king welcomes his replacement guests, the parable seems to be over. But it is not, and I am glad, because the Lord goes on to give a much-needed warning in the account of the man who came to the feast without a wedding garment.
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