Many are invited, but Few are Chosen

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In the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 22 and verses 1-14, Jesus talks about the story or a parable about a wedding banquet. This is very similar to a parable about a banquet narrated by Luke in his gospel in chapter. There are some similarities, but both are different occasions based on the narrative. One is a dinner party and the other is a wedding party of the son of a king. There is enough evidence to assume that these are two different parables said in two different occasions.

There are some Bible passages that leave us a bit unsettled, and the parable of the wedding in Matthew 22 is one of them. It talks about some wedding guests who declined the invitation of a King and had to take the harsh punishment. The guests seized his servants who went to invite them, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then the king ordered the servants to go out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests, which they did. Once the banquet had begun, another twist comes up. There was a man without the wedding garment. He was also given a cruel and harsh punishment. “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.’14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” If this is not unsettling, what else can be? Then Jesus concluded the story by making another confusing statement, "Many are invited, but few are chosen."

Jesus says very similar thing in the Sermon on the Mount: “Enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

One of the most difficult questions in theology is this: why are some saved and not others? If God’s grace is for everyone (and it is), and we’re saved by His choosing and His grace alone as Scripture teaches, why is it that only few ends up entering into eternal life? Some try to resolve this problem by saying that God predestines some to heaven and the rest are lost. That’s clearly not Scriptural because the Bible says that God does not want anyone to perish. Others say that the reason a person goes to heaven or to hell is because of their choices. Those who are saved made a decision for Jesus. But that’s not scriptural either because salvation is a gift of God and freely given to all who receive. Jesus says in John 15, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” It is through grace and by faith that we are saved. The Bible teaches that if a person is saved, it’s entirely God’s working in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. All glory and credit for the fact that you’re a Christian belongs to Him. If God doesn't want anyone to perish, why would only some be chosen?

Though this may be beyond our full comprehension, one thing is clear from Scripture: God has prepared salvation for all; “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him may not perish but have everlasting life.” We see even in the parable that we read today that in the end the invitation basically goes out to everyone. It is written, “those servants went out . . . and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good.”
Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who prepared a great feast in honor of the wedding of His Son. Jesus Christ and His bride, the church, are to be joined in a holy and divine marriage, the only marriage that will last into eternity. Earthly marriage vows are always made with the statement, “until death parts us.” But in the marriage of the church and Jesus Christ, not even death can separate Christ from His beloved church, His chosen people. Only by the cross of Christ was this marriage made possible.

All are invited to this Wedding because of the limitless love of God.
The Lord offers salvation to all mankind. “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the highways and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.” Those who were not worthy were the Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Time and again our Lord and His disciples proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of God. Many were called but few gladly received the Word and believed it. Now the Gospel invitation continues to go out to the ends of the earth, even to far away Gentile lands like the United States. The Gospel is able to save all who hear it, as Saint Paul says in Romans chapter one: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
God invites the whole world to Him, but those who are chosen are those who wholeheartedly accept the invitation and its conditions. God sent His Son to people who were condemned to eternal death. Jesus took the sins of all people on Himself, everything in us which causes death, and He overcame it all for us in His death and resurrection. That act of limitless love is the reason for this wedding feast. It is finished; it is done; it’s time to celebrate. God says, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatted cattle are killed, and all things are now ready.” All you need is to show up.

The invitation of the Wedding is to those who do not deserve it. Still, it is a serious invitation.
God’s call to salvation is a serious and urgent call. The king in Jesus’ parable sent the first delegation to invite the guests to come. He sent a second delegation and made the invitation even more pressing. “But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them.” The king became furious and sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t been warned. It is written in Ezekiel, “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from evil his way and live.” 2 Peter says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 1 Timothy says, “God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
There is no way that God is the reason why those who refuse the call of grace are condemned. The reason lies in fallen human beings. As it was in the Gospel, people still too often prefer the profits and pleasures and people over the wedding feast. Some even go so far as to show open hostility toward Christ and His servants.
The wedding of the Son of God requires wedding garments.
Showing up with proper attire is showing honor, especially if it is a royal wedding. It is a custom that the whole world follows. We do that at wedding, at funerals and even it used to be on Sunday worships to dress up in the best attire. Not anymore, these days.
There was one who showed an outward compliance to the call of grace, but he did not come to the feast in the right attire. 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.
At my son's wedding, there was a dress code for the parents, and the groomsmen and brides' maids. As dad, I was asked to go to a particular wedding store and get my measurements ahead of time and have by suits made in time for the wedding. I had to follow the instructions and wear the suit to be at the wedding. If I ignored the instructions and showed up at the wedding in a jeans and T shirt, hoping that it is going to be ok, things would not have turned out nicely, I am sure. It is pure disrespectful to my son and the wedding ceremony itself. Not only my son would be embarrassed, but also would have made him angry and asked me to stay out of the wedding.
Just like my son's wedding, the wedding clothes have been ordered and given. It is the robe or righteousness. Isaiah 61:10 says, “For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Early Christians often described Christian conversion as a “change of clothing” (Bruner). Revelation 19:8 says, “And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” Galatians 3:27 “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (See also Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:5-14). All you need is to accept it and receive it. It if freely given. Free does not mean that it is cheap. God took the form of human and died like one and rose from the dead. There was a costly price paid already. It is for us to take it seriously.
Here the man who was not wearing the wedding garment, was confronted and the Bible says that he was speechless. What had happened to him? These words, I think, are especially for those who might be tempted to be proud of who we are spiritually. He must have thought that his works and probably his position in the religious field might qualify him for the banquet. “All our righteous works are like filthy rags” says the Bible (Isaiah 64:6).
The man without the wedding garment stands for all those who come before God not trusting in Christ but wearing the filthy rags of their own supposed righteousness. Those who despise God and show their contempt for Him by clothing themselves in their own goodness will find themselves bounced into outer darkness forever, where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth.
God freely supplies the clothing. He covers us with the perfection of His Son. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27). God clothes us with Christ in our baptism. He wraps us up in His righteousness. Christ is our white wedding garment. Jesus wore the seamless robe while he was on earthly ministry. "When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom." (John 19:23).
His seamless and spotless robe is our covering. By His death, we are made righteous. His perfect keeping of the Law made us reconciled to God. Baptism is a sacrament that witnesses that fact to the world. Better than any expensive clothing, we have the apparel of Christ. We need to be wearing this as His witnesses in this world.
Righteousness is gift of God when a sinner repents.
The guy who was kicked out of the wedding feast refused to enter properly. He didn’t want to put on the right clothes or admit his faults. He wasn’t willing to enter in a worthy manner. You don’t show up to a wedding in your work clothes; you have to put on the appropriate attire.
The man who was thrown out of the wedding hall represents those who claim to be followers of Christ but who are not living in a way that is pleasing to God. They may talk about God and go to church, but their hearts are not truly committed to him.
Similarly, when we accept the calling of Jesus we need to repent of our old ways and turn back to God. We need to get rid of our filthy old clothes so that we can put on the new ones that he has for us.
They have rejected the call of grace. On the other hand, those who are saved take no credit for their salvation. Those invited and chosen were no better than the others were. They were unfit to dine at the king’s table and needed a wedding garment. They did nothing to help plan the banquet, much less to prepare the feast. They did not invite themselves or make some conscious choice.
Saint Paul proclaims in Ephesians 1: “God chose us in [Jesus] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
God is the prime mover who makes us alive in Christ, who gives hearts of faith by His Holy Spirit. It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. That’s tremendously comforting news; for it means that our salvation is not founded on the shifting sands of our actions and our choices, but on the solid rock of His actions and His choosing of us, even before we could do anything.
“Many are called, but few are chosen.” We are reminded by these words to be on guard that we do not resist God’s grace and frustrate His merciful designs. Let us, rather, pay attention to the wedding feast by believing in and clinging to Christ and His Word, by heeding His invitation to come to the feast at the altar, the Supper of His body and blood.
When we respond to the invitation with faith and repentance, we become the chosen few, set apart by God for His purposes.
Let us remember that being chosen is not about exclusivity but about responding to the grace of God. It is an invitation to an abundant life in Christ and an opportunity to be His ambassadors in this world. May we continually seek to live as the chosen few, shining His light and love to all who have yet to hear His invitation. Amen.