The Parable of the Wedding Banquet: Parables of Jesus Week 7, Day 5

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Weddings were very important social events in Jesus’ day.  They would serve to both celebrate the couple and honor the host, and a royal wedding celebration would be the event of the decade for the kingdom.  It was assumed that if someone was invited to this important event, they would attend.  The invited guests in this parable, however, decide not to attend, and this very abnormal behavior would be shocking to Jesus’ listeners.  The refusal of the guests to attend was a great insult, and would have dishonored both the king and his son.  There would have been two stages to the invitation to this wedding banquet.  First, the guests would be invited and asked to give their commitment.  After the wedding host has had time to prepare, the second stage of the invitation would occur as the announcement of the banquet was made and guests were invited to come.

“When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!”  Matthew 22:3

The king had every right to become angry at the insult of their refusal, but instead, he sent other servants to repeat the invitation.  He tells them the oxen have been killed, the feast has been prepared.  Basically, he’s saying: “This will be a great party!  There will be wonderful food and everything is ready and prepared for you!  Come!”

But the people gave weak excuses, and even worse than merely rejecting the invitation, they also mistreated and killed some of the messengers.  We see the willful refusal to come and rejection of the king in their actions.  It wasn’t that they couldn’t come; they simply chose not to.