Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 22:11
And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
11. which had not on a wedding garment ] The festive robe which the master of the feast himself provided, so that there was no excuse. This man is the representative of a class the bad ( Mat 22:10), who are not clothed in righteousness.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A man which had not on a wedding garment – In ancient times, kings and princes were accustomed to make presents of changes of raiment to their friends and favourites, to refuse to receive which was an expression of highest contempt, Gen 45:22; 2Ki 10:22; Est 6:8; Est 8:15. It was, of course, expected that such garments would be worn when they came into the presence of the benefactor. The garments worn on festival occasions were chiefly long white robes, and it was the custom of the person who made the feast to prepare such robes to be worn by the guests. This renders the conduct of this man more inexcusable. He came in his common and ordinary dress, as he was taken from the highway: and though he had not a garment of his own suitable for the occasion, yet one had been provided for him, if he had applied for it. His not doing it was expressive of the highest disrespect for the king. This beautifully represents the conduct of the hypocrite in the church. A garment of salvation might be his, performed by the hands of the Saviour, and dyed in his blood; but the hypocrite chooses the filthy rags of his own righteousness, and thus offers the highest contempt for that provided in the gospel. He is to blame, not for being invited – not for coming, if he would come, for he is freely invited but for offering the highest contempt to the King of Zion in presenting himself with all his filth and rags, and in refusing to be saved in the way provided in the gospel.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 22:11-13
He saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment.
I. The invitation itself is in Mat 22:3-4. There is a double call. God will not take the first repulse, but will try again before He will quit a people. More particularly the first call was by the prophets, the second by the apostles. All things are ready, if we are ready.
II. The success of this invitation or offer of grace. Some slighted it, others rejected it with malice. Excusing is refusing.
III. The issue (Mat 22:7). When the king heard thereof, etc. Contempt of the gospel, joined with persecution of the preachers of it, bringeth utter ruin and devastation.
The next part of the parable (Mat 22:9-10).
I. The charge to invite.
II. The servants obedience and their success. A people may want God, but God cannot want a people to serve Him. All that give their names to God are not found; there is a mixture of good and bad. So sometimes the church is full, but heaven never the fuller; for though they receive the gospel, they do not receive it in full power and efficacy.
III. You have the carriage of the king towards the hypocritical guests.
I. The discovery. All that receive the gospel must look to have their sincerity tried, for the King will visit and observe the guests (Mat 22:14). The meaning is, that in the throng and multitude of converts, if there be but one that is insincere, God can espy him, and find him out. Repentance and reformation of life is the new garment of the soul; that only will become the gospel feast.
II. The expostulation. God loveth to make the sinner convinced and condemned in his own conscience, that He may be clear when He judgeth, and justified in all His proceedings with Him. The man was speechless. They that embrace the gospel and live in an unmortified and impenitent manner can have nothing to plead by way of excuse.
III. The doom and sentence (Mat 22:13). Conscience in hell will have a special kind of accusing, and self-tormenting in our reflecting on the refusal of the remedy. Christ will pronounce a heavier doom if we obey not the gospel, to which we profess to submit. It is dangerous to come to Gods feast without a wedding garment.
I. What is Gods feast? In the gospel all kinds of comforts and spiritual gifts and graces are ready prepared, and freely offered to us. God hath made excellent provision for the entertainment of His own family. This feast serveth for two uses.
1. For the honour of God, to show His magnificence and royalty, and the glory of His exceeding great grace and mercy in Jesus Christ (as Ezr 1:3-4), the choicest blessings. Love is gone to the utmost; beyond God there is nothing; God reconciled and God enjoyed are the chiefest blessings we can enjoy.
2. For the comfort and refreshment of sinful man. There is in it all we can expect in a feast.
(1) Ample satisfaction to every soul that is spiritually hungry and thirsty (Psa 36:8; Psa 22:26). There is no defect or want in Gods feast. But many prefer husks before the fatted calf. Swinish pleasures before these chaste delights. These besot the heart awhile, but they cannot satisfy it.
(2) Joy, pleasure, delight. What will cheer the heart and conscience? The pardon of sin is the true reviving thing (Mat 9:2).
(3) God useth us as friends. We may sit down at His table. But what an honour it is to sit down at the feast of the King of Kings! It is a token of our reconciliation with Him, for eating together is an act of friendship.
II. What is coming to this feast? It is to profess ourselves Christians, and using the ordinances which belong thereunto.
III. What is the wedding garment? It is usual in Scripture to set forth sin by nakedness, and grace by a garment (Rev 3:17-18). Graces are a beautiful ornament to the soul as garments are to the body. It is such a garment as becometh the solemnity of the marriage-feast of the kings son; the wedding garment is that new array which becometh such a solemnity. As it is a royal feast, it must be something more than ordinary excellency that is required of us; a spiritual feast, a spiritual excellency. Therefore the wedding garment is holiness, habitual and actual, which is the glory of God, and the beauty of God and His people (Rev 19:8). I must now represent the danger of entering upon the profession of the gospel, or coming to this feast without such a wedding garment.
IV. Thy odiousness of the sin in these considerations.
1. Your profession is partial; there is a twofold profession in word and deed. In word when we own Christ, in whom we have believed: in deed, when we walk answerably.
2. One part of the profession condemneth the other; if we own a God and do not live answerably our belief condemneth our practice (Tit 1:16). So while they own Christ they do but mock Him; they profess to honour Christ by coming to His feast, but they dishonour Him and affront Him while they come m their own and ordinary apparel. The ungodly lives of Christians are a reproach to Christianity. You should adorn, but you disgrace the gospel (Tit 2:10). Religion as visibly acted and expressed by you should be found a beautiful thing.
3. One part of your profession is abused to corrupt and destroy the other; and the Christian name is only taken on to patronize unchristian practices (Jud 1:4.). They come to the gospel feast that they may the more securely live in their sins.
V. The certainty of discovery.
1. When you come as guests to the marriage-feast your business lieth not with men, but with God. The king cometh to see the guests. You may have a garment to cover you before men, but not before God. But when the Lord looketh to the guests, He is the party with whom you have to do. How will you do to escape His eye and search? (Gal 6:7).
2. God loveth to unease hypocrites (Pro 26:26). His anger is more kindled against them because they profess such a nearness to Him.
3. Hypocrisy is hateful to God in anything, but especially in coming to the gospel feast. For that is a kind of daring of God, or a putting it to the trial whether He will discover you or no.
4. There are certain times when God cometh in a more ,especial manner to discover those that are unsound in the profession of the gospel.
God doth always see their hearts, but there are certain seasons when they shall know that He seeth them.
1. By trying judgments. When the tree is shaken the rotten apples fall.
2. Sometimes by offences (1Co 2:19).
3. At death a man should always be provided for that hour. We carry nothing out of the world but a winding-sheet and a wedding garment-the one for the soul, the other for the body.
4. In the Day of Judgment. When all the world is arraigned before Christ, and He distinguisheth the sheep from the goats, then will He expostulate with you. Where is your wedding garment?
5. The doom and punishment.
(1) They are not permitted to taste of the feast. God denieth them grace, and so they have but an empty ordinance.
(2) They incur eternal wrath (Mat 24:51); they are excluded the feast, and cast into the dungeon.
Use. To persuade us to get this wedding garment.
I. Then you are welcome and acceptable to God. You are not intruders, but welcome guests.
II. Then you may be bold, and will not be dashed out of countenance.
III. This showeth you were real friends to the Bridegroom, that you mean to honour Him with such a conversation as floweth from faith and love to Christ (Gal 5:6).
IV. Nothing doth more concern you than that you should not be Christians in vain, and profess Christ to your loss.
What remaineth, then, but that we look after the wedding garment.
I. Determine what it is. An holy conversation coming out of a renewed heart is this wedding garment (Mat 12:34).
II. Get this wedding garment out of the Kings wardrobe. God delights in the graces of His own Spirit. No man is born clothed; we have it from God.
III. Wear your wedding garment. Not only get grace, but exercise it in all duties towards God and man (Rev 16:15).
IV. Keep your garments undefiled, and unspotted from the world (Rev 3:4).
V. Wash your garments often in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14). (T. Manton, D. D.)
The wedding garment
We must consider what we are to understand.
I. By the wedding garment. It is the costume or spiritual dress necessary for the enjoyment of heaven-holiness often described as a garment (Job 29:14; Isa 61:10; Psa 45:13; Rev 3:18; Rev 7:9).
II. The solemn scrutiny.
1. Was Divine.
2. Was personal, Religion is a personal concern.
III. The awful detection. We may form three conjectureS as to this robeless character.
1. It might have resulted from carelessness. He did not attend to the requirements of the king, etc. How many like him, etc. 2.:From procrastination. How many Such are always in Gods house.
3. From proud and wicked preference. Perhaps thought it not essential; had other views; would trust in the mercy of the king, or his own beautiful habiliments. How many of this class are there!
IV. The awful investigation.
1. It was public. Before all the guests. The enemies of Christ will be publicly confounded at the last day; clothed with shame and contempt.
2. It was reasonable. It gave an opportunity for the exhibition of righteousness. God will allow the sinner to plead.
3. It was overwhelming. He had no reason to assign, hence he was confounded.
V. The dreadful punishment.
1. The removal.
2. The sentence.
3. The misery.
Application.
1. Now, all that is necessary for heaven may be obtained, and that by all.
2. Let professors examine themselves, etc.
3. Let sinners be entreated. Listen to the voice of the gospel and live. (J. Burns, LL. D.)
The wedding garment
I. At this feast there was but one condition of acceptance-the wearing of a particular garment, Faith in Christ.
1. The wedding garment had no merit in itself: faith has no intrinsic worth.
2. It was all-important because commanded by the king: the fact that faith, as the instrument of justification, is ordained of God endows it with importance.
3. It was no arbitrary symbol.
4. It was highly significant.
II. There was one who failed to comply with this condition. Of whom is he the type?
1. He was in the guest-chamber.
2. He desired to eat of the feast.
3. He remained in the guest-chamber until the king came.
4. He may have been highly esteemed by the rest.
III. The probable reasons of his non-compliance. Pride, self-deception, pride of intellect. (R. Griffin.)
The hypocrite self-condemned
The guest referred to was speechless because-
I. He could not plead ignorance of the will of the king who had invited him to the feast.
II. He could not plead that in his case the wedding garment was not necessary.
III. He could not plead that a wedding garment was not placed within his reach.
IV. He had despised the wedding garment.
V. He was overwhelmed with a sense of guilt. Learn the worthlessness of mere profession, and the necessity of being prepared for coming judgment. (Studies.)
The wedding garment
Between this man and the other guests there are some points of resemblance, and some of difference. Let us trace-
I. The points of resemblance.
1. He Was an invited guest. We are all called to the great feast.
2. He was a needy guest. All equally needy.
3. He was an expectant guest.
II. The points of difference.
1. They differed in their appearances.
2. They not only differed in appearances, but in their principles, in their states, in their conduct. He had neglected to observe the conditions on which admission was granted, etc.
III. The causes of the difference. Perhaps it was carelessness, pride, mind pre-occupied, etc.
IV. The consequences to which it led.
1. Detection.
2. Overwhelming confusion.
3. Destruction. (A. Weston.)
The wedding garment
I. The scrutiny of the king.
1. The manner of his discovery. He was not discovered till the king came in. Though the Lord knoweth them that are His, they that are His do not always know each other.
2. The language of the address, Friend, etc. Gods judgments proceed upon our self-assumed character. The man was not obliged to accept the kings invitation. Not having a wedding garment. This was the affront.
II. The confusion of the criminal He was speechless. There was no excuse. Conscious guilt struck him dumb. Before the bar of God man will not be able to plead-the souls inborn sin. He could not plead inability to procure the garment. (D. Moore, M. A.)
The wedding garment
I. The points of resemblance between this man and the other guests.
1. He was an invited guest.
2. He was a needy guest.
3. He was an expecting guest.
II. The point of difference between the man here spoken of and the other guests. The wedding garment is, in short, a wedding spirit.
III. To what causes must we trace this difference between him and them. It must be traced to himself.
1. Perhaps carelessness, mere inconsideration, led to his refusal.
2. It may have been pride.
3. There was great irreverence in his conduct.
IV. The consequences to which it led.
1. Detection.
2. Confusion.
3. Destruction. (C. Bradley.)
The dreadful consequence of being found at last without the wedding garment
I. The discovery.
II. The trial.
III. The condemnation of this man. (T. Drummond.)
The rejected guest
1. The folly of the human heart as seen in the way in which men attempt to impose upon God.
2. Though only one rejected, the guests admitted far less numerous than those invited.
3. It was the mans own fault that he had not the wedding garment.
4. The wedding garment is something more than outward conduct, for it escaped human observation. It was something which the king could alone discover. (C. J. P. Eyre, M. A.)
Speechless
1. You cannot say that the gospel plan is unworthy of your acceptance as a rational and immortal being.
2. You will be speechless because you cannot plead ignorance of the plan of salvation.
3. You cannot plead as an excuse for your wickedness the necessity of an irreligious life from the decrees of God. (A. Gilmour.)
The garment of life
Old stories and strange chronicles of other days come into the thoughts as we listen to the words of Christ. For instance, they tell us of one who sat, day after day, in her fair house, past which a strong river flowed toward the sea, and she ever wove and wove, and never looked up, nor heeded aught beyond that task; till, on one fatal day, there came by a vision of the pride and beauty of this world: then she looked up, and left her work, and was lost, and undone. And so may it be in many a life: there is work for us to do, and do it we must; here is a garment to be woven, and God has told us what is coming, and has set us at the task, here beside the great river of time, which shall become for each, ere long, the river of death. What are we at? Are our hearts in the task? Or are the eyes wandering, and is the thing like to be left for ever undone? (Morgan Dix, D. D.)
The wedding garment is essentially a habit of holiness and righteousness
It differs, specifically, from those vanities in which we take so much delight, in the following respects:
1. It is a clothing of humility; no robe of pride to dress up the sinner.
2. It truly corresponds to what the wearer is; no masquerade dress disguising the idle reveller or the stealthy conspirator.
3. It is a habit of the inner as well as of the outer man. A dress of the soul, the everyday costume of the devout and religious spirit, the inner habit which goes together with the outer, orderly, and sober life. (Morgan Dix, D. D.)
The wedding garment: the maker and the materials
I. The maker. It must be woven by our own hands, if ever woven at all. No such thing as getting it made for you. Every man is his own artisan: there are no workshops, and no workmen, here or elsewhere, to fit for heaven the souls of those who will not make themselves ready. We can buy, according to our means, sufficient, or more than sufficient, of lavish or gorgeous apparel, for this world and this life; but not one thread or one fingers breadth of that which we need for the life to come.
II. The materials. These are from God. They are the redeeming work of Christ, His perfect righteousness, and absolute holiness, His merits, the benefits of His cross and passion, His mighty resurrection and glorious ascension. To weave these materials into a garment, skilled and industrious fingers are needed: faith, hope, love. We must weave a true Christian habit by Christian acts; we must take what the Lord has done for us, and of it we must work a holy life; we must become like Him.
III. We shall have his help if we work hard. If we do our best, God will supply all the defects in our work, and make it good; sufficient for every need. Such garment as the child of God tries to make, in accordance with Gods will, may need much altering and setting right; it shall need to be shaped, and washed, and made white, till it become that radiant dress which the King shall see with pleasure. (Morgan Dix, D. D.)
The wedding garment a festive robe
The garment must, surely, from the very nature of the image, have been intended to signify something public and visible, in which each wearer harmonises with all, and all with the spirit of the peculiar scene into which they are introduced, and to which the dress is appropriate. I would say, then, that by this remarkable symbol our Lord did not intend merely the inward principle of faith exclusively considered, nor yet merely the mysterious imputation of righteousness through identification with Christ (though these are, no doubt, necessary conditions and first steps to its possession); for apparel is, of all things, the most manifest and visible, and the wedding apparel is especially the apparel of joy. This festal garment of heaven, then, which each man must bring with him into the high presence of God, seems to be no other than that celestial temper which manifests itself by the infallible indications of a holy joy-that spiritual sympathy with the things of the spiritual world, which exhibits itself in cordial, irrepressible demonstration of the blessedness within; holy happiness, public and expressed; the joy in the Holy Ghost-no longer a secret, timid, half-uttered delight, but sparkling in the eye, and fearless in the voice; the life no longer hid with Christ in God, but apparent with Him in glory. I repeat it- inward, spiritual happiness, developed by the presence of God, and the consciousness of heaven, into visible manifestation-this is the wedding garment which Christ beholds and approves in the saved. (W. Archer Butler, M. A.)
Grace a garment
Tis usual in Scripture to set forth sin by nakedness, and grace by a garment. Graces are a beautiful ornament to the soul as garments are to the body. (T. Manton.)
False pretences in religion
I. The original and ground of this figurative expression, of having on the wedding garment. The constant and prevailing temper or disposition of any mans spirit, can no way be Set forth more expressively than under the similitude of bodily garments, so investing the person as to be his proper and distinguishing attire.
II. Useful and practical observations.
1. How absolutely and indispensably God expects and requires, that every man who hopes to be admitted into the kingdom of heaven, should have his mind endued, and as it were clothed, with those habitual virtuous qualifications, which can no otherwise be acquired than by righteous practice.
2. There is such a thing as a false or ill-grounded hope; there are deceitful expectations, which may betray men into perdition.
3. The judgment of God will be according to right, in the sense that we understand just and right; in the sense, that even the wickedest of men shall not be able to deny, is according to righteousness and justice. The man convicted was speechless.
4. The reality of the concern God has for the salvation of men.
5. A very moving admonition, how dreadful at last will be the state of those whom the great goodness and long-suffering of God have not been able to bring to repentance, and to effectual amendment of life and manners. (S. Clarke.)
Personal dealings with individuals
The professors of the gospel will be personally examined.
1. There is a personal visit, When the king came.
2. There is a personal scrutiny, He saw a man.
3. There is a personal interrogation, Friend, how camest thou in?
4. There is a personal conviction, He was speechless.
5. There is a personal bondage, Bind him.
6. There is a personal exclusion, Cast him into outer darkness.
7. There is a personal torment, Weeping and gnashing of teeth. (J. T. Woodhouse.)
Providing festal garments
The framework of the parable probably pre-supposes the Oriental custom of providing garments for the guests who were invited to a royal feast. Wardrobes tilled with many thousand garments formed part of the wealth of every Eastern prince (Mat 6:19; Jam 5:2), and it was part of his glory, as in the case of the assembly which Jehu held for the worshippers of Baal (2Ki 10:22), to bring -them out for use on state occasions. On this assumption, the act of the man who was found not having a wedding garment was one of wilful insult. He came in the filthy rags (Isa 64:6), of his old life, instead of putting on the white linen meet for a kingly feast (Ecc 9:8; Rev 3:4-5), which had been freely offered him. (Dean Plumptre.)
The wedding garment given
A coloured minister was once discoursing on salvation, which he illustrated as follows:-Suppose, said he, any of you wanted a coat, and should go to a white gentleman to purchase one. Well, he has one that exactly fits you, and in all respects is just what you need. You ask the price; but, when told, find that you have not enough money, and shake your head-No, massa; I am too poor; must go without,-and turn away. But he says, I know you cannot pay me; I have concluded to give it you. Will you have it? What would you do in that case? Would you stop to hem and haw, and say, Oh! hes just laughing at me; he dont mean it? No such thing. There is not one of you who would not take the coat, and say, Yes, massa, and thank you, too. Now, my dear friends, Gods salvation is offered to you as freely as that. Why wont you take it as freely? You are lost, undone sinners, and feel that you need a covering from His wrath. If you could keep His holy law blameless, you might purchase it by good works; but ah! you are full of sin. Prayers and tears are worthless. You are poor indeed, and if this is all your dependence I dont wonder that you are turning off in despair. But stop! look here! God speaks now, and offers you the perfect robe of Christs righteousness that will cover all your sins, and fit all your wants, and He says that you may have it without money and without price. (American Paper.)
Highways and hedges
We might do better if we went further afield. Our invitations to Christ, which fall so feebly on the ears of those who regularly hear us, would be welcomed by those to whom we never deliver them. We are fools to waste time in the shallows of our churches and chapels, when the deep outside teems with waiting fishes. We need fresh hearers: the newer the news to any man, the more likely is he to regard it as good news. Music-hall work, out-door preaching, house-to-house visitation have virgin soil to deal with, and there is none like it. Invite the oft-invited-certainly; but do not forget that those who have never been invited as yet cannot have been hardened by refusals. Beggars in the highways had never been bidden to a marriage-feast before; and so, when they were surprised with an invitation, they raised no questions, but gladly hastened to the banquet.
Lack of the wedding garment
Is there any common way of dealing with Gods invitation than that which this man adopted? He had no deep love for his king, no grateful and humbling sense of his kindness, no perception of what was due to him; but with the blundering stupidity of godlessness, thought selfishness would carry him through, and ran right upon his doom. What is commoner than this self-complacency, this utter blindness to the fact that God is holy, and that holiness must therefore be the rule everywhere; what is commoner than the feeling that we are well enough, that we shall somehow pass muster, that as we mean to take our places among the heavenly guests we shall surely not be rejected? How hard it is for any of us fully to grasp the radical nature of the inward change that is required if we are to be meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. Conformity to God, ability to rejoice with God and in God, humble and devoted reverence, a real willingness to do honour to the Kings Son-these are great attainments; but these constitute our wedding garment, without which we cannot remain in His presence nor abide His searching gaze. It is the heart that you bear towards Him that will determine your destiny. No mere appearance of accepting His invitation, no associating of yourself with those who love Him, no outward entrance into His presence, no making use of the right language is anything to the purpose. What is wanted is a profound sympathy with God, a real delight in what is holy, a radical acceptance of His will-in other words, and as the most untutored conscience might see, what is wanted is a state of mind in you which God can delight in, and approve of, and hold fellowship with. (Marcus Dods, D. D.)
Refusal of the wedding garment
Had the man any means of obtaining a dress more in keeping with the occasion? Was he not perhaps so poor that he could afford no preparation of any kind? Had this been so, it would have been pleaded in excuse. But no doubt the parable supposes that the not unusual custom of providing for the guests the needed garment had been adopted; a provision which this guest had despised and refused; he had pushed past the officious servants who would have clothed him. It is this that constituted the mans audacity and guilt. Similar audacity in entering the kings presence without putting on the robe sent by The king for that purpose, has been known to cost a prime minister his life. A traveller who was invited, with the ambassadors he accompanied, to the table of the Persian king, says: We were told by the officer that we, according to their usage, must hang the splendid vests that were sent us from the king over our dresses, and so appear in his presence. The ambassadors at first refused, but the officer urged it so earnestly, alleging, as also did others, that the omission would greatly displease the king, since all other envoys observed such a custom, that at last they consented, and hanged, as did we also, the splendid vests over their shoulders. So at this, marriage, dresses had been provided by the king. The guests who had been picked off the streets were not told to go home and do the best they could for their dress, but in the palace, in the vestibule of the banquet-hall, each man was arrayed in the dress the king wished to see worn. Possibly the man who declined the offered garment had a dress of his own he grudged to cover. Possibly be thought he was as well dressed as need be. He would stroll in superciliously as a patron or spectator, thinking it very fit for those poor, coarse-clothed and dirty people to make use of the kings wardrobe, but conscious of no speck or uncleanliness in his own raiment that should cause him to make any alteration of it. (Marcus Dods, D. D.)
The wedding garment
I. The multitude of guests.
II. The unfitted one.
III. The merciless end.
Piety outwardly manifested
All organized beings are sustained by an inner economy of life, which is made manifest by an outer life. There is in us an inner life of thoughts, opinions, beliefs, emotions, and desires. These should be brought in conformity with the mind and Spirit of Christ. They correspond with the root of the tree, or with the seed which you hide end bury in the ground. Now, you are not satisfied with the root and the sap of the tree, or the germ power in the seed that you have hid in the earth. These hidden, buried, and unrevealed powers do not suffice. You want them to come forth and put on their gay garments, that your eye may be delighted and gladdened by their beauty. And you cut down the tree, you plough up the seed, if it puts on no wedding garment of blossom and fruit. So, say not my faith is right, my opinions are correct, my emotions are warm; for God wants more than these. He looks for fruit, for the beautiful wedding garment of a pure, sweet, loving, unselfish, and Christ-like life. The outward beauty, it is true, grows out of the hidden life. It is not put on. ,The beauty of the lily is not put on the flower, as a man puts on his coat. It grows out of the lily-like nature of the flower, many put on the manners of the Christian; but when they are only put on they drop off and expose the nakedness of the wearer when temptation comes, or when there is no end to be answered by keeping them on. Let us train ourselves, day by day, into the habit and feeling of the Christian spirit and temper, so that acts of Christian love, nobleness, and self-denial may grow out of us, as the beautiful form and colour grow out of the lily, and the sweet fragrance out of the rose. (R. Davey.)
The wedding garment
1. An enemy at the feast.
2. The king at the feast.
3. The judge at the feast.
4. The criminal at the feast.
5. The executioner. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Speechless at the judgment
There is no speechlessness at present, when we ply men with questions as to their being unprepared for eternity: they have all some specious excuse to plead, or some empty promise to make. But there will be no death-like silence hereafter, throughout the company of those who come up from the grave unclothed for eternity. Every particular of their lives will have crowded in upon the memory, and the consciousness of what they might have been will repress all murmuring at what they are. I have read the singular account of some who have been recovered from apparent death by drowning, and they say, that, as life went away, every action, every occurrence from infancy upwards, presented itself to the mind with overpowering vividness, so that the close was as it were the resurrection of their existence; they seemed to themselves to have lived the whole of life over again, in those fearful moments when they were grappling with death, so energetically and with so marvellous an accuracy did long-forgotten things pass before them, and the picture of their every day, and every week, and every hour, paint itself on the mental retina. And if there is to come at last this resuscitation of memory, oh! we cannot wonder at the speechlessness of those who are condemned at the judgment. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Called, but not chosen
What of necessity must be the character of that man who has put on that robe?
1. He must be a humble man.
2. He may walk into the feast boldly in his confidence.
3. He must be joyous. It is a feast.
4. He must be loving. It is a feast to commemorate love.
5. The Christ that is on him will be the Christ that is in him. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. When the king came] When God shall come to judge the world.
Wedding garment] Among the orientals, long white robes were worn at public festivals; and those who appeared on such occasions with any other garments were esteemed, not only highly culpable, but worthy of punishment. Our Lord seems here to allude to Zep 1:7-8, The Lord hath prepared a SACRIFICE, he hath BIDDEN his guests. And it shall come to pass, in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, that I will PUNISH the princes, and the KING’S CHILDREN, and ALL SUCH as are clothed with STRANGE APPAREL. The person who invited the guests prepared such a garment for each, for the time being; and with which he was furnished on his application to the ruler of the feast. It was this which made the conduct of the person mentioned in the text inexcusable; he might have had a proper marriage garment, if he had applied for it.
To afford accidental guests clothing suitable to a marriage feast, was a custom among the ancient Greeks. Homer relates that Telemachus, and the son of Nestor, arriving at Lacedaemon when Menelaus was making a marriage feast for his son and daughter, were accommodated with garments suited to the occasion, after having been bathed and anointed.
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Odyss. l. iv. ver. 49-51.
They entered each a bath, and by the hands
Of maidens laved, and oiled, and clothed again
With shaggy mantles and resplendent vests,
Sat both enthroned at Menelaus’ side. Cowper.
Among the Asiatics, garments called caftans, great numbers of which each nobleman has ordinarily ready in his wardrobe, are given to persons whom he wishes to honour: to refuse to accept or wear such a dress would be deemed the highest insult.
This marriage feast or dinner (the communication of the graces of the Gospel in this life) prepares for the marriage supper of the Lamb, Re 19:7-9, the enjoyment of eternal blessedness in the kingdom of glory. Now, as without holiness no man can see the Lord, we may at once perceive what our Lord means by the marriage garment – it is HOLINESS of heart and life: the text last quoted asserts that the fine, white, and clean linen (alluding to the marriage garment above mentioned) was an emblem of the RIGHTEOUSNESS of the SAINTS. Mark this expression: the righteousness, the whole external conduct; regulated according to the will and word of God. Of the SAINTS, the holy persons, whose souls were purified by the blood of the Lamb.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
11. And when the king came in to seethe guestsSolemn expression this, of that omniscientinspection of every professed disciple of the Lord Jesus from ageto age, in virtue of which his true character will hereafter bejudicially proclaimed!
he saw there a manThisshows that it is the judgment of individuals which is intendedin this latter part of the parable: the first part represents rathernational judgment.
which had not on a weddinggarmentThe language here is drawn from the followingremarkable passage in Zep 1:7;Zep 1:8: “Hold thy peaceat the presence of the Lord God; for the day of the Lord is at hand:for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, He hath bid His guests. Andit shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, that I willpunish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as areclothed with strange apparel.” The custom in the East ofpresenting festival garments (see Gen 45:22;2Ki 5:22), even though norclearly proved, Is certainly presupposed here. It undoubtedly meanssomething which they bring not of their ownfor how could they haveany such dress who were gathered in from the highwaysindiscriminately?but which they receive as theirappropriate dress. And what can that be but what is meant by “puttingon the Lord Jesus,” as “THELORD OURRIGHTEOUSNESS?” (SeePsa 45:13; Psa 45:14).Nor could such language be strange to those in whose ears had so longresounded those words of prophetic joy: “I will greatly rejoicein the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothedme with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robeof righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, andas a bride adorneth herself with her jewels” (Isa61:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when the king came in to see the guests,…. Professors of religion, members of churches, whom God takes particular notice of; he is an omniscient being, and his eyes are upon all men and their actions, and especially on such as are called by his name: he takes notice how they behave in the exercise of grace, and discharge of duty, and distinguishes hypocrites from real believers; the latter of which he has a special affection for, makes rich and large provisions for them, and protects and defends them; he knows them that are his, and gives them marks of respect; and he spies out such as are not, and will in his own time discover them, to their utter confusion and ruin. There are certain times and seasons, when God may be said to come in to see his guests; as sometimes in a way of gracious visits to his dear children, when he bids them welcome to the entertainment of his house, and invites them to eat and drink abundantly: and sometimes in a way of providence, against formal professors and hypocrites; and at the last judgment, when he will separate the sheep from the goats, and discern between the righteous and the wicked:
he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment; by which is meant, not good works, or a holy life and conversation, nor any particular grace of the Spirit, as faith, or charity, or humility, or repentance, or any other, nor the whole work of sanctification, nor the Holy Ghost, but the righteousness of Christ: for though good works are the outward conversation garments of believers, and these greatly become them and adorn the doctrine of Christ, yet they are imperfect, and have their spots, and need washing in the blood of Christ, and cannot in themselves recommend them to God; and though the Holy Spirit and his graces, his work of holiness upon the heart, make the saints all glorious within, yet not these, but the garment of Christ’s righteousness, is their clothing of wrought gold, and raiment of needlework, in which they are brought into the king’s presence: this, like a garment, is without them, and put upon them; and which covers and protects them, and beautifies and adorns them; and which may be called a wedding garment, because it is that, in which the elect of God were betrothed to Christ; in which they are made ready and prepared for him, as a bride adorned for her husband: and in which they will be introduced into his presence, and be by him presented, first to himself, and then to his Father, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. This man had not on this garment, this robe of righteousness; it was not imputed to him; he had no knowledge of it; or if he had any, it was only a speculative one; he had no true faith in it; he had never put on Christ, as the Lord his righteousness; he had got into a church state without it, though there is no entrance into the kingdom of heaven but by it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
To see [] . Rev., somewhat stiffly, behold; but the idea is correct, as the verb denotes careful seeing, looking intently, inspection. See on Mt 11:7.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
Mat 22:11
. And the king, having come in to see the guests. Here Christ does not reproach the Jews with having wickedly despised the grace and calling of God; but gives early warning to those who would be placed in their room, not to pollute with their filth the holy marriage, when God shall bestow upon them admission to his table. Hitherto he has taught that the Jews, on account of their ungodly and disdainful conduct, would be deprived of the peculiar honor and privilege which they had enjoyed; and that from among the irreligious and abhorred Gentiles would men be called to occupy their place. But now he threatens that, out of this very number, those who bring reproach upon the Church will be expelled; for God invites all indiscriminately by the Gospel, and thus many unholy and abominable persons creep in, who, though for a time they are admitted along with others, yet, when God reviews the guests, will be thrown out and dragged to punishment. The general truth conveyed is, that not all who have once entered the Church will become partakers of everlasting life, but only those who are found to wear the dress which befits the heavenly palace.
As to the wedding garment, is it faith, or is it a holy life? This is a useless controversy; for faith cannot be separated from good works, nor do good works proceed from any other source than from faith. But Christ intended only to state, that the Lord calls us on the express condition of our being renewed by the Spirit after his image; and that, in order to our remaining permanently in his house, we must put off the old man with his pollutions, (Col 3:9; Eph 4:22,) and lead a new life, that the garment may correspond to so honorable a calling. But a question arises, how comes it that a beggar is punished so severely for not bringing a wedding garment; as if it were unusual to see the wretched people, who beg their bread on the public roads, wearing tattered and ugly clothes? I reply, the question is not as to the manner in which the garment is to be procured; for whomsoever the Lord invites he at the same time supplies with clothing, and in all of us is fulfilled what Ezekiel says, (Eze 16:6,) that God finds nothing in us but wretchedness, and nakedness, and abominable filth, but adorns us with magnificent attire. We know also, that there is no other way in which we are formed anew after the image of God, but by putting on Christ, (Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27.) It is not, therefore, the declaration of Christ, that the sentence of casting them into outer darkness will be executed on wretched men who did not bring a costly garment taken from their own wardrobe, but on those who shall be found in their pollution, when God shall come to make a scrutiny of his guests.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) To see the guests.The verb conveys the idea of inspecting. The king came to see whether all the guests had fulfilled the implied condition of coming in suitable apparel. The framework of the parable probably pre-supposes the Oriental custom of providing garments for the guests who were invited to a royal feast. Wardrobes filled with many thousand garments formed part of the wealth of every Eastern prince (Mat. 6:19; Jas. 5:2), and it was part of his glory, as in the case of the assembly which Jehu held for the worshippers of Baal (2Ki. 10:22), to bring them out for use on state occasions. On this assumption, the act of the man who was found not having a wedding garment was one of wilful insult. He came in the filthy rags (Isa. 64:6) of his old life, instead of putting on the white linen meet for a kingly feast (Ecc. 9:8; Rev. 3:4-5) which had been freely offered him. Even without this assumption, the parable pre-supposes that the man might easily have got the garment, and that it was, therefore, his own fault that he had it not. What, then, is the wedding garment? Answers have been returned to that question from very different dogmatic standpoints. Some have seen in it the outward ordinance of Baptism, some the imputed righteousness of Christ covering the nakedness of our own unrighteousness. These answers, it is believed, are at once too narrow and too technical. The analogy of Scriptural symbolism elsewhere (Rev. 3:4-5; Rev. 3:18; Rev. 19:8; 1Pe. 5:5; Isa. 1:18; Psa. 109:18), leads us to see in the garment of a man the habits of good or evil by which his character is manifested to others. Here, therefore, the wedding garment is nothing less than the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord (Heb. 12:14), and that holiness, as in the framework of the parable and in the realities of the spiritual life, Christ is ever ready to impart to him that truly believes. It is obvious that no inference can be drawn from the fact that in the parable one guest only is without the wedding garment, any more than from there being only one wicked and slothful servant in the parables of the Talents and the Pounds.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. When the king came in to see the guests The parabolic history overleaps vast spaces of time, and at one spring brings us to the judgment day. This is figured under the image of the king coming in to see the marriage guests. So this marriage lasts from the time of the coming of the Son of man to the time of his second appearing. Grandees who gave entertainments in ancient times, used to enter the dining hall after the guests were seated. Suetonius describes the Emperor Augustus as coming in while his guests were at table, and leaving before they had risen. Had not on a wedding garment In the East much more regard is paid to the proprieties of costume for particular occasions than among us. To appear at court without a court dress is indeed, in monarchical countries, viewed as an insult. But to appear at a royal marriage in one’s ordinary dress could have nothing less in it than the most gross contempt.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But when the king came in to survey the guests, he saw there a man who did not have on a wedding-garment.’
This is now brought out in that when the king came in to survey his guests it was his requirement and expectation that they be clothed in wedding-garments in honour of his son’s marriage and status. To come to a wedding without putting on their best garments would be seen as a studied insult to those who had invited them, and especially when he was a king and the wedding was his son’s. There can be no doubt that Jesus’ listeners would have been horrified to think that anyone would commit such a social lapse. And they would know that it was deliberate. They would know that this man was not there like that by accident. He was showing his contempt for the king’s son. It was not something that could possibly happen without thought. It was against their whole culture.
There are no known examples where wedding-garments were actually provided for guests, so it is unlikely that it was so in this case. But there are many examples which indicate that men would be expected to wear their ‘best clothes’ at a wedding or other state occasion, and would be expelled if they did not. In one Rabbinic parable where a king summoned guests to a banquet it was said that ‘the wise entered adorned while the fools entered soiled’, the latter being excluded on this basis.
‘When the king came in to survey the guests.’ We may see this as indicating the time of the last judgment. Until then the man in question was allowed to mock at the Son, as men are allowed to mock today. But we must not press that too hard. The king’s judgment was in this world as well as in the next (Mat 22:7). Like the Kingly Rule of Heaven it had both present and future aspects. God does sometimes call some to account in this life.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 22:11. He saw there a man, &c. It may seem strange, that, in such a number of men gathered to this feast, there was only one found who had not on a wedding-garment,andthatheshould be punished with such severity for wanting what he could not be expected to have, while he was performing a journey perhaps, or sitting begging under the hedges, as appears from Luk 14:23. Nevertheless the heinousness of the offence, and the equity of the sentence which was passed upon him, will fully appear, if we call to mind a circumstance, which, because it was common atthat time, is not mentioned in the parable. The Easterns, among whom the fashion of clothes was not changeable as with us, reckoned it a principal part of their magnificence to have their wardrobes stored with rich habits. Thus Job, speaking of the wicked, (Job 27:16.) says, Though they heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay. Accordingly, in Scripture, when the uncertainty of earthly treasures is spoken of, they are represented as subject not only to rust, but to moths, Mat 6:19. Jam 5:2. The matter is evident likewise from Horace, who tells us, that when Lucullus, the Roman general, who had enriched himself with the spoils of the East, was asked, if he could furnish a hundred habits for the theatre? He replied, he had five thousand in his house, of which they were welcome to take part, or all. See Epist. 6: lib. 1 Mat 22:40. We may therefore naturally suppose, that this king, having invited his guests to his feast from the highways and hedges, would order his servants to make each of them a present of splendid apparel, as a farther mark of his respect, and that they might be all clothed in a manner becoming the magnificence of the solemnity. For it cannot otherwise be understood how, among such a number collected in such a manner, only one should have been found wanting a wedding-garment, especially as we are told that they gathered together all, as many as they found, both good and bad. Besides, that the great men in the East were accustomed to make ostentation of their grandeur, and to express their respect for their peculiar friends by gifts of this kind, is evident from the presents which Joseph bestowed on his brethren in Egypt, Gen 45:22 and from the agreement which Samson entered into with the guests at his marriage-feast, Jdg 14:12-13. To conclude, in the 4th Odyssey, ver. 47-51. Homer tells us, that Telemachus and Pisistratus happening to arrive at Menelaus’s house in Lacedaemon, while he was solemnizing the nuptials of his son and daughter, the maids of the house washed the strangers, anointed them, dressed them, and set them down by their master at table. Without all doubt, therefore, the man who was sentenced to be bound and cast out of doors, had been offered a wedding-garment, or sumptuous apparel, along with the rest, but would not receive it; and so haughtily came in, dirty and ragged as he was. The king, looking on this as a great insult, inflicted upon theperson who was guilty of it a punishment suitable to the demerit of his offence. What Dr. Calvin says concerning the wedding-garment in the parable deserves a place here. “It is useless to dispute about the wedding-garment, whether it be faith or a pious holy life; for neither can faith be separated from good works, nor can good works proceed except from faith. Christ’s meaning is only that we are called in order that we may be renewed in out minds after his image; and therefore, that we may remain always in his house, the old man with his filthiness must be put off, and a new life designed, that our life may be such as is suitable to so honourable an invitation.” Dr. Doddridge observes, that this circumstance of the parable is admirably adapted to the method of God’s dealing with us. For he requires repentance indeed and holiness, in order to our partaking of the happiness of heaven; but at the same time he graciously offers to work it in us by his Holy Spirit, and therefore may justly punish our neglect of so great a favour.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 22:11 f. ] a dress suited for a marriage . Comp. , Aristoph. Av. 1693. It is true that, in interpreting this passage, expositors (Michaelis, Olshausen) lay stress on the Oriental custom of presenting handsome caftans to those who are admitted to the presence of royalty (Harmer, Beobacht . II. p. 117; Rosenmller, Morgenl . V. p. 75 ff.); and they are all the more disposed to do so, that such a custom is calculated to make it appear with greater prominence that righteousness is a free gift , and that, consequently, man’s sin is so much the more heinous: but neither can it be proved (not from Gen 45:22 ; Jdg 14:12 ; 2Ki 5:22 ; 2Ki 10:22 ; Est 6:8 ; Est 8:15 ) that any such custom existed in ancient times, nor does the text make any allusion to it whatever, although it would have contributed not a little to bring out the idea of the parable. That those invited, however, should appear in festive attire was a matter of course, and demanded by the rules of ordinary etiquette (see Dougt. Anal . II. p. 23). The only thing intended to be represented here is the moral , which, by faith in Christ, men are required to assume after being called to the Messianic kingdom through . Comp. Mat 6:33 , Mat 5:20 . So far, our Lord’s adversaries themselves could understand the figure of the wedding garment. But, of course, the true inward basis of the moral was to be sought in that righteousness which, as a free gift, and in virtue of the death of Jesus, would be bestowed on those who believed (comp. the Fathers in Calovius). The knowledge of this truth, however, had to be reserved for a later stage in the development of Christian doctrine.
] Comp. on Mat 20:13 .
, . . .] a question expressive of astonishment: how has it been possible for thee to come in hither (how couldst thou venture to do so), without, etc.?
] although thou hadst not . Differently Mat 22:11 : . Comp. Buttmann, Neut. Gr . p. 301 [E. T. 351].
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1390
THE WEDDING GARMENT
Mat 22:11-13. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he said 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.
THERE has ever been a diversity of characters in the Church of God. This, though much to be lamented, cannot be avoided. The very zeal which animates the ministers of the Gospel, has a tendency to produce this effect. Their charity prompts them to hope well of those who appear in earnest; and to admit to their communion all who witness a good confession. Thus it was that the wedding (in the parable) was furnished with guests; but he who searcheth the hearts will distinguish the hypocrites from others, and will deal with men according to their real characters.
This being intimated in the text, we shall endeavour to shew,
I.
What we are to understand by the wedding garment
The wedding-feast is intended to represent the blessings of the Gospel. The garment suited to the occasion must therefore import a meetness to partake of those blessings. In this view we may understand the wedding-garment as formed in part of the righteousness of Christ
[Christ, by his own obedience unto death, wrought out a righteousness which is given unto all, and put upon all, them that believe [Note: Rom 3:22.]. This is the only righteousness whereby any man can be justified before God [Note: Rom 5:18-19.]. St. Paul himself could find acceptance in no other [Note: Php 3:9.]. It is in this that all the glorified saints are clothed [Note: Rev 9:7.]: in fact, it constitutes their title to heaven [Note: Rev 5:8. therefore.]: and it is in this that all the saints on earth are clothed, preparatory to their ascending to heaven [Note: Gal 3:27.]. Hence the devout songs of those who have attained this gift: I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels [Note: Isa 61:10.].]
But beyond all doubt it is chiefly formed of our own inherent righteousness
[Moral qualities are often represented under the figure of a garment [Note: Psa 132:9. Job 29:14. 1Pe 5:5.]. By them chiefly we put on the Lord Jesus Christ [Note: Rom 13:14.]. And they beyond all question form the garment which renders us acceptable guests at the wedding feast in heaven [Note: Rev 19:7-8.]. In fact, it is holiness alone that constitutes our meetness for heaven [Note: Col 1:12.]; and makes us worthy to partake of all the felicity and glory of that blessed place [Note: Rev 3:4.]. I speak not of worthiness in a way of merit: that no man can have: but, in a way of fitness and suitableness, every man must have it: nor without it can any soul ever enter into the Divine presence [Note: Heb 12:14.].]
We must however be careful not to confound these two ideas
[The righteousness of Christ is necessary to justify us before God: our own inward personal righteousness is necessary to make us meet for glory. We must not separate them; for they cannot exist apart; neither, on the other hand, may we confound them: they must each be used for their respective ends. To disregard inherent righteousness would be downright antinomianism: on the other hand, to blend it in any degree with the righteousness of Christ for our justification before God, would be self-righteousness, and would make void the whole Gospel [Note: Gal 5:3-4.]. Food and raiment are equally necessary for our existence: but each has its proper office: neither can supply the lack of the other. So it is with imputed and inherent righteousness: neither can be dispensed with, nor can either occupy the others place. To be accepted of God we must put on the righteousness of Christ; and to enjoy his presence, we must put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness [Note: Eph 4:24.].]
Such then being the wedding-garment, I proceed to shew,
II.
The importance of it to every child of man
A person habited in mean apparel would not be suffered to continue at the wedding-feast of an earthly monarch: much less shall guilty and polluted souls sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven
[The king, in the parable, was filled with indignation at the intrusion of the unworthy guest. He ordered him to be bound hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness [Note: The room where the company was entertained being richly illuminated, the person cast out of it is said to be cast into outer darkness. How awfully applicable to those who shall be cast out of heaven!]. This fitly represents the vengeance that will be inflicted on all such intruders. They may come in for a while and join themselves to the Lords people; but when the King himself shall see the guests, he will fix his eyes on them: he will cast them out from the place they had so presumptuously occupied. They shall never dwell in the mansions of light and glory above; but take their portion in the regions of darkness and despair, and there bewail for ever their irremediable delusions.]
Nor will their punishment in any respect exceed their guilt
[The intruder, in the parable, could make no reply to the kings address [Note: He might have urged, That being brought suddenly out of the highways he had neither time to borrow, nor money to purchase, a wedding garment. But this would have been to no purpose. Opulent persons had large wardrobes for the accommodation of all their guests. Lucullus, at Rome, was famed for having at least two hundred changes of raiment, or as Horace, by a poetical licence, says, five thousand. No doubt, therefore, a proper garment would have been lent him for the occasion, if he had chosen to accept it.]. He knew that he had disregarded the offer of a wedding garment; and presumptuously supposed that his own was good enough for the occasion. Thus he had poured contempt on the liberality and kindness of the king; and was therefore compelled by his own conscience to acknowledge the justice of the sentence passed upon him. Who then amongst us shall expect to imitate him with impunity? To us has our Lord repeatedly offered a wedding garment. Us has he often counselled to receive his robe of righteousness [Note: Rev 3:18.]. We have been invited to go to him for the influences of his Spirit [Note: Joh 7:37-39.]. Shall we then expect admission into heaven if we reject his offers? Or shall we accuse him of severity if he cast us headlong into hell? Surely if we rest in any thing short of justification by his blood and renovation by his Spirit, we shall stand self-condemned for ever.]
Improvement
1.
For conviction
[As Christians we profess to have accepted the Saviours invitation; and to feast at his table here as an earnest of that richer feast above. But have we indeed received Christ as our righteousness [Note: 2Co 5:21. Jer 23:6.]? Are we also renewed by his Spirit in our inward man [Note: 2Co 4:16.]? We may easily deceive those who minister to us here below; but the King, who will come in to see the guests, can never be deceived. However specious a garb we may have prepared for ourselves, he will easily distinguish it from that which he has given to his people. Nor would he fail to discover the hypocrite, even if there were only one to be found in his whole Church. Surely then it becomes us to guard against self-deception. We may now obtain from him a meetness to feast with his chosen; but if we persist in our delusion, we shall find him inexorably severe.]
2.
For consolation
[Some perhaps are troubled on account of their past presumption; especially, that they have unworthily communicated at the Lords table. Well indeed may such guilt fill them with compunction; but, however presumptuously we have acted in past times, we have no reason to despond. A wedding garment is now offered to all who see their need of it. Though we were of the poorest or vilest of mankind, it should not be withheld from us: nor, however many guests may come, will there be any deficiency of raiment for them all. Let all then accept the free invitation of the Gospel, and thankfully put on the garment which the Master of the feast has prepared for them. Thus, though unworthy in themselves, they shall be accounted worthy through Christ, and shall sit down for ever at the marriage feast in heaven.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
“And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: (12) And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. (13) 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.”
This man without a wedding garment, is the representative of all, be they many, or few, who are found, in the day of enquiry, without the garment of Christ’s righteousness. The parable doth not say that he was without a garment, for no doubt he was cloathed, as many are, in a righteousness of his own. But his crime was, that it, was not a wedding garment. A garment, of his Lord’s. A proof of his marriage, his union, and oneness with Jesus. This ought to be particularly attended to, and clearly understood. How often is it heard in the mouth of the untaught by God the Holy Ghost, that this wedding garment is good works, an holy life, and charity, and the like. Alas! if our acceptance at Christ’s table upon earth, or at his marriage supper in heaven, rested upon what some are so fond of talking of, but not a single son or daughter of Adam’s fallen race ever knew; I mean good works and an holy life, no guests would be found for either. Neither doth this wedding garment consist in the adorning of a renewed soul by the graces of the Holy Spirit, such as faith, repentance, or any, or all, of the sweet effects of the Lord’s work in the soul. These are all blessed and essential things in the life of grace, and every child of God, called by grace, will be blessed in the enjoyment of them, but they are not Christ. These are the effects, not the cause; the fruits of regeneration, but not the root of salvation. The wedding garment, therefore, is none of these. And though it is blessed, yea very blessed, when grace is in lively exercise, to behold how true believers in Christ, from an union with Christ, act faith upon him, and live to him, and his praise; adorning, the doctrine of God our Savior in all things: yet these form no part in the wedding garment, which is wholly of Christ, wrought out by Christ, and is; put on the believer by Christ. Every act of theirs is polluted, and must be cleansed in the blood of Christ, as well as their persons; for without this cleansing, neither the one, nor the other, can find acceptance before God. Reader! I pray you to seek for the teaching of God the Holy Ghost, to have a clear apprehension of these things. And both in ordinances now, as well as the appearing before God hereafter, see to it, that you have this wedding garment, the want of which made this man speechless, and the possession of which, proves the betrothing of every child of God, by which the whole body of Christ’s church is made ready and prepared by Him, as a bride adorned for her husband. Rev 21:12 . See Eph 5:23 to the end.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
Ver. 11. And when the king came in to see ] He is in the assemblies of his saints to observe their behavior, and to apportion to them in blessing as they do to him in preparation; he goes down into his garden to see whether the vine flourish, and the pomegranates bud, Son 6:11 ; he walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, Rev 2:1 . Now therefore we are all here present before God, said Cornelius, Act 10:33 .
Which had not on a wedding garment ] i.e. Christ apprehended by faith, and expressed in his virtues by holy life. Justification and sanctification are the righteousnesses of the saints ( , Rev 19:8 ), wherewith arrayed they are beautiful even to admiration; as without the which, Satan stood at the right hand of Joshua the high priest,Zec 3:1Zec 3:1 , because (as some will have it) his accusation was as true as vehement, so that Satan had the upper hand of him, till such time as Christ bade, Take away the filthy garments from him; there he pardoned his sin in heaven; and unto him he said, Behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment; there he pardoned it in his own conscience also.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
11, 12. ] This second part of the parable is in direct reference to the word of prophecy, Zep 1:7-8 ; cf. especially Mat 22:8 , . . The coming of the King to see his guests is the final and separating Judgment of the Church, see ch. Mat 25:19 , when that distinction shall be made, which God’s ministers have no power nor right to make in admissions into the visible Church. Yet as Trench remarks (Parables, p. 207), this coming of the King is not exclusively the final one, but every trying and sifting judgment adumbrates it in some measure. With regard to the , we must not, I think, make too much of the usually cited Oriental custom of presenting the guests with such garments at feasts. For (1) it is not distinctly proved that such a custom existed; the passages usually quoted (Gen 45:22 ; Jdg 14:12 ; 2Ki 5:22 ) are nothing to the purpose; 2Ki 10:22 shews that the worshippers of Baal were provided with vestments, and at a feast : and at the present day those who are admitted to the presence of Royalty in the East are clothed with a caftan : but all this does not make good the assumption: and (2) even granting it, it is not to be pressed, as being manifestly not the punctum saliens of this part of the parable. The guest was bound to provide himself with this proper habit, out of respect to the feast and its Author: how this was to be provided, does not here appear, but does elsewhere . The garment is the imputed and inherent righteousness of the Lord Jesus , put on symbolically in Baptism ( Gal 3:27 ), and really by a true and living faith (ib. Gal 3:26 ), without which none can appear before God in His Kingdom of Glory; Heb 12:14 ; Phi 3:7-8 ; Eph 4:24 ; Col 3:10 ; Rom 8:14 : which truth could not be put forward here , but at its subsequent manifestation threw its great light over this and other such similitudes and expressions. This guest imagines his own garment will be as acceptable, and therefore neglects to provide himself. See 1Jn 5:10 ; Isa 64:6 ; Isa 61:10 ; Rev 19:8 .
] see note on ch. Mat 20:13 : and, as a curiosity of exegetical application, Wordsw.’s note here.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 22:11-14 . The man without a wedding garment . Though this feature has no connection with the polemic against the Sanhedrists, it does not follow, as even Weiss (Matthus-Evang.) admits, that it was not an authentic part of a parable spoken by Jesus. It would form a suitable pendant to any parable of grace, as showing that, while the door of the kingdom is open to all, personal holiness cannot be dispensed with.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mat 22:11 . : we are not to suppose that the king came in to look out for offenders, but rather to show his countenance to his guests and make them welcome. , etc.: while he was going round among the guests smiling welcome and speaking here and there a gracious word, his eye lighted on a man without a wedding robe. Only one? More might have been expected in such a company, but one suffices to illustrate the principle. .: we have here an example of occasional departure from the rule that participles in the N. T. take as the negative in all relations.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 22:11-14
11″But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes,12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’And the man was speechless. 13Then the king said to his servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’14For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Mat 22:11 “wedding clothes” Through the years many commentators have noted the problems between Mat 22:9-11. It does not mention banquet preparation in 9-10, but demands it in Mat 22:11. Augustine, following some limited historical evidence, assumed that the host provided a special party garment. This would mean the man refused it or entered in an inappropriate way. The inappropriately dressed man seems to recognize his position by his lack of response in Mat 22:12.
Mat 22:13 As earlier in Mat 22:6-7, Mat 22:13 is a shocking statement. Possibly all of these verses are meant to be Oriental overstatements (hyperboles); however, the severity of the punishment fits the crime of rejecting God’s gracious offer (cf. Mat 22:6-7) and refusing to walk in God’s grace (cf. Mat 22:13).
“throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” This was a common idiom used often in Matthew to describe the condition of humans who reject God (cf. Mat 8:12; Mat 13:42; Mat 13:50; Mat 22:13; Mat 24:51; Mat 25:30). It implied a current (cf. Luk 16:19-31) as well as eschatological setting (cf. Mat 24:51).
Mat 22:14 This is a difficult verse to interpret. Many say it relates to Mat 22:2-10, but not 11-13. It seems to focus on God’s gracious gift extended to all (i.e., Joh 1:12; Joh 3:16; 1Ti 2:4; 1Ti 4:10; Tit 2:11; 2Pe 3:9). However, fallen mankind must respond appropriately. God does choose, but He has chosen that mankind must respond by repentance and faith (cf. Mar 1:15; Act 3:16; Act 3:19; Act 20:21) to the gospel of Jesus mediated through the wooing of the Holy Spirit (cf. Joh 6:44; Joh 6:65).
This verse may relate to God’s revelation to the children of Abraham (cf. Act 3:26; Rom 1:16; Rom 2:9). They rejected God’s offer in Christ, so the gospel was given to the Gentiles who eagerly embraced it (i.e., Romans 9-11). This entire context expresses the truth that the expected outcome in spiritual matters was going to be reversed (cf. Mat 19:30; Mat 20:16)!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
This is a study guide commentary which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.
These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought provoking, not definitive.
1. How is this parable related to Matthew 21?
2. How many parables are there in Mat 22:1-14?
3. To whom does the phrase “invited guests” in Mat 22:3-5 refer?
4. To whom does the phrase “both the good and bad” of Mat 22:10 refer?
5. How do you explain the presence of such violence in Mat 22:6-7; Mat 22:13?
6. How does Mat 22:14 relate to Mat 22:1-14?
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
to see = to gaze upon, view as a spectacle, or inspect. App-133.
he saw = he beheld. App-133.
a wedding garment. As prescribed by Eastern etiquette.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
11, 12.] This second part of the parable is in direct reference to the word of prophecy, Zep 1:7-8; cf. especially Mat 22:8, . . The coming of the King to see his guests is the final and separating Judgment of the Church, see ch. Mat 25:19,-when that distinction shall be made, which Gods ministers have no power nor right to make in admissions into the visible Church. Yet as Trench remarks (Parables, p. 207), this coming of the King is not exclusively the final one, but every trying and sifting judgment adumbrates it in some measure. With regard to the , we must not, I think, make too much of the usually cited Oriental custom of presenting the guests with such garments at feasts. For (1) it is not distinctly proved that such a custom existed; the passages usually quoted (Gen 45:22; Jdg 14:12; 2Ki 5:22) are nothing to the purpose; 2Ki 10:22 shews that the worshippers of Baal were provided with vestments, and at a feast: and at the present day those who are admitted to the presence of Royalty in the East are clothed with a caftan: but all this does not make good the assumption: and (2) even granting it, it is not to be pressed, as being manifestly not the punctum saliens of this part of the parable. The guest was bound to provide himself with this proper habit, out of respect to the feast and its Author: how this was to be provided, does not here appear, but does elsewhere. The garment is the imputed and inherent righteousness of the Lord Jesus, put on symbolically in Baptism (Gal 3:27), and really by a true and living faith (ib. Gal 3:26),-without which none can appear before God in His Kingdom of Glory;-Heb 12:14; Php 3:7-8; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10; Rom 8:14 :-which truth could not be put forward here, but at its subsequent manifestation threw its great light over this and other such similitudes and expressions. This guest imagines his own garment will be as acceptable, and therefore neglects to provide himself. See 1Jn 5:10; Isa 64:6; Isa 61:10; Rev 19:8.
] see note on ch. Mat 20:13 : and, as a curiosity of exegetical application, Wordsw.s note here.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 22:11. , a man) Some remarkable one amongst the many bad who were called, and yet not chosen; who is individually a sample of all such, one whom you would especially suppose to be chosen, and from whose not being chosen, the small number of the chosen is perceived. The singular number is emphatic; for the passage would otherwise have equally admitted of the plural.- , a wedding garment)[958] sc. the righteousness of Christ; see Gnomon on ch. Mat 6:33.
[958] Beng. states, in the note of the Germ. Vers. on this passage, that the persons themselves who were celebrating the marriage feast, distributed such garments to the guests.-E. B.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
when: Mat 3:12, Mat 13:30, Mat 25:31, Mat 25:32, Zep 1:12, 1Co 4:5, Heb 4:12, Heb 4:13, Rev 2:23
which: 2Ki 10:22, Psa 45:13, Psa 45:14, Isa 52:1, Isa 61:3-10, Isa 64:6, Zec 3:3, Zec 3:4, Lam 5:22, Rom 3:22, Rom 13:14, Gal 3:27, 2Co 5:3, Eph 4:24, Col 3:10, Col 3:11, Rev 3:4, Rev 3:5, Rev 3:18, Rev 16:15, Rev 19:8
Reciprocal: Neh 7:64 – These sought Son 1:5 – comely Son 1:12 – the king Isa 24:11 – all joy Jer 11:15 – my Dan 5:27 – art Mat 22:10 – both Mat 25:2 – General Mat 25:34 – the King Luk 6:25 – mourn Luk 15:22 – the best 1Co 11:27 – whosoever
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2:11
The date setting of the parable has been changed and the time is at the end of the world when Jesus will come to claim his bride. (See Rev 19:7.) In the Bible an espousal or engagement for marriage is spoken of in the same sense as the actual marriage in many respects (Gen 19:14; Mat 1:20). The reason is that when two persons have pledged themselves to become husband and wife they are as bound morally as if they had entered into the relationship. In other words, an “engagement ring” would be as much of a bond morally as the “wedding ring,” so that if while the first only has been offered and accepted, either party should be intimate or even familiar with a third, it would be considered as an act of unfaithfulness. That is why Paul wrote what he did about the “espousal” of the Corinthians to Christ, in the second epistle, chapter 11:1, 2. Hence the portions of the parable we have considered thus far pertain to the courtship and engagement only, but this verse transfers the story to the time of the actual marriage. Had not on a wedding garment. For the sake of unity in appearance all the guests were expected to have on a uniform especially appropriate for the occasion.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 22:11. To look upon the guests. The Pharisees and all legalists think the opening of the doors leads to unrighteousness, there follows therefore a hint of the gospel method of righteousness. The coming in judgment (comp. Zep 1:7-8) is represented as taking place at the feast, and hence not only without terror but an occasion of joy, for the properly clothed guests. God, not man, is to finally discriminate between the guests.Had not on a wedding garment. Each guest should and could have one. The character of the guests (Mat 22:10) indicates that the king himself provided the wedding garments. The lesson is not that each guest should take pains to provide himself with the proper habit. The gift of the wedding garment accords far better with the Scripture doctrines of grace. On the other view poverty would have been a valid excuse, yet the man was speechless. The wedding garment is not faith; that is the putting on of the garment; it is righteousness, given of God in Christ; to be distinguished but not divided, as imputed and in-wrought. Other views: (1.) Charity or holiness; this leads to legalism by throwing the gospel basis of holiness into the background. (2.) Christ Himself; a less exact statement of our interpretation. (3.) Baptism; this is not justified by the parable nor by the general tenor of Scripture.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mat 22:11. And when the king came in to see the guests The members of the visible church; he saw there a man which had not on a wedding- garment To explain this, it must be observed, it was usual in the eastern countries to present the guests at marriages, and other solemnities, with garments wherein they were to appear, and the number of them was esteemed an evidence of the wealth and magnificence of the giver. This king, therefore, having invited so many from the lanes, and hedges, and highways, who could never have provided themselves with proper raiment in which to make their appearance at this marriage-feast, according to the custom of the country, must be supposed to have ordered each, on his applying to the ruler of the feast, to be presented with a proper garment, that they might all be clothed in a manner becoming the magnificence of the solemnity. But this man either neglected to apply, or refused to accept and put on, the garment offered him, which was the circumstance that rendered his conduct inexcusable. That persons making an entertainment sometimes furnished the habits in which the guests should appear, is evident from what Homer (Odyss., lib. 8. ver. 402) says of Ulysses, being thus furnished by the Phacians. See also Odyss., lib. 4. ver. 47-51, where Homer tells us, that Telemachus and Pisistratus, happening to arrive at Menelauss house in Lacedmon, while he was solemnizing the nuptials of his son and daughter, the maids of the house washed the strangers, anointed them, dressed them, and set them down by their master at table. It is manifest also, from the account which Diodorus gives of the great hospitality of Gellias the Sicilian, who readily received all strangers, and at once supplied five hundred horsemen with clothes, who, by a violent storm, were driven to take shelter with him; (Diod. Sic., lib. 13., p. 375, edit. Steph.) Now it was usual, more especially at marriage-feasts, for persons to appear in a sumptuous dress, adorned, as some writers tell us, with florid embroidery, (see Dr. Hammond,) though many times white garments seem to have been used on such occasions: (compare Rev 19:8-9.) We must therefore conclude, not only from the magnificence of the preparations, to which we must suppose the wardrobe of the prince corresponded, but likewise from the following circumstance of resentment against this guest, that a robe was offered but refused by him. And this is a circumstance, which, as Calvin observes, is admirably suited to the method of Gods dealing with us; who indeed requires holiness in order to our receiving the benefits of the gospel; but is graciously pleased to work it in us by his Holy Spirit; and therefore may justly resent and punish our neglect of so great a favour. Doddridge.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 11
By appearing in an unsuitable dress on such an occasion, he evinced an utter want of all real attachment and respect for his sovereign. He represents the insincere professor of religion, who intrudes into the church of Christ, without being clothed with the spirit of piety.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
22:11 {4} And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
(4) In the small number which come at the calling, there are some castaways who do not confirm their faith with newness of life.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The man who did not wear the proper wedding garment was unprepared for the banquet. In that culture the proper wedding garment was just clean clothes. [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., pp. 826-27.] He was there, whether evil or good (Mat 22:10), because he had accepted the king’s gracious invitation. However he was subject to the king’s scrutiny. The king addressed his guest as a friend. He asked how he had obtained admission without the proper (clean) garment. The man was speechless due to embarrassment. Then the king gave orders to his servants (Gr. diakonois) to bind the man hand and foot like a prisoner and to cast him out of the banquet hall. They would throw him into the "outer darkness" (NASB) or "outside, into the darkness" (NIV). The place where he would go would be a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
It is probably significant that Jesus referred to the king’s slaves (Gr. douloi, Mat 22:3-4; Mat 22:6; Mat 22:8; Mat 22:10) as heralding the kingdom, but He said the king’s servants (Gr. diakonoi, Mat 22:13) evicted the unworthy guest. Evidently the slaves refer to the prophets and the servants to the angels.
These verses have spawned several different interpretations. One view is that the man who tries to participate in the banquet but gets evicted represents those whom God will exclude in the judgment that will take place before the kingdom begins. [Note: Toussaint, Behold the . . ., pp. 254-55.] This view takes the man evicted as representing a Jew who hopes to gain entrance to the kingdom because he is a Jew. Since he does not have the proper clothing, the robe of righteousness, he cannot enter the kingdom. The lesson Jesus wanted to teach was that individual faith in Him, not nationality, was necessary for entrance. This view seems best to me.
"Christ revealed that unless they prepared themselves to be judged acceptable by the host, they would be excluded from the kingdom when it was instituted." [Note: Pentecost, The Parables . . ., p. 142.]
A second view is that the man was at the banquet because he was a believer in Jesus. There the king upon careful examination discovered that he did not have the prerequisite righteousness. Therefore the king excluded him from the kingdom. In other words, he withdrew the man’s salvation. The problem with this view is that it involves the withdrawing of salvation. This view is untenable in view of Scripture promises that once God gives the gift of eternal life He never withdraws it (Joh 10:28-29; Rom 8:31-39).
A third view is that the loss of salvation is not in view, but the loss of eternal reward is. The man has eternal life. The wedding garment does not represent salvation but good works with which the believer should clothe himself in response to the demands God has on his or her life.
"There is no suggestion here of punishment or torment. The presence of remorse, in the form of weeping and gnashing of teeth, does not in any way require this inference. Indeed, what we actually see in the image itself is a man soundly ’trussed up’ out on the darkened grounds of the king’s private estate, while the banquet hall glows with light and reverberates with the joys of those inside. That is what we actually see. And that is all!" [Note: Hodges, Grace in . . ., p. 89. See also Dillow, pp. 344-53.]
However the term "weeping and gnashing of teeth" as Jesus used it elsewhere seems to describe hell, the place where unbelievers go (cf. Mat 8:12; Mat 13:42; Mat 13:50; Mat 24:51; Mat 25:30; Luk 13:28). This term was a common description of Gehenna, hell (4 Ezra 7:93; 1 Enoch 63:10; Psalms of Solomon 14:9; Wisdom of Solomon 17:21). The works just cited in parentheses are Hebrew pseudepigraphal and apocryphal books. [Note: For Rabbinic parallels to this parable, see Edersheim, The Life . . ., 2:425-30.]