The Marriage of the Lamb
Matt 22:1-14
10-30-05

This is a parable concerning the kingdom of heaven.  As such, it deals with the earthly, physical kingdom over which Jesus Christ will rule and it does not deal with the kingdom of God. Therefore, this parable can be a little tough to understand.

 In summary, this parable shows that the Lord was ready for the marriage of the Lamb to take place shortly after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.  However, since the Jews rejected Jesus both before and after his resurrection, God postponed the wedding about 2000 years.  Thus the parable has a skip in it and jumps over the church age, altogether.

 The easiest way to see the parable is to simply break it down verse by verse.

2.      The certain king is God who made a marriage for his Son, Jesus – Rev 19:7-9; Matt 25:1-13

3.      The servants are not Christians in the church age, they are disciples getting guests to come to the wedding - Rev 11:18; Rev 7:3, the servants call them – Note: remember that church age Christians are in the bride.  By contrast, the folks the servants are rounding up are “guests”

a.       Bidden – invited – this was Israel (Rom 11:12)

b.      Would not come – refused the invitation of Peter, Stephen, Apollos, and Paul (they were like a man today refusing the invitation to get saved)

4.      All things are ready – And they were!  In the gospels, it seems that God wasn’t ready for the dinner yet, because little is mentioned that concerns a wedding.  John mentioned that he was the friend of the bridegroom, and there are a couple of parables about it.  Furthermore, it’s been almost 2000 years and the wedding hasn’t taken place yet.  Nevertheless, in the early church age Paul preached about the bride in Eph 5 and 2 Cor 11:2 and Paul was looking for the Son to return even in his lifetime Tit 2:13.

5.      Made light of it – they were preoccupied with their farms and merchandise – the marriage of the Son was not as important to them as their possessions Lk 14:16-20 (land, oxen, wife)

6.      Remnant (those who had not gone to their families or possessions) – They slew the servants – like Paul had been killing Christians in his day, see 1 Pet 4:12-14

7.      The king sent forth his armies, destroyed the murderers, burnt their city – God’s armies were the Romans under Titus who killed the murderous Jews (Acts 7:52) and destroyed their city (Matt 24:2) (just like Nebuchadnezzar, God’s servant [Jer 25:9] destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC)

8.      Wedding ready – now the parable jumps all the way to the end of the church age.   Rev 19:7-9, the marriage of the Lamb, is right before the Second Advent, Rev 19:11-17.  Those unworthy are like Acts 13:46

9.      Find – bid – the invitation list included “whosoever will,” like Rev 22:17says.

10.  Bad and good – the bad guests for the wedding would be like the poor, maimed, halt, and blind of Lk 14:21

11.  A man – this is the devil, Is 14:16.  The wedding garment would be like Is 61:10; Rev 19:8; or Rev 7:14

12.  Friend – like Jesus addressed Judas in Matt 26:50.  The devil will be speechless.  That’ll be the first time since Gen 3:1 and Is 14:13-14 (see Rev 12:10)

13.  Bind him – that’s Rev 20:2 and the outer darkness is in Matt 8:12

14.  Many called but few chosen – all were bidden but many refused – those who came were chosen to enter