3.07 The Marriage of the King´s Son
VII. THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING’S SON.
Matthew 22:2 - Matthew 22:14. This parable has certain traits in common with that of the Ten Virgins, but it bears a more striking resemblance to the parable of the Great Supper (Luke 14:16 - Luke 14:24). Indeed, both parables have been identified in the sense that both are variants of a parable spoken at one and the same time by Jesus; and the following reasons are alleged in favour of this view: First, each of them appears in only one Gospel; then, they have many features in common; and, lastly, the lessons which they respectively teach are substantially the same. This opinion must be regarded as inadmissible. The Lucan parable was spoken by Jesus as He sat at table in. the house of a private person, and this circumstance itself seems to have suggested the parable. On yie other hand, the parable in St. Matthew was spoken in the Temple: the context of the narrative leaves us in no doubt on that head. In St. Matthew there is question of a marriage 122 THE PARABLES OF JESUS feast which a king made for his son; in St. Luke a man not further qualified gives an ordinary banquet. In this latter Evangelist, those bidden to the dinner simply turn a cold shoulder to the message of invitation; we miss the outrageous treatment of the messengers, and the subsequent punishment inflicted on the guilty by the king. Finally, the episode of the guest who had not a wedding garment finds no place in St. Luke. Those who hold the identity of both parables deny that the alleged difference of place where they were respectively delivered is conclusive against them, since the Evangelists made no difficulty about inserting parables or incidents in a context which appeared to suit them, even if thereby occasion was given for a natural misunderstanding. As for the differences between the parables which we have enumerated, the objection is met by the critics with the allegation that St. Luke has preserved the parable in a form more closely resembling the original, and that the deviations from it in St. Matthew may be explained on the ground that this Evangelist submitted it to a process of allegorization in the light of events (e.g, the THE PARABLES OF JESUS 123 destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70) which had happened in the interval between the death of Jesus and the composition of his Gospel.
We have no choice but to reject this opinion stated in its absolute form; but we are inclined to admit the identity of the parables in a modified sense. It is possible nay, probable that Jesus spoke some at least of His parables on more than one occasion, and that in thus repeating them He introduced variations according as the occasion demanded it.
If here we apply this hypothesis, the stronger and more pointed language used by Jesus in St. Matthew may be accounted for by the growing hostility of the Jewish leaders, who were fully determined to bring matters to a head. The occasion called for plain speaking; -,nd Jesus wished His words to leave them in no doubt that He spoke of them. In St. Luke the occasion on which the parable was spoken was a social one; and though even in the house where He was at meat the vigilant and unfriendly eyes of the Pharisees were fixed on Him, He gracefully and tactfully refrained from using the plain and forcible language which the open opposition and 124 THE PARABLES OF JESUS enmity of His adversaries compelled Him to employ at a later date. In the parable the Kingdom of Heaven is represented as a king who made a marriage feast for his son, to which he invited many. In due time he sent out his messengers to summon those who had been invited, but they would not come. He thereupon sent forth other servants with a more pressing invitation, “ Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come ye to the marriage feast.” They turned a deaf ear to the invitation and went their way, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise; while the others laid hold of the servants, treated them shamefully, and put them to death. The king hearing of this was angry: he sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burnt their city. He then said to his servants: “ The marriage indeed is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go ye, therefore, to the cross-roads, ajid as many as ye find call to the marriage feast.” Those servants accordingly went forth to the ways, and gathered together all they found, both bad and good, and the wed- THE PARABLES OF JESUS 125 ding was filled with guests. Then the king went in to behold the guests, and he saw there a man not clothed with a wedding garment.
He said to him: “ Friend, how earnest thou in hither without a wedding garment?” But he was silent. Then said the king to the waiters: “ Bind his feet and hands, and cast him into the darkness without: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.” The king who made a marriage feast for his son is God Himself; the son is Christ; the marriage feast represents the espousals of Christ with His Church which were to take place after His resurrection (Revelation 21:2, Revelation 21:9; John 3:29; Ephesians 5:27). God invited the Jews to the feast by His prophets, especially by the last and greatest of them, John the Baptist. This we infer from the statement that, when the king sent out his servants for the first time, it was to those who had been already invited. The servants are the Apostles whom the Jews ill-treated, and some of whom (e.g, James the son of Zebedee, and James styled the brother of the Lord) they put to death. The city which was destroyed is Jerusalem. The guests gathered in promiscu- 126 THE PARABLES OF JESUS ously from the highways are the Gentiles; the wedding garment represents the virtues of the Christian life. Towards the end the scene seems to change suddenly; we find our selves no longer in the banqueting-hall, but in presence of the great assembly of the Last Day. The hapless man who has not on the wedding garment is first bound hand and foot, by which his powerlessness to resist is typified; and he is then cast out into the darkness that is, into hell where there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. The Greek word translated “ dinner “signifies rather breakfast or luncheon, and corresponds to the Continental dejeuner.
Before the parable ends, however, it is no longer day, but night: the guest who has not on the wedding garment is cast out into the darkness. The critics generally regard verses 6 and 7 as not a genuine utterance of Jesus, but as originating with the Evangelist himself.
It is, in their view, a vaticinium exeventu that is, a prophecy posterior to the event which it professes to foretell and dependent on it. They base their view on the structure of verse 6, where they see an inexactitude THE PARABLES OF JESUS 127 observable also in the English versions. In the preceding verse the recipients of the final invitation simply make light of it, and with no formal or implied exception go about their ordinary business; whereas in verse 6 there are still others who proceed farther. They also object the want of connection between the verses in question and the context, and they point out that in what follows it is implied that the city is still standing. To all this it has been answered that the literary methods of the Evangelist were very unlike those of our own times; that the destruction of the city is anticipated in the narrative; and that we must relegate it to a period later than the holding of the feast. As to the latter part of the reply, which does not seem to us very convincing, we should think it better to renounce any attempt at establishing exact historical sequence in a narrative which is essentially figurative. A parable is a series of images, not unconnected, indeed, but be tween which we are not always justified in looking for that chronological sequence or order of cause and effect which we constantly presuppose in the domain of the real and 128 THE PARABLES OF JESUS actual. It is scarcely necessary to add that from the fact that only one out of so many guests was found without a wedding garment no inference can be drawn as to Our Lord’s teaching on the question of the relative numbers of the reprobate and the elect.
TAGS: [Parables]