Marriage of the King's Son

Matthew 22:1-14

And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,

The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,

And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.

Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.

But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.

Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

And he saith 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.

For many are called, but few are chosen.

Classification: You get to decide

Interpretation: This parable is so similar to the Parable of the Great Feast that I almost clumped them together. But there were a few slight differences that made me think the interpretation of the two parables are very different. I'm going to be doing some scripture chaining to help shape my views of this parable.
    Remember the parable of the great feast was about the Atonement and accepting it into our lives. I would have yawned my way through this parable and assumed it was the same thing had it not been for verse 11 and 12 that talked about the "Friend" who didn't have on the wedding garment. So, I'm going to take you through the scripture chain that led me to think the way I do: If you're using the LDS version of the scriptures (we have footnotes) you'll find a footnote on the word "garment" in verse 11 which takes us to Revelation 19:8. To give you a better picture of what was happening in 19:8 I'm going to type out verses 5-9
   Revelation 19:5-9 "And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.
   And I heard as it were the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
   Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
   And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
   And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God."
   The next scripture I followed was this: In verse 8 on the word "linen" is a footnote which takes you to 1 Nephi 12:10. I'm going to type verses 9-10.
   1 Nephi 12:9-10 "And he said unto me: Thou rememberest the twelve apostles of the Lamb? Behold they are they who shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel; wherefore, the twelve ministers of thy seed shall be judged of them; for ye are of the house of Israel.
   And these twelve ministers whom thou beholdest shall judge thy seed. And behold,  they are righteous forever; for because of their faith in the Lamb of God their garments are made white in his blood."
   And just for kicks and giggles lets look at the footnote in verse 10 on the word "garments". It takes us to D&C 88:85. Really all of chapter 88, especially verses 81-126, is incredible and I could type the whole thing. But I'm not going to. I'll type out verses 81-87 and encourage you to pull out your scriptures and read the whole chapter. Or to read online click here.
   D&C 88:81-87 "Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor.
   Therefore, they are left without excuse, and their sins are upon their own heads.
   He that seeketh me early shall find me, and shall not be forsaken.
   Therefore, tarry ye, and labor diligently, that you may be perfected in your ministry to go forth among the Gentiles for the last time, as many as the mouth of the Lord shall name, to bind up the law and seal up the testimony, and to prepare the saints for the hour of judgment which is to come;
   That their souls may escape the wrath of God, the desolation of abomination which awaits the wicked, both in this world and in the world to come. Verily, I say unto you, let those who are not the first elders continue in the vineyard until the mouth of the Lord shall call them, for their time is not yet come; their garments are not clean from the blood of this generation.
   Abide ye in liberty wherewith ye are made free; entangle not yourselves in sin, but let your hands be clean, until the Lord comes.
   For not many days hence and the earth shall tremble and reel to and fro as a drunken man; and the sun shall hide his face, and shall refuse to give light; and the moon shall be bathed in blood; and the stars shall become exceedingly angry, and shall cast themselves down as a fig that falleth from off the fig tree."
   
   Let's go back to Matthew 22. In verse 10 it says, "...and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests." On the word "gathered" is a footnote that takes us to Matthew 13:47-53: The parable of the gospel net. (To read my thoughts on that parable click here.)  The gospel net is about gathering all the fish, bad and good, and sorting them. That is what will happen on Judgment Day. And, again in Matthew 22:13 it talks about the king's servants binding "hand and foot" the one who was not wearing the wedding garment (the robe of righteousness) and sending him to outer darkness where there will be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. (Outer darkness is the dentists office. Who knew?) I thought this scripture was referring to only one particular "friend". I thought it was talking about Satan being bound for a thousand years. And maybe it can still be applied to that. But in verse 14 was one more footnote that I almost didn't bother clicking on. "For many are called, but few are chosen." The footnote on "chosen" shows a Joseph Smith Translation. I'll type the whole scripture again with the JST in italics. Matthew 22:14 "For many are called, but few are chosen; wherefore all do not have on the wedding garment." Which means the "friend" is not just Satan. It is all who refuse to listen and become righteous. 
   I really love how the Savior took the parable of the great supper and taught about the importance of the Atonement and then built on it to teach about the Second Coming. Line upon line. And He continues to build on the same concept in other parables (the ten virgins.) Laura's Lesson Learned: Don't gloss over anything assuming it's teaching something you already "know".
   And this is why it becomes important that we "warn our neighbors". I don't want to be found at the last day without a wedding garment. And I don't want anyone I know to be without one either. WOW! That was a really long interpretation process. So now all we have to do is apply.

Application: You know what? I'm going to do something different. I'm not going to tell you how to apply this to your life. I want you to tell me. Leave a comment, talk to me in person, or keep it private to yourself and write it in your journal. But Apply! This one is big. This one is literally life or death. 

The man without the Wedding Garment by Jan Luyken