Parable of the Wedding Feast
22:1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
22:2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
22:3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
22:4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
22:5 “But they paid no attention and went off–one to his field, another to his business.
22:6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
22:7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
22:8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.
22:9 Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’
22:10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
22:11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
22:12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.
22:13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
22:14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
