The Parable of Wedding Banquet
The kingdom of heaven is like
a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to
those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they
refused to come.’
“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.”’”
“But they paid no attention
and went off -- one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his
servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his
army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.”
“Then he said to his servants,
‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. God
to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 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.”
“But when the king came in to
see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man
was speechless.”
“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.’”
“For many are invited, but few
are chosen.”