WEDDING PARABLE

From a message of 7Jun1989 from a Curious Questioner--

>CQ> Could anyone explain to me the meaning of the garment in the following passages? I would appreciate learning what others have learned about this garment which Jesus speaks of. Thank you! ... [Matthew 22:11,12]

Hi Friend, The parable of the marriage is the 10th parable on the kingdom of HEAVEN. You should know that there is a difference between the bride and the guests at a wedding. The body of Christ is spoken of in scripture as a chaste virgin (singular), espoused to ONE husband (Eph.5:25-32,2Cor.11:1-4). The guests are not espoused. They (as the "virgins" of Matt.25) are in the plural, not the singular.

Someday God is going to get his Son a bride, and have a wedding ceremony and feast. The son is JESUS and the bride is his Church. Notice in Luke 12:35-38, that the actual eating of the feast takes place AFTER the wedding. Those people that are bidden, are waiting for someone to return FROM a wedding.

In this parable, you have BOTH advents in view without mention of the more than 1900 year church age, since at that time, the day and hour of the 2nd advent was not yet fixed, and they could have had Daniel's 70th week THEN. Historically, the parable applies to events in the 1st century through Matthew 22:8. With the national rejection of Christ, the church age comes in between and the parable then becomes applicable to the last 7 years before the 2nd coming.

Notice in Matthew 22:6, "the remnant". In fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, the remnant was back in the land of Israel during the 1st century, but was scattered in 70 A.D. again.

We now see a remnant back in Israel again in preparation for the time of Jacob's trouble and the great tribulation when the persecution of Israel will far exceed any other time (those killed by the Roman Catholic Hitler were FEW by comparison.) They will be reduced to a FAITHFUL remnant of only 144,000 out of all the "thousands of millions" (Gen.24:60p). So again, this parable comes into the action for the ful-FILL-ment.

The "guests" are most probably tribulation saints of the 7-year period. And notice that they are both "bad and good". (The "bad" is not necessarily in the sense of "evil", but in the sense of lame, halt, blind, etc. which go in BEFORE those that are whole who "need not a physician"! The ORDER was "bad and good", not the other way around! Ah, the unsearchable riches of the Author's Version of the pure words of God!)

And there are also "friends of the bridegroom" (like John the Baptist), so don't be too quick to stumble over the truth.

"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." (Matt.22:11-14)

Now, we have identified the guests as tribulation saints, but this "man" which the king "saw there" was not said to be a guest, but "a man which had not on a wedding garment". This would indicate that he was an unvited guest, for those invited to an oriental wedding are all offered garments (before they come) as a "passport" through the door to the festivities.

Whether guest or not, the man does not have THE GARMENT, and since the tribulation saints are given garments (see Rev.6:11;7:9), the man has obviously not been given a garment (or lost it! see Rev.16:15), so he is not a "saint".

And he's not a proper "guest" for the marriage of the King's son! If he WAS a tribulation Saint, then he did NOT "endure to the end", but if he was not a "guest" to start with, then WHO is he?

Compare:

"Friend, how camest thou in hither..." (Matt.22:12p - "a man")

"Friend, wherefore art thou come?" (Matt.26:50p - "Judas")

And strangely enough, the prophecy of Judas in Psalm 55:12-14 indicates "Friend", for it says "not an enemy" (v.12), and BEHOLD that the Spirit of Christ testifying through David is DIRECTLY speaking to Judas:

"But it was THOU, my guide, and mine acquaintance. WE took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company." And Judas is called "friend" in Psalm 41:9, for it is written, "Yea, mine own familiar FRIEND, in whom I trusted, which DID EAT OF MY BREAD, hath lifted up his heel against me."

And don't forget that when JESUS was speaking this "parable of the wedding", Judas was PRESENT! And notice Matt.22:12 that the man there "was speechless"! When Jesus, in the garden, asked Judas "wherefore art thou come?", Judas was SPEECHLESS! He gave no answer! And the very LAST word that Jesus spoke to Judas: "...kiss?" (Luke 22:48p)

Compare that with the scene when Jesus stood before Pilate, and Jesus was speechless (that is "dumb"): Pilate had just been told that Jesus was "the Son of God" (John 19:7p), and Pilate was "AFRAID"! (Jn.19:8p) and said to Jesus: "Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him NO ANSWER." (Jn.19:9p)

"Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?" (Jn.19:10)

"Jesus ANSWERED, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." (John 19:11)

Notice that the last word that Jesus spoke to Pontius Pilate was SIN. But notice MORE, that even here, the Lord Jesus identified ONE MAN, "he", and that THAT man had the "greater SIN." Who then is this "he" that delivered Jesus unto Pilate?

"Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him." (Matt.26:14-16)

And we have the even more SHOCKING revelation that when Jesus was speaking to Pilate, that it is likely that Judas was yet PRESENT! and heard Jesus' words that were aimed at him. And that Judas SAW Pilate wash his hands, saying, "I am INNOCENT of the BLOOD of this just person" (Matt.27:24).

And that it was AFTER Pilate had "DELIVERED [Jesus] to be crucified" (Matt.27:26) that "Judas, which had betrayed him, when he SAW that he [Jesus] was condemned, repented himself..." [etc.] and Judas said, "I have betrayed the INNOCENT blood", echoing what Pilate had just said. And further, that would indicate sufficient time lapse for Judas to hang himself at about the SAME TIME that Jesus was crucified!

(Matt.27:3-10 is parenthetical, and Matthew is plainly jumping ahead of the story, since that had to have been after the chief priests RETURNED to the temple that Judas met them there, but the priests are plainly still WITH Pilate through Matt.27:26 !)

Leaving that thought hanging, let us get back to the parable of the wedding. HOW is it that Judas can be connected with the end of the Tribulation and even more, how can he show up at the wedding? (But maybe such questions are better left un-asked.)

If you are interested in searching out some of these things, consider the following:

1. Judas was "a devil", not a human (John 6:70,71).
2. He went to "his own place", at death - not Hell (Acts 1).
3. He was the king of that place (Rev.9).
4. His title, as such, was "the son of perdition" (John 17:12).
5. This title is the title of the coming Anti-christ(2Thes.2).
6. The coming Anti-christ is called "the beast" (Rev.13:18).
7. This "beast" is now in the Bottomless pit (Rev.17:5-9).
8. He will go into perdition, because he is the "son of perdition" (Rev.17).
9. He will be Satan, incarnate in the flesh (Gen.3:15).
10. He has 18 types in the Old Testament; Cain, Nimrod, etc.
11. He will be an uninvited guest at the marriage, who will be cast out!
(see Esther 4 thru 8).

The King's Son said: "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled." (John 17:12)

Only ONE was lost, as we have in this parable: "a man" (v.11). The shocking possibility is that Satan himself will put in an APPEARANCE in Heaven after the rapture, during the festivities of the marriage of the Lamb. Notice that the doom of this "man" without the wedding garment is to be: "bound hand and foot"! Compare that with Revelation 20:1-3, which occurs at the END of the tribulation.

Don't be lost in that day. The word of faith says, That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved; For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Grace be with you all, for Jesus' sake. Amen. --Richard