He sent … servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my dinner … everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’” Matthew 22:4 ESV1
Read Matthew 22:1-14
Evidently, 1,900 people were invited to the wedding service of Prince William and Kate Middleton of England. It has been reported that one million people crowded the streets of London on April 23, 2011, hoping to get a peek at William and Kate’s wedding parade. Additionally, an astonishing two billion people watched this royal wedding on live television across several media outlets. It is estimated that the whole amazing affair, including flowers, rings, cakes, Kate’s dress, and security, cost a whopping $50 million. In terms of numbers and cost, the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on May 19, 2018, was comparable. In fact, most royal weddings cost millions of dollars and are watched by people numbering in the multi-millions.
Considering the enormous expense and interest in royal weddings, one would imagine if any person was specifically invited to such a celebration, he/she would make every effort to attend. And if anyone who had been invited found that he/she must decline the royal invitation, it appears that any one of millions of others would have gladly taken his/her place. That is what makes the following story, told by Jesus, about those who snubbed their invitation to a royal wedding so astounding.
“And again, Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again, he sent other servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’” But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.” And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So, the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” For, many are called, but few are chosen’” (Matthew 22:1-14)
The Wedding Venue
This is one of about a dozen parables of Jesus’ where He addressed the subject of the Kingdom of Heaven. When we hear the phrase, Kingdom of Heaven, our thoughts often go to a far-off place sometime in the future, but if one intently studies Jesus’ comments on the Kingdom of Heaven (or the Kingdom of God), he/she will realize Jesus was teaching of much more. The Kingdom of Heaven is vaster than a place, or a realm, or a coming expectation. The Kingdom of Heaven is also a Person, a relationship, and a current experience. To get the most out of this and all of the Kingdom of Heaven parables, we must look for what Jesus was teaching about Himself and His relationship with humans.
The Groom’s Family
Weddings are joyous occasions in any culture, but among Jews, they are really big deals. As they are often now, during Jesus’ time on Earth, Jewish weddings were festive events that whole communities attended. Jewish wedding banquets often last for up to a week. In this parable, Jesus compared the Kingdom of Heaven to a wedding banquet that a king prepared for his son.
The king pictured God the Father. The son who was being honored at the banquet, therefore, represented Jesus Himself. This wasn’t the first time Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of God. That was one of the reasons the religious leaders of His time on Earth rejected Jesus. When Jesus declared:
“‘I and the Father are one.’ The Jews picked up stones … to stone Him. Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone Me?’ The Jews answered Him, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone You but for blasphemy, because You, being a man, make Yourself God.’ Jesus answered them, … ‘[How can] you say of Him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, “You are blaspheming,” because I said, “I am the Son of God”’” (John 10:30-36)?
To all who had ears to hear, the Son of God, in the teaching of this parable, made a great proposition.
The Save the Date Announcements
Often well before a formal invitation is mailed, to make sure their guests don’t have conflicts that would keep them from attending their wedding, a couple will send out Save the Date announcements. God was no less thoughtful in inviting His people to the grand celebration He had planned.
These Save the Date announcements came in the form of Messianic prophesies that pointed to the Gospel through a Savior to come. In Jesus’ parable, the first guests who received the messages of the upcoming wedding banquet represented the Jewish people.
There were literally hundreds of Messianic Prophesies recorded in the Old Testament. (That is a lot of Save the Date notices). The Jews, particularly the Jewish religious leaders, were very knowledgeable concerning these prophecies, but they chose not to listen or make any effort to do what was necessary so that they wouldn’t miss the coming of the Messiah. Spiritually, they threw in the garbage the Save the Date notices for the grandest wedding celebration of all time; they would suffer for this mistake.
The Formal Wedding Invitation
Since those invited to the royal wedding banquet chose to ignore the Save the Date announcements, “a second, more urgent invitation was sent out to the same people, as time was getting short, but the invitees paid little heed to it, caught up in their own activities and ventures. They stated by their actions that they cared little for the king and his son. In fact, they were sufficient unto themselves with their farms and shops.”2
This Formal Wedding Invitation was a picture of the Gospel. It was portrayed by the presence of Jesus, the Messiah in the flesh.
“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand … I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire’ … Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him … And when Jesus was baptized, immediately He went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him; and behold, a Voice from Heaven said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:1-2, 11, 13, 16-17).
“And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, … And as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.” And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:14, 16b-19, 21).
“He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him” (John 11:1). As God’s chosen people, Israel was given the invitation to the Kingdom of Heaven, but when the Kingdom appeared to them, they refused to believe. It is not that they could not believe, they would not.
But it was more than a matter of not believing. In the parable, some of the first-invited guests refused to acknowledge the messengers or allowed themselves to be distracted from their proclamations, others violently opposed the message sent from the king and attacked, mistreated, and killed his servants. The same was true of the Jewish religious leaders.
The Couriers
The couriers of the message who hastily and diligently brought the notices of the upcoming royal wedding pictured the prophets of the Old Testament.
The word used for servant in Matthew 22:3, 4, 6, 8 & 10 is doulos and is also translated bondservant. A bondservant was one who lived with, received all that was needed from, and was completely devoted to the will and service of his/her master. The writer of Hebrews honored some of the bondservants of God who suffered at the hands of those who did not believe them or accept their message:
“Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth” (Hebrews 11:35b-38).
To those whom Jesus addressed this parable, He later said:
“‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, “If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.” Thus, you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets … so … on you [will] come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation’” (Matthew 23:29-31, 35-36).
Little did the initially invited know the dire consequences of their extreme rejection of the King, His Son, His servants, and His message.
Rectifying the Predicament
During the planning, preparing, and performing stages of any wedding, there are sometimes unexpected problems that arise. A wise couple assigns an observant, diligent, and resourceful person the duty of recognizing and correcting mishaps before they get out of hand.
The responsible party in this parable was the king himself. He avenged the death of his servants by annihilating the ungrateful, disrespectful, and evil potential guests. “‘The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city’” (Matthew 22:7).
“The king’s reprisal against the murderers can be interpreted as a prophecy of Jerusalem’s destruction in A.D. 70 at the hands of the Romans (cf. Luke 21:5). More broadly, the king’s vengeance speaks of the desolation mentioned in the book of Revelation. God is patient, but He will not tolerate wickedness forever (Obadiah 1:15).”3
In the words of the king, “‘those invited were not worthy’” (Matthew 22:8b). The word translated worthy here is the Greek word, axios. This means: “weighing, having weight, having the weight of another thing of like value, worth as much”4 This word comes from the root word that means balancing of the scales—like in a business transaction in the marketplace. What is being paid must match that which is being bought.
These originally invited guests weren’t worthy or deserving because they didn’t match the attitude and expectation of the king. The idea is similar to what happened in Daniel when he interpreted a sign for King Belshazzar the night his kingdom fell. Do you remember the handwriting on the wall?
“Then from His presence, the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” (Daniel 5:24-28).
In essence, the days of these initially invited guests had been numbered; they were found wanting and their “kingdom” was given to others.
The Amended Guest List
Because the first ones invited spurned his invitation, a third invitation had to be sent. The guest list was amended. No longer was only the elite invited; this time the invitation went out to the commoners. The king gave his servants permission to “‘“go therefore to the main roads and, … as many as [possible,] invite anyone they could find”’” (Matthew 22:9) to partake in the son’s royal wedding celebration. This time, the king’s servants went not only to “Jerusalem, [but to] all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth’” (Acts 1:8b). Those invited this time included “‘all whom [could be] found, both bad and good. So, the wedding hall was filled with guests’” (Matthew 22:10).
“The wedding invitation [was] extended to anyone and everyone, total strangers, both good and bad. This refers to the Gospel being taken to the Gentiles. This portion of the parable is a foreshadowing of the Jews’ rejection of the Gospel in Acts 13. Paul and Barnabas were in Pisidian Antioch, where the Jewish leaders strongly opposed them. The apostle’s words echo the king’s estimation that those invited to the wedding ‘did not deserve to come’: ‘We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles’ (Acts 13:46). The Gospel message, Jesus taught, would be made available to everyone.”3
Those who accepted this third invitation were able to participate in a meal unlike any they had previously experienced.
The Banquet Meal
When the king sent out his couriers with the invitations to his son’s wedding banquet, he instructed them, “‘“Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’”’” (Matthew 22:4). The king insisted that his servants make mention of the menu for a significant reason; it was a whole new kind of meal.
You see, so that their sins could be forgiven, a system had been established by God for His people; this system involved the sacrifice of animals—the spilling of their blood.
“Indeed, under the Law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22).
But:
“The Law [was] only a shadow of the good things that [were] coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason, it [could] never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who [drew] near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices [were] an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: … ‘“Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor were You pleased with them”’—though they were offered in accordance with the Law. Then He said, ‘“Here I am, I have come to do Your will.”’ He [set] aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:1-5a, 8-10).
Jesus’ sacrifice would put an end to animals being uses to pay the penalty of sin—“’“my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered”’” (Matthew 22:4, emphasis mine). A whole new meal was to be offered from then on. The King has “‘“‘prepared [His] dinner … and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast’”’” (Matthew 22:4, emphasis mine).
Jesus shocked those to whom He spoke when He referred to Himself as a Meal. He said,
“‘I am the Living Bread that came down from Heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever. And the Bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh … Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him’ … After this, many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him” (John 6: 51, 53-56 &66).
Sadly, many refused to partake in the only Meal which could give them eternal life. In doing so, they earned themselves eternal damnation.
The Expected Attire
Refusing to attend the wedding banquet of the Son isn’t the only way one will be miss out on the festivities. There is another equally offensive way of disrespecting the King—by refusing the garment He provides for one’s participation in the Kingdom of Heaven.
In Jesus’ parable, “‘when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’” And he was speechless’” (Matthew 22:11-12). This man stuck out from the others like a sore thumb. When confronted about his inappropriate attire, the man had no excuses.
“The custom in those days was for the one hosting the wedding feast—in this case, the king—to provide garments for the wedding guests. These wedding garments were simple, nondescript robes that all attendees wore. In this way, rank or station was covered, so everyone at the feast could mingle as equals.”2
In the Kingdom of Heaven, God has provided robes for all who wish to enter. Those robes are the Robes of Righteousness Jesus purchased by His blood.
“For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
“God has done what the Law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8: 3-4, 16-17).
God did not lower His standards to accept everyone. Instead, he lifts up everyone who believes to a level equal to His Son. This lifting up is conditional, though. Believers are not merely saved from something but saved into something. A Kingdom of Heaven relationship is not just you in Christ but Christ in you. This depth of holy intimacy requires a sacrifice by both parties. Not only must Christ be subject to crucifixion; all those who wish to wear His Robe of Righteousness must put off their own self-righteousness.
Remember, the servants of the king “‘gathered all whom they found, both bad and good’” (Matthew 22:10). There was only one thing that could establish equality between the guests and bring them to the standard required to enter the wedding hall—that was proper clothing. The required attire for the Kingdom of Heaven is Christ’s righteousness.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
In Christ, one proves his/her belief. Through faith, one must take off his/her old robe of self and put on the Robe of Righteousness that The Lord has provided for him/her.
“Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).
“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14).
“Put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:9b-10).
It was not that the man in Jesus’ parable didn’t have the required clothing; it had been provided for him as it had been for all the other attendees. He just refused to put it on. Just as it would be a terrible insult to a king to turn down the wedding robe he provided. It is just as gross an affront to God to be unwilling to accept the Robe of Righteousness He extends to us.
When we reject Christ’s righteousness, we must rely on our own good deeds to get us into God’s Kingdom. If we attempt to clothe ourselves with our own righteousness, we will discover we have come woefully short.
“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6a)
The inability of the improperly clothed man to defend himself was proof that he realized this truth a little too late. “‘The king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”’” (Matthew 22:13).
The Service Staff
The attendants of the king, the servants that did the binding and casting, are different from the servants who carried the king’s invitations to the potential guests. This word, in Greek, is, diakonos, and means “one who executes the commands of another, esp. of a master, a servant, attendant, minister; the servant of a king.”5 In this parable, these attendants picture the angels.
“‘The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His Kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear” (Matthew 13:41-43).
“For his crime against the king, the improperly attired guest [was] thrown out into the darkness. For their crimes against God, there will be many who will be consigned to ‘outer darkness’—existence without God for eternity.”3
Sadly, many of those who will be weeping and gnashing their teeth will be surprised because they believed a lie and staked their eternity on their own good deeds.
“‘Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven. On that Day many will say to Me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness”’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
On Judgement Day, many will be cast out of the wedding banquet because they insisted on trusting in their own righteousness when what was required was “‘[doing] the will of [the] Father who is in Heaven’” (Matthew 7:21b). The will of the Father is that of exchanging our lives for Christ’s–sacrificing our own righteousness for Christ’s righteousness. It is when one removes self from its lofty position that the Holy Spirit has room to dwell in the heart of a Believer.
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them [we] may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Peter 1:3-4).
Jesus concluded this parable with the warning, “‘For many are called, but few are chosen’” (Matthew 22:14). According to The Blue Letter Bible, an online Bible Study Tool, the Greek word, kletos, translated here, called, means “invited (to a banquet); invited (by God in the proclamation of the Gospel) to obtain eternal salvation in the Kingdom through Christ.”6 The word, eklektos, translated here, chosen, looks similar but is different in that it means “picked out; elected; the best of its kind or class, excellence, preeminent select; by implication, favorite.”7
Though God’s calling extends to many, those who respond to His invitation and, in following, choose to wear the Christ’s Robe of Righteousness are a smaller group. Those who yield to the King’s choice of Wedding Clothing are clearly the favored ones.
The Veiled Bride
In this whole tumultuous wedding situation, one important detail has been overlooked. Where is the Bride? Without a Bride, there is no marriage.
The most surprising thing of all, that the chosen guests will realize upon entering the wedding banquet and being found in the appropriate clothing, is that they are the Bride! As illustrated in the Parable of the Virgins,8 the same shocking conclusion will be understood by those who are ready to go with Christ into the marriage supper when He returns for His Bride. How, you may ask, can the guests and the attendants be the Bride?
“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
In Heaven, the guests, attendants, and the Bride can all be one because The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. It may be a little too much for our minds to grasp now but it will all make sense when we are with Him because we will be like Him.
But for now, remember that when the Apostle Paul instructed married couples how to treat one another, he reminded them that they, as Believers, are married to Christ:
“Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish … This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church” (Ephesians 5:25b-27 &32).
The Apostle John testified to what was shown him would happen on the glorious day of Christ’s wedding:
“And from the Throne came a voice saying, ‘Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, small and great.’ Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true words of God’” (Revelation 19:5-9).
The Bride of Christ, the Church, will indeed be clothed in the righteous deeds of those who believe. But Believers must always remember that those deeds are not those that they have done in their own strength, morality, or uprightness. All true righteousness comes from Christ and all deeds that will be worthy of clothing His Bride must be done in Christ. Jesus promised, “‘If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing’” (John 15:5).
Unbelieving rejectors of Jesus not only spurn an invitation to a royal wedding, but they also reject a marriage proposal from the Prince of Peace. Improperly dressed guests not only neglect to don the appropriate attire for a wedding, but they also refused to accept the only adequate provision of the King of Kings, the Robe of Righteousness purchased by the Royal Son.
“God sent His Son into the world, and the very people who should have celebrated His coming rejected Him, bringing judgment upon themselves. As a result, the Kingdom of Heaven was opened up to anyone who will set aside his own righteousness and by faith accept the righteousness God provides in Christ. Those who spurn the gift of salvation and cling instead to their own ‘good’ works will spend eternity in hell.”3
There is a reason that royal weddings are the subject of so much interest; it is because something inside us knows we should be preparing for our own Royal Marriage. Will you decline to accept The Royal Suitor in Holy Marriage? Will you reject the Gift of the Holy Spirit, the guarantee you that you will be united with the Son of The King (see 2 Corinthians 1:22)? Will you refuse to wear the Wedding Dress of Righteousness that the Prince of Peace has purchased for you? Will you leave the Lover of Your Soul standing alone at the alter? Or will you disdain His attempts to consummate a Kingdom of Heaven relationship in you? God forbid! Say it will not be so!
1 Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted. To aid in understanding, I have capitalized references to God.
3 https://www.gotquestions.org/parable-wedding-feast.html
4 https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g514/kjv/tr/0-1/
5 https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1249/kjv/tr/0-1/
6 https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g2822/kjv/tr/0-1/
7 https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1588/kjv/tr/0-1/
8 For my commentary on this parable, click here: https://www.blueturtletrails.com/here-comes-the-groom/