Answer
Jesus Christ often taught using parables, and just like His disciples, modern readers sometimes need help decoding the comparisons they make. In the Parable of the Wedding Feast, Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a wedding feast for a king’s son. A pivotal scene in the story focuses on the improper attire of a guest and his subsequent punishment. The interpretation of the parable that aligns best with Jesus’ articulation of its main point, which other Scripture supports, is that the wedding garment represents the righteousness of Christ.
The Parable of the Wedding Feast consists of two scenes, and together they provide important context for understanding the meaning of the wedding garment. In the first scene, the king sent his servants to summon selected guests to the banquet, but they ignored the invitation as some returned to work and others mistreated and killed the servants. This part of the parable represents Israel’s collective rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. Consequently, the king punished the killers and destroyed their city. Then, depicting the inclusion of the Gentiles into God’s plan for the ages, the king expanded the banquet invitation to anyone his servants could find, resulting in “both bad and good” guests attending the banquet (Matthew 22:1–10, ESV).
The second scene of the parable describes a guest wearing improper clothing: “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment” (Matthew 22:11). When the king asked him about his clothes, the man was speechless, indicating he didn’t have an excuse. In response, the king instructed his servants to tie the man up and “cast him into the outer darkness,” where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:12–13).
There are three primary reasons why the best interpretation of the wedding garment is that it represents the righteousness of Jesus. The first comes from the lesson of the parable, found in Jesus’ words at the conclusion: “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). The word translated as “chosen” comes from the Greek word eklektos, meaning “select ones,” and refers to sinners Jesus has saved. This is the second time Jesus uses the word in Matthew; the first was when He described those who know the Father as the ones “whom the Son chooses” (Matthew 11:27). Additionally, the word eklektos is translated as “elect” later in Matthew (Matthew 24:22, 24, 31) and as “chosen” or “elect” elsewhere in the New Testament (Romans 8:33; 16:13; Luke 18:7; 1 Peter 2:9). Thus, Jesus implies the man’s improper attire signifies that he wasn’t among the chosen few.
Second, since the king in the parable represents God, and its lesson, according to Jesus, distinguishes between those who are invited to the banquet and those who are chosen, the best interpretation of the invitation is that it symbolizes the gospel proclamation. Since a parable is an elaborate simile, it’s helpful to apply the analogy of faith—using Scripture to interpret Scripture—to fully understand the comparison. Accordingly, other New Testament passages teach that sinners are reconciled with God through the gospel, which proclaims that those who respond in faith have the righteousness of Jesus imputed (i.e., transferred) to them. Paul further explains that, at conversion, God transfers a person’s sin to Jesus and Jesus’ righteousness to that person (2 Corinthians 5:21). Further supporting the interpretation that the wedding garment symbolizes Jesus’ righteousness is the association of righteousness and clothing in other passages. For example, Revelation 19:7–8 says, “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” (also see Isaiah 61:10; Zechariah 3:3–4; Revelation 7:14).
The third reason why the wedding garment symbolizes Jesus’ righteousness is the description of the improperly dressed man being cast “into the outer darkness” where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13). Jesus teaches elsewhere that these descriptions refer to the eternal destination of those who have rejected Him and the consequences they will suffer because of their unrighteousness (Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 24:51; 25:30).
