20. With what statement did Jesus round off his illustration, and did this refer to the garmentless man?

²⁰ In order to round off the illustration and to show the point of it, Jesus said: “For there are many invited, but few chosen.” (Matt. 22:14) Jesus was not saying those words with reference to the ejected man without the required marriage garment.a This man was not the main feature of the illustration. Certainly the man did not picture what was left of the “many” invited ones after the “few” chosen ones had been taken out. Correspondingly, the “guests” who wear the marriage garment and who are not thrown out of the “room for the wedding ceremonies” do not picture the “few” that had been chosen from the Jewish nation after the vast majority of all the “invited” Jews had excused themselves. Whom, then, did Jesus mean by the “many” that had been invited, and whom by the “few” chosen?

21. Who, then, were the few that were chosen, and did they make up all the “guests” that recline at the “marriage feast”?

²¹ The “many” invited were the Jewish nation that was in the Law covenant, which offered help to the Jews to become a “kingdom of priests” to God. The “few” chosen as worthy of the “kingdom of the heavens” were the “remnant” of natural Jews who acted on the notification from the heavenly King. Such Jews left worldly concerns behind, came to the “room for the wedding ceremonies” and accepted the “marriage garment” from the King, put it on and then reclined at the “table.” Because, by the year 36 C.E., merely a “few” (Jews) acted on notification from God the King, he found it necessary to send his “slaves” out beyond the Jewish “city” or community with orders to bring in replacements from the uncircumcised Gentiles. Eventually a roomful of guests results. So the “few” that made up the Jewish remnant were only part of the “guests” at the feast.

22. (a) How did God the King show his choosing of the garmented “guests”? (b) What was Jesus’ illustration meant to show regarding the King’s having a marriage feast?

²² Hence, all the “guests” clothed with the marriage garment picture more than just the “remnant” of Jews who became spiritual Israelites. The “guests” include also all the faithful Gentile replacements. God duly indicated his choosing of all these garmented “guests” by anointing them with his holy spirit through his Son Jesus Christ. Jesus’ illustration nowhere pictures, and was not meant to picture, that an unknown number of anointed Christians would turn unfaithful and prove unworthy of the “kingdom of the heavens.” Jesus’ illustration was meant to show that the heavenly King would succeed in having a fully attended “marriage feast” in spite of difficulties. He would have a successful “marriage feast” in fulfillment of his gracious purpose.

23. Did the King Jehovah have his “slaves” bring in an overload of prospective “guests,” or in what way did he proceed?

²³ All along the King Jehovah knew how many reclining places he would have at the feasting “table.” So he would not have his “slaves” bring in an overload of prospective “guests.” He would have his slaves bring in only as many as were needed to fill all the places available. In his due time he had his “slaves” bring in a remnant from the originally invited Jews. After that he called for all the needed replacements from all uncircumcised Gentile nations. Gradually all places would be “filled.”

24. (a) What does Jesus’ illustration not show as respects the man thrown out? (b) In the fulfillment, why is there no need to bring in replacements for that garmentless class?

²⁴ One thing Jesus’ illustration does not show. What? That, after the man without the marriage garment was thrown out, the king would send out a slave to bring in a replacement for that man. Certainly the king would not send out a slave into the night, “into the darkness outside,” to hunt up a replacement for the man thrown out. What person would be on “the roads” outside the city at that hour of the night? The king approves of the garmented wedding guests (reclining ones), and the feast now goes forward with all these and without the garmentless man who was thrown outside. In the fulfillment of the final part of Jesus’ illustration today, there is no need to bring in a replacement for Christendom and her religious crowd. They merely tried to get in to the feasting table without meeting the divine requirements. Their pretense at being there does not work.

THE MAN WITHOUT A “MARRIAGE GARMENT”

10. The time should be close upon us for what feature of the illustration to be fulfilled, and why?

¹⁰ Well, now, after all the gathering work of the previous eighteen centuries, there should be comparatively few, or far fewer, replacements needed to be made by the time of this twentieth century. So not many would be gathered. Now since the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 and the start then of the “time of the end,” the time should be upon us when the heavenly King’s “room for the wedding ceremonies” should be filled. In Jesus’ illustration that point is reached, and he goes on to say: “When the king came in to inspect the guests [the reclining ones] he caught sight there of a man not clothed with a marriage garment. So he said to him, ‘Fellow, how did you get in here not having on a marriage garment?’ He was rendered speechless.”​—Matt. 22:11, 12.

11. Why was the garmentless man rendered speechless at the king’s question?

¹¹ The king had provided a marriage garment for every guest to wear at the wedding festivities, and so there was no excuse for the garmentless man to be without one. Rightly he was rendered speechless, muzzled. Jesus in his illustration does not say that the man put it on to get in and then took it off. Rather, the man declined the garment when the king’s attendant offered it to him or showed him the king’s wardrobe for guests. The king did not ask him, ‘Why did you take off the marriage garment?’ but, “How did you get in here not having on a marriage garment?” He refused to wear it. He declined to wear it at the feast table. He did not meet the requirements for being there at the table, and he did not belong there. Whom does he picture today?

12. Whom, briefly, does the garmentless man picture, and what do Bible commentators saw that the marriage garment pictured?

¹² He pictures those who profess to be godly Christians but who have not put on what was pictured by the “marriage garment.” According to reports, such garments freely provided by the host were long white linen garments, so that all guests were outwardly clothed alike, whether one was originally a Jewish invitee or a Gentile pickup. Hence, many Bible commentators refer to Revelation 19:7, 8, where it is said concerning the Lamb’s wife: “It has been granted to her to be arrayed in bright, clean, fine linen, for the fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the holy ones.” So it is claimed that the “marriage garment” pictures the imputed righteousness of the baptized Christian, his justification.

13. Why does the “marriage garment” picture more than “justification”?

¹³ However, the marriage garment must signify more than one’s being declared righteous by God through one’s faith in Christ as the ransom sacrifice. (Rom. 5:1, 9) Such justification or being declared righteous now is not an end in itself; it does not now stand alone. Its purpose now is that the justified one should be adopted by God the Justifier as his spiritual son and become a member of the spiritual “seed” of Abraham and thus a member of spiritual Israel. As such, this adopted son of God is taken into the new covenant mediated by God’s Son, Jesus Christ. (Gal. 4:4-7; Rom. 8:16, 17; Luke 22:19, 20) Hence, the “marriage garment” symbolizes all that for the repentant, baptized guest at the feast. So it is one’s identification as a spiritual Israelite, one of Abraham’s spiritual “seed.”

14. Whom, then, did the garmentless man picture?

¹⁴ Since the lone one whom the king discovered was not wearing the available marriage garment, he pictured the class who did not exercise faith and take due action in harmony with faith to be declared righteous by God and adopted as his spiritual son and taken into the new covenant that is made with spiritual Israel through Christ. He does not picture Christians who have been anointed with God’s spirit and made joint heirs with Christ but who prove unfaithful to God and lose out on the heavenly kingdom. Rather, he pictures imitation Christians, of whom Christendom today is composed and who claim and pretend to be at the marriage feast “table.” God the King never recognized them as being there with the proper identification, and so he did not anoint them with holy spirit as Kingdom heirs.