Parable of the Wedding Feast

When Jesus told this parable, many people were able to understand the picture he was trying to create because he used a Jewish wedding – specifically, a Seudat Nissuin – as the setting of the story.

He also said to the one who had invited him, "When you make a dinner or a supper, don't call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors, or perhaps they might also return the favor, and pay you back.

Those guests who were first invited are the Jews, who were called by God's servants (i. e. His prophets down to St. John the Baptist) to prepare themselves by penance for the coming of the Messiah.

Then God, when the work of Redemption was completed, and the Church founded, sent out other servants, namely His apostles and disciples, to warn the Jews that "all things were now ready", and that now was the time to enter His kingdom.

But, sunk as they were in carnal notions, given over to avarice, pleasure-seeking and the love of dominion, the Jews had no relish for the idea of a kingdom of grace and salvation, and paid no heed to the urgent call; and many of them – the Scribes and Pharisees – persecuted, maltreated and killed God's servants for daring to deliver God's message.

[5]Roger Baxter in his Meditations, reflects on this passage, writing: This king is our Heavenly Father, who has instituted a marriage between His only-begotton Son and human nature.