Parable of the Wedding Banquet

One day, when Jesus was dining at the table in the house of a Pharisee, he told them this parable, “There was a king who prepared a wedding banquet for a son.

At the time of the banquet, the king sent his servants to invite those who had been invited to come. However, everyone found excuses to reject the offer and refused to come.

He sent some more servants to tell those had been invited, ‘I have already butchered my fattened calves and everything is ready. Please come to the dinner I have prepared.’

Some of them ignored the calling of the king’s servants and went back into their business. The rest beat his servants and killed them.

Therefore the king said to his servants, ‘Go into the street corners and invite anyone that you can find.’

The servants did as the king ordered them. They went out into the streets and brought the people both good and bad to the wedding banquet. The wedding hall was filled with people.

When the king came into the wedding hall, he happened to notice a few guests who did not put on the wedding garment.

He asked them, ‘How did you get in here? Where is your wedding garment?’

The king said to the attendants, ‘Tie them up and throw them into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth forever.

For there will be many who are invited but only a few will be chosen.’”