The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 366

<lisc0nteD'.,ed 1?usb~ndmen, eh. x_x. 13, and ?Your Lord to Judas, eh, xxvi. 60), "how cRmrst thou m hither not h1wmg a weddmg garment?" The question is gently expressed, but the negative particle used (I'¾ rx..,.,) seems to appeal to the man's consciousness; it ~eems to imply that he Wl\8 aware of his condition and knew that he wBB transgressing the rules of decorum. He was speechless; he could- find no answer, no excuse. It may be that festal garments for all the guests were provided by the bounty of the King; this unhappy man had contemptuously rejected the offered gift; he had preferred his mm mean and sordid raiment; he appeared at the King's board just as he had come from the highway, with no change, no preparation. Certainly, he had taken no pains to provide himself with suitable attire; plainly, he might have done so; all the other guests were clad in wedding robes; why was he in this unseemly garb? He could find no excuse; he could not plead want of time; the rest had found time. He could not plead ignorance; the others knew how the robes were to be procured. He could not plead poverty; the bounty of the King was inexhaustible. His presence in that guise was an insult to the King, a dishonour to the high festival to which he had been invited. He was unworthy of a place among the chosen guests. The wedding garment is the righteousness of saints (Rev. xix. 8); " but we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isa. !xiv. 6). Yet, thank God, we may find a ple.ce among the guests of the King, for Jesus Christ our Lord "is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sancti- fication, and redemption." We mast" put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. xiii 14). We must appear before the King, "not having our own righteousness,which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." The robe of righteousness is ours, and yet not ours. It is the righteousness o! saints, because it has been .given to them. "To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen" (Rev. xix. 8). The King giveth the fair garments freely in his large .and generous bounty. Bat that. righteousness was not of nature; they were bom in sin. It was not gained by any works of theirs ; by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God (Rom. iii. 20). It is a gift; it cometh of grace, the grace of God," who giveth to all men liberally, and upbra.ideth not." We must seek it of .him, for without that robe of righteousness we cannot sit among the guests at the marriage feast. 2. The King's sentence. The King made no further inquiries; he read the heart of the miserable man; he knew his history. He pronounced at once the awful sentence: "Then said the King -to the servants." These aerva.nts (BuL.wo,) e.re not the same as the servants (BouAo,) who were :sent forth to call the guests. They were Christ's apostles and evangelists; these are the angels of judgment, who "shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and thetn which do iniquity" (eh. xiiL 41). They were bidden to bind him hand and foot, and cast him into out.er darkness. The time for repentance was past ; he might have procured the wedding garment; he had taken no pains to obtain it; he had not even asked for it; nay, we must believe he had rejected it when it was offered him out of ihe bounty of the King. Now it was too late; he was helpless; bound hand and foot, he could not seek it now. And without that wedding garment· there was no place for him in the palace of the King. He must be cast out into _the outer darkness; that outer darkness thrice mentioned in this Gospel of St. Matthew (see oh. viii. 12 and xxv. 30), and always with the solemn addition, "There shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth." Out of the kingdom of light into the kingdom of darkness; away from the joy and gladness, away from the presence of the King, a.way from the happy guests; into that pla.ce of remorse and mise1y where there is only weeping-and gnashing of teeth; bitter remorse for the past, and, alas I no hope for the fut11re.·' Bound hand and foot as he now is, through his own contempt of the great King, he cannot attain unto that holineSB without which (let us well ponder the awful words) no man shall see the Lord. 3. The conclUBion of the parable. "For many are called, but few are chosen." The word.I! have a more awful meaning here than they can have in oh. :z:x. 16, if, indeed, they are genuine in that pla.ce. In oh. u. all receive the reward; the concluding words seem to point to the few who are chosen for the highest places in the kingdom of, God, Rere the distinction is plainly between the saved and the lost: Many were called to the marriage; few only came; of those few one was cast o?t, even as the traitor Judas, though one of the twelve apostles of the Lord, went to his own place. So now <lll, xxn, 1-40.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTIIE\V. 371