Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 22:1-14

"And Jesus answered and spake again in parables unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the marriage feast: and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them that are bidden, Behold, I have made ready my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come to the marriage feast. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise; and the rest laid hold on his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them. But the king was wroth; and he sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they that were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore unto the partings of the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage feast. And those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was filled with guests. But when the king came in to behold the guests, he saw there a man who had not on a wedding-garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding-garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him out into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few chosen." — Matthew 22:1-14 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: Since He had said, And it shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof, He now proceeds to show which nation that is.¹

Glossa Ordinaria: "Answered," that is, responding to their evil thoughts of putting Him to death.²

St. Augustine of Hippo: This parable is related only by Matthew. Luke gives one like it, but it is not the same, as the order shows.³

St. Gregory the Great: Here, the wedding feast denotes the present Church, while the supper there signifies the final and eternal feast. For into this Church enter some who will perish; into that eternal feast, whoever has once entered will never be cast out. But if anyone should maintain that these are the same lessons, we may perhaps explain that the part concerning the guest who had come in without a wedding garment, which Luke did not mention, Matthew has related. The fact that one calls it a supper and the other a dinner makes no difference, for with the ancients the dinner was at the ninth hour and was therefore often called a supper.⁴

Origen of Alexandria: The kingdom of heaven, regarding Him who reigns there, is like a king. Regarding him who shares the kingdom, it is like a king's son. Regarding those things that are in the kingdom, it is like servants, guests, and the king's armies. It is specified, "A man who is a king," so that what is spoken may be as from a man to men, and so that a man may govern men who are unwilling to be governed by God.

But the kingdom of heaven will then cease to be like a man when zeal, contention, and all other passions and sins have ceased. Then we will cease to follow human ways and will see Him as He is. For now we see Him not as He is, but as He has been made for us in our present state.

St. Gregory the Great: God the Father made a wedding feast for God the Son when He joined Him to human nature in the womb of the Virgin. But far be it from us to conclude that, because a marriage takes place between two separate persons, the person of our Redeemer was therefore made up of two separate persons. We say indeed that He exists of two natures and in two natures, but we hold it unlawful to believe that He was composed of two persons.

It is safer, therefore, to say that the wedding feast was made by the King the Father for the King the Son when He joined the Holy Church to Him in the mystery of His incarnation. The womb of the Virgin Mother was the bridechamber of this Bridegroom.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Alternatively, when the resurrection of the saints occurs, then the Life, which is Christ, will revive humanity, swallowing up its mortality in His own immortality. For now we receive the Holy Spirit as a pledge of this future union, but then we will have Christ Himself more fully in us.

Origen of Alexandria: Or, by the marriage of the Bridegroom with the Bride—that is, of Christ with the soul—understand the assumption of the Word, the fruit of which is good works.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: The Father has rightly already prepared this wedding, because this eternal union and espousal of the new body is already perfect in Christ.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Since the servants were sent to call them, they must have been invited before. People have been invited since the time of Abraham, to whom Christ's incarnation was promised.

St. Jerome: "He sent His servant"—without doubt Moses, by whom He gave the Law to those who had been invited. But if you read "servants," as most copies do, it must refer to the Prophets, by whom they were invited but neglected to come. By the servants who were sent the second time, we may better understand the Prophets than the Apostles, if "servant" is read in the first place. But if "servants," then the second servants are to be understood as the Apostles.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: ...whom He sent when He said to them, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 10:5).

Origen of Alexandria: The servants who were first sent to call those who were invited to the wedding are to be taken as the Prophets, converting the people by their prophecy to the festival of the Church's restoration to Christ. Those who would not come at the first message are those who refused to hear the words of the Prophets. The others who were sent a second time were another group of Prophets.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, the servants who were first sent to call those who were invited are the Apostles. Those who, having been previously invited, are now invited to come in, are the people of Israel, who had been invited before through the Law to the glories of eternity. Therefore, it was the Apostles' role to remind those whom the Prophets had invited. Those sent with the second command are their successors, the Apostolic men.

St. Gregory the Great: But because those who were first invited would not come to the feast, the second summons says, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner."

St. Jerome: The dinner that is prepared, the oxen and the fatlings that are killed, is either a description of royal magnificence as a metaphor, so that spiritual things may be understood through carnal things, or it may refer to the greatness of the doctrines and the diverse teaching of God in His law.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Therefore, when the Lord commanded the Apostles, "Go and preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand," it was the same message given here: "I have prepared my dinner." That is, I have set out the table of Scripture from the Law and the Prophets.

St. Gregory the Great: By the oxen are signified the Fathers of the Old Testament, who, by the allowance of the Law, gored their enemies with the horn of physical strength. By fatlings are meant fatted animals, for from "alere" comes "altilia," as it were "alitilia" or "alita." By the "fatlings" are intended the Fathers of the New Testament, who, while they receive the sweet grace of inner nourishment, are raised by the wing of contemplation from earthly desires to things above.

He says therefore, "My oxen and my fatlings are killed," as if to say, "Look to the deaths of the Fathers who have gone before you, and you should desire some amendment of your lives."

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Alternatively, He says "oxen and fatlings," not as though the oxen were not fattened, but because not all the oxen were fat. Therefore, the fatlings denote the Prophets who were filled with the Holy Spirit; the oxen represent those who were both priests and prophets, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, for as the oxen are the leaders of the herd, so also the priests are leaders of the people.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or again, the oxen are the glorious army of Martyrs, offered as choice victims for the confession of God. The fatlings are spiritual men, like birds fed for flight on heavenly food, so that they may fill others with the abundance of the food they have eaten.

St. Gregory the Great: It is to be observed that in the first invitation nothing was said of the oxen or fatlings, but in the second it is announced that they are already killed. This is because when we will not hear His words, Almighty God gives examples, so that what we suppose is impossible becomes easier for us to overcome when we hear that others have passed through it before us.

Origen of Alexandria: Or, the dinner that is prepared is the oracles of God. And so, the mightier oracles of God are the oxen; the sweet and pleasant ones are the fatlings. For if anyone presents feeble words, lacking power and strong reasoning, these are the lean things. The fatlings are when many examples, backed by reasonable proofs, are brought forward to establish each proposition.

For example, supposing one is discoursing on chastity, it might well be represented by the turtledove. But if he presents the same holy discourse full of reasonable proof from Scripture, so as to delight and strengthen the mind of his hearer, then he brings the fatted dove.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: That He says, "And all things are now ready," means that all that is required for salvation is already fulfilled in the Scriptures. There the ignorant may find instruction, the self-willed may read of terrors, and he who is in difficulty may find promises to rouse him to activity.

Glossa Ordinaria: Or, "All things are now ready," that is, the entrance into the kingdom, which had been closed until now, is now ready through faith in My incarnation.⁵

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Or He says, "All things are now ready" which belong to the mystery of the Lord's Passion and our redemption. He says, "Come to the wedding," not with your feet, but with faith and good conduct. "But they made light of it." He shows why they did so when He adds, "And they went their way, one to his farm, another to his merchandise."⁶

St. John Chrysostom: These occupations seem to be entirely reasonable, but we learn from this that however necessary the things that take up our time, we ought to prefer spiritual things to everything else. But it seems to me that they only pretended to have these engagements as a cloak for their disregard of the invitation.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: For men are preoccupied with worldly ambition as with a farm, and many are engrossed with business through greed.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Alternatively, when we work with the labor of our hands—for example, cultivating our field or our vineyard, or any craft of wood or iron—we seem to be occupied with our "farm." Any other way of getting money that does not involve manual labor is here called "merchandise." O most miserable world! And miserable are you who follow it! The pursuits of this world have always shut men out of life.

St. Gregory the Great: Whoever, then, is intent on earthly business or devoted to the actions of this world, and pretends to be meditating on the mystery of the Lord's Passion and living accordingly, is the one who refuses to come to the king's wedding on the pretext of going to his farm or his merchandise. Indeed, often, which is worse, some who are called not only reject grace but also become persecutors: "And the remnant took his servants, and treated them shamefully and killed them."

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Or, by the business of a farm, He signifies the Jewish populace, whom the delights of this world separated from Christ. By the excuse of merchandise, He signifies the priests and other ministers of the Temple, who, coming to the service of the Law and the Temple through greed, have been shut out from the faith by covetousness. Of these He did not say, "They were filled with envy," but "They made light of it." For those who crucified Christ through hate and spite are the ones who were filled with envy, but those who, being entangled in business, did not believe in Him are not said to have been filled with envy, but to have made light of it.

The Lord is silent respecting His own death because He had spoken of it in the foregoing parable, but He shows the death of His disciples, whom the Jews put to death after His ascension, stoning Stephen and executing James the son of Alphaeus. For which acts Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. It should be observed that anger is attributed to God figuratively, not literally; He is said to be angry when He punishes.

St. Jerome: When He was doing works of mercy and inviting to His wedding feast, He was called a man; now when He comes to vengeance, the "man" is dropped, and He is called only a "King."ⁱ

Origen of Alexandria: Let those who sin against the God of the Law, the Prophets, and the whole creation declare whether He who is here called a man, and is said to be angry, is indeed the Father Himself. If they allow this, they will be forced to admit that many things are said of Him applicable to the passible nature of humanity—not because He has passions, but because He is represented to us in the manner of a passible human nature. In this way, we understand God's anger, repentance, and other similar things in the Prophets.

St. Jerome: By "His armies" we understand the Romans under Vespasian and Titus, who, after slaughtering the inhabitants of Judea, laid the faithless city in ashes.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: The Roman army is called God's army because "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof" (Psalm 24:1); nor would the Romans have come to Jerusalem if the Lord had not stirred them to go there.

St. Gregory the Great: Or, the armies of our King are the legions of His angels. He is therefore said to have sent His armies and destroyed those murderers because all judgment is executed upon humanity by the angels. He destroys those murderers when He cuts off persecutors, and He burns up their city because not only their souls but also the fleshly bodies they inhabited are tormented in the everlasting fire of hell.

Origen of Alexandria: Or, the city of those wicked men is, in every doctrine, the assembly of those who gather in the wisdom of the rulers of this world. The King sets this city on fire and destroys it, as it consists of evil structures.

St. Gregory the Great: But when He sees that His invitation is spurned, He will not allow His Son's wedding feast to be empty; the word of God will find a place to reside.

Origen of Alexandria: "He says to His servants"—that is, to the Apostles, or to the angels who were put in charge of calling the Gentiles—"The wedding is ready."

Remigius of Auxerre: That is, the whole sacrament of the human dispensation is completed and closed. "But they which were bidden," that is the Jews, "were not worthy," because, "being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God" (Romans 10:3).

The Jewish nation then being rejected, the Gentile people were taken in to the wedding feast, from which it follows, "Go out therefore into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding."

St. Jerome: For the Gentile nation was not in the main roads, but at the crossroads.

Remigius of Auxerre: These represent the errors of the Gentiles.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Or, the streets are all the professions of this world, such as philosophy, the military, and the like. And therefore He says, "Go out into the crossroads," so that they may call people of every condition to the faith. Moreover, as chastity is the way that leads to God, so fornication is the way that leads to the devil; and so it is with the other virtues and vices. Thus, He bids them invite people of every profession or condition to the faith.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: The "street" is also to be understood as the time of this world, and they are therefore told to go to the crossroads because the past is forgiven for everyone.

St. Gregory the Great: Or alternatively, in Holy Scripture, the "way" is taken to mean actions, so we understand the "crossroads" as failure in action, for those who have had little prosperity in worldly actions usually come to God readily.

Origen of Alexandria: Or again, I suppose this first invitation to the wedding was an invitation to some of the more noble minds. For God desires that those who have a quicker wit to understand them should, above all others, come to the feast of the divine oracles. And since such people are reluctant to come to that kind of summons, other servants are sent to persuade them to come and to promise that they will find the dinner prepared. For just as in physical matters, one is the bride, others are the inviters to the feast, and those who are invited are yet others, so God knows the various ranks of souls, their powers, and the reasons why some are placed in the position of the Bride, others in the rank of the servants who call, and others among the number of the invited guests.

But those who had been thus especially invited despised the first inviters as poor in understanding and went their way, following their own devices, delighting more in them than in those things which the King promised by his servants. Yet these are more forgivable than those who mistreat and kill the servants sent to them—that is, those who daringly attack the sent servants with weapons of contentious words, who are unable to solve their subtle difficulties, and are mistreated or killed by them.

The servants going out are either Christ's Apostles leaving Judea and Jerusalem, or the Holy Angels from the inner worlds. Going to the various paths of life, they gathered whomever they found, not caring whether they had been good or bad before their calling.

By the "good" here, we may simply understand the more humble and upright of those who come to the worship of God, with whom what the Apostle says agrees: "When the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, they are a law to themselves" (Romans 2:14).

St. Jerome: For there is an infinite difference among the Gentiles themselves; some are more prone to vice, while others are endowed with more incorrupt and virtuous characters.

St. Gregory the Great: Or, He means that in this present Church there cannot be bad without good, nor good without bad. He is not good who refuses to endure the bad.

Origen of Alexandria: The wedding feast of Christ and the Church is filled when those who were found by the Apostles, being restored to God, sat down to the feast. But since it was necessary that both bad and good should be called—not so that the bad would remain bad, but so that they would take off the garments unsuitable for the wedding and put on the wedding garments, namely, hearts of mercy and kindness—for this reason the King goes out to see them seated before the supper is served. He does this so that those who have the wedding garment in which He delights may be kept, and that He may condemn the one who does not.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: "The King came in to see the guests," not as though there is any place where He is not, but where He intends to give judgment, there He is said to be present; where He does not, there He seems to be absent. The day of His coming to see them is the day of judgment, when He will visit Christians seated at the table of the Scriptures.

Origen of Alexandria: But when He had come in, He found there one who had not put off his old behavior: "He saw there a man who did not have on a wedding garment." He speaks of only one because all who, after coming to faith, continue to serve the wickedness they served before faith, are of one and the same kind.

St. Gregory the Great: What should we understand the wedding garment to be, but charity? For the Lord had this on Him when He came to wed the Church to Himself. Therefore, he who has faith in the Church but does not have charity enters the wedding feast without the wedding garment.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, the one who goes to the feast without a garment is the one who goes seeking his own honor, and not the Bridegroom's.⁷

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, the wedding garment is the grace of the Holy Spirit and the purity of that heavenly disposition, which, having been received upon the confession of a good inquiry, is to be preserved pure and spotless for the company of the kingdom of heaven.

St. Jerome: Or, the wedding garment is the commandments of the Lord and the works that are done under the Law and the Gospel, which form the clothing of the new man. Whoever among the Christian body is found on the day of judgment not to have these is immediately condemned. "He says to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?" He calls him "friend" because he was invited to the wedding, being a friend by faith; but He charges him with a lack of decorum for polluting the elegance of the wedding celebration with his filthy clothes.

Origen of Alexandria: And since he who is in sin and does not put on the Lord Jesus Christ has no excuse, it follows, "But he was speechless."

St. Jerome: For on that day there will be no room for a defiant attitude or the power of denial, when all the angels and the world itself are witnesses against the sinner.ⁱ

Origen of Alexandria: He who has thus insulted the wedding feast is not only cast out from it, but is also chained by the king's officers, who are in charge of his prisons. He is restrained from the power of walking, which he did not use to walk toward any good thing, and from the power of reaching out his hand, with which he had accomplished no good work. He is then sentenced to a place from which all light is banished, which is called "outer darkness."

St. Gregory the Great: The hands and feet, which previously refused to be restrained from wicked actions by amending one's life, are then bound by a severe sentence of judgment. Or, punishment binds those whom sin had previously bound from doing good works.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The chains that bind the one who deserves to be cast out into outer darkness are the bonds of wicked and depraved desires.⁸

St. Gregory the Great: By "inner darkness" we mean blindness of heart; "outer darkness" signifies the everlasting night of damnation.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Or, it points to the different punishments inflicted on sinners. "Outer darkness" is the deepest, while "inner darkness" is the lesser, like the outskirts of the place.

St. Jerome: The greatness of the torments is shown by a metaphor taken from the body: "there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Also, understand the binding of the hands and feet, the weeping of the eyes, and the gnashing of the teeth as proof of the truth of the resurrection of the body.

St. Gregory the Great: Those teeth that here delighted in gluttony will gnash there; those eyes that here roamed in illicit desire will weep there. Every member that was a slave to its particular vice here will have its own particular punishment there.

St. Jerome: And because the most important thing in the wedding and the supper is the end and not the beginning, He therefore adds, "For many are called, but few are chosen."

St. Hilary of Poitiers: For to invite everyone without exception is an act of public benevolence; but from among the invited or called, the election will be of the worthy, based on a distinction of merit.

St. Gregory the Great: For some never begin a good course, and others never continue in the good course they have begun. Let each person's concern for himself be proportional to his ignorance of what is yet to come.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Or alternatively, whenever God intends to test His Church, He enters it to see the guests. And if He finds anyone not having on the wedding garment, He asks him, "How then were you made a Christian if you neglect these works?" Christ gives such a person over to His ministers—that is, to deceiving leaders—who bind his hands (his works) and his feet (the movements of his mind) and cast him into darkness, that is, into the errors of the Gentiles or the Jews, or into heresy. The nearer darkness is that of the Gentiles, for they have never heard the truth that they now despise. The outer darkness is that of the Jews, who have heard but do not believe. The outermost darkness is that of the heretics, who have heard and have learned.

1. Hom. lxix
2. interlin.
3. de Cons. Ev., ii, 71
4. Hom. in Ev., xxxviii, 2
5. interlin.
6. non occ. sed see Gloss. ord.
7. cont. Faust., xxii, 19
8. de Trin. xi, 6