The Man Without the Garment

The king had thrown a wedding feast for his son.

The invited guests refused to come.

He sent servants again.

The guests ignored the invitation, went to their fields and businesses.

Some seized the servants and mistreated them.

The king was angry.

He sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

Then he told his servants: The wedding feast is ready but those invited were not worthy.

Go to the main roads and invite everyone you find.

They went out and gathered everyone they found, bad and good alike.

The wedding hall was filled with guests.

The king came in to look at the guests.

He saw a man there who had no wedding garment.

He said: Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?

The man was speechless.

Then the king said to the attendants: Bind him hand and foot.

Cast him into the outer darkness.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

For many are called but few are chosen.

The man had come to the feast.

He was inside the hall.

Among the other guests.

The problem was not that he had been excluded from the invitation.

He had answered it.

The problem was what he wore to the table.

He had nothing to say when asked about it.

Not an explanation. Not an excuse.

Nothing.

The garment that was missing is the mystery at the center of the parable.

Its absence was enough.

The feast was still going on.

He was bound and removed from it.

From inside.

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