is not difficult to understand. The King made a marriage57 for his Son, when he sent his

Servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding. Evidently, as in the Jewish

Parable, and as before in that of the guests invited to the Great Supper,58 a preliminary

general invitation had preceded the announcement that all was ready. Indeed, in the

Midrash on Lament. iv. 2,59 it is expressly mentioned among other distinctions of the

inhabitants of Jerusalem, that none of them went to a feast till the invitation had been

given and repeated. But in the Parable those invited wo uld not come. It reminds us both

of the Parable of the labourers for the Vineyard, sought at different times, and of the

repeated sending of messengers to those Evil Husbandmen for the fruits that were due,

when we are next told that the king sent forth other servants to tell them to come, for he

had made ready his 'early meal' (αριστον, not 'dinner,' as in the Authorised and Revised

Version), and that, no doubt with a view to the later meal, the oxen and fatlings were

killed. These repeated endeavours to call, to admonish, and to invite, form a

characteristic feature of these Parables, showing that it was one of the central objects of

our Lord's teaching to exhibit the longsuffering and goodness of God. Instead of giving

heed to these repeated and pressing calls, in the words of the Parable: 'but they (the

one class) made light of it, and went away, the one to his own land, the other unto his

own merchandise.'

b.

So the one class; the other made not light of it, but acted even worse than the first. 'But

the rest laid hands on his servants, entreated them shamefully, and killed them.' By this

we are to understand, that, when the servants came with the second and more pressing

message, the one class showed their contempt for the king, the wedding of his son, and

the feast, and their preference for and preoccupation with their own possessions or

acquisitions - their property or their trading, their enjoyments or their aims and desires.

And, when these had gone, and probably the servants still remained to plead the

message of their Lord, the rest evil entreated, and then killed them - proceeding beyond

mere contempt, want of interest, and preoccupation with their own affairs, to hatred and

murder. The sin was the more aggravated that he was their king, and the messengers

had invited them to a feast, and that one in which every loyal subject should have

rejoiced to take part. Theirs was, therefore, not only murder, but also rebellion against

their sovereign. On this the King, in his wrath sent forth his armies, which - and here the

narrative in point of time anticipates the event - destroyed the murderers, and burnt their

But the condign punishment of these rebels forms only part of the Parable. For it still

leaves the wedding unprovided with guests, to sympathise with the joy of the king, and

partake of his feast. And so the narrative continues:61 'Then' - after the king had given