The Gospels
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 No Wedding Garment, Whose Resurrection?
Here's the verses if you need them:
-- Click To Expand/Collapse Bible Verses -- Matt ch22:v1-14
Mat 22:1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,
Mat 22:2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,
Mat 22:3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
Mat 22:4 Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.
Mat 22:5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:
Mat 22:6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.
Mat 22:7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
Mat 22:8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
Mat 22:9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
Mat 22:10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
Mat 22:11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
Mat 22:12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Mat 22:13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
(KJV)
I always had trouble with this passage, whenever I read through that after the originally invited guests had made their excuses and the master of the house sent his servants to bring people in off the street. The problem I had was that one man is there not dressed for the wedding who gets forcibly ejected. - Why wasn't this fellow welcome also? He had made it to the wedding after all. Despite the obvious nature of my mistake, I kept thinking that the fellow was worthy to be there. Since all the other guests were given wedding garments, (we may safely assume - the wedding was furnished with guests) The man was unable to answer as to how he entered without a wedding
garment. Simple, none of the masters servants had bid him, as either one good or bad. The guy had sneaked in probably looking for shiny stuff to loot or to get a free meal.
Still I thought, why only one thief? Why not a whole load of them, wouldn't that be more in keeping? A troop of tares/thieves entering would be more obvious to the king, but that not even one such
uninvited can sneak his way in is more fitting since just one is harder to spot.
In fact the guests that were originally invited were asthe close friends of the one getting maried - they were those that were most acquainted with the King. They all used their over-familiarity with the King to justify their absence, as if it only mattered a little. Again we see that preconceived ideas must be thrown out since only strangers were invited to the wedding, with no preconceived ideas of familiarity that would allow them to just coast on by. The one man invited that is not dressed for the wedding is one who came without the proper respect towards the King and the wedding. We should note that although one man found his way in, he was ejected also because of His appearance, being without respect - He also had misconceptions of the King's requirements of His guests.
The resurrection to which God has invited us is for His Son, Jesus and is likened to the wedding of the king's son. I myself often think of the resurrection as a reward for us; whereas it is much more Christ's reward - He Himself IS the resurrection and the life. - not just by example, but by whom all men may find resurrection and eternal life.
The example of the Sadducees asking Jesus which of the seven brothers had the one wife gave me trouble also.
-- Click To Expand/Collapse Bible Verses -- Matt ch22:v23-33
Mat 22:23 The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
Mat 22:24 Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
Mat 22:25 Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:
Mat 22:26 Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
Mat 22:27 And last of all the woman died also.
Mat 22:28 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
Mat 22:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
Mat 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
Mat 22:31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
Mat 22:32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
Mat 22:33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.
(KJV)
Sure, I can understand in the resurrection that new marriages are no longer a concern, at least between men and women: only between Christ and us, by allegory it is there still. I can only understand that passage by thinking that the dead have no rights, because if they are resurrected they are alive and matters of death within the law, have no part. I still had trouble understanding, since I took Jesus' quote from exodus to mean that God, (as outside of time as we know it) saw all men alive whenever they lived throughout eternity. Big error! They are alive to God in the resurrection whilst Jesus was there teaching. In God's own words "I am..." He refers to being their God presently whilst greeting Moses in the book of exodus.
I do not assume from these verses as so many do that the earthly bond of marriage is not of full effect in the resurrection. That people neither marry or are given in marriage after does not change what was before. Likewise the purpose of taking one's own brother's wife was to raise up seed for one's brother. It is assumed that the dead brother had a right to have seed (offspring) by his wife though dead. We can assume that the original brother is alive in the resurrection to have such a right. So in evidence, he could have a thousand brothers and only her original husband would be the true one.
The God of the living preserves the rights of this first or original brother, as one of His living and
resurrected children. The Sadducees err, because they gave the right of wedlock to the survivors of the dead in favour that the right of seed lay with the next brother, and so on. They give the right to the "surviving" brothers. They err because they neither understood the law, or believed in the resurrection knowing the power of God. Only the first brother had a right to His wife in the law - The question arises as to whether Jesus referred to the first brother and His wife also in His statement, or just to the last six brothers, i.e. that they had no right to the first's wife in the resurrection.
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