Jesus Bride:
JEHOVAH has willed that his Son Christ Jesus be not alone in the kingdom of heaven, but that he be given a glorious helpmate, called the “bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Jesus uttered a number of parables dealing with the Kingdom and revealing its various aspects, one of which we find at
Matthew 22:2-14. This parable reveals to us the way in which Jehovah God, the “king” of the parable, calls those who are to be associated with Christ as members of the royal family of heaven.—
Rev. 21:9.
Jehovah chooses the bride class for his Son and determines the characteristics of this class and the number of its members, namely, 144,000. “The kingdom of the heavens has become like a man, a king, that made a marriage feast for his son. And he sent forth his slaves to call those invited to the wedding feast.” The “king,” Jehovah, arranges for the marriage feast, sends out the invitations and calls the invited ones to the feast. The parable shows that he sends out three calls to invite persons out of all the nations to become members of the kingdom of heaven.—
Rev. 7:4; 14:1; Matt. 22:2, 3;Rev. 5:9, 10.
THE FIRST CALL
We would naturally expect that he would give this wonderful opportunity first to the Israelites, the natural seed of Abraham, and this is what the Bible shows he did. He said to them at Mount Sinai: “You will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” This referred to the future kingdom of heaven, in which Christ Jesus would be a “priest upon his throne” and in which the 144,000 members of his body, his “bride,” would reign as priests and kings with him. The descendants of the Jewish nation were therefore invited ones and now received the call through the Son of God, who invited them to the wedding feast. The first call thus went out in the year 29 (A.D.). His disciples co-operated in this work according to Jesus’ instructions: “Go continually to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” For three years and a half, till Nisan 14 of 33 (A.D.), the call was to go exclusively to the nation of Israel.—
Matt. 10:6, 7.
How was the invitation received? The parable says: “They were unwilling to come.” The rich young ruler who “went away grieved, for he was holding many possessions,” well represents the general negative attitude of the nation; and the religious leaders manifested themselves as bitter enemies of the Son of God and sought to kill him. Therefore we can understand Jesus’ scathing denunciation which was recorded in
Matthew, chapter 23, and which he concluded with the words: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her,—how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it. Look! your house is abandoned to you.” Two days later the first call ceased when Jesus finished his earthly ministry and life.—
Matt. 22:3; 19:21, 22; John 6:50, 66;Luke 17:20, 21; Matt. 23:37, 38.
Some days after Jesus’ resurrection he manifested himself to above five hundred disciples in a mountain in Galilee; and even some of these doubted it was he. And in the days just before Pentecost 120 met in an upper room in Jerusalem. Aside from this very small number the Jewish nation had refused to accept the first call.—
1 Cor. 15:6; Matt. 28:16, 17; Acts 1:13-15.
THE SECOND CALL
“Again he sent forth other slaves, saying: ‘Tell those invited, “Look! I have prepared my dinner, my bulls and fattened animals are slaughtered, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’” This second call went out again to “those invited,” to the Jewish nation, now especially to the common people of that nation. Jehovah’s favor to the Israelites was to last another three and a half years. So they still had the opportunity of furnishing the full number of 144,000.—
Matt. 22:4.
This second invitation began to be addressed to the Israelites at Pentecost A.D. 33, when Peter spoke to the multitude in Jerusalem, to the Israelites and their proselytes assembled there from Palestine and from some fifteen other countries, saying: “‘For the promise is to you and to your children and to all those afar off, just as many as Jehovah our God may call to him.’ Therefore those who embraced his word heartily were baptized, and on that day about three thousand souls were added.”—
Acts 2:39, 41.
What is meant by these words of the king in Jesus’ parable: “I have prepared my dinner, my bulls and fattened animals are slaughtered, and all things are ready”? Certain arrangements had to be made and conditions fulfilled before the feasting could begin. What were these? The outpouring of God’s spirit in Jerusalem at Pentecost was evidence that he had accepted the value of the perfect human sacrifice of Jesus after his ascending to the throne of Jehovah. In his justifying those who dedicated themselves to God and in his begetting them by his spirit they received the adoption as sons and became prospective members of the bride of Christ. In Peter’s powerful speech, as recorded in
Acts, chapter two, he had used the first of the “keys of the kingdom,” revealing to a faithful remnant of the Jewish nation the “new and living way,” the unspeakable privilege of becoming “heirs indeed of God, but joint heirs with Christ.”—
Matt. 22:4; 16:19; Heb. 10:20; Rom. 8:17.
As to those who did not respond to the invitation as conveyed by the original Christian congregation, the parable says: “Unconcerned they went off, one to that field of his, another to his commercial business; but the rest, laying hold of his slaves, treated them insolently and killed them.” Paul says of these: “The rest had their sensibilities blunted.” The overwhelming majority of the nation did not show any more willingness to accept the second call than the first; but they remained indifferent and attended to their worldly business. Others, filled with hatred against the Messiah and his followers, persecuted these, arresting, beating and even killing them. So they turned down the offer to become that “kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.”—
Matt. 22:5, 6;Rom. 11:5, 7; Acts 7:1-60; 8:1; 9:1, 2; Ex. 19:6.
What would the King, Jehovah, now do about it? “The king grew enraged, and sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” In 70 (A.D.) the armies of Rome under Titus came and destroyed the “city,” the Jewish nation, 1,100,000 Israelites losing their lives and the rest being “led captive into all the nations.”—
Matt. 22:7; Luke 21:24.
THE THIRD CALL
The King’s second invitation exclusively to the Jews ended A.D. 36. Only a small remnant having responded, the majority of the places to be filled remained vacant. Yet Jehovah’s purpose can never fail. What does the parable show he now did? “Then he said to his slaves: ‘The wedding feast indeed is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Therefore go to the roads leading out of the city, and anyone you find invite to the wedding feast. Accordingly those slaves went out to the roads and gathered together all they found, both wicked and good; and the room for the wedding ceremonies was filled with those reclining at the table(guests).”—
Matt. 22:8-10.
