Matthew 22:11

‘But when the king came in to survey the guests, he saw there a man who did not have on a wedding-garment.'

This is now brought out in that when the king came in to survey his guests it was his requirement and expectation that they be clothed in wedding-garments in honour of his son's marriage and status. To come to a wedding without putting on their best garments would be seen as a studied insult to those who had invited them, and especially when he was a king and the wedding was his son's. There can be no doubt that Jesus' listeners would have been horrified to think that anyone would commit such a social lapse. And they would know that it was deliberate. They would know that this man was not there like that by accident. He was showing his contempt for the king's son. It was not something that could possibly happen without thought. It was against their whole culture.

There are no known examples where wedding-garments were actually provided for guests, so it is unlikely that it was so in this case. But there are many examples which indicate that men would be expected to wear their ‘best clothes' at a wedding or other state occasion, and would be expelled if they did not. In one Rabbinic parable where a king summoned guests to a banquet it was said that ‘the wise entered adorned while the fools entered soiled', the latter being excluded on this basis.

‘When the king came in to survey the guests.' We may see this as indicating the time of the last judgment. Until then the man in question was allowed to mock at the Son, as men are allowed to mock today. But we must not press that too hard. The king's judgment was in this world as well as in the next (Matthew 22:7). Like the Kingly Rule of Heaven it had both present and future aspects. God does sometimes call some to account in this life.