This parable in Matthew 22 is a controversial one amongst the Christian community because of its' blatant ending statement: "For many are called, but few are chosen." Some have read this last verse and concluded that some people are Christians today, but on the day of judgement--the time that we die and God judges our lives--they will be sent to hell. Others have taken the statement to refer to the "lukewarm" believers. In Revelations 3, John vividly describes the voice of Jesus in his vision in reference to the Church in Laodicea saying, "I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth." Many believers think that the verse in Matthew, where Jesus talks of the people who are called but not chosen, refer to those that John talks of in Revelation--the lukewarm: the people who say they are Christians but do little for Christ; they have one foot in the world, and another in the Kingdom of Heaven.
These are a couple of the views that are widely accepted but are inadequately supported. Let's take a further look at the first view I described. The first view, in my opinion is terrifying. Keep in mind, this view is less accepted than the second, but it still has its place in our cultural Christianity. Think about the implications of believing that some are Christians but simply will not go to heaven. I am a Christian but is my spot in heaven guaranteed? This verse seems to say it isn't, but look at some other verses.
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
Romans 10:13 "For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'"
There are many more verses supporting the paradigm that "those who call upon the Lord shall be saved", but I will just share these few. Seeing as I am a Christian and there can be no contradictions within the Bible, it appears I have run into a problem. Matthew 22 seems to say that not everyone who calls upon God is chosen for his Kingdom, but these other verses in Romans and John seems to clearly state that anyone who calls upon God for salvation will be saved. See the problem?
Let's now look at the second, more common view. This view claims that those people are being called but not chosen are people who have asked God for salvation but have not done enough "works" or good deeds to gain true salvation into heaven (the lukewarm people). The problem with this view lies near the same place as the problem for the last one. Firstly, the verses in Romans and John again make this statement difficult to support because this view claims that you must do some works along with your faith in order to be saved, but the others say it is simply the faith that is essential for salvation (John and Romans). Here is another selection of verses that makes this view so difficult to hold:
Galatians 2:16 "yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified."
2 Timothy 1:9 "who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began."
So what view are we to hold? These two seem far too contradictory and unstable to maintain with confidence. If we look into the beginning of Jesus' parable, we find that these views are not what he intended and that with the correct view, there is no contradiction.
In this parable, Jesus compares a king throwing a wedding feast to the Kingdom of Heaven. He says, "Then [the king] said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' and he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and 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."
Notice, in this parable, that the king (God) tells his servants (Christians) to go out and tell everyone about the wedding feast (heaven and the gospel). This concept fits well with other verses:
Mark 16:15 "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."
The problem is that people are interpreting the word "called" in the parable incorrectly. From the way the story is told, it should be interpreted in the sense that many are going to be "told" of the gospel by Christians, but few are going to accept it. However, it is being interpreted poorly as God will call many people, but only some of those people are actually chosen. The problem was in the words "many" will be called, and "few" will be chosen because this indicates a different number of people for each category, but with this new interpretation of the verse, this is no longer a problem. We know that it is our job to tell all about the gospel (few of us actually do so however) and we also know that not every person we tell is going to accept it. This was a straw of Jesus' message through this parable; tell others of him, but expect some not to listen.
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