Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who held a wedding feast for his son. And he sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened cattle are all butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast!”’ But they paid no attention and went their separate ways, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and treated them abusively, and then killed them. Now the king was angry, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. So go to the main roads, and invite whomever you find there to the wedding feast.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Tie his hands and feet, and throw him into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in that place.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” (v.1-14)

I mentioned this passage before and what I am about to write may only be a repetition. The banquet mentioned here is connected to the wedding banquet in Revelation 19:6-9:

⁶ Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
    the Almighty reigns.
⁷ Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his Bride has made herself ready;
⁸ it was granted her to clothe herself
    with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

⁹ And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

Regarding this passage in Revelation 19, many interpret that one must do good works by their own hands to obtain the fine linen. When we connect this to Matthew 22:1-14, we understand that the fine linen is not the works of our hands.

In Matthew 22:1-14, King invites many people. And a similar parable is mentioned in Luke 14:16-24:

16 But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; 17 and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is ready now.’ 18 And yet they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I purchased a field and I need to go out to look at it; please consider me excused.’ 19 And another one said, ‘I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ 20 And another one said, ‘I took a woman as my wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ 21 And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here those who are poor, those with disabilities, those who are blind, and those who are limping.’ 22 And later the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and the hedges and press upon them to come in, so that my house will be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my dinner.’”

It appears that the king invited both the poor and the rich. But one without wedding clothes was thrown out. The poor generally don’t have wedding clothes. Thus, it looks unfair that the king punishes the person who did not wear wedding clothes.

Should the poor help others to earn merit when they do not have bread for themselves? Should the poor save money and spend on buying wedding clothes? I do not think so.

The passage is not talking about money or merit. The banquet is free and wedding clothes are free.

It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean (Revelation 19:8)

When those who think themselves as important as God ignores His invitation and go about their own businesses, those who call themselves Christian refuse free gift of wedding clothes.

We are clothed with Christ (Galatians 3:27). And the good deeds of saints are from Christ. Doing righteous deeds in the sight of God comes after being united with Christ. Thus, the fine linen shows that we are adopted children of God through Christ.

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3:26-27)

For many are called, but few are chosen (Matt 22:14)