Speaking to the crowd following Him, Jesus said, “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” What Jesus says here is a statement. It is not a parable. It is not a metaphor or a colloquialism. The parts of His statement contain such in order to illustrate the whole. But as a whole, it is a statement of fact about a particular time in the future.
When He says, “I say to you,” Jesus is raising awareness of the importance of what He is saying. Recall how when Jesus was speaking about the fulfillment of the Law, He said, “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” “I tell you the truth” is a similar statement to “I say to you.” It is a statement that emphasizes the bluntness of His speech. It is a statement that calls the listener to pay particular attention, because the fact being explained is not going to go away. Jesus wasn’t joking or spouting hyperbole. He was dead serious, just as when He said, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
He also says, “From the east and the west.” That was a common figure of speech meaning “all over the world”. As one commentator notes it’s understood meaning, “The parts of the rising and of the setting sun include the entire world, looking in the two opposite directions from where Jesus stands.” And the feast Jesus spoke about was a commonly understood depiction of the blessing of the Kingdom of God, and that Jesus mentions “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” is a clear indication that He means the covenant people of God.
Taken together, Jesus is saying that there is a time to come when people from all over the world (meaning Gentiles) will enjoy the blessing of the Kingdom of heaven, and at the same time those who thought they were God’s covenant people will find themselves excluded. Not just excluded, but damned. For “outside, into the darkness” means to be forever distanced from that place of blessing, and “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” was a commonly understood metaphor for hell. At the very least, it is a phrase built on Psalm 112, which not only speaks of the blessedness of the one who fears the Lord and finds delight in His commands, but also that, “The wicked man will see and be vexed, he will gnash his teeth and waste away.” From this we can know that the damned shall not be immediately annihilated. They shall know that they are cut off from God, and they shall know darkness, sorrow and very great anguish.
Jesus is hammering home the point that legalism – even if it is Jewish legalism – will not save. Nothing we can do will earn us a place in glory. Only those who repent and so call on the Name of the Lord are saved, as the prophet Joel had said, “Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.” That is a very serious fact with very serious consequences.
The joy of looking to God and exercising faith in Him are very great. The consequences of not looking to God, of not exercising faith, of trying to earn salvation by some other means – are likewise severe.
No description can deal adequately with the gravity of God’s vengeance against the wicked—their torments and tortures are figuratively expressed to us by physical images—darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, unquenchable fire and an undying worm gnawing at the heart. By such expressions the Holy Spirit certainly intended to confound all our senses with dread
John Calvin
APPLICATION: Worship
Consider God’s great grace to you – HIs grace that enables you to avoid eternal damnation. His grace that tolerated your sin until you heard of Christ, His grace that awakened your dead spirit to hear of Christ, His grace that gave you the gift of a changed heart to repent, and His grace that forgave you, marked you with His Spirit, grafted you into His family and affords you a place at His table in eternity.