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| Lutheran Mass, Brandenburg, 1539 |
9 June 2013 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: Luke 14:15-24
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Our
Lord is one of many who have been invited to a meal, and while at this meal, He
tells a story about people invited to a meal.
And in fact, the Lord Jesus did not initiate the comparison between the
kingdom of God and dining. It was one of
the Lord’s fellow diners “who reclined at table with Him” that started it. That unnamed man said: “Blessed is everyone
who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
And
he has said something very truthful.
Blessed indeed is every person who breaks bread with God Himself, who is
invited to the feast, who reclines at table with Jesus, who enjoys communion
with God the Son, who sits in His presence and hears His Word, who are blessed
to receive His holy absolution, those who kneel before this holy altar to “eat
bread in the kingdom of God.” Blessed,
indeed, are such people!
Jesus
does not dispute the man’s statement, and even builds upon it. But the catch that the man at the table
hadn’t really considered is this: who has been invited? And what about people who are invited but do
not respond?
And
in consideration of this, the Lord teaches us about the nature of God’s
kingdom. It is a place for misfits, for
sinners, for beggars, and for the “poor and crippled and blind and lame.” And to the world, this is not where we want
to be. Our sinful flesh would much
prefer to be where the beautiful people are, where there is money and power and
the fawning of men. And yet, dear
brothers and sisters, here we are. We
are here in a rather humble building. In
the eyes of the world, this is a pretty meager banquet: a sip of wine and a
wafer of bread. There is no six course
spread. There is no motivational speaker
teaching you how to get rich, nor a wise-cracking celebrity telling you all
about his Hollywood connections. There
is instead a preacher proclaiming the Word.
There will be no write-up in the society pages, no clip on YouTube,
nothing on the newscast tonight, and as icing on the cake: the majority of our
own members are not even here. It is
hardly an impressive banquet by the world’s standards.
But
just the same, dear friends, this is the greatest feast of all! “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in
the kingdom of God!”
For
you have taken your place in this banquet house poor with sin, crippled with
guilt, blind to God’s mercy, and lame to the point where you cannot even help
yourself by walking into the kingdom of your own power. You joined me in a public confession that we
are “poor miserable sinners.” And there
are probably a thousand things you would rather be doing now: house work, yard
work, parties, travel, TV, sports, and a million other tasks and chores that
need to be done.
Maybe
you own property that must be maintained.
Maybe you have some equipment that must be looked after. Maybe family responsibilities are pressing. It is hard to see the point of coming here to
be told what you already know about Jesus, to hear the same words again: “I
forgive you all your sins…,” and to ritually eat bread and drink wine as most
of you have been doing for years.
Is
there really any point, dear friends?
Are we “getting anything” out of the service? I do hear that, you know: “I just don’t get
anything out of” the standing, kneeling, sitting, singing, listening, and
taking communion. Usually, this is said
by people who want rock music, dancing girls, a stand-up comic for a preacher,
and “practical advice” for “daily living” that reduces our blessed Lord Jesus
into a self-help guru.
But,
dear friends, listen to Jesus! He is no
psychotherapist or talk show host. He is
the Son of God, the Son of Man; He is human, He is divine; and most
importantly, He is the Lamb of God who takes away our sins; He is the atonement
that restores our communion with God; He is the cure to death itself. And this is what the kingdom is all about,
for Jesus is our King, and He has given Himself for us to live in His kingdom. He brings eternal riches to the poor, healing
to the crippled, sight to the blind, and restoration to the lame. It is He who uniquely has the power and the
mandate and the will to forgive our sins!
What
goes on in this house, this holy house, this banquet house, this house which is
indeed the very gate of heaven on earth – are the most important things in your
life. For at this banquet, you are
healed, restored, showered with God’s mercy and love, and you partake of the
miracle, the divine and eternal miracle, of His body and His blood unto eternal
life! This place is an ark that weathers
the storms of this fallen death-laden world, and it is a refuge, for here, in
this place, we meet Jesus Christ in His kingdom, where He promises to be with
us!
And
even though we are teeming with excuses, even though our sinful flesh is
tempted toward other banquets and other gods, this is where the Lord God
Almighty shepherds us, the invited subjects of His glorious kingdom. And what’s more, dear friends, our King
doesn’t sit at the head table and leave us afar off. No indeed!
He reclines at table with us, among us, even as He walked in our sandals
and tasted our death. He even bore our
cross, and all to give us His righteousness.
“Blessed
is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
But
our King doesn’t stop there. He not only
invites us, we the outliers from the “highways and hedges,” we who are despised
in the eyes of the world, we whose sins have set us against our Lord and
Creator, but what’s more, our Lord becomes our very meat and drink indeed! His flesh is bread for the life of the
world! His blood, shed for us men and
for our salvation, is the New Testament, the cup He blesses with His Word, and
which He shares with us “for the forgiveness of sins.”
One
molecule of this consecrated bread upon which we feast has more power than all
the atomic weaponry of the world. One
tiny drop of this consecrated wine is a sufficient portion of the sacrificial
blood to save every “poor, miserable sinner” that has ever lived or ever will draw
a breath in this polluted, fallen world.
We,
dear friends, miraculously “eat bread in the kingdom of God!” We poor, crippled, blind, and lame “miserable
sinners” recline at table with God the Son.
We who are despised by the world and mocked by our flesh, we who are
under the assault of the devil and dogged by death itself feast with, and upon,
our Lord and our King – by His gracious invitation and unto our own salvation!
“Blessed
is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Amen.
In the name of the
Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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