14 October 2018
Text: Matt 22:1-14
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Our
Lord explains the kingdom of heaven by means of another story known to us today
as the Parable of the Wedding Feast. It
could have just as easily been named: the Parable of the Ungrateful Invitees.
As
the story goes, a king gives “a wedding feast for his son.” Servants are sent to the invitees with
invitations. Of course, this is a really
big deal: a royal event. It is a
privilege to be invited to something like this, a high honor. And when the invitees “would not come,” the
king tried again, using different servants to deliver the message this time. But again, the king’s gracious invitation is
spurned. Some preferred to work the farm
rather than join the wedding feast. Others
ran businesses that kept them away. And
there was a third group that did what we call today “shooting the messenger.” For they “treated [the servants] shamefully,
and killed them.”
Now
we have moved beyond contempt to actual violent rebellion against the king and
his rule. So he is angry. He makes war on the rebels and burns their
city.
But
even after all of that, there is still a wedding to be held. There are still seats to be filled. So he tells another group of servants: “The
wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.” He tells the servants to go bring in anyone to
fill the seats, “both bad and good.” And
so the wedding hall was “filled with guests.”
This
sounds like a happy-ending fairy tale. But
it doesn’t stop here. For there is an
impostor at the wedding: a man who snuck in without the required wedding
garment. He was removed and put into
prison: a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
This
is a story that can be understood on many levels.
Of
course, God the Father is the king, and the son is our Lord, the Son of God. Our Lord Jesus is often called the “bridegroom”
and the Church is His bride. God chose
His people, the descendants of Israel, to be His very own, His beloved bride. But of course, many times in their history, they
ignored the Word of God, and they even mistreated and murdered the prophets who
carried the invitation to welcome the coming Messiah. At times, Israel is cast as an unfaithful
wife.
And
so the promise to be the people of God was extended to the roads leading all
over the known world. The kingdom of
heaven was extended by grace to “both bad and good.” God calls people who will repent and be
baptized into the name of the Father who invites them, the Son who redeems
them, and the Holy Spirit who draws them in. Being the people of God is no longer about
being part of the right family or nationality. It is a matter of being called and chosen, of
wearing the right garment: a garment given by God Himself.
And
so this explains the last part of the parable: the “man who had no wedding
garment.” He was trying to enter the
eternal heavenly banquet by some means other than what God designed. He had no invite. He had no ticket. He was not wearing the uniform issued by the
king. He thought that didn’t matter. Maybe he thought that he deserved to be there
by his own merit. Maybe he was depending
on his ancestry. Maybe he thought the
king just invited everyone.
But
he was wrong.
Dear
brothers and sisters, our Lord is trying to teach us that “many are called, but
few are chosen.” He is trying to teach
us to wear the wedding garment of being baptized and of believing. For being
part of the great eternal banquet has nothing to do with how wealthy you are, who
your parents are, what your reputation is, or how much you think you deserve to
be there. Instead, Jesus uses the word “chosen.”
We
do not choose Jesus. We do not make a
decision for Jesus. We do not choose to
be a Christian. We don’t even really choose
to come to Church. We aren’t that good
or that smart. As we confess in our
catechism: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in
Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel,
enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”
Jesus
chooses us. “Come, follow Me,” He says
to His disciples, including us. He calls
us through Baptism, and He chooses us when we respond to His call, taking up
our cross, and following Him. And when
we do, we are given a wedding garment.
Dear
friends, let us not spurn the gracious invitation. Of course, we have to tend to our farms and
businesses, but let us not make them our priority. Let us not mistreat the Lord’s servants who
come to us with an invitation. Let us
not take the invitation for granted or claim that we are entitled to be at the
banquet because of something our grandfathers did, because of our nationality,
or because we think that we’re better than those “bad and good” that we find
ourselves eating with.
Let
us rather come to the table of the Lord graciously and gratefully, knowing that
this little feast to which we are invited on this Lord’s Day is a foretaste of
the grand feast to which we have been invited in eternity. For this Supper is a small preview of the wedding
feast of the Bridegroom. Here in time,
we who have been called and chosen join the Bridegroom at the table. We eat the choicest bread and the most
magnificent wine, for they are His very body and blood. Jesus Himself invites us: “Take eat, take
drink.”
And
even as our Lord was dressed in royal robes of mockery at His trial before He
was stripped of His garments at His crucifixion, He clothes us more
magnificently than Solomon in all His splendor, giving us a baptismal garment
to wear that grants us admission to the Everlasting Feast. His blood is the Lamb’s blood that makes
death pass us over, but it is also incorporated into that robe that sets us
apart as worthy guests at His banquet.
“Everything
is ready,” dear friends. “Come to the
wedding feast,” both here in time, and there in eternity. Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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