Options with This Invitation
1Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables: 2“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come. 4Again, he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
Matt 22:1-14
5“But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city.
8“Then he told his servants, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ 10So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests. 11When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding. 12So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.
13“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
If anyone thinks that Jesus is never judges and never condemns anyone, he should consider the parables we have looked at the last several Sundays. They are very harsh, condemning and he damns people – lots of them. Same with our parable for today. A lot of bad news again. There is also good news, especially when combined with the Old Testament lesson for today from Isaiah 25. But we will save that for later in the sermon.
The first verses of the parable are about the invitation being sent out by a king to his son’s wedding banquet and the response. He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come. But the king does not give up. Again, he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ He receives a similar response, but this time we are told why some refused the invitation: But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business. They had excuses, they had other obligations. “I’m very busy” they were thinking, and no doubt they were.
Think of it this way. The King, the God who created us, knows us better than we know ourselves; he knows what we need better than what we know or think we need. He is also the one who gives us our fields, our businesses, and whatever else we have on earth – all the good things that occupy our time on earth. And then he is also the one who says: “I am extending to you an invitation to come to a place and an event that is like no other, that will provide you with what is perfect, joyful, peaceful, and abundant in every good way possible, and is forever.” What in the world, then, should ever have a higher priority? Why in the world would anyone come up with any excuse and ignore this invitation? The God who provides us with our businesses, our homes, our marriages, our food, our celebrations, our education – things that are good but could easily consume us – is also inviting us to partake of something much, much better; and he has prepared it all by himself: everything is ready. Come. Seek first the kingdom of God. No excuses allowed.
What is also described here is the reaction of some who refused the invitation: the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. If you think about it, this is really bizarre. Someone invites you to the most amazing wedding banquet, and you turn around and kill him? It would be like somebody coming to your door and saying to you, “I have come here on behalf of so and so who lives in that really rich mansion a few miles from here. He is offering you a free, all-expense-paid vacation to Hawaii for three weeks.” And you say, “hold on a second.” And you come back with a gun and shoot him! It doesn’t make sense. So what’s being described here is the insane, automatic, deep-seated hatred for the God who loves them and wants them to be saved. And the king reacts: The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city. As in a previous parable, Jesus was referring to Old Testament history of the Babylonian invasion and captivity, where hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and burned down, and a remnant was sent into captivity.
But note what this text says about God: He is not one who takes kindly to rejection. He is a jealous God – jealousy in a good sense: he wants us to fear, love and trust in him alone, because only he can save and other so-called gods are false and cannot save. He is a God who will punish and carry out vengeance upon those who reject him and his salvation.
This is not pleasant and popular way to view God. But whether it is popular or pleasant is not the issue. The important thing is whether it is true. Both the Old and New Testaments describe God in this way. Still people like to say, “God would never do that…” I have heard this from many people. Let’s hope they do not find out too late. The odd thing is that these same people do not operate that way themselves and they do not think society should operate that way. Everyone has some sense of justice. For example, everyone believes that those who needlessly, recklessly, and without mercy torture, dismember, and kill innocent women and children should be destroyed. Everyone operates on a system of justice, even though they may not have all the facts, have a bias or blindness, or do not apply as they should. Everything from timeout and spankings for our children, to fines, to imprisonment and the death penalty make the point that some kind of justice and punishment is right, necessary, and built into us. How much more is that true of God, even if we do not like it. Granted, his justice is the most severe, but it is severe because it involves the greatest of violations: hatred and rejection of God and his love and his heaven offered because of his Son’s sacrificial life and death.
Let’s look now at the person described in the last verses. When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ What do we make of this man who shows up as a guest and yet is still thrown into hell? What is the point that Jesus is making here?
The first part of the parable is directed to those who clearly do not accept the invitation, who choose not to be Christians, who say no to believing in the true God, or who purposely never come to church. But this man who gets thrown into outer darkness seems to have accepted the invitation. He is not among those who ignored the invitation, or who became obsessed with his business or whatever, or who mistreated, persecuted, or killed those who delivered the invitation. So what is his problem?
Let’s ask ourselves some questions to help us answer that. Do you come to church regularly? Do you pray? Do you support the church? Do you do kind things for others? Have you been confirmed? Do you admit you are a sinner? Do you come to the Lord’s Supper for some reason? Have you been baptized, and do you know what that means? All these things are good things and are things Christians do. But it is possible to “do” all these things and still be thrown into hell. It is possible to “do” all these things and not be a Christian and not enter heaven.
Jesus is asking for a gut-check.
Being a legitimate guest at the King’s wedding banquet does not depend on “doing” these things. For as St. Paul reminds us that “even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2 Cor. 11:14). Rather, truly accepting the invitation and being welcomed into the Son of God’s wedding banquet depends on what you are wearing. Wearing wedding clothes. In those days it was customary for the host – in this case the king – to provide his guests with a wedding garment. If the one invited would not accept the wedding garment provided by the host, he would not be properly dressed and not welcomed to the wedding banquet. The king would rightly say to him, “Do you have a problem with what I want you to wear to my son’s wedding banquet, with the garment that I myself have provided for you?” We can try to come in our own self-made wedding clothes, but we need to remind ourselves what God says about our self-made efforts: “All our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Is. 64:6). We need a different garment.
Entering into the wedding banquet is matter of what you wear. And what you wear is to be a garment provided by the King himself, described in this way in Is. 61: “My soul will celebrate because of my God, for he has clothed me in garments of salvation. With a robe of righteousness he covered me.” (Is. 61:10). And, as we are told in the New Testament, that “righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Rom. 3:22). It is so simple and so comforting.
We could also say it this way: entering into the wedding banquet is a matter of who we wear. “For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ” said St. Paul (Gal. 3:27). Baptism and faith work hand in hand. Your baptism is the giving means or instrument – how it is offered and distributed to you. The faith you have been given is receiving means – how you grasp it.
Finally, then, let us understand the broader context in which all this is said. The context is one of human beings who are off doing their own thing, who hate and are willing to kill God’s messengers of eternal life. Clearly sinners, everyone. The context is one in which those invited have nothing to offer – no righteousness of their own. The context is one in which those who accept the invitation – sinners everyone, having no righteousness of their own – receive two things in their baptism and by faith, no questions asked. Two things.
Number one: God himself freely gives you, clothes you with, the righteousness of Christ. And there is none better; his is perfect, and it is yours.
Number two: Once you are there at the wedding banquet of the Son of God, you will enjoy a feast like no other: the finest meat and prime cuts, aged and vintage wine. Once you are there you will experience that your death has once and for all been swallowed up – your death is gone – because of the sacrificial death of Christ for you and your sins. Once you are there the Lord God will wipe away the tears from your face, and you will see that he has removed all disgrace from you because Christ was disgraced for you on the cross. On that day, you will say, Look, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he has saved us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him. Let’s rejoice and be glad in his salvation. (Is. 25:6-9). Amen.
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