Sermon for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost
Rev. Charles Lehmann + Matthew 22:1-14 + Pentecost 21
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
When Emily Post wrote about what a gentleman should wear to a wedding she said, “Your full dress [suit] is the last thing to economize on. It must be perfect in fit, cut and material, and this means a first-rate tailor.” Miss Post was writing about ordinary people going to an ordinary wedding. Though all of us probably have at least one nice suit or one nice dress that we could wear to any wedding we were invited to, Miss Manners doesn't ever say what to wear to the wedding of a prince. She doesn't have anything in her book about how to respond to a king's invitation.
Though we don't have any guidance from Miss Post, we can all guess how we'd want to dress for a royal wedding feast. When you go to the King's feast, you wear a suit fit for a king. But we're not going to find that kind of suit at Wal-Mart or Sears. None of us can afford what we'd need to wear if we went to the wedding of the King's Son.
That makes the situation in the parable today very very strange. The King sends for all those He has invited to the wedding. And after He is scorned twice by those He invited first, He sends out His servants a third time.
This time He doesn't bother with the guests He invited the first time. Though God had wooed the people of Israel for thousands of years, this time He sends His servants to invite others. God the Father will have His eternal feast. The will of the Heavenly King will not be thwarted at the end. The Lord will fill his banquet hall. He will pack the New Jerusalem so full of saints that there will be no room for more. The oxen and fattened calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. The feast will happen-one way or the other! And so in our parable, the King sends out His servants one last time. He tells them, “Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find!”
Anyone... there were no requirements. The King commands His servants to gather everyone, both good and bad. But these new guests are simple common folk. They've got nothing to wear to a King's banquet. What they have in their closets would stick out like a sore thumb. That means that there's only one way they can be properly dressed. They have to wear what the King gives them.
The King delights in giving out His wedding clothes. He will not allow something like fashion to keep His guests from celebrating with Him. No one will feel unwelcome at His feast. He provides them with the finest of clothes. All will be equal as they celebrate the wedding of the Son of God. The King will make sure of it.
But once the banquet begins there is still one man there who is not dressed properly. His clothes don't even come close to Emily Post's requirements. They are not perfect in fit, cut or material. And, because this man is not dressed for the feast, he is bound hand and foot and cast into the outer darkness.
The story makes sense up to this point. We've heard of a King who wants to celebrate the wedding of His son. We've heard of a Lord who is so eager to give out His gifts that He will even give them to a commoner on the street. None of these things are surprising. We know the rich love and mercy of our God. We know that he wants always to give out his gifts to His creation.
What, then, could cause Him to throw out a guest because of a bit of clothing? Is it that God is an implacable enforcer of manners in good taste? Certainly not! The Lord does not favor one over another on the basis of what he has done. This guest refused to wear the King's garment. He was provided with all that he needed to be prepared for the feast, but he refused it. So what is the wedding garment that this man refused to wear? Why was he thrown out of the feast that the King had gone to such outrageous lengths to fill with guests? These are important questions. In order to answer them properly, we need to walk through the rest of parable and listen to what the Lord is saying to us at each step along the way.
So let's go back to the beginning. Your bible probably calls this story the parable of the wedding feast. That's not quite right. Jesus doesn't say that the kingdom of heaven is like a wedding feast. Instead Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a King. It is like a king who prepares a wedding banquet for His Son. He sends His servants to gather the invited guests, but they refuse to come. They give no explanation. No excuses. The simply refuse the King outright.
These guests are those who hear the Word of the Gospel and say, “No, thanks. I'm doing fine. I don't need forgiveness. My sin isn't that bad. If forgiveness is all that your God has to offer me, then I'll pass on it. I'll leave that nonsense for the folks who are bad enough to need it.” When the servants come back and tell the King that His guests refused His invitation, He is dismayed. This is unthinkable. The King has prepared a feast for His people. They need only come and enjoy what He has prepared.
The feast of this parable is the marriage feast of the lamb. It is the eternal feast, the eternal worship that we will enjoy forever in heaven when the Lord swallows up death forever and wipes away the tears from all faces. Though we will also celebrate a great and wonderful feast this morning, the feast that this parable is talking about is even better.
Today we celebrate the Lord's Supper. This is the feast Jesus instituted on the night He was betrayed. It is the meal by which we receive the forgiveness that the Lord won for us on the cross. Luther described Holy Communion in this way, “We know, however, that it is the Lord’s Supper, in name and in reality, not the supper of Christians. For the Lord not only instituted it, but also prepares and gives it himself, and is himself cook, butler, food, and drink.”
But the feast to come-the feast of this parable-is far greater than the Lord's Supper. It is an eternal feast. It is a feast of rich food for all peoples. It is a banquet of aged wine. It is the feast we will enjoy in heaven when the Lord finally takes His bride, the church, across the eternal threshhold into the heavenly courts.
And so the call of the King goes out! The feast is ready! Come to the feast! Good and bad! Greatest and least! Come to the feast! The Son of God has carried his bride's sins to the cross. He has claimed her forever! He has died to forgive all your sins, and He has prepared a heavenly feast for you to enjoy.
That is why our Lord and King is so persistent in today's parable. Even after His servants are rejected the first time, the King sends them again to say, “The King has prepared His Feast. His oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready! Come to the feast!”
But the people haven't changed. They ignored the King's invitation the first time and now they ignore it again. They work in their field or tend to their own personal business. They have no time for the King's party. Why is He bothering them anyway?
Some, however, do more than just ignore the King's invitation. They take great offense at it. “What's so wrong with saying no to the King? Who does He think He is, anyway? Why doesn't He leave well enough alone?” And so, these wicked ones seize the King's servants and kill them. That'll show Him. They don't want a King who wants to get too close. If He's too demanding or too persistent, they'll kill the messenger.
The King is understandably enraged. He has spared no expense for the wedding feast of His Son. He wants to celebrate with His guests, and He has been scorned not once, but twice. He has sent His servants with a word of joy and peace and blessed invitation, but they have been met with hatred and murder.
And so this time the King responds with overwhelming wrath. He sends His army and destroys the murderers and burns their city. These guests have rejected Him for the last time. And when the love of the King is rejected only His everlasting anger and wrath remains. And so the King says, “The feast is ready, but those I invited aren't worthy.”
The Lord is slow to wrath and abounding in steadfast love. He desires not the death of a sinner but that He turn from His evil way and live. The guests are unworthy. They are not unworthy because they are evil, and they wouldn't become worthy by doing good. The Lord does not judge worthiness in the way of the world.
Those the Lord invited first are unworthy only because they have rejected Him and His mercy. He hadn't invited them because they were better than the rest of the guests. When the Lord set His love on Israel, they'd done nothing to earn it. The Lord's love is a gift from beginning to end. The Lord's desire is only that the ones whom He loves come into the banquet hall and feast on all the abundance that He has provided. He wants them to hear His Word. When the Lord invited Israel to the Feast, He did it because He wanted to them to meet the Bridegroom and live with Him forever and ever.
He said, “This is My Son, whom I love. Listen to Him.” He said, “This is My Son, whom I love, He has gone to the cross to destroy your sin.” He said, “This is My Son, whom I love. Come to the feast! Receive my promises to you now and in eternity!”
But when the chief priests and Pharisees heard the Father's invitation, they rejected it. They went off to take care of their own business instead of the Lord's. They tended to their fields and offered the sacrifices that they thought would make them righteous before God.
But they ignored the Word of God. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world was standing in front of them, but they saw only a filthy Nazarene, the son of a carpenter. They were looking at God, but they scorned Him. After Jesus took their sins to the cross and died to forgive them, the Pharisees and high priests appointed men to persecute the Lord's church. When Stephen was stoned for preaching that Jesus was the Son of the King of heaven, a Pharisee named Paul was there, giving approval to his death.
Things haven't changed in the Lord's church. Modern men and women still put their own plans ahead of the Lord's invitation. We forget that if we are in the place where we hear the Lord's saving word of Gospel that we have everything. We forget that if we don't have the Gospel that we have nothing at all. Sometimes, we even mock the Lord's forgiveness. We convince ourselves that it's okay to sin today since we can ask for the Lord's forgiveness tomorrow. Make no mistake, dear Christian friends: Planned repentance is no repentance at all. Willful, impenitent sin can drive the Holy Spirit from you forever.
We live only by the Lord's invitation. Without Him, we are dead. In order to survive we must constantly hear the Lord's saving word. Christians live a life of repentance. If we are not clothed in the Lord's forgiveness, we are clothed with death instead. The one who walks in spiritual death in this life will reap eternal death in the life to come. Those who continue to scorn the King's invitation will be in the city when the Lord destroys it.
But the Lord will have His feast. He will fill his banquet hall. And so He sends out that call one last time. “The feast is ready! Come to the feast! Good and bad! Greatest and least! Come to the feast!” And the hall is filled. From one wall to another the people can barely move because there are so many. They are richly clothed. They wear the finest linen and the most pure gold. The King has spoken His word of invitation to them and they have believed it. In this faith, they have received God's own righteousness. They are clothed with the forgiveness that Christ has won for them on the cross.
But one stands out. He has come to the wedding feast wearing a burial shroud. He is wrapped in a burial shroud. He is not dressed for the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb. He is dressed for his own funeral instead. He has not believed the Lord's Word. He has tried to come to the feast on His own terms instead of at the Lord's invitation.
It is a tragic scene. It is tragic because the King still loves this man. The Lord still calls him “Friend.” You can almost hear the tears in His voice. “Friend, why have you done this? I have provided you with all that you need. My Son has taken your sins to the cross so that you can be a member of His Holy Church. He has suffered and died so that you can enjoy His feast forever. Why, friend, why have you rejected my gifts? Why do you force me to pour out my wrath on you when I only wanted to give you love and mercy?”
But you, people loved by God, are ready for the feast. You have heard the Lord's invitation, and you have believed His promises. You are here. You are hearing all about the Lord's love for you. You are properly attired. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. In faith you continue to receive all the gifts that the Lord gave you in your baptism. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb! Blessed are those against whom the Lord does not count their sin! Blessed are you, people loved by God! The feast is ready! Come to the feast! Good and bad! Greatest and least! Come to the feast! The table is richly laden. The Lord God has come to wipe away the tears from all faces. He has removed the disgrace of His people from all the earth. He loves you. He has clothed you with His righteousness. Emily Post can't keep you away from the Lord's banquet.
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.