Trinity 20 Matthew 22:1-14 (2021)

Invited To The Feast

Matthew 22:1-14

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

St. Matthew 22:2-3  “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding…”

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  In today’s Gospel our Lord Jesus Christ compares eternal life to a wedding feast, a feast prepared by God the Father, the King.  Does that sound like something you would like to attend?  Well, I am here to invite you again today to this wedding feast.

Wherever you find yourself among the various groups of people mentioned in today’s parable, know for certain that where God wants you to be is in His wedding hall, seated at the table and wearing, by faith, the wedding garment of Christ when He comes at the Last Day to see the guests.  In the meantime, God most certainly wants you to be a frequent attender at His “foretaste of the feast to come,” which is right here in this place every Lord’s Day as you receive forgiveness, life, and salvation through Christ’s body and blood under the bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar.  So, if you’re hearing this invitation, this call, then you can be certain of what God wants for you and what God has done for you so that you can attend His eternal feast.

But we need to understand this, as Jesus Himself said at the end of our Gospel reading today: “Many are called, but few are chosen.”  There are many ways for those who are called to miss out on the wedding feast; and indeed, many will miss out.  But there is only one way for the called to be found also among the chosen, to be found among the elect; and out of all those who were called, very few will find it.  Jesus describes all of that for us in today’s parable of the wedding feast.

The doctrine of “election” is the teaching of Scripture – also expounded correctly in the Lutheran Confessions – that, before the foundation of the earth was laid, God foreknew, predestined, and chose, or “elected,” the individuals who would be eternally saved.  But this doctrine often troubles people; it is somewhat challenging to understand it.  And precisely because it is challenging, it is easy for people to stray into false teaching, because they try to delve too deeply into God’s eternal counsel and try to figure Him out.  Thankfully, Jesus gives us the perfect way to understand this doctrine in today’s parable.  And if you stick with this parable, you will never go astray.

God, the King, wanted His wedding hall, His heavenly kingdom, to be filled with guests.  That alone is remarkable, because no one anywhere ever is worthy to stand before God.  Sin has corrupted the human race beyond repair, and sin has separated us from God.

But the wedding itself is God’s way of making things right.  He wedded His eternal Son to human flesh; He united God and Man in one single Person, a perfect Person, a sinless Man: Christ Jesus.  Today’s parable does not go into everything that Christ did for us in humbling Himself, obeying His Father’s will, and giving His life on the cross for the world’s sins and rising again, but it does simply set forth Christ, the God-Man, as the reason why there is this wedding feast to which guests are invited.  God the Father Himself has prepared this wedding, so that sinful men might be reconciled to Him through His Son, and that they may enjoy eternal life with Him in Paradise.

So, He sent out messengers to invite many guests to this wedding.  He sent prophets.  He sent apostles.  He still sends ministers of the Word to proclaim, “All things are ready. Come to the wedding!”  Christ has come!  God and Man are one.  He is the propitiation, not only for our sins, but for the sins of the world.

But to “come to the wedding” means you cannot stay where you are.  To come to the wedding means to repent of your sins, to believe in Christ Jesus alone for the forgiveness of sins, and to amend your sinful life.  And that is something that most of those who hear the Gospel-call are not willing to do.  “They were not willing to come.”

You see, people are happy to worship a god of their own making.  They are happy to mold God and fashion a god of their own image and believe in him.  But to tell them that they’re not OK as they are – to tell them that they are sinful and corrupt, that they can’t do whatever feels right, that the only way to be reconciled with God is through repentance and faith in Christ as Christ reveals Himself in the Holy Scriptures – tell them all that, and they are not willing to come.

Now, the King does not give them only one opportunity.  When the first messengers returned empty-handed, the King again sent out other messengers to call the guests. “But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business.  And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them.”

 Those sad words teach us that some people simply don’t have time for God; they just don’t care about His Gospel, and see no need for admitting their sin or for a savior from sin.  Others persecute and kill the messengers, like the Pharisees during Holy Week, like the Jews who persecuted the Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles, like the Roman emperors who threw the Christians to the lions, like the Roman papacy that mocked and persecuted preachers of the Gospel at the time of the Reformation, like Islamic terrorists and ISIS operatives who behead, burn alive, and crucify Christians, like the abortion lobby and the LGBTQ lobby who try to silence Christians by threats and by intimidation.

“But when the king heard about it, he was furious.  And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.”  This refers to the absolute certain end of those who despise the Gospel.  But notice, it’s not because the King never wanted them to come to His wedding; it is not because the King never wanted them to receive forgiveness.  He wanted them to come.  He invited them to come.  He wanted them to be there and enjoy everything He had for them.  But they resisted His Holy Spirit, who was calling them through the Word.  They chose to remain in darkness and in death.  And sadly, their destruction was their own fault.

Even then, the King did not give up on the wedding feast.  He sent out still more servants to call still more people, from the highways and byways, everyone whom they find, preaching the Gospel “to every creature,” as Jesus commanded His apostles, “both bad and good,” as the parable says.  What comforting words of grace!  No one is excluded from this invitation.  No one is so bad that God doesn’t want him at the feast.  And no one is so good that he is doing just fine where he is; everyone needs to be saved by faith alone in Christ.

So whoever hears this invitation should know that God truly wants him at the feast and is extending a valid invitation to it through His ministers whom He has sent out. When you hear God’s ministers calling you to repentance, calling you to faith in Christ, pronouncing absolution, the forgiveness of your sins, you have Jesus’ word that their message comes from the King Himself.

Even then, of course, no one could accept the invitation on his own.  Even that is the work of God’s Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit who always and only works through the preaching of the Word, to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify; and who seals His invitation with the Sacraments, so that each one who is baptized, each one who receives the body and blood of Christ, should be certain that God the Holy Spirit is sincere in the grace He offers in Christ Jesus.

Many of those who are called are not willing to come to the wedding feast.  Many are made willing to come by the working of the Holy Spirit through the Means of Grace.  

But the parable also tells of some who have the appearance of one who has come to the wedding, those who look like Christians on the outside and who call themselves Christians and even go to church.  But even so, they are not dressed in the wedding garment.  And so, when the King comes at the end, He will easily identify these people as the hypocrites they are and will say to them, “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

So, what is this wedding garment that the King mentions?  As Paul writes to the Galatians (3:26-28), “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  The only garment, the only attire that makes a person pleasing to God is Christ, whom we “put on,” or rather, who is “put on” us in Holy Baptism.

But it’s not, “Well, I am baptized, so I am good to go,” whether or not you continue in faith.  It is Baptism, combined with faith; it is Baptism as the promise of God’s forgiveness for the sake of Christ, which we are to continually grasp by faith.  This is the wedding garment that God Himself provides.  And those who are found wearing it when He comes will enjoy eternal life at the heavenly wedding feast.  These are the “chosen,” those whom God elected in eternity to be partakers of eternal life.  Those who are found without it will be cast “into outer darkness forever, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” forever.

So when we consider the doctrine of “election,” we see that it does no good to try to look back into eternity to speculate about whether or not we are among the elect.  We simply stick with the parable.  If God’s minister calls out to you to “come to the wedding,” to repent and believe the Gospel, then know for certain that God Himself is calling and inviting and persuading and convincing you to come, because all things are ready.  God the Father has given His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who has paid for the sins of the world – including your sins.  And now through God-given faith, the Father gives Christ to you to be your Savior.  He planned this wedding feast for you and He wants to see you in eternity with Him to celebrate the wedding feast of the Lamb which has no end.

If you want nothing to do with repentance and the forgiveness of sins through Christ, then don’t consider yourself among the elect – not because God didn’t want you to be saved or because God didn’t give His Son for your sins, or because God’s invitation is less than sincere, but only because you yourself are refusing His invitation

So, don’t refuse it.  Rather, grasp it and receive it as your very own engraved invitation from the Father signed with the blood of His Son, sent from your loving heavenly Father who wishes to give you everything His Son has for you.  And everything He has for you is right here in the Divine Service each and every Lord’s Day.  Here is where you receive Christ crucified and risen preached into your ears, Christ crucified and risen remembered in your baptism, Christ crucified and risen delivered in the Absolution, and Christ crucified and risen delivered in the Holy Supper.

It is good for us as Christians to sorrow over our sins and desire a place at God’s wedding feast.  Look to Christ crucified, true God and true Man, for forgiveness, and in so doing you can count yourself among those whom God has elected, called, and justified, and know that He prepared in eternity everything that you would need for your salvation.  Look to Christ; hear and respond to the Gospel call, through faith.  Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection for you and in your place is His payment for all of your sins. 

He will absolutely strengthen you in your struggle against the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh.  And through His Word and Sacramental gifts, He will absolutely keep you dressed in the wedding garment of faith until He comes on the Last Day.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.