Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
(Proper 23A)
October 15, 2023
Text:
Matt. 22:1-14
Who are these, so bold, so
audacious, as to tell the King they have better things to do than attend the
Wedding Feast of His Son? The immediate
audience for our Lord’s parable is once again made up of the Chief Priests and
Pharisees. This is the continuation of
the sermon we heard Him preaching last week.
Only now, he is riffing on this morning’s Old Testament reading (Is.
25:6-9). “Remember, dear shepherds of
Israel, the Mountain of the LORD of hosts from the Prophet Isaiah? The feast of rich food and well-aged
wine? We all know the Prophet is
speaking of the Messianic age. That is
what will happen when the Kingdom arrives, when God’s Messiah comes. Well, dear friends, guess what? Here I AM!
And I have sent servant after servant, prophet after prophet, to tell
you the Feast is prepared. But now that
it is here, you refuse to come in. You
have no desire. And, in fact, you seize
my servants, treat them shamefully, and kill them. That’s what you do. So, fine.
I won’t make you come in.
I won’t force you to rejoice and feast with Me in My
Kingdom. But be warned. The troops are on their way to destroy you
murderers and burn your city,” a reference to the coming destruction of Jerusalem
in AD 70. “But that won’t stop Me from
giving My Feast. I will invite others
to take your place. And they will
rejoice and be satisfied with the good things from My Table, while you find
yourself in the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
So, the original audience was the
Jewish clergy. But the Holy Spirit has
preserved this parable also for our learning. What is the application, what is the warning
for us who hear it anew here this afternoon?
Of course, don’t seize your pastor, treat him shamefully, or kill him
(I’m not too worried about that, today).
And don’t do that to any of the Lord’s servants, be they preachers of
the Gospel, or other Christians who speak the Lord’s Word to you. There are places in the world at this very
moment where that is a very real danger, and we know it probably will be here,
too, in time to come. But perhaps more
to the point for us here and now, when you receive an invitation from the King,
which is to say, from God, to the Wedding Feast of His Son (and you have,
that’s why you’re here!)… don’t make excuses why you can’t come. “Oh, sorry, business, you know,” or “family
time,” or “I’m too tired. Maybe next
week. I’ll get around to it one of these
days.” Or just, “I don’t want to!” Whatever it is. Guys, God invites you to His House
to feast with His Son at His own Table.
That is what you believe, isn’t it? I realize it’s all hidden under the ordinary,
and unremarkable, and often downright scandalous, forms of words and water,
bread and wine, a sad sack of flesh up in the pulpit, and a bunch of sad sacks
sitting next to you in the pews. But you
know that things are not as they appear.
Not in Christ. So, don’t excuse
yourself. Don’t miss this. Because you don’t have to come. God will not force you. And you know what happens to those who refuse. So, that is the warning. Come to Church. Come into the presence of Jesus. Come into His Wedding Feast. This is the foretaste. This is the appetizer. This is the vestibule to the Royal Estate. Soon enough you will see the splendor in all
its fulness. It is just the other side
of the portal.
And think about this… Who are these
others, these tramps on the road, invited, now, to take the place of the
original guests at the Son’s Wedding Feast?
These are, of course, the Gentiles, to whom the Gospel is
preached, now brought in and included in God’s people,
Israel. Well, that’s you. See, both Jews and Gentiles, all who do not
refuse Him… even, Jesus says, “both bad and good” (Matt. 22:10; ESV),
that is, notorious sinners and respectable citizens, these are invited into the
Kingdom, into the Feast, by the preaching of the Gospel, that the hall may be
filled with guests. That is, by the way,
the program of the Kingdom. Preach the
Gospel to all, without distinction.
Bring in more guests. All who
will come. Now, whether they come, or
not, that’s up to the Spirit, not us. But
we’d love to fill this place to capacity, and then some. Baptize them.
Catechize them. Bring them into
the fulness of the Feast. That’s what
we’re given to do as Christ’s Body on earth.
That’s why He hasn’t already come years ago and put an end to all of
this. For the sake of those who have yet
to hear, and believe, and come into the Feast.
The “bad,” though… they are
not left bad. And the “good” must
not be left in their own goodness. One
and all must come to see that their own clothes… be they soiled, torn, and
tattered (the bad), or brand new, dry-clean-only, designer brand (the good)…
their own clothes are insufficient, unsatisfactory, inappropriate for this
Feast. But, not to fear. In the world of the Gospels, when one was
invited to a prestigious wedding feast, the host would provide the appropriate
garment for his guest. The host would
cover the guest in fitting apparel. That
is what God does for you in Holy Baptism.
That is what you receive by faith.
The analogy is this: You come to God’s Kingdom with your own garments,
soiled with obvious sin, or as clean as human works can get them, it doesn’t
matter. You fall somewhere on the
righteousness spectrum. But it isn’t
good enough. You are a sinner. You have sin.
You are not perfectly righteous, which is what God demands. Your clothes aren’t good enough. So God strips you of your shameful garments,
your pitiful unrighteousness, and covers you instead with the spotless robe,
the perfect righteousness of His Son, Jesus.
St. Paul puts it this way: “For as many of you as were baptized into
Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).
And again, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision
for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom. 13:14), that is, don’t pick up
again your old, ratty clothes. Even the
designer ones are nothing but filthy rags before the Lord. And the Lord Jesus has taken them away, to be
put to death in His flesh on the cross.
Those are clothes of death. But here
are resurrection clothes, robes of righteousness, washed white in the blood of
the Lamb, which the Lord Himself freely gives you. Be covered.
Be cleansed.
Well, this explains the man found
without a wedding garment, doesn’t it?
It’s not that he wasn’t legitimately invited in, and the Lord even calls
him, “Friend” (Matt. 22:12… Reminds us of someone else the Lord called “Friend,”
doesn’t it, who had thrown away the Savior’s invitation to conduct his own
business, to go to his own place? Matt.
26:50). It is also not that he was
expected to have a wedding garment of his own.
The King had provided the garment for him. So it must be that he cast it off. Or refused even to put it on. He insisted on wearing his own
clothes. Like the Chief Priests and
Pharisees, like the self-righteous among us, he insisted he attend the
Feast on his own merit. But it doesn’t
work that way. Everyone here is here at
the King’s mercy. Everyone here is
here by grace, that is, by the King’s unmerited favor. Your own righteousness will get you thrown
out into the outer darkness. But
Christ’s righteousness, freely given, distributed to one and all alike in His
preaching and gifts, will get you a place at His Table at the Wedding Feast of
the Lamb in His Kingdom which has no end.
Rich food and well-aged wine. Flesh full of marrow, and aged-wine
well-refined. Nothing but the best. And the Bride in all her blood-bought
splendor, which is to say, Lady Church.
And then, the Bridegroom. He has
swallowed up death forever, and all that goes along with it. All violence.
All sickness. All sadness. All pain.
Here He is, our Bridegroom, the Royal Son, present with us at the
Feast. And we join the festal shout: “Behold,
this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the
Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation”
(Is. 25:9).
Beloved, to be a Christian is not to
balk at the invitation to this Feast, or to list off the reasons why you can’t
(or more accurately, don’t want to) attend.
No. It is to “Rejoice in the
Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). “The Lord is at hand” (v. 5), and so,
in spite of all that our eyes may see, we are well, and all is good. Do you know what is true, what is honorable,
what is just and pure? Do you know what
is lovely and commendable, what is excellent and worthy of praise? It is all from the Lord, and it flows from
the altar. Think about these
things. Set your mind on them. And then, clothed with Jesus, receive them
from His hand. This whole Royal Feast is
for you. In the Name of the Father, and
of the Son X,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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