Trinity 20, 2021

Rev. Thomas Van Hemert

St. Matthew 22:1-14

Trinity 20

October 10, 2021

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

We now find Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem during Holy Week. According to Matthew’s Gospel, one of the first things Jesus does in Jerusalem is cleanse the Temple. He almost immediately is then challenged by the priests, elders, and Pharisees by what authority He is doing these things. But in responding to the Pharisees, Jesus speaks in Parables.

The purpose of speaking in parables is to confound and confuse the understanding of those who don’t want to understand—to hide the secrets of the kingdom of heaven in plain sight from unbelievers. In fact, in the case of the Pharisees during Holy Week, the prophecy Isaiah uttered years beforehand was fulfilled, “You—the Pharisees, the elders, and the priests—you will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For thus saith the Lord, this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes have been closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.” He would heal them. But they don’t want to be healed. The kingdom of heaven is being revealed to them. They too—the Pharisees, elders, and priests—have all received the same invitation. But they are like those who paid no attention and went off, one to his farm and another to his business.  

To you also, the kingdom of heaven has been revealed. To you it has not only been revealed but it has been given. Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. To you, the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been revealed. You, members of St. John Lutheran Church, blessed are you. For the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast but they would not come. It’s often the case that Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a wedding feast. But that’s not the case this time. For the kingdom of heaven may be compared, not to a wedding feast, but to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.

The kingdom of heaven is compared to a king who invites many people. The invitation goes out, Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which does not satisfy? Such as the sinful pleasures of the earth that don’t satisfy. Eat what is good, delight yourselves with rich food. Incline your ear and come to me; hear, that your soul may live. This invitation has gone out throughout the history of the world, to all peoples and places. This is what Isaiah speaks of in the Old Testament reading.

The Gospel itself is free. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. It also is free, there is no charge. And it isn’t received as a reward or as a wage or as payment for something. It is a gift. It is like the generosity of a king who gives a wedding feast for his son.

Now the problem, of course, is that the free invitation is rejected. Because the invitation is rejected, the kingdom of God itself is rejected. This might not make sense to you and me. This doesn’t make sense to Christians to whom the kingdom of God has been revealed and given. Why would anyone reject grace? Why would anyone in their right mind reject forgiveness and freedom from the devil because that’s what salvation is. Salvation is freedom even from the threat of harm. That’s what the invitation is for, it’s for salvation. What kind of person doesn’t want this?

Well, many people simply throw away this invitation. In fact, the majority of people reject it. We see this in the parable in the way that those who were initially invited treat the king’s servants shamefully. Congregations may not like what they hear from their pastors or like their pastors in general, so they stop supporting him. Christians are ridiculed in the public square because they don’t agree with what is going on in their country. For calling their leaders to repentance, Christians are treated as second class citizens. Perhaps worst of all, missionaries are killed overseas by groups like ISIS for trying to bring the Gospel to an unchurched and unbelieving people. Pastors, Christians, and missionaries are rejected because the people they’re called to serve don’t want to shed their own self-righteousness and receive the robe of Christ’s righteousness. The majority of people don’t want to become Christians because the Gospel is a real threat to sinners! The life of being a Christian is hard. It’s difficult. It’s a life of suffering for the sake of the Gospel—of being ridiculed for believing in a God who loves you so much that He lays down His life. In the eyes of the world, Christianity seems weak. Who wants to believe in a God who dies? This is often the argument, right? “Well the God of the Christians is weak. He’s not strong like Zeus or Apollo or Zoroaster or Allah.” The life of a Christian is a life of weakness and realizing it. It’s a life of taking up your own cross and following Jesus. But we can be weak. It’s ok to rely on someone else. This is what we do: we bear with one another in our burdens and take comfort in the reality that we are living in the Last Days and that this current life is lived in the valley of the shadow of death.

We are weak. We are desperate. We are ridiculed and teased and made fun of. We thirst for righteousness. So come. Come, everyone who thirsts, come and take drink. Come, you who have no money. Come, buy and eat. Come, you who have no self-righteousness because of your many sins and receive the wedding garment of Christ’s righteousness. Come, you who can’t seem to stop committing your own pet sins. Come, you who are lazy and don’t think you deserve anything. Shirking your own righteousness and being clothed with the wedding garment is difficult. It means you have a target on your back and the devil, the world, and your sinful nature will despise it. But this yoke is also easy. Because you are weak, because you are desperate, your Lord is strong and He gives you everything you need for free, by grace through faith.

The king said to his servants, The wedding feast is ready, but those initially invited were not worthy. The reason they were not worthy was because they did not want it. But you are worthy, because you desire the kingdom of God. You are here. You are present. You come week after week. And if you haven’t in the past, don’t worry. Put it behind you. Now, you are here to at the wedding feast because you have been invited and that’s all that matters. For you are tired of dealing with fallen humanity so you rely on your Savior to give you every good thing. That’s why you’re here today! You come to church because you have no money or means to buy eternal life for yourself. You are not a conqueror; you cannot claim it. You know that you labor for that which does not satisfy, so you find yourself here. That’s ok. You come to church not primarily to offer up sacrifices of prayer and praise, although that is a small part of our worship. You come to church in order to receive—to be clothed with the wedding garment, to eat what is good and to delight yourself in rich food. That is the focus of our life together in Christ. We aren’t worthy of anything. We aren’t worth our wages. But we are fed and strengthened with the foretaste of the wedding feast to come. 

Now it must be noted, that while this is a parable, I wouldn’t say that this is strictly an allegory. Because our God is truly a king. He gives a real wedding feast for His Son. This wedding feast is experienced only as a foretaste in this life but it’s still the real thing. Though it is a parable, a real invitation goes out to all people. You, those of you who are here today, have also received this invitation and what you partake in today is the real wedding banquet of the Lamb in His Kingdom. For the kingdom of heaven is like a man who gives a wedding feast for his son. It is the feast we partake of in our worship.

So also, as is common in the parables, there is an underlying warning. Though it is a parable, there are people, like the man without a wedding garment who pretend to be Christians. There are people within the Church who, though they give off the appearance of being a Christian, they have all the outward trappings, they say the right things, but they are not truly Christians. They simply want to look the part. The man who got in without a wedding garment was cast into the outer darkness to a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. He thought he could play the part. He thought he could just show up, go through the motions, and trick others and trick God into thinking he was a Christian. But he wasn’t. He didn’t want to live as a Christian, to confess as a Christian, to pray as a Christian, or to receive as a Christian. He put it all off. Be warned. God is not mocked. He will repay each one for his own deeds. Be warned. For many are called but few are chosen. Be warned. But also take heart. For you are called and because you eat and drink without price, you have also been chosen. 

In +Jesus’ name.