To see a video of the sermon, click here and search for: Divine Service for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost (October 11, 2020)
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
[Intro]
As the title figure in the movie Father of the Bride, Steve
Martin does everything he can do to cut the cost of his daughter’s upcoming
wedding. He tries on his old tuxedo that he has outgrown. He offers to be the
backyard chef at the outdoor reception. He even slashes the guest list down to
a minimum.
But, when the King in today’s parable sends out invitations to His
Son’s wedding, He doesn’t even think of cutting the cost of this wedding.
Instead, He invites everyone! He says no expense will be spared! He says no
guests will be crossed off His list! This is a wedding banquet that no one
would want to miss, and the King says, “Everything is ready! Come!”
The question for us is: are we ready? Are we ready to come to the wedding
feast?
[Holy Week in Jerusalem]
On this Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, we continue listening
to Jesus during Holy Week. As we heard last week, Jesus has already made His Palm
Sunday triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the joy of the crowds sitting upon a
colt as the crowd spread their cloaks upon the road and shouted, “Hosanna
to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna
in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9).
But, ever since Jesus entered Jerusalem, the Jewish chief priests
have been watching Jesus very closely as they have been searching for a right
time to arrest Him and ultimately have Him killed. So, since the Jewish chief
priests are nearby, Jesus speaks parables to them. You know, these earthly
stories with heavenly meanings, as He describes the kingdom of heaven, as
well as to warn them and us of God the Father’s final judgement. In each
parable, Jesus warns us of His very real and coming judgement and His promise
of eternal life for the righteous.
[The Parable of the Wedding Feast]
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus teaches us the Parable of the Wedding
Feast that has been prepared and we are all invited to come and
partake of this gracious feast. He teaches us saying, “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…” (Matthew
22:2-3a).
In today’s world, we send out “Save the Date” notices. This is
what the King has done by sending His servants to call those who were invited
to the wedding feast. Here, the King is alerting His wedding guests that a big
event is coming. In case you’re wondering, the King here is God the Father and
the Son is Jesus.
The date is set! The wedding hall is ready! The feast of rich food
and well-aged wine has been prepared! (Isaiah 25:6) This feast will be lavish!
This is not just an ordinary wedding; this is in fact, a royal wedding!
Everything is ready!
“…but they would not come” (Matthew 22:3b).
Where are the invited guests? All that hard work and not a single
person shows up! This is plain rude. I’m sure we can all sense the King’s
frustration. He felt much like modern parents do when sending out wedding
invitations and the guests don’t show courtesy to at least RSVP!
So, who are the servants and who are the invited guests? The
servants are the prophets who are proclaiming the coming of the promised
Messiah and Lord. The invited guests are the Jewish authorities, such as the
chief priests and elders.
But the King did not give up on having guests at His Son’s wedding
feast! So, “he sent other servants, saying ‘Tell those who are invited,
‘See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been
slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast’’”
(Matthew 22:4).
So, did this group of new wedding guests come at the invitation of
the King?
No. Instead “they paid no attention and went off, one to his
farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them
shamefully, and killed them” (Matthew 22:5).
The wedding hall is ready, and no one wants to come. Instead, one
went off to his farm. Another went off to his business. These sorts of excuses
are no excuse. This actually serves as an almost unthinkable act of shaming the
King and His Son.
Instead of rejoicing at being invited to the royal wedding feast,
the guests just find excuses not to go. Here, Jesus is referring to Israel’s
persistent rejection of its prophets, who proclaimed God’s truth, but the
people would rather ignore God’s watchmen.
Does this sound familiar? Are we often too busy? Do we often find
excuses not to come to the wedding feast?
How often do we fail at keeping the Sabbath day holy? Do we always
fear and love God above all things so that we do not despise preaching and His
Word by keeping it sacred by gladly hearing and learning it?
As sinful human beings, we are experts at coming up with excuses
for anything. In 2020, the newest excuses are our new national idols known as “comfort”
and “safety.”
Many of us would rather stay at home than be at the foretaste of
the feast to come at the Divine Service out of fear of large crowds. Yet, most
of us have continued shopping and dining among large crowds. For some reason,
that fear subsides in big box stores and while sitting in the restaurant booth.
But, out of fear for our personal “comfort” and “safety,” many of us choose to
avoid the Divine Service, even though true eternal comfort and safety are
found only here through the merit and work of Jesus Christ alone.
We must repent of our sin of not trusting God and instead placing
our trust in the idols of “comfort” and “safety.” You see, as soon as we get
out of bed each morning, we begin to take risks that could end our temporal life.
And, even if we follow every rule to not contract the virus, we will never be
immune. Instead, we are to trust in Jesus, so that if any of us would contract
the virus, we may understand that God is using it for our own good, so that we
would trust Him even in our afflictions.
As we have those who make excuses, there were other guests in our
parable who were not indifferent. They did not search for an excuse. Instead,
they “seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them” (Matthew
22:6). Instead of greeting the invitation, they just turned violent. They said,
“No! I am not coming to this!” And then they killed the messenger.
Although the feast is ready, the King will not allow the murderers
of His servants to go unpunished. The King does what we may expect: He became
angry. So, “he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned
their city” (Matthew 22:7). This is in fact, divine judgment. This
judgement has come because the Jewish religious leaders have, by and large,
rejected the King’s Son and the reign of God present in the Son’s words and
deeds.
Even after all of this, the King shows His patience as He continues
to say: “Come, the wedding feast is ready!” Now, would you keep
inviting people after they continuously refuse to come? Not to mention, the
deaths of His servants?
But this time, the King invites even more people. He invites not
just the Jews, but also the Gentiles – the people without Jewish blood – as He
says, “‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go
therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’
And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found,
both bad and good” (Matthew 22:8-10a).
And, guess what? I guess the third time is really the charm! These
invited guests come! The wedding hall was filled with guests! But for those who
came to the wedding feast, were they all ready? Since both bad
and good were invited, both bad and good arrived. Since this King is gracious, He
visits each guest – both bad and good – to see that they are ready for
the feast.
As the King greets everyone, He adorns each guest with a wedding
garment, so that each guest would be ready. This wedding garment signifies the
righteousness of God, which covers our sin. This garment – the robe of
righteousness – is what we receive at our Baptism – the robe of Christ’s righteousness
that covers all of our sin. But, as the King looks over the crowd, He notices
that not everyone is ready. “He saw there a man who had no wedding
garment” (Matthew 22:11b).
So, the King says to this guest, “‘Friend, how did you get
in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said
to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer
darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’” (Matthew
22:12-13).
You see, even when addressed kindly as “friend,”
this man has no excuse, no explanation for refusing the clothing the King has
offered him. So, instead of wearing the robe of righteousness, this man chose
to go it alone by not wearing the King’s wedding garment.
As human beings, we each have free will. We can look back at the
grace received in our Baptism and repent of our sins against God the Father and
receive His forgiveness that was won for us upon the cross, or we can choose to
live in sin as we choose to walk it alone without Christ. For this man, he
chose to walk it alone, and for that, he was cast into outer darkness. He was
cast into hell, away from God and His grace.
Jesus concludes saying, “For many are called, but few are
chosen” (Matthew 22:14). This means: all are
called, but not everyone is ready.
[Are We Ready for the Wedding Feast?]
The question for us this morning is this: how do we know we are
ready for the wedding feast?
Well, we cannot become ready on our own. We cannot become ready by
going about our lives alone. We can only become ready through the merit and
work of Jesus Christ alone!
You see, God freely gives us His robe of righteousness, which is
His wedding garment for you and me. We are spiritually given this at our
Baptism. In fact, the white garments often worn at Baptisms is a symbol of the
robe of righteousness. And, when we are called home to the heavenly feast, the
funeral pall again symbolizes Christ’s righteousness that covers all our sin.
But, in heaven, we will all be actually wearing our robe, our wedding garment
in the Church Triumphant.
So, how do we keep ourselves from losing the robe of
righteousness? Actually, God accomplishes that for us too. He does this by strengthening
our weak faith and forgiving our sins through hearing His Word and partaking of
His Sacrament.
Whenever we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we receive a glimpse of this
heavenly feast to come! With these very words, “Given and shed for you
for the forgiveness of sins,” this shows us that in this Sacrament, we
receive forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation through these words. For where
there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation!
With these words, Jesus invites and urges everyone who is united
with Him in doctrine and faith to partake of the Sacrament frequently. For we
all need the comfort and strength of Christ’s forgiveness for living our new
life – our justified and sanctified life – while we are assaulted by the
devil and struggle with our sinful nature.
You see, in the Lord’s Supper, we receive Christ’s very body and
blood that forgives our sins and strengthens our weak faith. By receiving the
Lord’s Supper, we learn to trust in Jesus and to live in love for one another.
However, the opposite is true for those who choose to remain far
from the Lord’s Supper as their faith is weakened. Picture it this way, if you
are hungry, you eat. If you do not eat when you are hungry, you will eventually
die from starvation.
Or, if you are ill or physically injured, you seek medical help.
If you don’t, your illness or injury will get worse. The same goes with faith.
If we are not receiving strength for our faith, our faith becomes weaker. So,
do not starve yourself of the Sacrament of the very body and blood of Christ!
Because of this, the Lord says, “Come!” He urges us to come and
be nourished in the foretaste of this heavenly feast!
You see, as the King, God the Father invites everyone to the
marriage feast of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who Himself is the
bridegroom. But are we just invited guests? Are we just onlookers at this
glorious event? No! This feast is actually for us! In fact, we
are the bride!
We are the bride that the Bridegroom suffered and died for. We are
bride that the Bridegroom rose from the dead for. We are the Church that the
Bridegroom will raise again on the Last Day! This wedding feast is the union of
Jesus Christ and His bride, the Church!
In the hymn “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying” this wedding
banquet between Jesus and His Church is portrayed. Each time we sing the
pronoun “she” in this hymn that is us – the Church. Stanza two concludes
proclaiming:
We enter all the wedding hall
To eat the Supper at Thy call.
You see, through the very suffering and death of Jesus upon the
cross, He has earned a place for everyone in the kingdom of heaven! And, not
just a place, but a royal place as we who believe and trust in Him are His
bride!
Now, some will ignore this invitation. They will find excuses,
such as they are too busy, or it’s not safe. Of course, daily work and “safety”
is not evil in itself. However, it becomes an issue when it is chosen above the
wedding feast of God the Father’s own Son. So, does – I’m too busy, I have a
career to build, I have a living to earn, I’m focusing on my personal safety, or
are you leaving only an afterthought for the Savior – does any of this describe
you?
And, what about those who oppose this invitation? By opposing,
they are opposing Jesus, and are rejecting God the Father’s invitation to His
wedding feast, that is, the invitation to be His bride, His people.
Some will accept God the Father’s invitation on their own terms,
but not on the His terms. They plan to clothe themselves in their own deeds,
their own fervent prayers, and their own good name. They will have no excuse
when asked why they did not instead clothe themselves in the righteousness
offered to them in Jesus Christ.
But in His grace and mercy, the King – God the Father – extends
the invitation. In Baptism, God the Father provided us garments of
righteousness that we may wear into eternity. These garments – the robes of
Christ’s righteousness that covers all of our sin – was won for us by His Son’s
death and resurrection!
Yes, we who have been clothed in Christ’s righteousness are ready
for the wedding feast! We have no need to
be anxious by fear and worry (Philippians 4:6), since the Lord has prepared a
place for you and me! We know that we are ready as our faith is strengthened
each time we hear His Word and receive His Sacrament.
As long as we remain clothed in Christ’s righteousness, we are
ready for the wedding feast! Come, everything is ready! Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
T SOLI DEO GLORIA T
