Matthew 22:1-14
Pastor Troy Slater, Our
The Twenty-Second Sunday
after Pentecost - A
Portions of this sermon were
borrowed from a sermon preached by Rev. James Batchelor, pastor of
This morning in our Gospel lesson Jesus tells a parable about a
king who throws a wedding feast for his son - the prince. Now as Americans we certainly don't have much
experience with royalty and their ways although the media over the years has
certainly kept us abreast of many of the happenings of the British royal
family. And I suppose the biggest event related
to that royal family would have in fact been a wedding celebration - and of
course that would have been the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Princess
Diana - an event so big that it was watched by a global television audience of
over 750 million people. An incredible
display of wealth and pomp and tradition made this "fairytale"
wedding one of royal proportions.
Now
with as big of a global event as that was, could you
imagine that anyone at the time who was invited to that wedding would have
suddenly decided that morning, "No thanks, I've got to work today. I've got a field to plow or a couple of sales
to make. I'm not going to go." No, absolutely not. You're invited to a prince's wedding
celebration - you go.
And
in fact that's part of what makes Jesus parable that he tells us today so
shocking. Here a king throws a wedding
celebration for his son and at the last minute all those who were invited
refused to come. They decided they had
other things to do that day. Jesus says "One went off to his field, another to
his business." And then most
shocking of all Jesus says that some of the invited guests even seized,
mistreated and then even killed the servants of the king who had gone out to
encourage the guests to come to the celebration. Of course this is shocking, even insane
behavior on the part of the invited guests. They could have been enjoying
the lavish celebration but they refused. And so instead they soon found
themselves at the business end of the swords, spears, and arrows of the King's
army as he sent his army to destroy those who had rejected his gracious
invitation. …
But
then, after the King dealt with those ungrateful subjects, He sent His servants
to all the crossroads of the land in order to extend the invitation to
everyone. The servants invited both bad and good to the feast.
Thieves, murderers, and drug dealers entered the banquet hall as well as
carpenters, teachers, and doctors. People came from every walk of
life. Soon the King had guests for the wedding feast.
And
then, as was often the custom in the ancient day, as the wedding guests
arrived, teams of expert tailors fashioned party clothes for each of
them. They may have come in rags, but when they entered the banquet hall,
they all wore the latest fashions. Even the poorest beggar looked like a
millionaire.
Everything and everyone was perfect.
.. Or almost everyone that is. For as the King came out to enjoy the wedding feast with His
guests, one person stood out like a sore thumb. Amid all this
latest fashion - these wonderful wedding garments - one person in the place
still wore his beggar's rags. He was not dressed for the wedding. He had refused the King's gift of wedding
garments - in other words, he wanted to do it his own way. And so the King
he had this man thrown out into the darkness where Jesus says "there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth." …
Now in this parable, the King
obviously represents God the Father, of course the
Prince is God the Son. The invitation to the wedding feast in this
parable symbolizes God's offer to join Him at His banquet table in heaven -
eternal life. Jesus has conquered sin, death and the devil by His cross
and resurrection. Jesus has purchased
His bride - the church - by His blood and God our heavenly King now invites all
to come and to rejoice at the feast of victory for our God.
Who in their right mind would refuse
such an infinitely gracious invitation and gift? I mean even the most lavish wedding
celebration of a prince of this world pales in comparison to the life that God
gives even to us poor, miserable sinners.
And so who would possibly refuse? …
Unfortunately though, all too many
people do just that. The temple authorities rejected Jesus even though
their invitation was centuries old. We read part of that invitation in
today's Old Testament reading from Isaiah. "On this mountain the Lord almighty will prepare a feast of rich
food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine - the best of meats and the finest
of wines." About seven hundred
years before Jesus was born, Isaiah was already using the feast metaphor to
describe the
But what happened to Isaiah? Well Scripture tells us how Isaiah was mistreated
and abused - tradition tells us that he was killed by being sawn in half. And what happened to so many others of God's
servants whom He sent out to extend the invitation to come to His feast. Well, of the original twelve apostles for
example, only John died of natural causes and even he was nearly boiled in
oil. Paul the Apostle and John the Baptizer both lost their heads because
of their confession of faith. Down
through the centuries and still even today, millions of God's people have died
cruel deaths.
Why? Well simply because those
Christians shared the Good News about a God who loves mankind enough to die on
a cross to save them from their sins and to bring them into His heavenly feast.
And
of course we could go on and on about those who remarkably, unbelievably feel
they've got other things - better things to do than to heed our Lord's
invitation to come to his feast. Many like
those in the parable go off to their fields or places of work - thinking that
somehow that is what is most important in life.
Others simply ignore the invitation - reject God's Word as they instead
file out to the malls, the golf courses or simply think they need an extra hour
of sleep. "But their end is destruction, their god is their stomach - their
minds are on earthly things,." Holy Scripture
says. …
But
the king still invites doesn't He? Despite
the rejection, despite those who regard His Gospel call as inconvenient or
unimportant - and certainly we're all do just that at times, but despite all
that, He does not stop His search for the lost. The king in the parable
sent his servants to bring in anyone they could find. Jesus said, "So the servants went out into the
streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the
wedding hall was filled with guests."
These guests were not worthy of this honor in their own right, but nonetheless
they were invited because of the king's generosity. Because of God's generosity He continues to
invite - sending His servants to all the corners of the world He continues to
invite, "Come. Come to the
feast."…
And
just as the king provided wedding garments to all who came to the wedding feast,
so also God gives the garments to wear to His feast. In fact He gives the garment of Christ's righteousness.
As God's prophet, Isaiah once wrote, "I
delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoiced in my God. For he has clothed me with
garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness." When God invites us to His feast - through
Baptism He removes our sinful rags and clothes us in Christ's
righteousness. So that now, when the Father looks at us - His baptized
people - He sees the righteousness of the Son. He sees the perfect,
sinless life that Jesus lived as He took on our human nature. He sees the sacrifice that His Son, Jesus
Christ made as He bore the punishment for our sins on the cross. When
Christ covers us with His righteousness, it is as if we had never sinned.
Christ's sacrifice has made us perfect in God our heavenly King's eyes.
He has dressed us properly for the feast. …
Although still, sadly, just as there
was a wedding guest who was not dressed properly for the wedding, so also will
there always be those who reject the righteousness of Christ.
These are the hypocrites - the ones who pretend to be Christians but they are
not. They are not because they have rejected the gift of Christ's
righteousness and have wanted to do it their own way. And so just as the King had His bouncers
throw out into the darkness the one who refused to wear the provided wedding
garments, so also will the hypocrite find himself where there is weeping and
gnashing of teeth. There's only one
thing we can wear to God's heavenly feast - the robe of Christ's righteousness.
And you know, wearing that robe of
Christ's righteousness, we do not even need to wait until we leave this world
to begin experiencing the Lord's feast of victory. For we experience a foretaste of that feast
of heaven every time we come forward and receive a small piece of bread and a
sip of wine as we are given the body and blood of our Lord and Savior.
For a brief instant we attend the wedding feast of the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world - that feast that has no end - that feast we will
fully and forever know at the end of the age.
And
so let us rejoice! Indeed let us rejoice
and be glad in His salvation! Let us not
do the unthinkable and pretend we have better things to do. Let us not refuse the robe of Christ's
righteousness. Let us heed the King's
invitation and rejoice in the feast of victory for our God. And may the peace of God that surpasses …