Sermon
for Trinity 20, October 20, 2019
“Do not fear those who
kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
Rather, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) So said Jesus to His disciples as He trained
them to go out into the world with His gracious invitation to salvation. Last Sunday, I told you that we have no
reason to fear anything in this world because “The Lord never forgets
you.” Yet, it is also true that those
who do not fear the Lord God of heaven and earth will never enter His heavenly
celebration. This morning, our sermon
text tells us how God fills His heavenly home.
Therefore, now and forever,
Matthew 22:1–14 Jesus spoke to them again in parables. He said, 2“The
kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who prepared a wedding banquet for his
son. 3He sent out his
servants to summon those who were invited to the wedding banquet, but they did
not want to come. 4“Then he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who
are invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner.
My oxen and my fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is
ready. Come to the wedding
banquet!’ 5“But those who
were invited paid no attention and went off, one to his own farm, another to
his business. 6The rest
seized the king’s servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7As a result, the king was very
angry. He sent his army and killed those
murderers and burned their town. 8“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is
ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9So go to the main crossroads and
invite as many as you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10Those servants went out to the
roads and gathered together everyone they found, both good and bad, and the
wedding hall was filled with guests.
11But when the king came in to see the
guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12He said to him, ‘Friend, how did
you get in here without wearing wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. 13Then the king told the servants,
‘Tie him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where there will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14For
many are called, but few are chosen.”
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dear
fellow redeemed,
Our sermon text this morning really addresses the first
and greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
To love the Lord your God means to give Him your greatest respect, to
honor Him, to gladly and willingly serve Him, and to regard your relationship
with Him as your greatest treasure.
Jesus also instructed us to fear God—but why?
True fear
involves two aspects. The first is, of
course, terror of causing that greater, more powerful being to become angry
with you. This is the fear that often
strikes us when the flashing, colored lights appear behind us on the road as a
police officer pulls us over. On the
other hand, true fear also indicates a loving respect for God’s providence,
which is what we all hope for in our relationships with our children. We want them to love and respect us not
because we could punish them, but because we hope they comprehend all our
service and the sacrifices we make for them.
Our text
teaches how we enter into the kingdom of heaven. But, notice the lack of fear among so many of
those invited to the wedding banquet. Most
of the people didn’t care that the king had honored them with his
invitation. Nor did they care to honor
the son at his wedding. In their minds,
they had more important things to do, which is the same way so much of the
world has always reacted to the proclamation of the Good News of a Savior from
sin for the world.
Jesus’
parable was certainly aimed at the Judean population of His day. At the same time, it applies to every people
from the time of Adam and Eve, and it bullseyes us well. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like
a certain king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent out his servants to summon those who
were invited to the wedding banquet, but they did not want to come.” Jesus gave us an earthly picture to help us
understand a truth about God’s domain and who will enjoy His celebration in
heaven. From the fall into sin in the
Garden of Eden, God has sent out His gracious invitation to believe in Jesus
and live in glory, but many people don’t care.
So many people rejected God and His initial promise of a Savior that He
sent a great flood to wipe most of them off the face of the earth.
In Israel
too, the gracious invitation came through a long list of prophets from Moses on
down, but many didn’t care. In fact,
Israel had gained a reputation for killing God’s prophets, so God would at
times allow the armies of surrounding nations to rain down His judgment upon
those rejecting His mercy. Many of the
Jews of Jesus’ time still rejected His invitation to believe, and it is an
historical fact that Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside was destroyed by
the Romans around a.d. 70. Yet, for us, what
this all means is that there will come a time of judgment when God will cast
those who reject His invitation into the outer darkness of eternal torment.
Throughout
history, there have always been those who receive God’s invitation with fear
and trembling and great joy. They enter
the marriage feast of the Lamb by faith and continue to enjoy that celebration
for the all the eternities to come.
At the
same time, though, there are the many who just don’t care. Jesus’ parable shows us two types of those
who reject His kindness. He said, “Then
he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: Look, I have
prepared my dinner. My oxen and my
fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet!’ But those who were invited paid no attention
and went off, one to his own farm, another to his business. The rest seized the king’s servants,
mistreated them, and killed them. As a
result, the king was very angry. He sent
his army and killed those murderers and burned their town.”
On the
one hand are those who are content with life in this world. They don’t harm the messengers, but neither
do they give heed to the invitation.
This may be the greatest warning for us.
How many times do we find it more compelling to go about the business of
life on earth rather than heed God’s invitation to come to His house to feast
on the banquet of Word and forgiveness prepared for all whom He has
called? How often do vacations, jobs,
field work, sleep, and other distractions keep us away from what God has
prepared? Now, I know this might sound
judgmental in the middle of harvest in a tough year. Yet, we need to maintain a healthy respect
for God’s invitation. This isn’t to say that
one must never miss a Sunday in church, but how often do we allow our earthly
tasks and temptations to steal away our time and attentions in the kingdom of
heaven? Because to be honest, God
Himself has invited us to enter in to feast with His Son.
The other
side to those who reject God’s messengers are those who are openly hostile to
God’s invitation. Our world today is
full of groups that reject Christian faith, who refuse God’s invitation to
forgiveness and salvation, and in bold arrogance some of those attack the
servants God sends. Now, here in our
little town one doesn’t expect to lose his life by such arrogant rejection, yet
we do run into some who might secretly wish we weren’t around to bother them,
and the guilt of those thoughts is the same.
These two
types were aimed pointedly at those in Judea who rejected Jesus and the
prophets. However, despite the rejection
of so many, God has always, throughout time, moved on from those who reject Him
to graciously invite others to come into His kingdom of grace. Jesus tells us, “Then he said to his
servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not
worthy. So go to the main crossroads and
invite as many as you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those servants went out to the roads and
gathered together everyone they found, both good and bad, and the wedding hall
was filled with guests.” Those who
were unworthy of the king’s wedding celebration weren’t deemed so by their
deeds. Rather, they marked themselves
unworthy by their rejection of God’s grace.
As we
will soon see, none of us had the merit to be worthy to enter on our own. The merit of the invitation belongs only to
our merciful God. But wanting all people
to be saved, God continues to send out His gracious invitation. And, this is where we enter in. You and I are part of that vast throng found
along the highways and crossroads of life, whom the messengers of God’s grace
have led into the eternal celebration.
We had no royal merit or high-class standing in the kingdom of
heaven. Like every other person on
earth, we were descended from those who also inherited the sins of Adam. Still, to fill His house and honor His Son,
God has invited us in purely out of His merciful grace.
Now, the
whole Christian Church on earth is made up of those who were invited in off the
roads of this world, but there is still one more warning for us in this
text. One man was dressed
differently. Jesus said, “But when
the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing
wedding clothes. He said to him,
‘Friend, how did you get in here without wearing wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him
hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are
called, but few are chosen.” This
picture transcends what might happen at an ordinary festival here on earth, but
there is nothing ordinary in Jesus’ message.
No one
entered that heavenly hall by self-merit.
We all enter God’s kingdom by His gracious invitation and
providing. The warning, here, is against
hypocrisy. Though perhaps not visible to
us, there are those in the church who view themselves as worthy of the
invitation, or they imagine themselves so finely dressed in their own deeds
that they don’t need the magnificent clothes Jesus has provided for us. Yet, that is the warning. What the crowds understood as Jesus spoke
this parable is that a rich king of that time and place would have provided
appropriate garb for the crowds invited in.
The ordinary class of folk couldn’t be expected to have the right
apparel. It is a picture of what Jesus
has done for us.
That one
man chose not to dress in the fine clothing provided by the king. Maybe he thought his own clothes sufficient,
perhaps even finer than what the king was offering. Regardless, his action slandered the king and
shamed the son. The same is true of any
who view their place at the banquet feast of heaven as something they have earned,
or even that they have dressed themselves in such good works that they don’t
need the cleansing and fine dress Jesus offers.
For those hypocrites, the destination is hell, right along with all
those who completely rejected the invitation.
That
brings us back to the message Jesus wants all people to have: Rejoice in God’s gracious invitation. Those who fear and love God do so by the
work of the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit
brings us to faith in God’s Son, Jesus, we are washed clean, purified of all
sin by the cleansing water of Baptism, in preparation for the everlasting
wedding feast. The old tattered robes of
our sinful past were thrown away in the dung heap of history when Jesus died on
a cross and lay buried in a grave. Right
along with that, we are dressed in the immaculate robes of Jesus’ perfect
righteousness, for the fine white linen of heaven woven together from Jesus’ perfect
obedience, and purified by His blood, is draped over our eternal souls. As the prophet wrote, “I will rejoice
greatly in the Lord. My soul will
celebrate because of my God, for He has clothed me in garments of
salvation. With a robe of righteousness
He covered me.” (Isaiah 61:10)
Those who
receive God’s invitation with joy believe every word He has prepared for
us. We consume that bread of life
already, now, so that we can feast with our Savior forever in the banquet hall
of heaven. Believing this, we rejoice
with glad hearts right here, and believing God’s gracious invitation, we will
rejoice again every tomorrow of our lives.
Then dressed in the royal robes of Christ’s holiness, we will Rejoice
in God’s gracious invitation for all eternity above. Amen.
The peace
of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
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