Sermon for Trinity 20, November 9, 2022
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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.” (EHV)
Dear wedding guests,
Jesus told
several parables using the illustration of a wedding celebration to teach how
we might have hope to enter heaven. He
does so again in our sermon text. Again,
we see many invited, but again, many of those who were invited rejected the gracious
invitation. Again, we hear of how the people
God loved abused those who delivered the invitations. Again, we see the Lord send His servants to
invite others to the feast so that His banquet hall might be filled and His Son
honored with a full house at His wedding celebration. Finally, we are shown the terrible choice many
make in imagining their own works and piety as suitable dress for a seat in the
heavenly celebration. Thus, we are
taught to Dress for heaven in Jesus.
In this parable, Jesus compared His Father’s
salvation plan to a royal wedding. Those
of you who have planned a wedding know how much work goes into that. Even for our simple weddings, months and
years are often spent in planning and preparation. God’s plan was in the works since Adam and Eve
sinned. Promises were made of a Savior who
would deliver from the slavery of sin and would open the gates of heaven to all
who believe. A nation was chosen to
illustrate God’s plan for the whole world to see. Yet, even that chosen nation often failed to
operate according to God’s desire.
God’s invitation had been going out to Israel
first, and through them to the rest of the world for many centuries. Even before that, however, people had the
invitation in God’s promises. Sadly, so many
rejected the Father’s gracious invitation to believe that judgment rained down
upon the world in the great flood.
Later, when God’s chosen nation also rejected His kindness by
worshipping idols and abusing and killing His prophets, God used heathen
peoples to bring judgment and discipline on the Israelites who had dishonored
God’s generous invitation, killing and enslaving many and destroying their
cities and towns.
Now, some might question when this retribution
might still take place, but Jesus pictured judgment as timeless. When the ancients rejected God’s plan, they
died without salvation, such as the vast number of heathens who died in the
flood, or the Egyptians God slaughtered when they rejected the invitation
delivered by Moses, and the unfaithful Israelites destroyed by their
neighbors. When people of our times
reject the invitation, judgment will befall them in the end. For those who have no answer for the Judge’s
enquiry, Judgment Day will be a day of great terror, because God will not be
mocked by those who refuse the wedding garments Jesus has provided.
Jesus told the Jews who were rejecting His
personal invitation, “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. 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.”
Though many have rejected God’s invitation to
the heavenly banquet and pay dearly for their foolishness, God remains merciful
in that He continues to call out to the highways and byways for sinners to come
into His house and celebrate the marriage of His Son. He calls you and me to prepare for that
eternal celebration by calling us to worship around His Word. Here, we return to the cleansing waters of
Baptism as we confess our sins. Here, the
pure wedding garments of Jesus’ righteousness are put on us as the forgiveness
of sins is applied to each repentant sinner.
Here, we partake in a foretaste of the peace we will enjoy with God in
heaven as we eat the Lord’s Supper, and here, we sing with the saints and
angels of the salvation that is ours through faith in Christ Jesus. Here, we Dress for heaven in Jesus.
Sadly, like the Jews of Jesus’ day, we often
take God’s invitation for granted. We refuse
to attend the heavenly feast when we allow other things to take precedence over
our opportunities to meet with our Savior in the kingdom of heaven. In addition, we may find ourselves with the
same failing as that man the Bridegroom’s Father found dressed in clothes
unworthy for such a magnificent celebration.
Each of us must examine our consciences to see if we, like the Scribes
and Pharisees, think ourselves somehow worthy of the invitation. Do we count up the days we attend church, the
good deeds we do in our neighborhood, or the offerings we make and think “Oh,
what a good boy am I!”?
Jesus said, “those who were invited were not
worthy.” And while that is certainly
true for those who reject God’s invitation, it is likewise just as true of all
of us who are called in from the highways and byways of life. None of us have the purity and royal divinity
that would allow us to stand before God on our own. Anyone who would presume to work his way into
the heavenly party or to deserve God’s invitation will hear, instead, “I
never knew you. Depart from me, you
evildoers.” (Matthew 7:23)
In the parable, 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.”
Through the message of the Bible, the Lord God,
whom Jesus calls His Father, has issued an invitation for the whole world to
believe in His Son as Savior and live.
He sent His Son into the world to earn forgiveness and eternal life for
all. Jesus said, “God so loved the
world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall
not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Furthermore, “God our Savior…wants
all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1
Timothy 2:3-4)
Because God so wants us eternally in attendance
at that wedding feast in heaven, He not only issued the invitation, He prepared
everything needed for the celebration.
God’s only-begotten Son entered this world to be our righteousness and
the penalty for our unworthiness. Born
of Mary, the Son of God took on human flesh to live as one of us, so that the
holiness we could never hope to live, the Man, Jesus, accomplished for us
all. The debt of sin we could never pay
was counted to Jesus so that God could credit all of us with Jesus’ perfect
obedience, and it is Jesus’ righteousness that is put on us through faith and
Baptism. By the power of the Holy Spirit
working in Word and Sacrament, we Dress for heaven
in Jesus.
Now, it would be easy for us to take offense at
God’s plan. Our human nature loves to imagine
that we can please God by how we live.
We also don’t like to hear that we sin.
We especially don’t like to be criticized for our favorite sins, or for
sins we commit when our earthly commitments, families, entertainments, and jobs
take a little too much precedence in our lives.
Yet, that is exactly why we need Jesus and the precious invitation He
brings. While pointing out a long list
of grievous sins, St. Paul wrote, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will
not inherit the kingdom of God?…And some of you were those types of
people. But you were washed, you were
sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
That, dear friends, is precisely why we can and should Dress for
heaven in Jesus.
You see, Jesus loved you before you ever knew
Him. He loved you enough to live and die
to set you free from sin and the devil’s deceitful control. Jesus loved you enough so that after dying
for your sins, He rose from the grave, so that the grave can no longer hold you
or anyone else. Jesus loved you so much,
He committed His whole life and being to be the Bridegroom unexcelled—the one
Man who could give and do everything needed so that His Bride, the Christian
Church, might be purified and dressed to dwell with Him forever in a never
ending wedding celebration. Jesus then
sent the Holy Spirit to make sure that you not only received the invitation,
but that you believed and treasured it, and by His work with the Gospel and
Baptism, the Spirit has Dressed you for heaven in the wedding clothes Jesus
provided. Amen.
May the Lord of
peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all. Amen.
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