Trinity 20 Bulletin↓ Our Savior Lutheran Church, Grants Pass, OR
↓ Faith Lutheran Church, Medford OR
TRINITY-20 Matthew 22:1-14
‘A’-LIST REJECTS; ‘Z’S ARE IN
PRAYER O mighty and everlasting God, Who extends the invitation to ALL…
MANY vs. FEW Many are invited to the party; few bother to
show up. Many are dead; few actually trust that fact. Many have a place at
the Heavenly banquet; few take their seat at the table. We already have a
sense of that: Many are in the church’s roles; few bother to show up on any
given Sunday. The mystery of faith and unbelief, inclusion and exclusion.
Welcome to the Parable of the Wedding Feast.
PARTY PARABLE… “Jesus spoke to them again in Parables.”
“They” are once again the religious leaders, who were plotting to have Him
arrested and killed. Jesus is on His way to Calvary to die, and He delivers a
“Party Parable.” It’s a great image of Heaven, lifted right off of Isaiah’s
Messianic Mountain where the LORD is the Chef and Wine Steward/Garcon. A
Feast of marbled meats and vintage wines. It doesn’t get better than that.
Banish the calorie counters and the teatotalers and all the religions of dieting.
The death shroud is lifted, swallowed up in life and Resurrection joy. Who cares
about cholesterol when your bodies are raised to eternal life? And who can help
but raise a toast of vintage wine that gladdens the hearts of men when death is
swallowed up in life?
I. PARABLE [PART] “A” “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who
prepared a wedding banquet for His Son.” This is back before the time when
brides and their mothers took over the wedding business. Weddings were
men’s work back then. You’ll notice that the BBQ was the main event. Oxen
and fattened cattle and plenty of wine. They’ve got their priorities straight. The
servants go out into the city with the word to the invited: “The feast is
ready. Come to My Son’s Wedding Banquet!”
REFUSE? A FREE MEAL But, strangely, mysteriously, the invited refuse
a free meal at the king’s table! A wedding party, and you don’t even have to
bring a present, just BE present! How [amazingly] foolish!
WHAT’S ON THE MENU Again, the King sends out more of his
servants, preaching the menu. Maybe they’ll come when they hear about the
food and drink. Make ‘em hungry. Roasted meats and fine wines. It’s all there
waiting for you. But again, the invitation is ignored. They go on with their lives
as though there was no wedding, no feast, no son, no king. Some went to work
in the field; some went to tend their business. Some played soccer, some slept
in, some read the newspaper over coffee, changed their light bulbs, and watched
the playoffs on TV. We know all the excuses. We hear them all the time. We
even use them ourselves, when the king’s feast doesn’t quite fit our schedules.
THINGS GET UGLY/DEADLY Then things get ugly. The invited guests seize
the king’s servants and beat them up; some are killed. You can’t be neutral
when it comes to this King’s Feast. Sooner or later you will turn against the
king and his servants. There is NO polite and neutral “No (thank you)” to
Jesus’ salvation. Refuse Him and you must silence Him and His servants – by
the courts, and even by force. A wedding turns into war. Grace becomes
wrath. The king who started out in a party mood turns in anger against the
murderers and their city. There’s hell to pay. But don’t blame the king; he just
wanted a party.
GoOD SIDE / BAD SIDE Listen. The only way to get on the God’s
bad side is to refuse His goodness. These were invited folks, the A-list. They
had a place at the wedding feast. There was roasted lamb and sides of beef
and vintage Cabernet ready all waiting for them. But they said a foolish,
unbelieving, hard-hearted “NO” to the king’s goodness. More than that, they
beat and killed his servants. Big mistake. Refuse the king’s mercy, mistreat his
servants, reject His gifts, and you risk His wrath. You wouldn’t want to do that,
would you? Faith never refuses the gifts.
ONLY WAY [OUT] The A-list has proven itself unworthy by its
refusal. Jesus would soon lament over religious Jerusalem too, “How l
longed to gather you under my wing, O Jerusalem, as a mother hen gathers her
chicks, but you would not.” If we’re left outside in outer darkness, we have only
ourselves to blame. Refusal of our acceptance is what excludes. Or to put it
bluntly, hell is in the way of your own salvation. The only sin that isn’t
forgiven is the refusal to be forgiven.
IT’S ALL A GIFT Out into the streets and alleyways the servants
go again, this time inviting anyone and everyone they could find. Tax collectors,
prostitutes, sinners of every stripe. The least, the lost, the losers, the dead of
this world. Those who had never been invited to anything in their lives. Those
who would never consider themselves worthy to sit at the king’s table. The
good and the bad. Isn’t that remarkable? The good and the bad both are
welcome. There’s hope for all of us! And please notice: The goodness of the
good doesn’t get them included, any more than the badness of the bad get
them excluded. It’s all a gift, by grace, for the Son’s sake.
[WHY] DON’T WE GET IT? Why don’t we get that? Why doesn’t the
church seem to understand that all the King wants is for his hall to be filled with
hungry and thirsty guests? Why are we so preoccupied with making the bad
good and keeping the good from going bad? It’s because we can’t resist biting
into the notion that good and evil is the way to handle things. It’s our legacy
from Adam. We’re religion junkies. We’d rather snack on spiritual junk food
than dine in the king’s banquet hall. We’d rather belly up to the bar of
bogus spirituality than be fed the rich food and strong drink of salvation
in Jesus. Be good and you’re in; be bad and you’re out. That’s our moral
calculus, and we think God is the same sort of bookkeeper.
UN…BELIEVABLE Not so with the King of the Party Parable. He
welcomes the good and the bad. Don’t have a ride? He’ll send a limo to pick
you up. Don’t have the right clothes to wear? He’s handing out Armani suits
and Dior gowns. He wants a well-dressed crowd on His dance floor. It’s all His
grace, gift. UNdeserved, UNearned, UNmerited. It’s really UN-fathomable!
II. PARABLE [PART] “B” The king looks out over his banquet hall and
smiles. The banquet hall is full. The party is on. The people are eating and
drinking and dancing. But off in the corner there’s a “party pooper.” A man
sipping iced tea, in a T-shirt, cutoff shorts and a scowl on his face. He goes
over to the man. “Hey buddy, How’d you get in here without a wedding suit?”
But the man had nothing to say. Speechless. The King’s good mood turns foul,
and he orders the royal bouncers to bind him up and toss him outside into the
darkness. The man was in before he was thrown out. And he was out for his
refusal to be in on the king’s terms. It’s the king’s party, not ours.
WHAT TO DO?! What should the man have done? What would
you have done? What would you have said if you were caught looking like a
wedding crasher? What would you have said to the king? How about, “
LORD,
have mercy on me, a sinner.” That always works with this King. He’s the
King Who clothes you. “Those of you who were Baptized into Christ, have been
clothed with Christ.” You are covered with His righteousness, His holiness, His
perfection. Baptism is your wedding suit, your tuxedo or gown, formal wear fit
for eternal life and a wedding feast that never ends. But refuse the suit, and you
will find yourself grinding your molars and weeping in the darkness. Such a
pity. Such a waste. Refusing a gift from God is utter foolishness. UNbelief. And
it is Your fault, NOT God’s! [UNIVERSAL JUSTIFICATION]
“God would have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” And,
“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself and doesn’t count men’s
sins against them.”
ALL INVITED: A to Z Notice at the end of this Parable, there is no
one who didn’t have a place at the wedding party – not the first invited A-list, nor
the loser B-list, nor even the man without the wedding suit. All were called to
the feast. All had a place. Jesus died for ALL; He embraced ALL in His
death. He is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. His Blood
was shed to save the many/all: the good, the bad, the ugly, the religious and
the unreligious, every child of Adam. Those who are in are in by grace,
undeserved kindness. Those out are out by their own refusal to be in.
YOU’RE IN!..VITED You have been called, invited to feast on God’s
mountain. Your Baptism is a personal invitation signed by the Father, written in
the Blood of His Son, sealed by the Spirit, addressed to you by name. You
have a place at the King’s Table. The Body of the Lamb has been broken in
death to save you. His Blood has been poured out to save you, His life for your
life. Your life is atoned for; your sins washed away. The Divine Service is a little
sneak preview of The Supper of the Lamb in His Kingdom which has no end.
“Blessed are those who are invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.”
PROPERLY DRESSED You are worthy to be at His Table, to receive
all that Jesus died to win for you, not because of what you have done for Him,
but because of what He has done for you. He has gone the way of weeping and
gnashing of teeth, the way of death and God-forsaken darkness and hell, the
way of the Cross. He has taken your sin into Himself, He has borne your
shame in nakedness on the Cross in order to clothe you with His wedding tux
or gown/suit. “Behold, a host arrayed in white,” – you among them, all wearing
our white Baptismal robes of righteousness.
ALREADY THERE You may not realize it, but you are already at
the party, now in Christ. He has incorporated you into His death, embraced
you with the Word of forgiveness, and fed you with “Bodied bread and Bloodied
wine.” Hidden yet here for you. Soon enough you will see and feel and know
fully what you now must trust and believe, on that Day Jesus raises you up
from the depths of your grave to the heights of His Mountain, and sets you at
His Banquet Table, and you raise the Cup of Salvation to toast His goodness: “Surely this is our God; we trusted in Him, and He saved us. This is the LORD, We trusted in Him; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” IJ’N, Amen.