Trinity 20 Service
St. Matthew 22:1-14
Again Jesus spoke to them in parables, 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, but they would not come. Again 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.”’ But 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. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘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. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘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.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Jesus is warning in the parable, not to reject the salvation that God has graciously offered in His Son.
It’s throughout Matthew’s previous chapter as well. People have recognized Jesus as the Messiah (the Savior) as He rode into Jerusalem. That enthusiasm has carried over in the mouths of children crying in the Temple those same words, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”—but the chief priests and scribes (the church leader guys) are indignant. Their complaint to Jesus: “Do you hear what these are saying?
Then, there is the account of the fruitless fig tree that Jesus curses. The chief priests and scribes (and all who think like them) are this fig tree, He’s saying.
Those same ones come up next in Matthew’s Gospel, and question Jesus’ authority as He teaches in the Temple.
He tells the Parable of the Two Sons, in which He concludes by saying to the chief priests and scribes, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you (21:31). They’re the ones who, hearing the Gospel, changed their minds and believed. They received for themselves God’s mercy in the Christ instead of rejecting Him.
Finally, just before our text, Jesus speaks so pointedly and clearly about the chief priests and Pharisees, that they’re racking their brains to try to find a way to arrest Him that won’t rile up the crowds too badly. His parable has been about tenants who refuse to give the Master what is due him, and who mistreat and kill the servants—and even His own Son, who come to collect.
Look how we’re seeing the same sort of thing in our Old Testament lesson today. God is urgently calling sinners to repentance (the thing that needs to happen if they’re to be with Him in His kingdom). I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me [He says in Isaiah 65:1-2]; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that was not called by my name. I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices.
And then, we have Jesus’ parable for this morning, in which He compares God’s kingdom to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. Like a man ready to be sought by those who did not ask for [him], ready to found by those who did not seek [him], this certain king sends out his invitation to individuals. He spreads out his hands—it’s like we might say, “He’s really putting himself out there.” He isn’t holding anything back; he’s wanting these people to join him. He wants them to take part in what he has that no one else has. It’s the best possible thing for them.
The kingdom of heaven may be compared to…(those first words of our text). Jesus says them to people who are interested in being in that kingdom. He says them so that they might know how to get there. You are among them too, aren’t you? We’ve been talking about a simple message thus far; God has sent His Son as the one who gets you to the kingdom. Don’t reject Him. And you might say, Why would anyone want to do that? You are here this morning to hear of this kingdom, after all. You relate to Jesus’ disciple who said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life (John 6:68).”
But what about that man at the end of the text, the one who’s there with all the others at the banquet (like you are with everyone here), but suddenly has a spotlight on him. He’s singled out, and questioned there, in front of everyone. The way the question is asked presumes he doesn’t belong with all the others there, even though he seems to think he does. He isn’t one of them. Jesus wants His hearers to think to themselves, that person couldn’t be me, could it? How do I avoid being that one who is singled out like that when it comes to God’s kingdom—told I don’t belong?
The others in the parable, the ones the king says were not worthy, have clearly chosen to put themselves outside of the king’s event. They know it’s important. They know they’re invited. They have chosen other things (some even violently mistreating and killing the servants sent to invite them). Considering those portions of Matthew’s Gospel leading up to ours this morning, it isn’t hard to see the similarity between those rejectors of the invitation in the parable, and the Chief Priests and scribes invited to be baptized into the Name of the Son of Man, but opting rather to mistreat and kill Him. They have no interest in humbling themselves before God, putting themselves at His mercy, receiving the rescue that He’s offering them in their sins. It’s easy enough to see why they’re not included in the banquet; they’ve removed themselves, right?
But then there’s this other guy in the parable, sitting amongst the ones who have (even if late in the game) accepted the king’s invitation—those gathered in from the main roads. This other guy: What’s his deal? What makes him so different from them, that he is interrogated, bound, and cast into the outer darkness?
When the king comes in to look at the guests in the parable, he immediately sees this one because he has refused the special garment prepared for him, that suits him to be in that place. He has refused, in actuality, then, the invitation itself, hasn’t he? He isn’t really any different from those others at the beginning of the text, not being willing to be there on the terms of the one who has invited him.
When we think about the Chief Priests and scribes, mentioned earlier, it’s the case when it comes to God’s kingdom, that they have conducted themselves in this way. They have wanted to choose for themselves other terms for getting into God’s kingdom than He has offered. He has offered His Son; they have rejected Him in favor of their own righteousness. In a way, we might say (in the language of the parable), they have chosen to wear their own garment to the king’s banquet whether He likes it or not. We see from the parable how this turns out. A person who tries this finds himself out of God’s kingdom.
That garment is awfully important. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27)—Paul’s words to the Galatians. He’s saying, we wear Christ. When we appear in God’s kingdom like those in the parable are appearing in the king’s banquet, the garment provided for us (making us able to be there) is Christ. It’s His righteousness to cover our guilt.
The guilt it covers includes our tendency to be rejectors of God’s invitation to his kingdom. I know, we said, why would anyone want to do that? But if you think about it, you can see yourself in the ones in the earlier part of the parable, and the later. Doesn’t this world grab ahold of you, like it does them? We receive (or accept) God’s invitation by allowing Him speak to us in His Word, allowing Him impact our lives so meaningfully, so significantly that nothing else is more important to us. Haven’t you at times given that sort of meaning, that sort of significance to things other than God and His Word? And haven’t you even been resentful of the all-encompassing commitment that God is asking from you—like those who lash out at the servants sent with the invitation?
And, hasn’t it occurred to you—like to that other guy in the parable, that the garment of your own righteousness might just be significant enough, substantial enough for you to appear before God in His kingdom, that maybe you aren’t as lost and as hopeless as God’s Word makes you out to be? The world is always preaching that message at you, encouraging you to be your own Savior apart from Christ. Isn’t just the passing sort of interest you’ve sometimes had in hearing God’s Word an indication that that message of you being your own savior has made an impact (otherwise, wouldn’t you have been more devoted to God’s Word; wouldn’t it have been way more important to you than anything else—if it’s really what preserves your faith unto salvation)?
If you’re thinking, Oh no! I’ve been those guys in the earlier part of the text, choosing this world over God’s invitation. And that other guy at the end could be me, sitting in the assembly of God’s people without a humble heart before God, without the garment He has provided for me, that I might truly belong there; if you’re thinking that, then lift up your heart, God’s mercy is still available for you. You are covered in the garment of Christ’s righteousness. He humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross to be your perfect humility before God. No one who wears this garment of Christ’s righteousness (given you in Baptism, given you in God’s Word) will be singled out as not belonging in God’s kingdom. To wear this garment is to recognize God’s grace that covers every sin. It is to truly answer His invitation, to avail oneself of what He has provided so that sinners might enter His kingdom washed clean of all guilt—forgiven entirely. You wear the garment of salvation through this faith in Christ.
Everything is prepared. Everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast! Amen.
Other Lessons this week:
OT lesson demonstrates God’s urgency in calling sinners to salvation (and their rejection of the calling). EP lesson urges those who have been invited, to be careful with the invitation.
The man at the end of the text was just like the ones in the beginning, even though he was present in the wedding hall. He too, was rejecting the invitation by trying to attend on his own terms. He wasn’t really there with the rest of the guests who had truly accepted the invitation.
Isaiah 65:1–2
I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that was not called by my name. I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices.
Ephesians 5:15–21
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.