| October 17, 1999 | The Heavenly Invitation | Matthew 22:1-14
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Especially: "Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' 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."
Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation is a very rich man, the richest in the US. What would it be like if he sent you a letter asking you to come to his mansion because he wanted to give you a billion or two. What would you do with that letter of invitation? Wouldn't that be a shame to loose it! Let us turn now to consider our Lord's invitation to receive a gift which is of such great value it cannot be compared to the imaginary gift from Mr. Gates.
Jesus had been in conflict with the religious leaders since He arrived in Jerusalem on the Palm Sunday procession. From Matthew chapter 21 on through our text and beyond, Jesus is in conflict. First the chief priests and scribes were indignant with Him for the wonderful things He was doing. Next the chief priests and elders challenged Jesus' authority. Then Jesus responded with the Parable of the Two Sons, the one who repented and the other who rejected his father. This was our Gospel lesson two weeks ago. Last week we had the Gospel lesson on the Parable of the Wicked Vineyard workers, who rejected the owner of the vineyard. While Jesus said all this, the Pharisees and chief priests correctly took it as a criticism of them. Chapter 21 of Matthew ends with the statement that they wanted to "lay hands" on Jesus, meaning they wanted to arrest Him, but they were afraid of how the people might react.
There is no doubt that Jesus had caused great offense. Did He know what He was doing? Of course He did, because He is God and knows all things. Yet, He continued to press the attack, and does so in our text in Chapter 22. The message of the text does proceed to cause offense. The verse following reports how the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Jesus in His talk.
So we have Jesus causing conflict. Many today would hold the opinion that if we are to behave in a Christ-like manner, we ought never cause conflict and we ought never offend people. The example we have before us is very different. Christ didn't stop at the first sign of trouble, but He continued and it culminates in Chapter 23, which consists almost entirely of words directly against the scribes and pharisees.
Why would Jesus do this? Was it simply His goal to cause irritation and anger? No, of course not. Rather, He hoped that these religious leaders would be turned around to see the truth. His goal was their salvation, as He came to seek and save the lost. He was not setting out to cause offense, but offense was necessary to lead these people to the truth.
Jesus causes conflict in our text regarding the teaching of how one gets to heaven. The chief priests and Pharisees had a certain mistaken notion about how they would be saved from death and eternal punishment. First, they believed their position as the people of Israel, God's chosen ones, would bring them special priviledges. Secondly, they believed that because they lived a life where they followed certain rules of outward behavior, then they would be rewarded. These were false ideas of how one gets to heaven. Therefore, Jesus must cause them offense as He leads them to the truth. He does it through the Parable of the Wedding Feast which compares the kingdom of heaven to the given situation.
A king is having a wedding feast, a large celebration for his son. People had been invited, but they refused to come. Since it was the king who had invited them, you would expect they would give that invitation great honor, but they did not. When they were reminded of their invitation, some rejected that invitation in favor of the pursuit of earthly things. The rest were much more reactive, however, for they mistreated and actually killed the servants sent to urge them to accept the invitation. Now the king is furious at the downright rejection and hostility of these people who were the first on the invitation list. In response, he sent his army and killed these people and destroyed their city.
Now the king does the surprising thing: he sends out invitations to all the common people, the street people, both evil and good. The king's servants were sent to invite whomever they might find. You would imagine that those first invited by the king were the high social class. Now he invites the lower classes. Finally all those invited are seated around the table and the king comes to greet them. However, one man is not dressed appropriately and the king rebukes him and has him thrown out of the feast.
To understand Jesus' parables, we need to have a key. We need to learn how the elements of the parable, the characters and events relate to the truths about which Jesus was teaching. For this Parable of the Wedding Feast, the king represents our Heavenly Father. The son of the king represents Jesus the Son of the Father. The king is holding a wedding feast for his son. Jesus Christ is also described by the Scriptures as one getting married, and His bride is the Church which is all who believe in Him. Indeed the Scriptures speak of a heavenly feast to come which the feast in our parable represents.
At the feast in the parable oxen and fattened cattle were all prepared. These were delicacies. In everyday life, the typical Israelite would eat meat only on festival days. These delicacies in the parable represent the delicacies we will enjoy at the heavenly feast which are the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
It is also a necessary to recognize that those originally invited to the feast represent the people of Israel. They had the Word of God and the prophets and the demonstration of God's power. All this was their invitation to be God's children, but they were now rejecting that invitation because they were rejecting Christ. The king of the parable destroys their city. This represents the destruction of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC because the people had rejected God. Now, following Christ's earthly ministry, Jerusalem would be destroyed again in 64 AD by the Romans. Thus Jesus wept over the city: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate." Those words are recorded in Matthew 23.
Who do the others who are invited to the feast in the parable represent? They stand for the people outside of the Jews, whom God invites to His kingdom of heaven and the heavenly feast. The Scriptures are full of references, even in the Old Testament, which indicate that God is God of all people and that He wants to save all people. Yet, somehow the chief priests and Pharisees got the idea that only the people of Israel would be saved. They held on to that idea with great pride, for they felt they were among the chosen few and could claim special priviledge above the other people of the world. In the parable the other people, evil and good are invited and this represents the teaching that God invites both and Jews and Gentiles to believe in Him and trust in Jesus' works.
How about that man who was not dressed in wedding clothes? He represents one who tries to reach the kingdom of heaven, but is not covered appropriately. The wedding clothes represent the forgiveness we have by grace. Without that forgiveness coming through faith, we are left inappropriately attired, even naked before God. As Adam and Eve were found to be naked when they sinned and were ashamed, we too would be ashamed to appear before God without our sins covered.
Some may take this parable to apply literally to the clothes we wear when we come to church. We don't have any command from God to dress a certain way when assembling together to hear the Word or receive His Supper. Thus it not appropriate to make a command out of this. However, there is a point to be made in that what we wear can reflect our attitude. So, are we willing to wear our finest clothes for other activities, but have a problem wearing them to church? What does that reflect of our attitude toward Divine Services? Do we really consider that Our Lord is with us here and that we are here only by His gracious invitation? Is not the Lord and His gifts to us worth our finest? We are to keep in mind how special it is to gather to hear our Lord speak to us, to receive His gifts and to return our prayer and praise to Him. It is more special than a High School student going to a prom. It is more special than going to work. It is more special than eating at an expensive restaurant, meeting with a politician, a celebrity, or a billionare who wants to give you all his money.
Perhaps we all find ourselves at times neglecting the invitation we have received from our Lord. What a precious invitation it is, yet do we always treat it that way?
Martin Luther wrote about the wonderful value of Baptism in his Large Catechism and the illustration is useful here. He said: "Suppose there were a physician who had such skill that people would not die, or even through they died would afterward live forever. Just think how the world would snow and rain money upon him! Because of the pressing crowd of rich men no one else could get near him. Now, here in Baptism there is brought free to every man's door just such a priceless medicine which swallows up death and saves the lives of all men."
Suppose you knew such a doctor who had the skill to cure all diseases and take away all pain and suffering. He sends you a letter inviting you to receive his services for free. What would you do with such an invitation? I doubt you would neglect it. I doubt you would lose it or even have a day go by when you wouldn't take it in your hands and treasure it and appreciate its value.
How do we do with God's invitation? He invites us through His Word and through the actions of the Holy Spirit. He invites us through Divine Services and Bible Study. What do you do with that invitation? Do you always come eagerly, as you would go to the doctor who could heal all diseases?
The temptation we find in reading of Jesus' criticism of the chief priests and Pharisees is to think that we have nothing in common for them. We read the Law in the text and think it does not deal with us. Our Lord instead invites us to consider how we fall short, just as the chief priests and Pharisees did. We need to see ourselves in just as bad shape as they were.
Some preachers will give a law-only sermon from this text. They will do it by concentrating on the man who was not clothed properly at the feast. They would say: "You better be sure you get the right clothes on when you appear in heaven," and "If you have sin in your life, you won't be welcome at the feast." It is good for us to consider if we are appropriately clothed for the feast, but we don't remain on that topic. If we did, it would be to believe that our works, the way we clothe ourselves has to do with our salvation. We would conclude that unless our lives were lived properly, we would not be unacceptable to God. This would be to remain under the curse of the law.
Rather, what you should hear is how your works are not good enough to clothe you. You can't do enough to cover your sins. All our works are like filthy rags. Would you wear filthy rags to the King's banquet? So, how are you going to get into and stay at the feast? We cannot do it by our own merits. We can't do it by our own good works.
This is why our Lord extends the invitation to the heavenly feast by grace. It is not based upon our works. The Lord is quite a host, inviting the evil and the good. All people are invited to partake in the feast. Even though our lives are corrupted by sin our Lord still calls us to the banquet. Even though we can do nothing to earn or merit a seat at that heavenly table, He still calls us to sit and feast with Him.
We get a glimpse of how our Lord conducts His feasts. Luke 14:12-14 gives us the Lord's command for how we are to treat others, but we see there how our Lord treats us. Jesus says, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." Our Lord invites us to His eternal banquet and we cannot repay Him for this precious gift. We don't earn a place there either, for we are crippled, lame, and blind with sin. The Lord gives us the feast as a free gift. This is how the Lord does His feasts.
Our invitation to this feast comes through the costly price of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. His death there paid the price for all our sins. He shed His blood to cleanse us of our sins. Now, Christ's blood covers over our sins. Christ's blood is our "wedding clothes" which will dress us appropriately for the feast. Christ covers us.
This invitation comes to all people. Anyone the Lord finds is invited, both good and bad. The guests are invited through the grace shown by Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.