The Rev. Paul J Cain, Jr.
St. Matthew 22:1-14
The Wedding Feast Is Ready
Proper 23 A, 09 October 2011
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, Wyoming
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Consumer Reports publishes a little booklet entitled “How to
Clean Practically Everything.” It tells you what solvent to use for a
particular stain. Glycerin will remove the stain from a ballpoint pen. Boiling
water will remove berry stains. Vinegar will remove crayon. Ammonia will remove
bloodstains. Alcohol will remove grass stains. Hydrogen peroxide is good for
permanent marker stains. Use bleach on mildew. Lemon juice works well on rust.
But the book lists nothing for sin stains. Nothing can wash away the stain of
sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Try as they might,
those outside of Christianity scrub away at sin in vain. Prayers to an
unhearing idol do nothing. Prayers to anybody other than the Lord are useless.
Prayers apart from the name of Jesus are to no avail. Shedding your own blood
or giving away billions is all meaningless apart from Christ. In order to be at
the Wedding Feast of Jesus the Bridegroom and the Bride, His Church, one needs
the wedding garment of Christ, His righteousness, as Revelation 7 says, “These
are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” That robe is not bought, or
earned, or deserved. It’s given to you by Christ, by grace, through faith.
There has been a lot of talk about the end of the world in
our Scripture lessons this month. There is much more of that to come,
especially as we approach all Saints’ Day and the Sundays at the end of the
Church Year in November. The Lord’s Supper is sometimes called “a foretaste of
the feast to come.” Matthew 22 gives a picture of this feast to come as Jesus
tells His parable:
And 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.
The trick to understanding a parable is to see the point of
contact—and then not push the details too far. What can be understood so far?
The King is God the Father. Jesus is His Son. His servants here are not unlike
the servants He sent to the vineyard last week, the prophets, apostles, and
pastors.
“But they would
not come.” Who’s “they?” For those listening to Jesus the first time, it was
the faithless descendants of Israel who refused to listen to the Word of God,
to attend Synagogue, to make the appointed sacrifices, and have the right heart
within.
Today? Here is where it hurts. Today it is our brothers and
sisters in Christ who are not with us. There are many of our congregation’s 300
family units missing this morning out of the 800+ baptized members of Immanuel.
God has gathered you here today around His Word. And the rest? The text says,
“but they would not come.” I warned you that it hurts!
Again he [the King] 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.
It is an encouragement to pastors when bulletins from
far-flung sister congregations of the LCMS show up on their desks or under
their study doors. That means when you traveled, you remembered that the Lord
didn’t take a vacation from saving you. You prioritized the time to spend with
God’s people and His Word. Keep that up! And feel free to ask for suggestions
of where to worship when you travel. I’ll help you by contacting the
congregation’s pastor ahead of time.
On the other hand, let’s be honest. Seasons of the year may become
an idol to many of us. Summer or Fall come around and attendance may drop for church,
Bible Classes, and Sunday School. Why is that? “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.” It’s not as if they hadn’t
been told. They were told about the banquet TWICE!
Pastors hear a lot of lame excuses for not being in church.
Consider this one: “Sorry, we couldn’t make it. I had to chop wood.” That’s an
actual excuse. Why is that funny, you may ask? In one of the original editions
of Luther’s Small Catechism, there
was a picture, a woodcut, above the Third Commandment. Remember the Sabbath
day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God
so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly
hear and learn it. The picture above the commandment is of people whom the
Lord has gathered around Word and Sacrament, listening to the preacher. What’s
going on outside? Looking out the church window, you can see a man chopping
wood.
Now can you better identify with the King and His
frustration, His righteous anger?
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.
The text teaches us that there will be a judgment. The
kingdom will be judged on the Last Day. That’s the bad news. We have the
warning of the counter-example of many Jewish people in the time of Jesus.
Some Jewish people
did come into the wedding banquet and gladly wore Jesus’ wedding garment. All
of the first Christians were Jewish. All the disciples were Jewish. All of the
authors of the New Testament with the possible exception of Dr. Luke were
Jewish. Church historians tell us that one million Jews were Christian by the
end of the first century. Not every Jewish person rejected the wedding feast.
Even so, as a nation, Israel rejected Jesus. 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 elders, chief priests, scribes, and teachers of the law
along with temple employees and some average people put Jesus to death. And
this was under the eye of the Gentile Roman Government. And our sins put Him
there, too! Anti-Semitism is therefore just as inappropriate as blaming today’s
Italians for the actions of Pontius Pilate.
We Christians, that is, Jewish believers in Jesus and
Gentile believers together, are the new Israel, the Holy Christian Church, new
guests in the wedding hall. And there still is room!
That is the central good news of the Gospel lesson today.
Others rejected Jesus and they were rejected. That made room for you. You were
invited by the Word, by Holy Baptism. By faith you are in the wedding hall,
wearing white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb. It can’t get any better
than this! You are forgiven! You are free of your sins. You are free of
concerns about this life. This world and everything in it will pass away. What
happens here is for eternity!
The Lord has your homes and businesses, and your
relationships and problems in His hands. Of them you need not worry. “See, I have
prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and
everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” Enjoy the banquet of the
Lord’s forgiveness.
But there are others among us. This is another difficult
part of the text.
"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."
Unthinkable. Someone
is at the wedding feast without a wedding garment. In the ancient world, if you
came to a wedding without suitable clothing for the occasion, you were provided
with them. In this case, someone rejected that gift. Unthinkable! Someone
inside has taken off the robe of Christ’s righteousness. “I don’t need it,” he
or she may have said. “That Jesus stuff is only for kids. I’m a good enough
person. I’m no Hitler or Bin Laden. And I show up quite regular, too.” Don’t
let the King hear such words from your lips or your heart. 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.
You may have
considered yourself a Christian all your life, even showing up every Easter and
Christmas. Has it sunk in that you don’t get to heaven by being good? Or do you
play the hypocrite today and tomorrow do whatever feels good to you? Has it
sunk in? It hadn’t for the man I’ll tell you about next.
A British periodical once published this provocative letter:
Dear Sir: It seems ministers feel their sermons are very important and spend a
great deal of time preparing them. I have been attending church quite regularly
for thirty years, and I have probably heard 3,000 of them. To my consternation,
I discovered I cannot remember a single sermon. I wonder if a minister’s time
might be more profitably spent on something else?
For weeks a storm of editorial responses ensued…finally
ended by this [responding] letter: Dear Sir: I have been married for thirty
years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals—mostly my wife’s cooking.
Suddenly I have discovered I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. And
yet…I have the distinct impression that without them, I would have starved to
death years ago.
There is a lot of profitable work to be done—both for a
pastor and for the congregation. Part of a pastor’s time is spent in the Word,
preparing sermons, the Divine Service, Bible Studies and the like.
Part of his time is spent out in the community, visiting
shut-ins, doing emergency pastoral care, visiting you in your homes. Sometimes
his time is occupied caring for the grieving, the hurting, those in crisis.
Putting out fires takes a lot of time, as does visiting the households of the
congregation. One quickly sees how far off the joke is that pastors only work
one hour a week. J
Should it take a crisis to come up for you to invite pastor
into your home? Sometimes a pastor may feel uncomfortable just inviting himself
over. Please pray for pastors, especially Pastor Rupert, encourage them, and
most importantly, don’t be afraid to give your pastor a call when you need him,
even just to talk. That’s what I have been called to do here. And the best care
I can give is when I preach and teach the Word—all of it—not just the things you
like—and administering the sacraments according to Jesus’ instructions.
We see several things clearly in the Gospel lesson the
lectionary chose for this Sunday. The parable is about the kingdom and God is
the King, Jesus, His Son. Some on the original guest list, some of God’s
ancient people, didn’t want to come, didn’t want to RSVP. Don’t be like them.
You saw what was dished out to them. That wouldn’t be pleasant. Outer darkness
is hell. Literally.
Focus instead upon the Gospel, the Good News that you have
been invited to the ultimate wedding reception, the feast of Christ and you,
His Bride. Wedding feasts are the best kind of parties. And God’s will be the
best ever. Not only that, He’s picking up the tab. He’s given you the wedding
garment of forgiveness, the spotless white wool of the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world—including all of yours.
Others rejected Jesus and they were rejected. That made room
for you. You were invited by the Word, by Holy Baptism. By faith, you are in
the wedding hall, wearing white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb, robes
given to you. It can’t get any better than this! You are forgiven! You are free
of your sins. You are free of concerns about this life. The Lord has your homes
and businesses, your relationships and problems in His hands. Of them you need
not worry. “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been
slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” Enjoy the
banquet of the Lord’s forgiveness.
There is still time for more, for the Judgment hasn’t
happened just yet. There is room for more. Invite them. Invite your unbelieving
spouse, children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, family, neighbors,
classmates, and coworkers. You don’t have to knock on doors. Invite the people
you already know and love. They know you. They respect you. They might even
actually hear what you have to say. [The King] 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. Wouldn’t that be a nice problem to have? Amen.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
