Isaiah 55:1-9/Ephesians 5:15-21/St Matthew 22:1-14
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
And again Jesus spoke to them in parables. Jesus often spoke in parables - stories with a spiritual meaning. Therefore to understand this parable we need to know two things: we need to know the audience to whom Jesus is speaking and we need to unpack the elements of the parable in order to understand its meaning. The first is simple: Jesus spoke this parable to the mixed group of the crowds and the Pharisees. That is, those who loved Jesus and hung on His words and those who hated and despised Him and even now, during Holy Week, sought to destroy Him. And because St Matthew recorded this parable for us by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jesus speaks this parable to us today with the same purpose: to warn us concerning the consequences of rejecting Him.
And saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a certain king who gave a wedding feast for his son.” Many of Jesus’ parables begin, “The kingdom of heaven is like . . .” A farmer planting seed. A landowner hiring workers. A woman searching for a coin. A forgiven servant who refuses to forgive. This parable is no different. The kingdom of heaven is not like a wedding feast - though your bulletin cover depicts this today. Rather, it reads, The kingdom of heaven is like a man, a king, who gave a wedding feast for his son.
And this makes all the difference. Recall the preaching of St John the Baptist: Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And He is pointing to Jesus Christ! The kingdom of heaven is a Man! Jesus is the kingdom, come down to earth, as you heard last week. And so the kingdom of heaven is like a Man, a King, who gave a wedding feast.
That its a wedding feast is important, though. For Scripture begins and ends with marriages: in the beginning, the marriage of our first parents and in Revelation the marriage of Christ and the Church. Even the Epistle text today alludes to it: submitting to one another of our reverence for Christ. It goes on to say, Wives, to your husbands as to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and died for her. A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall be one flesh. This is a profound mystery, I am saying it refers to Christ and the Church. You see, the lectionary assumes you know the context and the rest of the text. Just like with the Introit.
In this parable the King is God the Father and His Son is Jesus Christ our Lord, who wed Himself to His Bride the Church and has prepared as wedding feast for her that she may celebrate with Him together with His Father in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
And [the king] sent his servants to call those who invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. The invitation has been going out since the beginning of the world; since God first said to the serpent in the presence of our first parents that the Seed of the Woman would crush his head. The servants who are sent out with the invitation are the prophets, the preachers of God’s Word who have been in every generation. But they were not willing. Beloved in Christ, our wills are by nature set against what is good, what is just, what can save us. Where many false servants preach a false invitation saying, “Make a decision. Act with your will.” When it is our will itself that needs to be acted upon! That apart from Him you are dead in your trespasses and sins.
This is hard to receive, especially, perhaps, in American Christianity where we have a pretty good life. How many people do you meet, even Christians, who tell you that they’re “good people”? As a pastor I probably have more people tell me how good they are than come and confess their sins. We don’t live in first-century Judea or sixteenth century Germany, but people still very much try to justify themselves, try to presume that their “good deeds” and “good intentions” will result in good spiritual outcomes for them. So then the invitation comes to the Lord’s wedding feast; that is, when the Lord offers a way of repentance, a means of forgiveness, many are not willing to come because they do not want forgiveness, they want affirmation.
Again he sent other servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and 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. Behold the mercy of the Lord! Even when they reject, still He sends more servants. First the prophets. Now, following the death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son, the apostles are sent out, bearing the invitation, the cry of the Gospel to repent and believe.
But He came unto His own and His own received Him not. They called the Master of the house Beelzebub and they maligned those of the household. All too soon the very Pharisees who hear this parable will seize Jesus, treat Him will shame and contempt, and kill Him. This is the way of unbelief. Some are just indifferent. They treat the Gospel as bothersome. And they don’t want to be bothered. Others, though, are such haters of Christ, His Gospel, His Church, that they put His messengers to death. They strike out with terror against the sweet invitation of the King.
But what about you? How many times, how often have you heard the Word of the Lord calling you to repentance, to turn from your sins, but you make light of it, you make farm and business, house and home, wife and children, money and cars, Colts and Packers, sex and booze, pride and good reputation the objects of your desire? The Pharisees literally seize Jesus, the Servant of the King, and treat Him spitefully and kill Him. But we also treat Him spitefully when we would rather watch Netflix than pray Compline or such things. Again and again the call comes to repent and bear fruits in keeping with repentance - as you hear today from St Paul. But what shall happen if we persist in impenitence?
They king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. This refers to the destruction of Jerusalem and the desecration of the Temple by the Romans in AD 70. The Holy City was razed to the ground. Not a stone was left upon another. This is also a warning for the Final Judgment, when on the Last Day the Lord will send out His angel armies and burn up this city of man, this entire world, this paradise we have turned into a sewer, this garden we have turned into a graveyard. And before we cry “Unfair!” sing again the words of the antiphon for the day: The Lord is righteous in all He has done to us, for we have not obeyed His commandments.
Then [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 as many as you find.” And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. The original meaning of this is the mission to the Gentiles. When the people of Israel rejected Jesus, even after His resurrection, the Apostles were sent out to the highways to preach to every city, to make disciples of all nations, inviting them to the wedding, to call them to the King’s forgiveness found only in Jesus the Crucified and Risen One. This is the second verse of the antiphon: Glorify Your name, O Lord, and deal with us according to Your great mercy.
And this has been going on for nearly 2,000 years and there’s still room! Come, says the prophet Isaiah, everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Listen diligently to Me and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear and come to Me; hear, that you soul may live. Come. Listen, Believe and live. For faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. The invitation, the promise of the Gospel of the full and free forgiveness of all your sins is for you.
But you may say, “That is not really for me. I am too bad a sinner. I have gone on in persistent and besetting sin for too long.” You say, “But I have done shameful things. I have lived as if God did not matter and as if I mattered most. I have been cruel to my spouse and cannot repair it. I am addicted to porn, drink too much. I have gossiped and told lies. I have done every day what I should not have and failed to do what I should have done.”
But did the king’s servants go out looking for good people, respectable people, nice people to bring into the wedding hall? No! They went out and brought in all whom they found, both bad and good. In truth, some seem to be good, some a good in a civil way; paying their taxes and not causing trouble. But spiritually there is no one good, not even one. It could be rephrased: “They brought in all whom they found, both the obviously bad and the ones who had fooled others and themselves into thinking they were good.”
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have been. You don’t need to forge an invitation or crash the White House to get into this party. The invitation is for you, for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
So, now you are in the wedding hall, the Church, if you will. All those assembled for the wedding feast of the Son, our Lord Jesus. And all come into the wedding hall by grace, all by God’s gift, whether known to be bad or had become good and faking it.
But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. Now the wedding garment would be given out at the door, like going to a fancy restaurant that requires a jacket and they have blazers at the door if you’re not dressed appropriately. The point is this: the man doesn’t have a wedding garment not because he’s poor or forgot to wear it. He rejected it! He wants to come before the king on his own terms, to stand in the assembly on his own merits.
From the beginning of the world the man and the woman where naked and without shame. When they fell into sin they knew they were naked and sought to cover themselves. Their own covering was no good, their own merits and virtues were corrupt and spoiled. So the first thing the Lord does when He calls them to repentance is makes for them a covering, a garment of animal skin. This required a sacrifice; the shedding of blood. When the Old Testament priests ministered in the Temple whey were required to wear special vestments. There is a kind of connection to the traditional clothing of a pastor in this.
But far more significant are the words from St Paul: As many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ (Gal 3:27). Christ is the garment. Christ is your righteousness. He has covered you in your baptism. The wedding is Christ’s, but at the same time He is also your garment and daily attire.
So who is the man without the wedding garment? He is the man who turns away from his baptism. The man who rejects the righteousness of Christ and instead presents himself with his own righteousness, saying, “I am a good person. I have good intentions. I have tried to reform my life.” Notice he is there - he is at the wedding hall, he is physically in the church, he may even confess his sins and confess Christ, but in truth he rejects the will of the Lord preferring the wisdom of this world to the true wisdom of Christ and His Word. He does not look carefully how he walks.
Do not fall prey to such thinking! You will never be good enough for the Law demands perfection. No man can do that, only the God-Man, Jesus Christ, whose perfect life is the only righteousness that can cover us. Whose sacrificial death is the only wedding garment that allows us to stand in the wedding hall. So the king addresses this man without the wedding garment:
“Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. It is fascinating that the king calls him “Friend.” Perhaps the king is acting friendly toward him, offering him an opportunity to repent. Or it is a sad irony because he knows the man is really no friend. Maybe its an allusion to Judas, whom Jesus, the Bridegroom, calls “Friend.” It could be. But remember, we all have a little Judas inside of us. The traitorous, rebellious, money-loving, despairing, suicidal Judas in us.
And the only thing to do is run to the wedding garment, to return to the gifts Christ freely gives from the Font, in the Absolution, preached in His Word, bestowed in the Feast. The only recourse is to confess and say, “I am a poor, miserable sinner, far worse than anyone could even imagine, but I am baptized. I am clothed with an alien righteousness, adorned with the righteousness of Christ, I righteousness I could never earn or obtain. You stand in the Lord’s wedding hall by His grace.”
And if our Lord addresses us as “friend,” then we must say, “Dear Lord, I have not lived as Your friend, but I have been worse than an enemy. I have been indifferent to You and do not deserve anything from You. But still You promise me Your forgiveness, You promise to be my Father, my Brother, my King, my Shepherd, and Bridegroom. I have only this to please before You: the blood of Jesus which cleanses me from all sin.”
Now, like the story of Judas, this parable ends in tragedy:
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. This is a warning to us of what will happen to those who insist on standing on their own righteousness; of those who despise the wedding garment bestowed by Christ, who reject His invitation, refuse to live by faith in His promise and obedient to His Word.
This is the meaning and promise of the parable. Come, then, dear, true friends of Christ Jesus, for there is still room at the wedding table of His Body and Blood, even for the likes of us. Glorify your name, O Lord, and deal with us according to Your great mercy. In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
And again Jesus spoke to them in parables. Jesus often spoke in parables - stories with a spiritual meaning. Therefore to understand this parable we need to know two things: we need to know the audience to whom Jesus is speaking and we need to unpack the elements of the parable in order to understand its meaning. The first is simple: Jesus spoke this parable to the mixed group of the crowds and the Pharisees. That is, those who loved Jesus and hung on His words and those who hated and despised Him and even now, during Holy Week, sought to destroy Him. And because St Matthew recorded this parable for us by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jesus speaks this parable to us today with the same purpose: to warn us concerning the consequences of rejecting Him.
And saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a certain king who gave a wedding feast for his son.” Many of Jesus’ parables begin, “The kingdom of heaven is like . . .” A farmer planting seed. A landowner hiring workers. A woman searching for a coin. A forgiven servant who refuses to forgive. This parable is no different. The kingdom of heaven is not like a wedding feast - though your bulletin cover depicts this today. Rather, it reads, The kingdom of heaven is like a man, a king, who gave a wedding feast for his son.
And this makes all the difference. Recall the preaching of St John the Baptist: Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And He is pointing to Jesus Christ! The kingdom of heaven is a Man! Jesus is the kingdom, come down to earth, as you heard last week. And so the kingdom of heaven is like a Man, a King, who gave a wedding feast.
That its a wedding feast is important, though. For Scripture begins and ends with marriages: in the beginning, the marriage of our first parents and in Revelation the marriage of Christ and the Church. Even the Epistle text today alludes to it: submitting to one another of our reverence for Christ. It goes on to say, Wives, to your husbands as to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and died for her. A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall be one flesh. This is a profound mystery, I am saying it refers to Christ and the Church. You see, the lectionary assumes you know the context and the rest of the text. Just like with the Introit.
In this parable the King is God the Father and His Son is Jesus Christ our Lord, who wed Himself to His Bride the Church and has prepared as wedding feast for her that she may celebrate with Him together with His Father in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
And [the king] sent his servants to call those who invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. The invitation has been going out since the beginning of the world; since God first said to the serpent in the presence of our first parents that the Seed of the Woman would crush his head. The servants who are sent out with the invitation are the prophets, the preachers of God’s Word who have been in every generation. But they were not willing. Beloved in Christ, our wills are by nature set against what is good, what is just, what can save us. Where many false servants preach a false invitation saying, “Make a decision. Act with your will.” When it is our will itself that needs to be acted upon! That apart from Him you are dead in your trespasses and sins.
This is hard to receive, especially, perhaps, in American Christianity where we have a pretty good life. How many people do you meet, even Christians, who tell you that they’re “good people”? As a pastor I probably have more people tell me how good they are than come and confess their sins. We don’t live in first-century Judea or sixteenth century Germany, but people still very much try to justify themselves, try to presume that their “good deeds” and “good intentions” will result in good spiritual outcomes for them. So then the invitation comes to the Lord’s wedding feast; that is, when the Lord offers a way of repentance, a means of forgiveness, many are not willing to come because they do not want forgiveness, they want affirmation.
Again he sent other servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and 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. Behold the mercy of the Lord! Even when they reject, still He sends more servants. First the prophets. Now, following the death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son, the apostles are sent out, bearing the invitation, the cry of the Gospel to repent and believe.
But He came unto His own and His own received Him not. They called the Master of the house Beelzebub and they maligned those of the household. All too soon the very Pharisees who hear this parable will seize Jesus, treat Him will shame and contempt, and kill Him. This is the way of unbelief. Some are just indifferent. They treat the Gospel as bothersome. And they don’t want to be bothered. Others, though, are such haters of Christ, His Gospel, His Church, that they put His messengers to death. They strike out with terror against the sweet invitation of the King.
But what about you? How many times, how often have you heard the Word of the Lord calling you to repentance, to turn from your sins, but you make light of it, you make farm and business, house and home, wife and children, money and cars, Colts and Packers, sex and booze, pride and good reputation the objects of your desire? The Pharisees literally seize Jesus, the Servant of the King, and treat Him spitefully and kill Him. But we also treat Him spitefully when we would rather watch Netflix than pray Compline or such things. Again and again the call comes to repent and bear fruits in keeping with repentance - as you hear today from St Paul. But what shall happen if we persist in impenitence?
They king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. This refers to the destruction of Jerusalem and the desecration of the Temple by the Romans in AD 70. The Holy City was razed to the ground. Not a stone was left upon another. This is also a warning for the Final Judgment, when on the Last Day the Lord will send out His angel armies and burn up this city of man, this entire world, this paradise we have turned into a sewer, this garden we have turned into a graveyard. And before we cry “Unfair!” sing again the words of the antiphon for the day: The Lord is righteous in all He has done to us, for we have not obeyed His commandments.
Then [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 as many as you find.” And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. The original meaning of this is the mission to the Gentiles. When the people of Israel rejected Jesus, even after His resurrection, the Apostles were sent out to the highways to preach to every city, to make disciples of all nations, inviting them to the wedding, to call them to the King’s forgiveness found only in Jesus the Crucified and Risen One. This is the second verse of the antiphon: Glorify Your name, O Lord, and deal with us according to Your great mercy.
And this has been going on for nearly 2,000 years and there’s still room! Come, says the prophet Isaiah, everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Listen diligently to Me and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear and come to Me; hear, that you soul may live. Come. Listen, Believe and live. For faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. The invitation, the promise of the Gospel of the full and free forgiveness of all your sins is for you.
But you may say, “That is not really for me. I am too bad a sinner. I have gone on in persistent and besetting sin for too long.” You say, “But I have done shameful things. I have lived as if God did not matter and as if I mattered most. I have been cruel to my spouse and cannot repair it. I am addicted to porn, drink too much. I have gossiped and told lies. I have done every day what I should not have and failed to do what I should have done.”
But did the king’s servants go out looking for good people, respectable people, nice people to bring into the wedding hall? No! They went out and brought in all whom they found, both bad and good. In truth, some seem to be good, some a good in a civil way; paying their taxes and not causing trouble. But spiritually there is no one good, not even one. It could be rephrased: “They brought in all whom they found, both the obviously bad and the ones who had fooled others and themselves into thinking they were good.”
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have been. You don’t need to forge an invitation or crash the White House to get into this party. The invitation is for you, for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
So, now you are in the wedding hall, the Church, if you will. All those assembled for the wedding feast of the Son, our Lord Jesus. And all come into the wedding hall by grace, all by God’s gift, whether known to be bad or had become good and faking it.
But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. Now the wedding garment would be given out at the door, like going to a fancy restaurant that requires a jacket and they have blazers at the door if you’re not dressed appropriately. The point is this: the man doesn’t have a wedding garment not because he’s poor or forgot to wear it. He rejected it! He wants to come before the king on his own terms, to stand in the assembly on his own merits.
From the beginning of the world the man and the woman where naked and without shame. When they fell into sin they knew they were naked and sought to cover themselves. Their own covering was no good, their own merits and virtues were corrupt and spoiled. So the first thing the Lord does when He calls them to repentance is makes for them a covering, a garment of animal skin. This required a sacrifice; the shedding of blood. When the Old Testament priests ministered in the Temple whey were required to wear special vestments. There is a kind of connection to the traditional clothing of a pastor in this.
But far more significant are the words from St Paul: As many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ (Gal 3:27). Christ is the garment. Christ is your righteousness. He has covered you in your baptism. The wedding is Christ’s, but at the same time He is also your garment and daily attire.
So who is the man without the wedding garment? He is the man who turns away from his baptism. The man who rejects the righteousness of Christ and instead presents himself with his own righteousness, saying, “I am a good person. I have good intentions. I have tried to reform my life.” Notice he is there - he is at the wedding hall, he is physically in the church, he may even confess his sins and confess Christ, but in truth he rejects the will of the Lord preferring the wisdom of this world to the true wisdom of Christ and His Word. He does not look carefully how he walks.
Do not fall prey to such thinking! You will never be good enough for the Law demands perfection. No man can do that, only the God-Man, Jesus Christ, whose perfect life is the only righteousness that can cover us. Whose sacrificial death is the only wedding garment that allows us to stand in the wedding hall. So the king addresses this man without the wedding garment:
“Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. It is fascinating that the king calls him “Friend.” Perhaps the king is acting friendly toward him, offering him an opportunity to repent. Or it is a sad irony because he knows the man is really no friend. Maybe its an allusion to Judas, whom Jesus, the Bridegroom, calls “Friend.” It could be. But remember, we all have a little Judas inside of us. The traitorous, rebellious, money-loving, despairing, suicidal Judas in us.
And the only thing to do is run to the wedding garment, to return to the gifts Christ freely gives from the Font, in the Absolution, preached in His Word, bestowed in the Feast. The only recourse is to confess and say, “I am a poor, miserable sinner, far worse than anyone could even imagine, but I am baptized. I am clothed with an alien righteousness, adorned with the righteousness of Christ, I righteousness I could never earn or obtain. You stand in the Lord’s wedding hall by His grace.”
And if our Lord addresses us as “friend,” then we must say, “Dear Lord, I have not lived as Your friend, but I have been worse than an enemy. I have been indifferent to You and do not deserve anything from You. But still You promise me Your forgiveness, You promise to be my Father, my Brother, my King, my Shepherd, and Bridegroom. I have only this to please before You: the blood of Jesus which cleanses me from all sin.”
Now, like the story of Judas, this parable ends in tragedy:
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. This is a warning to us of what will happen to those who insist on standing on their own righteousness; of those who despise the wedding garment bestowed by Christ, who reject His invitation, refuse to live by faith in His promise and obedient to His Word.
This is the meaning and promise of the parable. Come, then, dear, true friends of Christ Jesus, for there is still room at the wedding table of His Body and Blood, even for the likes of us. Glorify your name, O Lord, and deal with us according to Your great mercy. In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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