Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Have you ever been invited to a wedding ceremony? I suppose at one time or another we all have, right? In fact for some of us, it may have been our own wedding. But how many of us have ever been invited by a king, a president, a congressmen, to a wedding? I would venture to say none of us.
But if the president of the United States, if the king or queen of England or someone from our state legislature, or the governor, should any such person invite us to the wedding of their son or daughter, who of us wouldn’t think twice about going; who of us wouldn’t find the time to go, especially if we had a high regard for the one inviting us?
When we look at our text today, Jesus is giving us an interesting parable about a wedding banquet. The son of the king is to be married, and so, as was custom, the king sends out invitations to those whom he knows and respects and loves. Those invitations go out to those whom he deems close or perhaps whom he loves and knows personally. You know when we plan a wedding, we generally don’t send invitations out to random people, but we send them to family and close friends, or perhaps those who we know will buy us the most expensive gifts or the most wanted needs. If we know our next door neighbor will buy us a new dinnerware set, we invite our next door neighbor. If our 5rd cousin from Portugal is going to buy us a new house…we invite our 5th cousin from Portugal. But over and above that we will invite those whom we love.
And the king in this parable does just that, inviting those whom he loves. But those whom he invites don’t seem to care; they go about their business. Not only does the king send out invitations, but he sends out his servants right to the homes of these people, but they refuse to go, they refuse to listen, and some of these folks treat the king’s servants with distain, even murdering them. The king is offering the finest food, his oxen and his fattened calves – much of his wealth, but the people whom he loves, those people who he thought loved him – they refuse to come; they’re too busy, too distracted, too caught up in the passions and in the cares of the world around them.
What does this king do? Out of his anger and on account of their disrespect, he burns their city to the ground; he destroys their world, he destroys everything that they held dear, and he even destroys them. But the king still desires to have guests at the wedding of his son, so he invites everyone else: the poor the crippled, the beggars, the good and the bad.
Is this what you would do? Would you invite random people if you knew that all of your close friends and loved ones refused to come? Perhaps. But what’s the problem with doing this? Well, because you don’t know who you’re gonna get, you might end up with a person or two who don’t quite get what’s going on, who show up for the wrong reasons, just as in the one guest in our parable who came without new wedding coat which, as was custom for the time, everyone invited to a wedding would have to come wearing.
If the person couldn’t afford such a garment, the host, in this case the king, would freely provide a wedding coat to the guest. To not have that wedding coat, or to not approach the wedding host and ask for one, was disrespectful and it would be expected that the unattired guest be asked to leave.
Now Jesus of course in this parable is talking about a little bit of history. First he says that God, or the king, invited people, in this case the Jews or Israel, to the wedding of His Son. Now the invitation is an invitation to faith – and invitation to believe that Jesus Christ, the bridegroom, the son of God, has come to save them from their sin. It’s the exact same invitation that we hear today. When the Gospel is preached today, it is the same message that was proclaimed to the Jews of long ago, the same message which the prophets spoke, calling people to repent and believe in God, trust in His mercy, cling to His promise.
But God’s people the people God delivered from the bondage of Egypt, the same people who crossed the Red Sea, who were given thousands and thousands and thousands of acres of land, who were cared for and protected, these same people refused to believe. Time and time again God called out to them and made covenants with them and blessed them immeasurably, but time and time again they said “no”. They refused to believe, they turned their backs.
They ran after idolatry, they married into pagan cultures, they did not listen. And as a result they were exiled, they were destroyed, their cities and their wealth was taken from them. The prophets such as Isaiah and Ezekiel warned of this; but the people of Israel laughed at them, scorned them, treated them with great disrespect. They thought they had it all, and they thought they didn’t need God.
Of course as Jesus is telling this parable, the Pharisees and the religious leaders – they know what He’s talking about, that He’s talking about them and their history. This is why they want to put the Lord of life to death. Jesus is a threat to their way of being – a threat to their self-righteousness and their piety, and they can’t have that. They’re already contending with the Roman occupation, the last thing they need is for some prophet to come and take their people away.
Then Jesus goes on and says that because of the unbelief of Israel and their disdain for God’s invitation, God destroyed their city and destroyed them as well. And God then begins to invite “the other people”, and in this case the gentiles – any of them; good, bad, ugly invite them all. If the kingdom of Israel doesn’t want the salvation promised through my son, then perhaps these gentiles will come when invited. Perhaps they will respond and join in the great wedding feast. And sure enough here we are. Most of us here have no connection with the Red Sea or with Abraham, or with the ceremonial or sacrificial system. But see we’re not here because of that, we’re here because of faith.
Again, it’s the same invitation. God called out to the nation of Israel and called them to be a nation of faith, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, and He calls us to be just the same. The invitation hasn’t changed.
Forgiveness of sins, salvation, eternal life…it’s always been, since the very beginning, an invitation to become part of God’s church, to become a people of faith. You notice that in the parable that it doesn’t mention the bride, but only the bridegroom – the son of God. And that’s because we as God’s church are the bride. God sent His son to prepare us for this great wedding by dying on the cross. God sent His son to cleanse us from our sins, to dress us in the royal wedding coat, and then to go and prepare a place in the great Kingdom where we as his church – his bride – can be with him forever.
And as important as all this is, there is one part of this parable which I think we need to look at and spend some time on. That one man, that one person who is at the banquet without the wedding coat. Who is he? Does he not know of the tradition? Does he not know that every wedding guest must come dressed in the proper attire? Does he not know that he can approach the king and humbly explain his situation?
The garment, the wedding coat, is the garment of salvation. It is the garment of the host – of God Himself – given to the people, given to you and me, which covers our sins and makes us acceptable to God. It is Christ’s covering, the covering of forgiveness and grace on account of faith. Faith in Christ, faith that the work of Christ alone is sufficient and necessary for salvation.
The problem is that we tend to want to take that cloak off. Our sinful nature does not like that free gift of grace and it desires to find its own way to salvation apart from God and apart from the work of Christ.
I’ve said before that the Christian faith is a simple thing. Faith in Christ – trust God. That’s it! That’s all there is! And yet it is the most difficult thing for us to get our arms around. I have heard and witnessed very predominant Lutherans say “yeah faith in Christ,” but then they add some work or some action or some deed or some requirement to the equation. I have seen and caught myself saying “yes it’s faith alone” but then walking down the street or driving my car that voice shows up in the back of my head which says “you’ve better get it right or God’s not going to be happy.”
Every week as I plan the service, write my sermons, spend time in the churches or visiting or teaching that little voice is right there giving me reason to doubt, reason to question, reason to try and please God or impress God or impress God’s people in order that I might look good, that I might be respected, that I might impress others with how great I am.
But that’s not faith. Faith isn’t about me. Faith isn’t about you. Faith is about Christ. We can have everything right and do everything right, but that doesn’t make us faithful. We can keep every commandment, conduct our liturgy perfectly, get along with everyone, sing beautifully, but that doesn’t make us faithful. Whenever we ask the question, “what does make us faithful,” we’re already asking the wrong question.
Nothing you do, nothing I do…nothing we do will make us faithful. We can’t make ourselves anything. Whenever we think we’re faithful on account of our works, we are truly not. We are in fact just like that man who walked in, that guest who came to the wedding banquet without a wedding coat and was too arrogant or too distracted to ask for one. When we try to reach God by our own methods we will be thrown out.
But when a king or a president invites YOU to a wedding banquet, and he gives you the clothes to wear, and you don’t even know why…that’s faith. You don’t know why he’s invited you but you know there’s a banquet there and you are hungrier than a while animal…that’s faith. You walk up to the door and this king comes and dresses you with the right garment, no strings attached…you go in and you celebrate and that’s faith!
It’s a faith that is driven by God; a faith that is given by God, and a faith that nurtured and increased by God. If you show up and you think you can work your way in by being a good guy, by dressing in your own garment, by trying to be impressive…there will be no place for you.
But when God calls you, and when God carries you, and when God clothes you in His righteousness than it matters not how evil you’ve been, how much sin you’ve committed, you are invited and you in and you are clothed appropriately.
Show up, sins and all, and do not try to hide before God who you really are because God knows you and He will clothe you in His righteousness and feed you to your heart’s content and let you dance and sing and rejoice in His presence.
And this is why we’re all here today. Not one of us deserves to be here. None of us deserve to be in the presence of God, hearing His Word, receiving His body and blood. None of us deserve to kneel at this altar in prayer, to confess with our mouths that we are sinful and in need. None of us deserve to be told by God Himself “I forgive you and absolve you…go in peace,” but we are here. We are here in faith, and that faith informs us and speaks to us and by the power of God’s Holy Spirit brings us before God – in humility and fear because we don’t deserve it – but also in thanksgiving and joy because it has been given to us freely.
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord that we have been invited to this great wedding banquet. We have been clothed in the garments of salvation and righteousness so that we might revel and rejoice as being one of the chosen. May God always and continue to draw all men to himself through faith on account of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all our understand guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
