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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I never saw but some of you may have seen the 2005 movie “Wedding Crashers”. In the movie, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn star as buddies who come to wedding receptions uninvited, in order to, among other things, enjoy the free food and drink. There are no wedding crashers in today’s Gospel Reading, but rather there are invited guests, some who do not show up and at least one who shows up but is not properly dressed. This morning we reflect on today’s Gospel Reading under the theme “Invited and Dressed Guests”.
Today’s Gospel Reading picks up St. Matthew’s divinely‑inspired Gospel account right where last week’s Gospel Reading left off. The setting is Tuesday of Holy Week, as Jesus continues to teach in the Temple Courts, with Jewish leaders and no doubt also crowds of others present. “And again Jesus spoke to them in parables”, this time the “Parable of the Great Supper” or the parable of the “Royal Wedding Feast”, likening the Kingdom of Heaven to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son but had trouble with invited guests not showing up and guests showing up not properly dressed. Jesus’s parable has a deep Old Testament background in passages such as today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 25:6-9), with its teaching about the time of the Messiah, the Christ, as a great feast hosted by God. In the Bible as a whole, God’s people are sometimes depicted as the bride at such a feast, sometimes depicted as the invited guests, and sometimes depicted as both bride and guests. Jesus’s parable depicts God’s people as the feast’s invited guests, and the parable consist of a series of actions and responses in connection with their invitation, and the parable is dominated by the king’s authoritative words.
Some of you know that next week up in Niagara Falls, Ontario, our member Aaron Clubb is going to wed Mary Stephenson, the daughter of one of my former seminary professors. Aaron especially has brothers and sisters in Christ here and family and friends elsewhere whom he would have liked to come to the wedding but who will not be making the trip for a variety of reasons, including the distance, time, and money involved. As those of you who have planned or been involved in weddings know, while occasionally guests are invited out of obligation with the hope that they will not come, far more often guests are invited with the hope that they will come. Either way, some invited guests may be willing but unable to come, and, regardless, those giving the wedding feast cannot make anyone come.
By the end of the parable St. Matthew records (compare Luke 14:15-24, especially v.23), the king essentially has invited everyone to the wedding feast for his son. Those invited in advance and then called when everything was ready repeatedly resisted coming. They paid no attention to or neglected the call, instead going off to farm or business or shamefully mistreating and killing those extending the call (confer Matthew 23:37; John 5:40). As a result, the king justly became angry and sent his troops to destroy them and burn their city, deeming them not worthy of the wedding feast, presumably for their failure to heed the king’s gracious invitation. Those invited more at the last minute came and filled the wedding hall, but at least one was not properly dressed. As a result, the king justly had him bound and cast out, for his failure to be clothed in a wedding garment presumably provided by the king.
Where do we see ourselves in Jesus’s parable? Are we the invited guests who do not attend? This morning, at least, we are here. Are we individually the guest who was not properly dressed? Determining whether we are clothed in our own righteousness or in Christ’s righteousness is more difficult and may be known only to God. Or, are we “Invited and Dressed Guests”? They remain in the wedding hall and partake of the wedding feast. What about us?
To be sure, at times we, too, do resist God’s call to His Kingdom, and sometimes we also falsely regard ourselves as righteous because of what we think, say, or do. Apart from God’s grace, we are hostile to God. We are no more God’s “friend” than the man in the parable was the king’s friend. By nature we deserve to be cut off from His feast and cast into the eternal torment of hell. Yet, as God’s Word makes clear, such is not what He wants for anyone! He calls us to repent. And, when we repent and trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, then He does exactly that. When we repent and believe, then God forgives us. So, in the Collect of the Day, we prayed God, Who invites us to trust in Him for salvation, not to deal with us in the severity of His judgment but by the greatness of His mercy.
God the Father is the King Who gave a wedding feast for His Son, Jesus, the Messiah or Christ, the One anointed Prophet, Priest, and King. And, God the Father’s mercy and grace are on account of Jesus’s death on the cross for us. Because Jesus on the cross bore our sins and suffered the penalty of hell that we deserve, He, as the Old Testament Reading described, swallowed up the covering that is cast over all people, the veil that is spread over all nations: namely, death. Because Jesus died for us and rose from the grave, we who die here also will rise eternally. After the parable Jesus in the Gospel Reading says “many are called”, but there He uses a figure of speech that means “all” are invited. And, when He says “few are chosen”, He means that only a portion of the “all” invited by repentance and faith actually end up as “Invited and Dressed Guests”. When we repent and believe, then God forgives us. God forgives us of at times resisting His call to His Kingdom. God forgives us of falsely regarding ourselves as righteous because of what we think, say or do. God forgives all our sin, whatever it may be, and He forgives our sinful natures themselves. And, as in the parable, His garment and the feast are central to God’s forgiveness of sins.
For Aaron’s wedding next week, I bought the suit I was told the wedding party needed to buy; it was not given to me freely as the wedding garment in the Gospel Reading likely was given to those invited. The parable reminds us that believers are graciously and freely clothed in the robe of Christ’s righteousness in Holy Baptism. With water and the Word Christ makes holy His bride, believers in His Church (Ephesians 5:26). So clothed, they come to the feast of the Sacrament of the Altar. There is no feast of richer food than that of bread that is the body of Christ. There is no feast of finer wine than that which is the blood of Christ. As the king’s servants in the parable repeatedly call people to the wedding feast, so faithful pastors repeatedly call believers to the Sacrament of the Altar. And, as the king’s attendants exercised the king’s authority in binding and casting out the man without the wedding garment, so faithful pastors exercise the Office of the Keys and close off this communion from those either altogether lacking faith or confessing a different faith. To the best of their ability, faithful pastors should know, having instructed, examined, and individually absolved those whom they commune. God does not call people to salvation apart from such resistible Means of Grace; He does not make anyone come. That some people resist and others come improperly dressed do not mean that He does not earnestly desire all to be saved. We believers need not doubt that we are among those chosen: God seals His Gospel promises to us through His Sacraments (see Solid Declaration XI:37-41 and its reference to the German of Apology XI:2).
In short, we who are here, baptized, believe, and partake of the Sacrament of the Altar are not wedding “crashers” but “Invited and Dressed Guests”. The world may regard us as bad or good, but we know that we are redeemed. And, so as we are encouraged to do in both today’s Old Testament and Epistle Reading (Philippians 4:4-13), we are glad and rejoice in God’s salvation.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +