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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.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. Now, none of us are kings, and only some are married sons, but probably most of us have been involved in weddings, in one way or another, if not as the one giving the wedding, or as the bride or groom, perhaps at least as an invited guest. And so, although we may not know or understand all of the wedding customs in Jesus’s day, which in at least some cases were quite different from the wedding customs in our day, with the help of the Holy Spirit this morning, we will at least come to realize, if we do not already realize, that “God the Father graciously invites all to His Son’s Feast.”
As with last week’s Gospel Reading and its parable about the wicked tenants, who refused to give the owner of the vineyard its fruits in their seasons (Matthew 21:33-46), this week’s Gospel Reading and its at least one (if not two) parable(s) about the king’s wedding feast for his son is set in Holy Week, when Jesus seems to be teaching more sharply against the Jews and their rejection of Him. And, as with the parable about the wicked tenants, the parable about the king’s wedding feast for his son shows us Jesus’s Divine Sonship, Israel’s persistent rejection of its prophets, and the inclusion of those outside of Israel in the Kingdom of Heaven (TLSB, ad loc Matthew 22:1‑11, 1630). God the Father graciously invites all to His Son’s Feast, but how do all respond to God the Father’s gracious invitation?
When people invite guests to weddings in our time, they have to consider the space available in the church and reception hall, as well as the resources available to pay for the reception. They may feel compelled to invite some guests but prefer to invite others. They might even factor in a rejection rate and invite more than they hope will actually attend, so that in the end the reception hall is comfortably filled with guests. We have no indication of such considerations by the king in the parable or by God the Father in the case of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven presumably has infinite space and resources, and God earnestly and repeatedly invites all to come to it. (When Jesus says “many” are called, He is using a Semitic expression that, in fact, means “all” are called [Jeremias, TDNT 6:542].)
Whether or not the parable in today’s Gospel Reading makes a division between the Old Testament Church and the New Testament Church (Lenski, ad loc Mt 22:3, 848-849), in effect we see two kinds of people’s responses to God the Father’s gracious invitation: those who in un‑repentance and un‑belief reject the invitation—whether openly or more‑secretly, a rejection perhaps not even revealed until the Last Day (Stecker, CPR 27:4, 41-42; Davies and Allison, ad loc Matthew 22:1‑14, 197)—and those who with repentance and faith do not reject the invitation. Which kind of response is your and mine? Are we like those who, after the first call went out, were not willing to come (confer Matthew 23:37; John 5:40)? Are we like those who, after the second call went out, paid no attention and went off to their farm or other business or treated the servants shamefully? Are we like those who, after the third call went out, came into the wedding hall without wearing the provided wedding garment? No doubt in these or other ways we all, at times, reject God the Father’s gracious invitation to His Son’s Feast. People may judge us to be “bad or good” (confer Lenski, ad loc Matthew 22:10, 854; Harder, TDNT 6:558), but before God by nature we are all evil, not worthy of the Feast, instead deserving God’s righteous wrath and the kind of destruction the king in the parable sent to those who openly rejected and the kind of separation he eventually brought about from those who more-secretly rejected. We deserve such destruction and separation unless we respond to the invitation with sorrow over our sin and trust that God the Father forgives our sin for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ.
A friend of mine, whom some of you met at my Installation here, is a pastor in Florida and recently told me that the trend there is for the bride and groom to tell their guests how much money to give them, beyond a wedding present, in order to pay for the guests’ meals at the wedding reception! There is no such expectation in the parable we heard today, much less in the Kingdom of Heaven! God the Father graciously invites all to His Son’s Feast, there is no thought of anyone’s having any worthiness in him or herself, for God even offers those invited, who come in off the street (CSSB [CPH editors], ad loc Matthew 22:11, 1481), what in today’s Introit (Isaiah 61:10; antiphon Psalm 146:2) we called the garments of salvation, the robe of Jesus’s righteousness. Jesus is the Son of the King, Who in last week’s parable was killed by the wicked tenants and in today’s parable is said to have been resurrected. Indeed, Jesus died on the cross for your sins and mine and then rose from the grave. Jesus is the bridegroom (Matthew 9:14-15; confer Stecker, 41), and we are worthy of His Feast only as we receive it in faith (Foerster, TDNT, 1:379; Small Catechism VI:10).
God the Father graciously invites all to His Son’s Feast, but first, in Holy Baptism, He calls us by our names and puts upon us His Triune Name. At the Baptismal Font, we do not clothe ourselves, but God the Father Himself clothes us in the wedding garment of Christ’s righteousness (confer Stecker, 41), even if our practice here at Pilgrim does not reflect that by using white robes after baptisms. As we who are baptized privately confess to our pastors the sins that we know and feel in our hearts, they do not bind (or “retain”) our sins and so cast us into the outermost darkness, but rather they loose (or “forgive”) our sins in individual Holy Absolution (Matthew 16:19; 18:18; John 20:22-23; confer Luther, The Keys [1530], AE 40:335). So absolved, we are welcomed at the Rail of this Altar. In the Sacrament of the Altar, the Lord prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies (Psalm 23:5). Here is the best that God the Father has to offer you and me: not slaughtered oxen and fattened calves but the once‑sacrificed and now‑living‑again true Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, for us Christians to eat and to drink, and so to receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
So strengthened and preserved in body and soul by the true Body and true Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are like St. Paul in today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 4:4-13): we are content in whatever situation we are in. We know how to be brought low and how to abound in any and every circumstance. For, the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need is doing it through God, Who strengthens us. No matter how we might fail to be content, or be anxious about various things, we never need to despair of God’s mercy and grace for us in Christ Jesus. We do not need to probe the hidden reaches of God’s judgments and ways, wondering if we are among those He has chosen (or “elected”), the “chosen few”, for we know that we are so chosen (or “elected”)—we know from God’s Word read and preached to us, poured with water over us in Baptism, laid with the pastor’s hand on our heads in Absolution, and put with bread and wine into our mouths in the Sacrament of the Altar. Yes, God’s gentle call through these Means of Grace is resistible (Marquart, CLD IX:176-177), but, we do not have to reject His invitation or His wedding garment (Schrenk, TDNT 4:186-187). As we do not resist His call through His Means of Grace and as we come to Him in His Means of Grace, we are forgiven and saved, not by claiming a right, but by trusting in His mercy and grace (K.L. Schmidt, TDNT 3:494-495).
“God the Father graciously invites all to His Son’s Feast.” We have done nothing to deserve it, but, for the sake of Jesus Christ Who died for us, He graciously gives it to us. What we receive from this Altar is all that we need here and now, and yet this Feast is only a foretaste of the Feast to come. In today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 25:6-9), God through Isaiah describes not only a feast of rich food and well‑aged wine but also the swallowing up of death, the wiping away of tears from all faces. On that Last Day, the complete number of all who believe together will fully experience the Kingdom of Heaven and so be glad and rejoice in His salvation.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +