Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity
Ephesians 5:15-21 + Matthew 22:1-14
The Lord Christ compares eternal life to a wedding feast, prepared by God, the King. Would you like to come? I’ve been sent to invite you again today, to call you to this wedding feast. Wherever you find yourself among the various groups of people mentioned in today’s parable, know for certain that where God wants you to be is in His wedding hall, seated at the table, and wearing, by faith, the wedding garment of Christ when He comes at the Last Day to see the guests. If you’re hearing this invitation, this call, then you can be certain of what God wants for you and of what God has done for you so that you can attend His eternal feast.
But understand this: Many are called, but few are chosen. There are many ways for the called to miss out on the wedding feast, and many will miss out. But there’s only one way for the called to be found also among the chosen, among the elect, and out of all those who were called, few will find it. Jesus describes all of that for us in today’s parable of the wedding feast.
The doctrine of “election”—the teaching of Scripture that, before the foundation of the earth was laid, God foreknew, predestined and chose or “elected” the individuals who would be eternally saved—often troubles people. It’s hard to understand, and it’s easy for people to stray into false teaching as they try to delve too deeply into God’s eternal counsel and will. Jesus gives us the perfect way to understand the doctrine in today’s parable, and if you stick with this parable, you’ll never go astray.
God, the King, wanted His wedding hall, His heavenly kingdom, to be filled with guests. That alone is remarkable, because no one is worthy to stand before God. Sin has corrupted our race beyond repair and separated us from God.
But the wedding itself is God’s way of making things right. He wedded His eternal Son to human flesh, uniting God and Man in one single Person—a perfect Person, a sinless Man. Today’s parable doesn’t go into everything that Christ did for us in humbling Himself, obeying His Father’s will, giving His life on the cross for the world’s sins and rising again. It simply sets forth Christ, the God-Man, as the reason why there is this wedding feast to which guests are invited. God Himself has prepared this wedding, so that sinful men might be reconciled to Him through His Son, to enjoy eternal life with Him in Paradise.
So He sent out messengers to invite many guests to this wedding. He sent prophets. He sent apostles. He still sends ministers of the Word to proclaim, “All things are ready. Come to the wedding!” Christ has come! God and Man are one. He is the propitiation, not only for our sins, but for the sins of the world.
But to “come to the wedding” means you can’t stay where you are. To come to the wedding means to repent of your sins, to believe in Christ Jesus alone for the forgiveness of sins, and to amend your sinful life. And that is something that most of those who hear the Gospel-call are not willing to do. “They were not willing to come.”
You see, people are happy to worship a god of their own making. They’re happy to mold god into their own image and believe in him. But tell them that they’re not OK as they are, that they’re sinful and corrupt, that they can’t do whatever feels right, that the only way to be reconciled with God is through repentance and faith in Christ as Christ reveals Himself in the Holy Scriptures, and they are not willing to come.
Now, the King does not give them only one opportunity. When the first messengers returned empty-handed, the King again sent out other messengers to call the guests. But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. Some people simply don’t have time for God, don’t care about His Gospel. Others persecute and kill the messengers, like the Pharisees during Holy Week, like the Jews who persecuted the Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles, like the Roman emperors who threw the Christians to the lions, like the Roman papacy that mocked and persecuted preachers of the Gospel at the time of the Reformation, like Islamic terrorists and ISIS operatives who behead, burn alive, and crucify Christians, like the abortion lobby and the LGBT lobby who try to silence Christians by threats and by intimidation.
But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. This will be the certain end of those who despise the Gospel. But notice, it’s not because the King never wanted them to come to His wedding, to receive forgiveness. He wanted them to come. He invited them to come. But they resisted His Holy Spirit, who was calling them through the Word. They chose to remain in darkness and in death. Their destruction was their own fault.
Even then, the King doesn’t give up on the wedding feast. He sends out still more servants to call still more people, from the highways and byways, everyone whom they find, preaching the Gospel “to every creature,” as Jesus commanded His apostles, “both bad and good,” as the parable says. What comforting words of grace! Because no one is excluded from this invitation. No one is too bad, so that God doesn’t want him at the feast. And no one is so good that he is doing just fine where he is; everyone needs to be saved by faith alone in Christ.
So whoever hears this invitation should know that God truly wants him at the feast and is extending a valid invitation to it through His ministers, whom He has sent out. When you hear God’s ministers calling you to repentance, calling you to faith in Christ, pronouncing absolution, the forgiveness of your sins, you have Jesus’ word that their message comes from the King Himself.
Even then, of course, no one could accept the invitation on his own. Even that is the work of God’s Holy Spirit, who always and only works through the preaching of the Word, to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify; and who seals His invitation with the Sacraments, so that each one who is baptized, each one who receives the body and blood of Christ, should be certain that God the Holy Spirit is sincere in the grace He offers in Christ Jesus.
Many of those who are called are not willing to come to the wedding feast. Many are made willing to come by the working of the Holy Spirit through the Means of Grace. But the parable also tells of some who have the appearance of one who has come to the wedding, who look like Christians on the outside, who call themselves Christians and go to church. But even so, they are not dressed in the wedding garment. And so, when the King comes at the end, He will easily identify these people as the hypocrites they are and will say to them, Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
What is this wedding garment? As Paul writes to the Galatians, You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. The only garment, the only attire that makes a person pleasing to God is Christ, whom we “put on” by Holy Baptism. Not Baptism, and then you’re good to go forever, whether or not you continue in faith. But Baptism, combined with faith; Baptism as the promise of God’s forgiveness for the sake of Christ, which we are to continually grasp by faith. This is the wedding garment that God Himself provides. Those who are found wearing it when He comes will enjoy eternal life at the heavenly wedding feast. These are the “chosen,” those whom God elected in eternity to be partakers of eternal life. Those who are found without it will be cast out into outer darkness forever.
So when you consider the doctrine of “election,” you see that it does not good to try to look back into eternity to speculate about whether or not you’re among the elect. Stick with the parable. If you hear God’s minister calling out to you to “come to the wedding,” to repent and believe the Gospel, then know for certain that God Himself is calling, inviting, persuading, convincing you to come, because all things are ready. He has given Christ for the sins of the world, and now gives Him to you to be your Savior. He planned this wedding feast for you in eternity and also planned exactly how and when He would send His minister to you, to call you.
Now, do you want nothing to do with repentance and the forgiveness of sins through Christ? Then you shouldn’t consider yourself among the elect—not because God didn’t want you to be saved or because God didn’t give His Son for your sins, or because God’s invitation is less than sincere, but only because you yourself are refusing His invitation.
Or, has God’s call led you to sorrow over your sins and to desire a place at His wedding feast, to look to Christ crucified, true God and true Man, for forgiveness? Then you should count yourself among those whom God has elected, called, and justified, and know that He prepared in eternity everything that you would need for your salvation, including the sending of His Son, including the Gospel call, including your justification through faith, including all the troubles and crosses you would bear in this life, including your prayers for help that He will surely hear and answer, including the continued preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments by which means He intends to strengthen you in your struggle against the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh, and to keep you dressed in the wedding garment of faith until He comes.
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.
