Ponder the parable about predestination

Sermon for Trinity 20

Ephesians 5:15-21  +  Matthew 22:1-14

The Church Year is arranged in such a way that all the chief doctrines of Christianity are covered, throughout the year at least in a basic way. Today it’s the doctrine of election or predestination that is presented to us in the parable of the wedding banquet, presented so simply that even a child can understand it. Many are called, Jesus says at the end, but few are chosen. Few are “elected.” So ponder the parable with me this morning, the parable about predestination.

Who is Jesus telling this parable to? Once again, it’s the scribes and Pharisees. It’s Holy Week. The Pharisees are ready to have Jesus put to death, but instead of backing off, Jesus hits them with one parable after another, condemning their stubborn unbelief.

A king prepared a wedding banquet for his son. The king represents God the Father. The son obviously stands for Jesus, the Son of God. The bride isn’t mentioned in this parable. In various passages of Scripture, Jesus is called a Bridegroom, and it’s usually the Church that is His holy Bride. That may be the case in this parable, too, although wise Church fathers have suggested an alternate possibility which fits very well with the teaching of Scripture. The wedding is the “wedding” of the two natures in Christ, the divine and the human. The Person of the Son has always existed, but when He became “incarnate,” when He took on human flesh in the virgin’s womb, that’s when the two natures were “wed,” so that there is now one Christ made up of two natures, as a marriage is two people who become “one flesh.”

Now, God had been planning this “wedding,” the sending of His Son into human flesh to live and to die for sinful man, even before He created mankind, before the foundations of the world were laid. He knew that some of the angels He would create would rebel against Him. He knew that the devil would tempt Eve. He knew that Adam and Eve would sin. He could have chosen not to create us in the first place, but instead, He chose, not only to create us, but to wed His Son to our race, so that He might earn our redemption and reconciliation by His death on a cross.

He told Adam and Eve about it already in the Garden of Eden, about the Seed of the woman—true Man—who would crush the serpent’s head, as only true God can do. But it was the people of Israel, the Jews, whom the Father invited to the wedding banquet. For hundreds of years, He told them through the Prophets that the day would come when the Christ would come to Israel. That’s when the wedding itself would take place.

But the invited guests were unwilling to come. They disregarded [the invitation] and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. Some of the Jews paid no attention to Jesus, or they followed Him for a while, and then walked away disappointed. Then there were others, like the Old Testament Jews who murdered the Prophets, like Herod, who beheaded John the Baptist, or like these very scribes and Pharisees to whom Jesus was speaking who would call for His crucifixion later that week and then persecute His Apostles and believers in the decades to come.

When the king heard about it, he was angry. And he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. Now, God knew how the Jews would receive His Prophets and Apostles and how they would treat His Son. But He let them do what they wanted to do and used their evil intentions to fulfill His good and gracious will. And then, a few decades after the Jews killed Jesus, God “sent His armies” in the form of the Roman armies, and they did destroy those murderers and burn up their city in the year A.D. 70.

The king speaks the verdict: He said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.’ Not worthy. Why not worthy? Were they such bad people that the king didn’t want them? No, it wasn’t that. They were not worthy, because they didn’t want to come. They rejected the invitation. They resisted God’s Spirit, and yes, the Spirit of God can be resisted, as Stephen the martyr accused the Jewish Council: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Just as the will of God can be rejected, as St. Luke writes in chapter 7: The Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves. Stubborn unbelief makes people unworthy to share in feast of God’s salvation.

But the parable isn’t only about the Jews who rejected Jesus and who refused to come into His Holy Christian Church. It’s also about all those who did heed the call. The king commanded his servants, Go into the streets and invite to the wedding whomever you find. So those servants went out into the streets and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good, and the banquet tables were filled with guests. The Gospel would go out after the Jews rejected it. It would go out to all nations and to all the people within those nations, regardless of who they were descended from, or what kind of people they were, regardless of how godless and sinful they had been. Repent and believe the good news, that God sent His Son into human flesh to redeem mankind! Trust in Christ! Be baptized into Christ! Come into His holy Church, where there is grace and abundant salvation, at no charge, as God’s free gift!

Many people over the centuries have come into the Church, have been baptized, have gathered around Word and Sacrament. Not all who are called come in. No, not at all. Most people hear the Gospel and still turn it down, just as they did at the time of Jesus. Obviously they are not among the chosen. They are not among the elect. They will not spend eternity celebrating the banquet of God’s salvation in Christ, because even when they were pushed and prodded by God’s Spirit, calling them through the Gospel, to take refuge in Christ, they were unwilling, and therefore unworthy. But many have believed and been baptized. Many have become Christians.

Still, being once baptized, being once a believer, even being a lifelong, active member of a Christian church isn’t all the King is looking for among His guests. When the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who was not wearing a wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” Being baptized is essential. Becoming an active member and gatherer with the Christian Church is essential. But wearing the wedding garment till the end, when the king comes to inspect the guests, is also an essential part of being among the chosen, of being among the elect.

What is the wedding garment? It’s the righteousness of Christ which covers us by faith. As Paul wrote to the Galatians, For 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. Notice, it’s not baptism without faith, but baptism together with faith by which we have put on Christ. And while baptism is a one-time event, faith is not a one-time event. It isn’t an “event” at all.” It’s an inner “taking refuge in Christ.”

As you know, if it’s storming outside, if it’s windy and rainy and there’s thunder and lightning, you’re safe as long as you’re taking shelter. If you enter a shelter and then leave the shelter to go back out into the storm, you’re no longer protected. So, too, the wedding garment of trusting in Christ must be worn at all times, not just by external membership in a church, not just by physically attending the services, but by actually relying on Christ in your heart, taking refuge in Him against the storm of your own sinful record, and the storm of the devil’s accusations, and the storm of God’s wrath.

Too many over the centuries have preserved the outward trappings of Christianity without the wedding garment of faith in Christ. Too many will be found, at the time of their death or at the time of Christ’s coming, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, as Christ accused the church in Laodicea of being in the book of Revelation.

But it isn’t for the guests to make that judgment, is it—whether a person has genuine faith in his heart? The guests didn’t kick out the man without the wedding garment. It was the king who saw it when he came. It’s God and only God who sees the heart.

So don’t go around evaluating your fellow members, judging whether you think they’re wearing the wedding garment or not. No, this parable about predestination isn’t about judging others. It’s about making sure you’re not turning down God’s gracious invitation. It’s about making sure you’ve been baptized, making sure you’re living in daily contrition and repentance, making sure you’re not only an outward member of the Church, but an inward member, believing in the Gospel, hoping in Christ, using the Means of Grace He’s given you to preserve your faith, praying for the Spirit’s help against doubt and unbelief, and living as one who is being sanctified in love.

Those whom God finds persevering in faith until the end are the ones who will spend eternity in His kingdom. They are the chosen. They are the elect whom God predestined in eternity to spend eternity with Him, because He planned in eternity all He would do for them and give to them for their salvation, and He foresaw in eternity that these chosen ones would be brought to faith by His Spirit and would use all the tools He would provide to remain faithful.

And so this parable keeps us from falling into the ditch on either side of the road. It keeps us from becoming secure on the one side. “I’m confident I’m among the elect, so I could never fall away.” As Paul warns the Corinthians, If anyone thinks he stands, let him be careful that he does not fall! And it keeps us from despairing on the other side. “I want to be among the elect, but I can never know if I am!” Here’s how you can know: Have you heard the Gospel call to believe in Christ Jesus, who was wed to our humanity and who earned redemption and reconciliation for you? Have you been baptized? Do you trust in Christ for forgiveness? Are you determined to keep using the Means of Grace, the Word and Sacrament, that God provides? Are you determined to keep praying for God’s help and strength? Are you determined to walk with the Holy Spirit, to struggle against sin and to live in love? Then you are doing exactly what St. Peter encourages you to do:

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brothers, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.