The things that went into God’s choosing

Sermon for Trinity 20

Ephesians 5:15-21  +  Matthew 22:1-14

This is the day of the Church Year when we consider the doctrine of election or predestination, God’s decree, made before the foundations of the earth were laid, to bring certain people from among the sinful human race into the eternal glory of everlasting life. It’s a teaching of Scripture that some people avoid, because they think it’s too hard to understand, while other people think too much and too deeply about it, causing them to go beyond Scripture and usually against some other teaching of Scripture. But why would we avoid anything the Lord has taught, especially when He has taught it for our salvation? As for going too deep, that’s what today’s parable of the marriage feast helps us to prevent, if we stick with its simple teaching. Many are called, but few are chosen. Few are “elected.” Let’s consider the parable and see the things that went into God’s choosing.

A king arranged a marriage for his son. God arranged a “wedding” for His Son. We often think of Christ as the Bridegroom, and the Church as the Bride. But here in the parable, the guests at the wedding are the members of the Church. Now, it may be that here, as in the parable of the Ten Virgins, the Bride is understood as the Church collectively, while also dealing with individual members of the Church separately. Or it may be that the “wedding” that’s referred to here is not Christ’s marriage with the Church, but the uniting of the two natures, divine and human, in the Person of Christ. And that’s more likely, I think, because the events of this parable begin at Christ’s first coming, whereas the parable of the Ten Virgins deals with His second coming.

It’s certainly a Scriptural teaching that the eternal Word, the only-begotten Son of God, was “wed” to human flesh at the time of the incarnation, when He was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary. We call it the “personal union.” The divine nature of the Word united with the human nature in one Person who is Christ. One Person who is both true God and true Man.

That “wedding” was certainly something worth celebrating. God had not only entered our world, but our very race as human beings. And He did it, because God saw in eternity, even before the world was made, that the human race would fall into sin and separate itself from God. Adam and Eve would fall, and so all their children would be born under the curse of sin. And so, in eternity, God in His purpose and counsel ordained the following, first of all (from the Formula of Concord:Solid Declaration, Article XI):

1. That the human race should be truly redeemed and reconciled with God through Christ, who, by His faultless obedience, suffering, and death, has merited for us the righteousness that helps us before God and also merits eternal life.

In order to redeem and reconcile the human race, the Son of God had to be wedded to our race. And then He had to work as a man to live a life of obedience, to suffer for our sins, to die for our sins, to merit or to earn for us the righteousness that helps us before God and eternal life. The first coming of Christ, from His incarnation to the resurrection, is the wedding, and the marriage feast is a place with Him in His holy Church, redeemed, washed, cleansed, forgiven people of God.

The King sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding. The Jews had been invited long before. God had announced the coming and the work of the Messiah in the Old Testament. The invitations had been sent out by the Prophets. Many had been called. So when Christ came, God sent His angels on the night of Jesus’ birth to call the shepherds. Later, He sent John the Baptist, and then the Apostles to tell the people of Israel, “The kingdom of God is hand! Come to the marriage feast!” Truly, many were called!

This was the second part of God’s decree of election: 2. That such merit and benefits of Christ be presented, offered, and distributed to us through His Word and Sacraments.

But they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.” ’ 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.

You see, the Jews made much of their “election.” They were God’s “chosen” people, after all. They thought, we’re already God’s elect people because of our descent from Abraham. And our obedience to the Law of Moses proves our election. We have no need of this Jesus! So many simply disregarded the call and went on with their business. Others were so angry at receiving the invitation that they persecuted God’s servants, God’s messengers.

And we wonder, why were they so angry at receiving such a gracious invitation? The answer is that with the invitation came an accusation. You’re not fine on your own. You’re not fine as you are. You’re sinners, excluded by nature from God’s holy presence. You can’t stay where you are, who you are, and be saved. You don’t deserve it. You can’t earn it. Instead, repent of your sins and receive God’s free gift of salvation in Christ!

To those who refused, to those who wanted to consider themselves among God’s elect without turning to Christ for salvation, the king showed no mercy. When the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. No, you aren’t among the elect if you stubbornly resist the Gospel invitation to come to the marriage feast, to seek forgiveness in Christ, to be a part of His Holy Christian Church. You can tell that God is serious about that invitation, serious about wanting all those invited guests to actually show up at the feast, by how angry He is at their refusal. And God did send armies against Jerusalem, twice over the next hundred years, to destroy those who persistently rejected the Gospel invitation. He often sends temporal, earthly punishments to such people, in addition to the eternal punishment that awaits.

But the King was not willing to cancel the marriage feast because of those who turned down the invitation. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

The Gospel continues to go out, in spite of all those who have rejected the invitation. And the wedding hall is being filled and will keep being filled until the Last Day. The Holy Spirit will keep working through the Gospel call, and some will be brought to faith. This is the third and fourth part of God’s election decree: 3. That by His Holy Spirit, through the Word, when it is preached, heard, and pondered, Christ will be effective and active in us, will convert hearts to true repentance and preserve them in the true faith. 4. That the Spirit will justify all those who in true repentance receive Christ by a true faith. He will receive them into grace, the adoption of sons, and the inheritance of eternal life.

But our parable ends on a sad note. When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So 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, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Along with a place at the table in the marriage feast of God comes a wedding garment: the righteousness of Christ. His righteousness, credited to our account by faith, justifies us before God. But in those who have been justified, His righteousness also has an effect on our lives, so that we are to become more and more like Him in this life, though never perfectly and always mingled with great weakness and many stumblings on our part. We often refer to it as sanctification in the narrow sense, the Holy Spirit’s work of renewing Christians day by day, molding us into the image of Christ. And the tools He uses to mold us and to renew us and to keep us in the faith are the Means of Grace, the gifts He has promised to continue to provide for His people always, so that we’re never left alone, never on our own to maintain our own faith or salvation. So a man without the wedding garment is a person who has either entered the membership of the Church under false pretenses in the first place, never actually having put on the garment of the righteousness of Christ by faith, or it’s a person who wears it for a while, but grows tired of it and takes it off, stops hearing the Word and receiving the Sacraments or stops listening to what he hears, gets wrapped up in the cares and pleasures of this life, no longer prays diligently, and no longer wears the righteousness of Christ, either in faith or in action.

For many are called, but few are chosen. Who are the called? They’re all those whom the Gospel invitation has reached. “Repent and believe the Good News! He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” Whoever does not believe will be condemned. Most of the people on earth at this time are among the called. But who are the chosen? They are the ones who end up remaining forever at the marriage feast of God, those who will ultimately live forever with Him in His kingdom. Jesus’ parable reveals to us that the ones who dwell with God forever aren’t there by chance or because of their own worthiness or works. They were chosen by Him before the time of creation. But the parable also reveals how that choosing works, so that no one should say, “Well, I’m chosen, no matter whether or not I hear and ponder God’s Word, no matter whether or not I believe in Christ or become part of His holy Church, no matter whether or not I continue to use His gifts, grow in grace, fight against the devil and temptation or pray.” No, it doesn’t work that way. At the same time, no one should say, “Maybe I’m not chosen, even if I do hear God’s Word, even if I do believe in Christ, and use the Means of Grace, and pray diligently, and struggle against the flesh.” No, it doesn’t work that way, either.

God’s decree of election covers everything from His desire that all men should be saved, to His sending of Christ to make atonement for all, to His sending of the Means of Grace, the working of His Spirit in those Means, the justification of believers, the sanctification of the justified, and the preservation of Christians—a preservation which He carries out, not automatically, but through the ministry of the Word, through the Means of Grace, through hearing our prayers, through providing the help we need at every moment to remain faithful until the end. God’s decree of election includes steps 5-8 just as much as it includes steps 1-4: 5. That He will also sanctify in love those who are justified, as St. Paul says (Eph. 1:4). 6. That He also will protect them in their great weakness against the devil, the world, and the flesh. He will rule and lead them in His ways, raise them again when they stumble, comfort them under the cross and in temptation, and preserve them for life eternal. 7. That He will also strengthen, increase, and support to the end the good work that He has begun in them, if they cling to God’s Word, pray diligently, abide in God’s goodness, and faithfully use the gifts they received. 8. Finally, that He will eternally save and glorify in life eternal those whom He has elected, called, and justified. Those are the things that went into God’s choosing.

Jesus preached today’s parable primarily as a warning against those who take His election for granted. But for those who take His warning to heart, for those who use the help He gives, it serves as a great comfort. How do you know you’re among the elect? Believe the Gospel call! And then pay attention to all the other things we discussed today, the things that went into God’s choosing. As Peter writes, 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.