Sermon
15th October 2017
Text:
Matthew 22:1-14 – By invitation only
Having
been involved in the preparation for our daughter Grace’s wedding earlier this
year this reading today took on a new meaning for me.
Usually
people only see the end result of months, maybe years, of preparation that goes
into the big day.
Making
sure everything is just right so that the day is perfect for the bride.
It’s
not the day when you want things to go wrong, things to get forgotten,
unexpected surprises.
You
want everything perfect.
And
here in Jesus’s parable we have a King who is throwing a wedding banquet and
wants everything perfect.
And
the most important part of the wedding banquet that is left is the guests who
have been invited.
After
all the work and expense he has gone through the King cannot understand why
people won’t accept his invitation.
These
people seem to not realise the expense and trouble he’s gone through and how
privileged they are to receive an invitation.
One
of the hardest parts of any wedding is settling on the invitation list.
You
want family and friends there but you can’t afford to invite them all and venue
size doesn’t allow you to anyway.
You
hope not to offend family who might expect an invitation.
You
don’t want to upset someone who thought that they were a close friend or had
invited you to their wedding.
And
it’s important to RSVP if you can’t make it so others on the shortlist can be
invited and that your seat that has been paid for isn’t empty at the reception.
So
the King is justifiably angry that the invited guests don’t accept his
invitation.
In
turn he reissues the invitation to anyone and everyone.
He
wants his wedding feast filled to celebrate his son’s wedding day.
The
parable is an image of the situation today of God’s invitation to all people to
enjoy eternal life in Heaven.
Some
believe that the first invitation is a description of God’s original invitation
that had gone out to Israel who rejected Jesus as the promised Messiah.
God
had promised a Messiah and the people had rejected the messengers preparing the
way for John the Baptist and then finally Jesus.
We
are seeing in this section of Matthew growing rejection of God’s invitation by
his own people.
We
had the parable of the tenants who rejected God’s messengers – even his own
Son.
The
week before that was the rejection of Jesus’ authority.
In
the next chapter we will see the pain and anguish over God’s own children
continuing to reject his invitation when Jesus look’s over Jerusalem in lament;
O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings, but you were not willing" (Matt. 23:37).
And
as they were not willing, God now extends the invitation directly to all
people.
In
Jesus’ life and death God extends the invitation with the wording:
For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16).
God
has opened the invitation list to all people.
No
one is excluded despite what they might think about themselves.
Some
think their sin is too great.
Their
background is too awful.
Their
heart is too hard.
Their
temptations too strong.
They
don't really believe that God's grace can be so free, so accepting, so
forgiving.
If
you are among this group you are reassured of the invitation of Jesus who died
for all.
The
parable Jesus told described that there was no social standing limiting the
invitation anymore:
The
King’s servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both
good and bad;
But
there is one there who should not be which is hard to understand.
If
all are invited who is it that should not be there?
The
only clue that we are given is that he is missing a wedding robe.
As
the invitation to God’s heavenly banquet is now extended through Jesus’ death
it is only through Jesus that one can be guaranteed entry.
In
the same way that the blood of the lamb at the Passover covered the Israelites
in Egypt assuring safety from the angel of death in Egypt, so too, it is by the
cover of Jesus’ blood shed for our sins that we are assured safety from the
coming judgment of sins.
St
John saw an image of those in the wedding feast when he said:
“These
in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” “Sir, you know.”
And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they
have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
(Revelation 7:14,15)
We
cannot assure ourselves of eternal life by our good works because we can never
be assured that we have done enough.
We
cannot assure ourselves of eternal life by following any other god because no
other god has died for our sins.
We
cannot buy our way into eternal life because only Jesus’ death has paid for our
sins.
Only
by the robe covering of Christ’s invitation can we be assured of our eternal
life.
This
parable is a difficult parable told by Jesus because it does speak about those
who reject God’s invitation to eternal life.
It
is a timely reminder to us to not take in vain God’s invitation to us.
There
are so many that have rejected the invitation like the ones in the first part
of the parable.
There
are many who have rejected or neglected their baptism.
There
are many who have rejected or neglected their invitation to the Lord’s Table.
There
are many who have put their careers and personal lives ahead of their Christian
faith.
They
are the ones who have heard God’s invitation like the first invitees in the
parable who made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his
business.
It
hurts to hear that because some of them are our friends and family.
The
good news is that God is a God of invitation.
The
Bible is full of invitations to supper with God.
Jesus
ate with a Pharisee; he dined with fishermen, tax collectors, the poor and the
rich.
He
called to a man up in a tree, "Zacchaeus, come down. I must have supper
with you this day!"
And
God continues to extend that invitation through you and me.
Entrance
into God's Kingdom is by invitation only.
God
does not use force on anyone to believe in him, to accept his Son, or to obey
his laws.
God
respects the free will of a person.
He
invites, pleads, begs and will do anything except use force to get us into his
Kingdom.
All
he says is "Come."
We
are God’s invitation and he sends us out just as the King sent his servants out
to invite people to the Kingdom.
St
Paul says in 2nd Corinthians; We are Christ's ambassadors, as though God were
making his appeal through us.
And
the invitation is for all – good and bad.
We
are not to determine who deserves and who doesn’t deserve an invitation.
God
excludes no one.
Only
we exclude ourselves when we reject his invitation.
And
that’s what made Jesus sad when he lamented over Jerusalem because all God
wants to do is to lavish his love and generosity on everyone and can’t
understand why people don’t want to come.
The
wedding feast is ready for the guests.
We
do not bring a dish of food.
We
bring only ourselves.
God
does all for our salvation.
By
grace are we saved.
The
refusal hurts God.
It
means considering someone or something else more important even though he
sacrificed his own son to guarantee our place at the wedding banquet.
The
parable deals with evangelism.
The
invitation of the king to those not in the king's household.
Evangelism
is the church's outreach to those not in God's household of faith.
The
king sends his servants to go to the people to invite them to come and we go as
his representatives.
We
are sent to the highways and byways to invite.
And
just as the king wants his banquet hall to be full, God desires all humanity to
come to him and to be reconciled.
The
work of evangelism is not done until "every knee shall bow and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."
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