october 15 2023
October 15th 2023 (St. Peter children singing)
Old Testament: Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm: Psalm 23
Epistle: Philippians 4:4-13
Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14
Sermon Text: Matthew 22:1-14
Sermon Title: “Called and Chosen”
Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
CFW Walther, the founder of our church body/denomination, wrote a very famous book on preaching that is still used in both of our seminaries. It is called “On the Proper Distinction of Law and Gospel”. Walther not only knew how to write about preaching, but also how to preach. For example, he knew how to get people’s attention at the beginning of a sermon.
In preparation for this week, I read a couple of his sermons on our Gospel text and I would like to share the opening line from each of them. “In today’s reading, Christ Himself gives us a brief but complete picture of a sham (phony) Christian”. A few years later he opened the sermon with these words, “It is frightening beyond measure to hear that many, perhaps most, of those who call themselves Christians will be eternally lost”. Does he have your attention this morning?
Today, our Lord Jesus continues to warn His hearers, including the scribes and Pharisees, of the coming judgment and the severe danger they are in. He has done much of this primarily through parables, which as we heard a few weeks ago, are designed more to conceal truth than to reveal it. Last Sunday, we heard in the parable of the tenants, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you (hearers) and given to a people producing its fruits”. (good works) (Matthew 21:43)
The week before that we heard Jesus tell the religious leaders of the Jews, “tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God before (instead of) you”. (Matthew 21:31) Before that, the parables of the Laborers in the Vineyard and the Unforgiving Servant both make related points. Regarding God’s gifts, “He is allowed to do what He chooses with what belongs to Him” (Matthew 20:15a) and regarding forgiveness, our Lord calls “wicked” the person who has been forgiven much by God, yet refuses to forgive their neighbor who has sinned against them.
Now, we know from Scripture and the Small Catechism, that God has created the world and all that is in it and continues to sustain it by His Word. (Small Catechism, 1st Article Apostle’s Creed, (explanation and question # 108-112) He is the One who has done everything necessary for our salvation and He is the One who issues the invitations to His heavenly banquet out of His pure grace and mercy for us poor miserable sinners.
This is illustrated in our parable this morning; where the King is God and the Bridegroom, His Son, is Jesus. “Again, Jesus spoke to them in parables saying, the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his Son”. (Matthew 22:1-2) This banquet/party is described by the prophet Isaiah who said, “On this mountain, the Lord of Hosts will make for all peoples, a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine well refined … (it is a place where) the Lord will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of His people, He will take away from all the earth”. (Isaiah 25:6-8)
Those who heard Jesus’ parable knew well this passage from Isaiah and one might think they would welcome the long-promised Christ who was now in their midst, but (for the most part) they did not. “The king sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again, he sent other servants saying, tell those who were invited; See I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast”. (Matthew 22:3-4) Again, Jesus has done everything necessary for us and for our salvation; so come and receive His gifts.
Notice also the sense of urgency here, don’t wait, but rather come now for, “everything is ready”. Just as no one knows the day of their death, no one knows when the announcement will come that the banquet is ready and our Lord will return. So, we are called to be prepared at all times. Jesus said, “Stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming … watch therefore, because you know neither the day, nor the hour”. (Matthew 24:42, 25:13)
Now, “those who were invited” represent the people of Israel, and just like in the previous parables, they are the ones who initially rejected Christ, but the master doesn’t immediately give up, he sends the servants out again, to the same people. “But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business”. (Matthew 22:5) They all found themselves too busy with their own agendas to attend the king’s banquet; paying no attention to the word of his servants. We who often place our work, families, or other priorities over God’s Kingdom would do well to pay attention to Jesus’ words of warning this morning. As the Scriptures repeatedly declare, “today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 3:15, 4:7). This has been Jesus’ constant warning in the parables from recent weeks.
Jesus continues, “The rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them”. (Matthew 22:6) Just like the prophets and preachers sent by God throughout Israel’s history, they rejected them again and again, frequently violently. Our Lord “is patient, not wishing any to perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2nd Peter 3:9b) but do not think that the patience of the Lord will last forever. As the Apostle Paul declared, “Do not presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience; (His) kindness is meant to lead you to repentance”. (Romans 2:4b)
One day His patience will come to an end as Jesus said in the parable; “The King was angry and sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and destroyed their city”. (Matthew 22:7) And so, about 40 years later in the year 70, the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed, just as Jesus predicted; “there will not be left one stone upon another that will not be thrown down”. (Matthew 24:2)
But that is not the end of the story, for the invitations continue to go out, for those who are willing to hear. “Then the king said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited, were not worthy. (meaning they did not have true faith in Christ) Go, therefore, to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find”. (Matthew 22:8-9) Since most of Israel refused the invitation, now the Gentiles would also be included in the invitation.
“And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So, the wedding hall was filled with guests”. (Matthew 22:10) No distinctions were made in the invitation, everyone was invited. “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless”. (Matthew 22:11-12)
It was tradition is Israel in those days for the host of a wedding to provide special clothes for all of the guests to wear. To not wear these free clothes would surely offend the host. And this is what happened next, “the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and feet and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. (Matthew 22:13) You see, one can outwardly accept the invitation, but still be what CFW Walther calls a “sham Christian”.
We know, of course, Jesus is not talking about an earthly banquet/dinner, but about His kingdom and the way of salvation. Even though this man technically accepted the invitation, he was not clothed in the proper garment, which is the righteousness of Christ freely given by God and received through faith in Jesus. This man tried to get into the Kingdom of Heaven on his own terms or by his own way, instead of the only way that was provided; through Jesus’ atoning death and bodily resurrection. He wanted to be considered a true believer, but he had no faith. “With his mouth he confesses God’s Word as truth, but still acts as if that Word were a lie”. (CFW Walther, God Grant It, p. 804)
So, many today believe they will enter the Kingdom of Heaven by what they have done or that it doesn’t really matter if you go to church or what church you go to or what you believe, or how you act, thinking everyone is just trying to get to the same place. But Scripture/Jesus doesn’t talk like that, ever. Jesus claims to be “the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”. (John 14:6) Scripture also declares, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which they must be saved”. (Acts 4:12) And, “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all”. (1st Timothy 2:5-6a)
By His death on the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ won forgiveness of sins for all people, but He distributes those gifts of forgiveness, eternal life and salvation through particular means; what we call the means of grace; through the preaching; the Word and the Sacraments. We confess this in the explanation to the Third Article of the Apostle’s Creed, “the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel”; through the Word which He has commanded us to preach, the Word of repentance and forgiveness of sins”. (S D, Article XI, par. 27)
Holy Scripture is full of such testimonies. The Apostle Paul declared, “faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ”; (Romans 10:17) and “He saved us … by the washing of rebirth and the renewal of the Holy Spirit”. (Titus 3:5) The Apostle Peter also testified, “you have been born again … through the living and abiding Word of God” and “Baptism now saves you”. (1st Peter 1:23, 3:21a)
The Sacrament of the Altar also is a means of grace as it includes the words of institution from our Lord, “this is My body … this is My blood”; indicating His real presence with us in the bread and the wine for the forgiveness of sins and strengthening of faith. As Luther said, “whoever believes these words has exactly what they say; the forgiveness of sins”. (Small Catechism, Sacrament of the Altar, III, explanation) These blessings from God are truly offered in these means of grace, but “it is only through faith that we receive” them. (Small Catechism, # 298) This is how we get/stay ready for the heavenly banquet, for Jesus’ second coming.
The person who rejects these means, “who despise preaching and His Word (of God), who refuse to hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it” (Small Catechism, Third Commandment, explanation) who think, like the tenants in Jesus’ parable, that the Kingdom of heaven is theirs to do with as they please; or like the man with the wrong garment, who tried to get into the kingdom on his own terms; is/are in great spiritual danger. “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out”. (Acts 3:19)
By the way, let no one accuse or blame God for those who fall away from faith or reject the salvation that Christ has won for all of them by His atoning death and bodily resurrection. As our Confessions teach, “The cause for the contempt for the Word (of God) … is that the human will rejects or perverts the means of grace … it resists the Holy Spirt who wants to be effective and work in them through the Word”. (FC SD XI 41) “God cannot help the one who obstinately opposes the working of the Holy Spirit” in them. (Walther, God Grant It, p. 196)
Which brings us to the final verse. Jesus concludes the Gospel text this morning by saying “For many are called, but few are chosen”. (Matthew 22:14) All are invited, but many who receive the invitation have contempt for God. “God, our Savior, desires all people to be saved” (1st Timothy 2:4), but all are not willing to receive His gifts of grace, “for they do not listen to the Word at all”. (FC Ep. XI 12) As Stephen said to the unbelieving Jews who were stoning him, “you always resist the Holy Spirit”. (Acts 7:51b)
However, for us who believe, Jesus’ concluding words bring comfort to our hearts; for in His calling and choosing (us) God has ordained the following; (according to our Lutheran Confessions)
That the (entire) human race has been truly redeemed and reconciled with God through Christ; who by His obedience and innocent suffering and death … has merited for us both the righteousness that avails before God and eternal life
That these merits and benefits of Christ are offered, given, and distributed to us through His Word and Sacraments
That God wills to be effective and active in us … through the Word, when it is preached, heard, and meditated upon, to convert our hearts to true repentance … and true faith
That He wills to make righteous all those who in true repentance accept Christ by faith … and to receive them as heirs of eternal life
That He wills to sanctify in love those whom He has justified (made righteous)
That He wills to protect them … against the devil, the world, and the flesh, to guide and lead them in His ways, to lift them up when they fall and to comfort and preserve them in crosses and trials
That He wills to strengthen them in the good work that He has begun in them, and to preserve them until the end; when they abide in God’s Word, pray diligently, persevere in God’s goodness and faithfully use the gifts they have received
That He wills finally to save and glorify forever in eternal life, those whom He has called and justified.
Christ Jesus has promised these things to us and to all who believe in Him. Therefore, “whoever is of God, hears the words of God” and “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give them eternal life”. (John 8:47, 10:27-28a) “He who began a good work in you, will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ”. (Philippians 1:6) Clothed in Jesus’ perfect righteousness, which we received in our baptism, and trusting in Him alone and not in ourselves, we have been made ready for His heavenly banquet.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen.
The peace of God …