Warning: Gospel Ahead
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Matthew 22:1-14
Warning concerns judgment. Warning concerns bad things to come or
least things to be aware of so you don't fall into trouble. But
today's Gospel reading shows us of another warning: there's Gospel
ahead. It's clear that the Judgment of God is severe and He indeed
warns us of that. But it almost seems to be saying: Warning, God is
about to do something good. He's about to give you a Gift beyond
imagination, so you'd better watch out. Why would this be a warning?
Because if someone does something nice for you you now have the
opportunity to reject it.
When Jesus is telling a parable, you know that He is teaching
something spiritual. So when a king gives a wedding feast for his son,
you can think about the Heavenly King God giving a wedding feast for
His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. He is the groom and we, His
Church, are the bride. In English the king tells his servants to go to
those who were invited to the celebration. But what Jesus actually
said was, go call those who were called. This is Gospel language.
That's what God specializes in, the Gospel. When He calls, that's a
Gospel thing. Invited is okay, but when you're called, that means that
you're in. You have a front row seat in heaven, you don't even need to
RSVP.
But when the servants went to the called, they were refused. This is
the warning we need. When God calls, He is doing His Gospel work. When
He does His Gospel work, we become aware that it's not just me in my
own little world. The King of the Universe is calling me into His
eternal Kingdom—I can no longer remain in a state of ignorance that
I'm fine here in my own little world. But God doing His Gospel work,
never gives up. When He calls, that means you're in. So He's going to
reach out again.
What will He tell you? That you are called. You're in. The servants
said to the people: I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat
calves have been slaughtered, and *everything is ready.* All is
prepared. There is nothing for you to do. There are no forms to fill
out. No background checks. No hoops to jump through. You're called.
You're in.
But let me warn you now. When God decides that He's not going to give
up on you, that means that He's not going to give up on you. You might
just as soon that He leave you alone. You might have better things to
do. But surely you don't treat Him the way the people in the parable
did. Some ignored the servants. Some went back to their own business.
Some even had the audacity to treat them shamefully and even kill
them. We may not want what God gives, but at least we don't react in
such an appalling manner.
The warning is here. Whenever a gift is given, there is always the
opportunity to reject it. There's even the opportunity to scorn it.
Whenever God works His Gospel work, we have the choice of renouncing
it. We may do this by ignoring it. We may just go about our business.
We may even blatantly mistreat God. The danger would be for us,
though, to think that as long as we're not in outright denial of God's
gift of the Gospel, then we're okay. We would be missing the warning
entirely. The ones who ignored and the ones who went about their
business outright denied the king just as the ones who killed the
servants did. Because all of them were called. They were all in. But
they all said, no thanks, I'd rather be out. I want to have nothing to
do with you.
The king's response, of course, is a warning. The king's response was
swift. In his anger, he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers
and burned their city. The warning here pertains to the Day of
Judgment. When a person dies, there is no more calling, no more
reaching out. In this life if you reject the grace of God and die in
that state you are separated from Him and tormented for eternity.
But God is still about the business of the Gospel. The king tells his
servants that the wedding feast is ready, but that those were called
were not worthy. When characterizing what it is that makes one called,
there is only one thing that can be said: you are called because God
calls you. There is no worthiness in you. There is nothing you have
done or will be expected to do. You are called freely and solely by
the grace and mercy of God. That is His Gospel work. He gives freely,
not on the condition of something in return. It's all completely
one-sided.
So why does the king tell his servants that the called were not
worthy? Did they somehow mess up between the calling and the actual
wedding feast? No, it's because they rejected their worthiness. In and
of themselves they were not worthy. But the king called them. Therein
was their worthiness. They were counted as worthy because the king
wanted them to be at the feast of his son. There is no worthiness in
us. God calls us and that is how we become worthy. It is Christ alone
who is worthy. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain is the acclamation of
the Church. Christ takes on our unworthiness and replaces it with His
worthiness, His righteousness.
That's why God does His Gospel work. His Gospel work is to call
sinners to righteousness. Not by calling them to reform or try harder
or live in an exemplary way. By calling them to righteousness. What
that means is that when He calls you He gives you the righteousness of
Christ. When He calls you, He saves you. His calling work of the
Gospel brings about in you the very thing He calls you to, which is
eternal life.
To drive the point home, He pictures it in this way. The king commands
his servants: "'Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the
wedding feast as many as you find.' 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." His call goes out. It is not
partial. It goes out far and wide, to the high and the low. There's no
sign on the door of heaven that some need not apply. If the first
group of people don't convince you that God has called you to eternal
life in His Kingdom, this second one ought to. Because it's the call
to everyone.
The Son is the Groom and celebrating His Wedding Feast because He has
laid down His life for His Bride. When you're called, you're called.
When you're called, you're in. The celebration is eternal. It is fully
realized in the glory of heaven but begins now. This altar is the
place where our husband, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ celebrates
His Wedding Feast with us. Guess what's for dinner? He is the Host and
the Meal. He celebrates our salvation by giving to us what He has
accomplished our salvation: His Body and His Blood.
But warning: this is no namby-pamby invitation. This is a call.
There's Gospel ahead, and rejection of it brings disaster. An eternity
of being separated from the one who has called you is real. Those who
are not worthy should not partake of the Meal our Lord has prepared.
While we are never worthy because of anything we have done, we are
indeed worthy because our Lord has called us. Because we have
confessed our sins and believe that Jesus' Body and Blood given and
shed on the cross is the only sacrifice which accomplishes our
salvation and grants us righteousness, we are considered worthy by
Him.
The wedding feast of the king was filled. So is heaven. But there's
still room for all of us. In fact, because God continues to do His
Gospel work, we share even now in the Communion of our Lord Jesus
Christ with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven
when we partake of the Lord's Supper. Those who deny that Christ is
actually present in and with the bread and wine are not in true
communion with Christ and His heavenly and earthly Church. If they
partake of the Lord's Supper they receive the Body and Blood of
Christ, but to their harm.
Do you wonder why the man who somehow got into that wedding feast was
speechless? We know what the king would have done if met with an
excuse or a defense. But do you wonder what the king would have said
if the man had realized his guilt, apologized, and repented of his
sin? We know what kind of a king he was. He was a king who called. He
was a king who wanted people to share in the joy of the wedding feast.
Many rejected his gift. There was a guy who was in there physically,
but not really in, because He didn't want to be in there on the king's
terms. He held on to the fleshly clothes of his own worthiness. It is
only by stripping those off that we're truly in. It is only clothed
with the righteousness of Christ that we celebrate in full communion
at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.
Our God is a giving God, He is a Gospel God, He is the God who does
His Gospel work. If you are ever in doubt; if you ever sin to such a
great extent that you don't see how God can forgive you; if you ever
wonder if it's all just too far above your head; if you have any
question or objection whatsoever, be warned. We're prone to these
thoughts because we want to wrap ourselves in our sinful flesh. But
there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God in Jesus
Christ. There is Gospel ahead. There is Gospel here, for you now. It
was given to you in your Baptism. It is delivered to you here, at His
altar, often. He has called you. Everything is prepared, He has done
it all. You are in. Welcome to the Feast. Amen.
SDG
--
Pastor Paul L. Willweber
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS]
San Diego, California
princeofpeacesd.net
three-taverns.blogspot.com
It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything
except where the marks of the Church are concerned.
[Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian]
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