The Feast of Forgiveness
Luke 14:15-24
June 13, 2021 anno Domini
God does nothing for Himself. He does it all for you. God did not need to create the world and everything in it. By the time Noah comes along the Lord regrets creation because it is such a mess. But that does not mean He changes His heart toward the world. Even though God was sorry He made the world He still saved the world. He preserved Noah and his family in the ark. He promised Abraham and Sarah a son through whom the world would be blessed. He told Judah salvation would come through his family. He promised David a King to sit on his throne forever. God did not need to send His Son or sacrifice His Son. God did so for you and your salvation. This is THE good news of Holy Scripture. God does not need you, but He wants you and He wants you to know His love, to enjoy His gifts and abide in His presence for eternity.
So this parable of the Kingdom begins with the Lord, the Master of the House, putting on a great banquet for others. A great banquet doesn’t benefit the host; it benefits the guests. It costs him. When the Timm kids, granddaughters, spouses, and dogs come home for Memorial Day, our food and beverage budget goes way up. The cooking time goes way up. We work and spend and our children benefit. It costs us but we gladly pay that cost for the joy of family.
God’s cost and His joy in you are immeasurably greater and that is why He sends out His invitation. The invitation to His great banquet is this, “Your sins are forgiven in Christ.” Feast on Christ and you will dine on life and dessert will last an eternity and the meal will be topped off by the resurrection.
God the Father has paid for and prepared the feast through His Son. He put His Son together with the seed of Mary to create the main course – Jesus of Nazareth – the bread of life from heaven. Eat of Him and you will live. The Father baked this bread of life on the cross – burning off all His anger as His Son was roasted in the hell of God-forsakenness for our sin. When all was prepared for the guests Jesus Himself declared “It is finished.” God has no need of forgiveness, but you do and because He wants you to feast with Him, He prepared forgiveness for you in Christ at the cross.
Before Jesus ascended into heaven He ordered His servants, His men to invite people to the great feast. “Come, for everything is now ready.” Forgiveness has been won, so feast on the Lord’s forgiveness. This food is so rich you will be full but continue to feast evermore. It’s at least a three-course meal – there’s forgiveness, but where forgiveness is served there is also life and salvation. In a way, the banquet table is so long you cannot see the end, for in the end you’ll never hunger or thirst or weep or suffer anymore. “Come, for everything is now ready.”
Now don’t think the feast of Christ is all pleasure, that once you come to faith it is fabulous feast after feast. As one pastor put it, “The meal comes with a good salad covered in bitter dressing.” When you come to faith God also dishes out to you the cross, suffering, distress, and sorrow. Without trouble you would soon seek life apart from Jesus. Without bearing crosses you would think that heaven is easy and free. You would look on forgiveness as permission. The Lord serves up a bitter salad to whet your appetite for the sweet salvation of your Savior Jesus.
The rest of the parable speaks of how no one who was originally invited to the feast came because they were too busy feasting on their own food. Busy with their land (think cabin, hunting land, lake property), busy test driving their new tool, toy, or truck (five pair of oxen), or too busy with family to come to the feast. If you don’t get the point of the parable it is simply this – any of God’s good gifts that become your gods, that steal your Sunday worship, might well cost you entrance to the feast. The Jews were invited several thousand years ahead of time and yet when the day of the Lord Jesus arrived they would not come. They worshipped being Jewish instead of Jesus.
I’m going to deviate from the text and talk about something else that keeps us away from the feast. Don’t tell the seminary – departing from the text could earn you an “F” in preaching, but my diploma is signed so I think I’m safe.
You would think that any sinner, hearing of a free feast of forgiveness would run a hundred miles to enjoy that feast. If you have ever had a guilty conscience, you know what a relief and joy it is to have that guilt taken away by forgiveness. But look around. Where are all the sinners in Saint Cloud? They are not in church. Not even the sinners who identity as Lutherans or members of Redeemer are in church. Why is this? Because Satan has their ear. He has preached his lies to them and they have listened so they are feasting elsewhere.
The first sermon of Satan is this – your sins are too great for God to forgive. Yes, there is forgiveness, but not for you. “You got an abortion in college. You slept with a half dozen women before you got married. You are addicted to porn. You’re an alcoholic.” If he cannot bring up your worst sins to assail you he’ll make up sins to bury you in guilt. “Your children don’t go to church so you have failed as a Christian.” When Satan starts preaching that bull____ manure, listen to Jesus through His men, “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.” All your sins. There is no asterisk or footnote. There’s nothing in parenthesis. All your sins. Jesus says so. Jesus did so. Jesus serves so.
The second sermon of Satan is more sinister. For in this sermon Satan mimics a good pastor. He speaks of the fullness of forgiveness. He says God is love. He preaches “there is nothing you can do that God cannot forgive.” Listen carefully to what Satan preaches, “There is nothing you can do that God cannot forgive.” That almost sounds Lutheran, except it is not, because that is not forgiveness from the cross of Christ, that is permission to sin. There is nothing you have done that God cannot forgive, but don’t think for a moment that you can gladly, willingly, and knowingly sin banking on God’s forgiveness. Faith never says, “I’m going to sin because I know I’m forgiven.” or “It doesn’t matter if I sin because God forgives everyone.” That isn’t faith – that’s feasting on the folly of Satan and that will kill you. Sadly, I think a majority of people, including Christians have swallowed that poison and are dining with the Devil.
Remember the cost of the great feast of forgiveness. God sacrificed His Son. Jesus offered up His body on the cross and His life to the anger and wrath of God at your sin. This feast isn’t a couple thousand bucks at a caterer, but the holy and precious blood of God poured out for you. God doesn’t need you, but He wants you, so He gladly pays the cost to have you in His presence. To willingly commit sin, to regularly skip the feast for your land, your toys, or your family, is to treat Christ’s forgiveness as junk food, as a cheap and easy meal. If you treat forgiveness as permission to sin, God will permit you to be swallowed by your sin and devoured by death.
The Lord does nothing for Himself. He has done all this for you, because He wants His banquet full. He doesn’t care how spiritually crippled, lame, blind, or poor you are. He doesn’t care what the world thinks of you. He doesn’t even care what you think of yourself. He wants you with Him. His nature is love. His way is grace. His joy is you in His presence which is why He doesn’t count the cost. He gladly pays it and invites you. Christ has forgiven your sin. Feast on the Word. Eat His body and drink His blood in the Supper. Swallow your fill of forgiveness in the absolution. Come for all is ready. In the name of Jesus. Amen.