You are In in Jesus
Matthew 22:1–14
15 October 2017 – Redeemer
When I was at Prince of Peace this past week for Chapel I told them what the word parable means. It comes from two Greek words – para and ballo. Para means alongside – parallel lines are two lines beside each other, a para-medic works alongside doctors. Ballow is easy – you throw balls. So Jesus throws out these stories, the parables, but there is a story beside the story. Today the earthly story is about a wedding, but the story beside the story, is about the Kingdom of heaven.
The other interesting thing about the Kingdom parables is that Jesus uses some of the most joyous created gifts on earth to describe the Kingdom of heaven. He uses vineyards. What do vineyards produce? Wine. Wine in moderation makes you happy. It changes your attitude and outlook. The Kingdom of heaven brings you a joy and a new attitude toward almost everything you experience in the world. And unlike wine which gives a momentary lift, Christ Jesus lifts us for all eternity to a joy that knows no end. Jesus uses weddings. Perhaps there is no greater created gift on earth. It was the first gift given to Adam and Eve – one man and one woman committed to each other for one lifetime – holy marriage. Weddings usually involve a great party – fancy clothes, extravagant meals, a little wine. Often at a wedding no expense is spared for the celebration. And so it is in the Kingdom of God – no expense spared that you might enjoy forgiveness for your sins and the resurrection to eternal life.
Now on to the wedding feast of the parable. Who is the focus a typical wedding? It is the bride isn’t it? Not so in the parable. The King is throwing a wedding feast for His Son, but please don’t say the Bible is patriarchal or misogynistic. The God of Holy Scripture created women to be loved and cared for and the Bible gives women the highest regard – not only did they play a vital role in the delivery of the Savior and the carrying of God’s promises, but women were also the first witnesses to the resurrection. Plus there was no man who thought higher of women than Jesus – after all He laid down His life for His bride the Church.
The wedding feast is about the Son, which means the Kingdom of Heaven is all about the Son, Jesus. Now you might find that offensive – they certainly did in Jesus’ day. Jesus told this parable during Holy Week, just days before His death and every time He told a parable the Pharisees plotted all the harder to kill Jesus. This is what is offensive about the Kingdom of Heaven – it isn’t about you. It’s about Jesus. Christianity is not about you, but it is for you, because Jesus is for you, but everything starts and finishes and centers on Jesus.
The King gave a Wedding Feast for His Son and He wants everyone there. He wants you there, all of you. He wants that wedding hall full – and don’t worry about the price, don’t worry about reservations, the King has a Kingdom full of treasure and He’s not worried about running out of room or food or wine. The invite, the wedding feast, all of this is in the name of His Son. Jesus is the way in for you. He’s your invite and the invite is this simple – Jesus Christ died for sinners. He died for you. That’s your in and that is what people find offensive. You don’t get in because of you who are – in fact, if I would try to come to God just as I am, I wouldn’t get in. But God so loved the world that He gave His Son. God loved us in this way – He took my sin and your sin and draped them on Jesus. Jesus laid down His life for the love of His life – for you. The Son of God became man – united not only to human flesh, but to be One with us in our sin.
Do you know how in marriage everything that belongs to your spouse becomes yours? If your wife has $30,000 in student loans, guess what – you’re now in debt too. That old stinky hockey jersey your husband should have thrown away three decades ago now becomes your (plural) possession. Well, in the marriage of God and Man that takes place in Jesus all that you haves becomes His, every one of your old, rotten, stained and soiled sins, your debt of death and hell becomes His and He takes it away by His death. By His resurrection He proclaims that now you have the white robe of His righteousness. You’re covered by Him, beautiful in the Son. Brides do not wear white because they are pure (they are not.) Brides wear white because they are a picture to all of us of the beauty we have when Christ clothes us with His life, death, and resurrection.
This is the wedding to which the King invites all of us, but not everybody comes in. Many are called, but few are chosen. The first invited guests were just too busy – farming, shopping, heading to the land. Some are still too busy to enjoy the Son’s wedding –camping, boating, working it’s the one day we can have family time. But I don’t need to talk about those guests – they’re not here today.
Then we come to the other guests. Here we again learn much about the Kingdom. After the intended guests ignore the invite the servants are sent to invite anyone they find – good or bad. Those new guests didn’t get an invite because of who they were. You don’t get into the Kingdom of God because of who you are – you might look really good – married 25 years, the perfect 2.7 children or you might know you’re not so good – hot-tempered, rude, quarrelsome, pretty weak when it comes to resisting your favorite temptation. plagued by the sins of your youth. Remember point 1 about the parable – it’s not about you. It’s about the Son. It’s about Jesus. The Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel – by the good news that Jesus died for sinners, and since you are one, He died for you. You’re forgiven, righteously robed in Christ. That’s how you’re in.
No one in the parable, the good people or the bad people, get in wearing their own clothes. This King is His extravagance opens the royal wardrobes so that Farmer Bob gets rid of his Carhardts to wear a tux and black tie and his wife Jane is wearing a gown that rivals anything the stars wear on the red carpet – except Jane’s gown covers her body, because this King has a high regard for women. You guests are in because the King has clothed you. That’s why you wore a white gown in your baptism and why a white pall will cover your casket at your funeral. Christ covers you. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal 3:27)
What is that garment that gets you in and what does it mean to wear it? Well, that is answered in the one fellow who got in, but then was kicked out. Dr. Luther pictures this man as a black smith coming right from work. His face and clothes are covered with soot. Since he has been shoeing horses his boots are covered in horse droppings. Another pastor pictured him as wearing an orange plaid leisure suit from the 70s. If you weren’t alive in the 70s be glad that you never had a leisure suit. But what does this mean? This man wanted forgiveness, but he wanted to keep his sins. He wanted Jesus, but did not desire repentance. Jesus made no difference to him. He knew Jesus, but really had no faith, for faith repents, faith loves God’s Word, faith desires to be clothed in Christ, faith fights against sin, faith calls a thing what it is. You cannot be in the Kingdom and not be changed in Christ and by Christ.
So there’s the story Jesus throws out to us today, in the hopes that it catches in our ears and the Spirit works it into our hearts. It is an offensively joyous story – offensive because I don’t like to hear that it isn’t about me, joyous like wine and a wedding because everything Christ did, He did for you – that you feast on the rich food of forgiveness and drink deeply of the wine of life and the resurrection. You are most certainly welcome to this great wedding feast – in and only in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
14 October 2017 anno Domini