For those parents fuzzy thinking seems to be the fault, but for many of us coming up with excuses to get out of social situations takes a bit more work. This is especially true when a couple is divided as to whether to attend or not. An invitation to a wedding separates the human race into two categories. On the one hand you have the eternal optimist who loves a party, who gets excited just thinking about what the bride will wear, what the flowers will look like. This person thinks about the friends they’ll see when they arrive and the beauty of the pomp which is a part of a wedding. On the other hand, there is the rest of us. A wedding invitation might as well be a court summons. It is only a reason to miss another Saturday. Why can’t we just send a nice present? Why must we endure the reception? The couple will spend hours getting their picture taken. Can’t I schedule a root canal that day to avoid the whole scene? What do you mean I have to wear a tie? But the invitation calls for a response. Invitations often include that silly French acrostic: RSVP. That serves as a noose around you neck. If you want out of the affair, do you call when you know they’re not home so you can leave a message on their voice mail? Does the invitation and response get filed away with a thousand other pressing events (like the reminder to get the car’s oil changed) and you conveniently forget? An invitation is not always easy. In our passage this morning Jesus tells a parable about a wedding invitation which goes out. The wedding is not just any old affair, it is the marriage of a king’s son, the social event of the decade. This parable is the third part of a trilogy describing how people respond to God and how He responds to them. The two previous parables tell how God’s people historically responded to His offer of a relationship with Him. Some give lip service but refuse to follow through on their promises. Others are not even pleasant to begin with, but violently attack those the Father sends. In this third and final parable, Jesus describes how His people often respond to his offer of a party.
THE INVITATION GOES OUT. While this parable has several harsh elements, we must not miss the context here - a wedding! While some elements of this story may surprise us, like burning cities of people who refuse to come to the wedding or binding up those who are not appropriately dressed, we need to see what this event really is - it is a party, a celebration. This is what Isaiah describes in Isaiah 25:6-9:
This same scene was revealed to the Apostle John as he wrote in Revelation 21:1-4:
In this passage, the people are invited to a banquet and not just a few hour, sit down meal, but a feast that could go on for days. This is a time for joy. The people in our story are getting the second invitation. Verse 3 tells us that servants were sent to those who had been invited. It was custom in that part of the world where day timers were non-existent and noting exact days uncommon - that people would be invited to a party only to be told later when it would be held. This party was no surprise to these people. It appears that they agreed to come with the first invitation, but now they are all backing out. THE OFFER IS REJECTED. This is a strange response. Who would agree to go to a wedding only to refuse later. What is more, to refuse the invitation of a king is never wise. But the king is gracious and in verse 4 sends out even more servants, this time spelling out the great time they’ll all have at this wedding. But the response is deafening by its silence. One group pays no attention. They treat the offer with indifference (verse 5). While in the past they seemed glad to be invited, now they ignore the invitation as if it is not worth their effort to respond. What they did instead of attend the wedding was not evil - they went work in their fields, back to their jobs. It was an issue of priorities. This is the response many have to God’s invitation in the gospel. He calls people to a great banquet, to find their sins forgiven, acceptance with God, but their response is one of apathy. They may not be harsh - just uncaring. The people in this parable no doubt thought like many do today: they’ve got better things to do than come to this wedding. They have their education to finish, jobs to advance in, wives or husbands to make happy, children to care for. They want to read, travel, be entertained. But in their busyness in life they walk away from eternal life. This is a very real danger for us as well. So often it is the lawful things which destroy us when they are unlawfully managed. We can be so careful about so many good things in life we forget the most important. Our good occupations become sinister when they become our preoccupations. We too easily worship the work of our own hands, calling ourselves “god”. It has been said that “we so often worship our work, work at our play and play at our worship.” For this reason the meaning of life is distorted, our values are twisted and our relationships crumble faster than we can keep them in repair. Our lifestyles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot. How do we do this? It is easily seen in how we respond to the Sabbath. As the weather gets warmer and the opportunities to be elsewhere increase, where will you worship? The lake is a great place to be and God’s creation is beautiful, but the Lord calls you to be with His people, at the wedding feast on the Lord’s Day. The question of whether to play or pray on Sunday is now being debated by the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. The increasing idolatry of sports is being passed down to our children so that if our kids want to be involved in athletics they must chose between God’s invitation to worship him or the coach’s call to play. For others the rejection of the offer is more violent (verse 6). Others don’t settle for the cold shoulder, but are openly hostile to the invitation. The messengers are mocked as the message is ridiculed. There were those in Jesus’ day as well as in ours who reject the idea that Christ died on the cross, that His blood cleanses us from our sins. It seems to simple, too offensive. Where in your life is the priority of the gospel? Are you interested in all that goes on around you, but bored when it comes to who God is and what He has done and is doing in His world? Are you aware of the Gospel invitation? Do you assign as the highest priority your eternal state? Do you know your need as a guilty sinner or do you consider yourself secure and righteous because of your own morality? Do you have need of the banquet? The King responds to those whose priorities have no place for his wedding: destruction. The harshness of the image is meant to shock us, to make us realize that God’s invitation is not something we can take or leave. His invitation is a command. What Jesus describes here in this story was realized some forty years later when the Roman General Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. What was begun in Pentecost and seen throughout Acts was completed by that destruction as a new set of invitations goes out to others. NEW INVITATIONS GO OUT. Now not only the privileged first group are invited, now anybody and everybody, the good, the bad, the ugly are. The invitation to this wedding feast now would spread out from those who were first invited to everyone, just as the gospel went out from those who were part of the nation of Israel to all the known world. There are no limitations to the call; anyone who wants to come, may. At last, the hall is filled Now the palace is filled with enthusiastic guests, many of whom would never have dreamed to be in such a place. They came from all sorts of places, from all sorts of backgrounds. There is no limitation other than that they respond to the invitation, that they come to the ceremony. Jesus could’ve stopped the story here and shown that the king’s purposes worked out, that if those who were considered God’s people take for granted their standing with God, He will find others. Our unbelief will not nullify God’s plan to gather a people to celebrate all He has done. There were those during Jesus’ day who thought only they would ever be allowed in God’s presence, that spiritual misfits, that those all knew were “bad” would have no place at the banquet table in heaven. It may not be any different today when children of Christian parents think they’ve secured heaven because of their good name, their fine family. They need no invitation because they are already in. THE OFFER IS REJECTED AGAIN. But while the party is underway, one guest refuses to fully participate. In walks the King and one guest is not dressed appropriately. In our day and age we try to maintain a certain casual attitude toward dress, but in that culture the attire was important. In our weddings it is customary for the bride to wear white, but in some cultures around Israel, it was common for everyone to be dressed in white. To do otherwise would be to insult the bride and groom. Growing up our family would occasion certain restaurants which strictly enforced a dress code. When a patron would try to enter without the requisite coat and tie, one would be provided, so that no one would be offended by the sight of a slovenly dressed gentlemen. If you refused you would be shown the door. Likewise, dress was important. The Greeks had a custom in which the groom’s family provided dress for all the participants. Those invited from the road sides and throughout the country may not have had the necessary clothing, so something was provided. But this one guest refused to comply. He was not dressed in the proper garments. Revelation 19 describes the same scene. It is important to understand that a parable is illustrative, not a perfect description, point by point. In the parable we are called to attend the wedding of the King’s Son. Throughout the rest of Scripture we are called the bride. In Revelation 19:6-9 we read:
That is a great description: The fine linen was given her to wear. That linen, though, is also the righteous acts of the saints. The imputed righteousness of Christ, the righteousness we receive by faith as we look to Christ to have fulfilled the law for us in our place is the only basis of our righteousness. Get the order wrong and you’ll be in the same predicament as this man. The man’s dress was inappropriate. He was not naked or in rags. In the same way, we will always be dressed in the wrong suit if we come before God with our own good deeds, our own righteousness, our own morality. To offer to God anything of your own doing is to spit in His face, for our Father has prepared for you wonderfully pure clothes, without any stain, any spot, any wrinkle. To reject that gracious gift is to reject the offer of eternal life. To do so would be defiant insolence which would not go unpunished. To do so would be to pretend to be a Christian. Rather, cease trying to earn God’s favor by clothing yourself with your own goodness. Don’t pacify yourself with goodness while not trusting in Christ’s clothing you. Don’t consider Christ as a helper if He is not your savior. Rather, when by faith you trust Christ alone for your righteousness, then what you produce will, because of Christ, be pleasing to the Father. What you will produce will then and only then be right and good before the Father. Allow God to renew your heart and then with a new heart you will do that which pleases God. Having been clothed with Christ, then you may respond with the righteous deeds of the saints, then your obedience, because of Christ, will have meaning. The king inquired as to his attire, but the man offered no reason; he had no excuse. For that he was tossed out on his ear. The description is frightening, for in the parable the story takes on a note of realism. He is not just roughed up a bit and told to leave; he is bound, thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The description is more than just being removed from the party; it is the description of the eternal torment of Hell. The misery here described is one not of anguish in punishment, but of increased anger and fury. The gnashing of teeth helps to describe the attitude. It is not one of repentance and sorrow for a wrong decision. Gnashing teeth is the response of anger and hatred, of defeat but a refusal to resign that repulsion against God. The misery of hell is a misery which is the necessary result of sin. It is sin come to its fullness, completely ripe. Here is a picture of a man who came into the church, but rejected the free offer of the gospel, refused the righteousness of Christ and therefore could not produce anything pleasing to God. He thought himself too good to produce the works which God demands, so now he spends eternity in torment, still frothing at the mouth, still refusing to not to hate his God. Jesus summarizes this story by the simple statement: many are invited, but few are chosen. Matthew uses the word ”invited” or “called” not as Paul does, which refers to God’s effective calling to salvation. Rather called here means to invite in. The church has always been comprised of those who join the ranks, but do not possess faith in Christ. This final saying is to challenge us to question, to examine ourselves. Just because you are here this morning does not guarantee your salvation. There must be a response: do you believe in Christ’s atonement rather than your attainment? From that faith are there then good works, evidence of God’s grace in your life? This final verse is an admonition, a warning, a call to examine yourself. There is before you this morning a small taste of the feast God has prepared for us. Here in the bread and wine God calls those who are His, those who in faith look to Christ for their only hope in salvation. In these simple elements God promises to nourish and feed us, to apply the good news of Christ’s death for us. Let us accept the gracious invitation of this King! Let us be washed, cleansed and sanctified, and receive the robe of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, that we may feast in his kingdom now and forever. Amen. |
