The Invitation

Sermon from 10/09/2011

Last Sunday when Pastor Steve asked if I would be willing to preach to all of you fine people today, I didn’t even hesitate to say yes. Then I took a look at what the readings were, and found out that the Gospel Lesson was Matthew 22:1-14. In my opinion, well in many peoples’ opinions, this is one of the Hardest Parables taught by Jesus. So next time I see Pastor Steve I am going to have to thank him emphatically.

As I just said the gospel lesson for today is a tough one so I want to take a few moments to give you a little background before I get too far into it.

Now, the Jews are a story telling people. A lot of their history and religion  passed down from generation to generation through the stories of their ancestors. As we know Jesus taught us a lot in Parables, which made him an unusual teacher because his stories were not only memorable but difficult to understand. Even the Disciples had issues understanding Jesus some times. We can find an example earlier in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 13:10-16

¹⁰And the disciples came, and said unto him (referring to Jesus), Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

¹¹He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

¹²For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

¹³Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

¹⁴And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias(Isaiah), which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

¹⁵For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

¹⁶But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

Jesus’s answer to his disciples reveals a lot about his purpose in teaching, he uses a quote from the book of Isaiah (6:9-10) to show that even though people may have physical sight and hearing they still may not be able to understand; their hearts have been “waxed gross” or hardened. This as we know directly affects the ability to comprehend things on a spiritual level.

But for us, being disciples of Jesus, we have been blessed with the ability to not only hear them with our ears, but with our hearts, so we can take them at the Spiritual Level that it was intended to be understood.

Matthew 22

¹And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,

Here “again in parables” refers to the group of 3 parables “The Two Sons”, “The Wicked Vinedressers” then this one “The Wedding Feast”.

²The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,

It would do us well to understand that Jesus is actually speaking about the kingdom of Heaven , the King is God the Father, and the Son is of course, Jesus.

Here we are going to take a quick look into the book of Revelation 19

⁶And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

⁷Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

⁸And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

⁹And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb

And now we know what wedding it is, back to Matthew 22:3

³And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.

⁴Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.

⁵But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

⁶And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

Now here Jesus is telling us that a very specific group of people were invited. That group are the Jews, being directly invited into the Kingdom of Heaven by the Lord God, not only did they ignore his gracious offer but they decided to slay his Servants/Messengers,  such as John the Baptist and of course Jesus.

⁷But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Now we can look at this verse as prophecy with Jesus telling them of the coming destruction of Jerusalem around 70 a.d.

⁸Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.

Because as we know not only did they not listen or believe what Jesus was telling them, they brought false charges against him that lead to the crucifixion. They were found to be unworthy not by their social status but because their hearts were hardened and could not accept the invitation through faith.

⁹Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

¹⁰So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

Now these two verses are a pair of the best verses we will ever hear. This is where the Lord God sends his servants to the Gentiles, to us, and invites and gathers us to take part in his kingdom and the wedding of his Son, Jesus. And when it states “both bad and good” this is the righteous and the sinner, all are invited.

¹¹And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

¹²And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

Augustine’s theory was that it was custom for the Host to provide guests with the wedding garments, this would have been especially necessary for these guests in particular because they were brought in off the street.  So this man would have not been in his wedding garments out of insult or spite to the King.

Others believe the wedding garments refer to the cloak of Righteousness, which we as Christians can only put on by faith.

But I want to take a look at the word Friend as it is used here. Here the word used in Greek is Hetaire which translates as Comrade or Friend and is only used 3 times in the new Testament, here and in Matt. 20:13 from the Parable of the workers in the Vineyard (But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?)  And the only other time it is used, is it is the same word Jesus uses for Judas in the garden of Gethsemane Matt.26:50 (⁵⁰And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come?) All three of these times referring to someone who was present under false pretenses, so it is left to interpretation, but more than likely this person was there for no good.

¹³Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

It is also safe to assume that Judas was present when Jesus taught these two parables so when Jesus used it to describe Judas, he may have been telling Judas what to expect after Judas completes his betrayal.

¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen.

Beloved the Lord calls out to everyone, our invitation did not get lost in the mail. It is an open invitation for all to come to the wedding feast, if we put on our cloaks of righteousness that the Lord so graciously laid out for us, all we have to do is choose him and we too can be partakers of his everlasting kingdom. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.