10.15.2023 - The Invitation

Scripture: Matthew 22:1-14

Matthew 22:1–14 NIV

1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. 4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ 5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. 13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

10/15/2023

Order of Service:

Announcements

Kid’s Time

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon 17 mins 19 secs

Closing Song

Benediction

The Invitation

War Games and Weddings

For centuries, the powerful have played war games with each other to win power and protect their interests. Long before the Cold War with the Soviet Union or the family dynamics between the rulers of Europe in World War I, our histories were filled with political aspirations and bloody conflicts. I doubt there is a single plot of land across the entire world that has not hosted both violence and leaders who treated that violence as a game to their ends. From tribal warfare throughout history to the Constant international conflicts, part of being human seems to be making games out of conflict and suffering the trauma when we are at the mercy of the war games others play.

This absurdity was emphasized in a movie 40 years ago called WarGames. The movie's premise was a scientist who created a computer program that battled the player in a countdown to doomsday. It was a training exercise to help military strategists sharpen their skills. Outside the military base, a teenage boy hacked into the government and played against the supercomputer for fun. Unbeknownst to him, the computer was connected to all of the missile bases in the US and began preparations to launch warheads across the globe. What started as an innocent game quickly threatened the lives of everyone on earth.

We have enough problems with conflict and violence in our world without making games out of it, but sometimes, that is precisely what we do. We make life into a game. For God, our lives are never a game. He takes our lives and relationship with Him seriously and has made it His top priority to move us from sin and death into new life in His family.

God invites us, and we receive that invitation by responding in obedience.

The Wedding

In the ancient world, wars and weddings were the bookends of group relationships. From local communities to the first nation-states, the places that shared borders fought until the weary people came together, often celebrated by the marriage of their respective leaders and families. They were peace treaties not written in ink but in the flesh and blood of the generations that would follow, and they were one of the most critical ways that nations grew before the last few centuries. King David fought many wars for Israel, but he and his son Solomon solidified those conquests with marriages.

Just like the parable was told, the community leaders and head families would have received the first invitations to the royal wedding. For them, it was not just a privilege. It was a responsibility. They attended the wedding as representatives of the people. Refusal was not an option. This was not a celebrity wedding. It was a wedding of state, and to choose not to attend would have been a blatant disrespect to the nation, not just the king. Making the kind of excuses in this parable would have been an insult moving into treason. That may sound harsh, but this was how civil wars started. Kings became very nervous when their people stopped attending their big political celebrations, and death usually followed either those who refused the invitation or the king and his family.

This may sound extreme to us, but the people during the time of Jesus were used to Roman emperors who could have people killed for any reason. Even King Herod, in Jerusalem, had John the Baptist killed simply because his stepdaughter asked for his head. Then, like the wicked farmers from our parable last week, these leaders abused and killed the king’s servants. The Jewish leaders feared Rome and King Herod, their puppet king. They were trying to balance keeping the Roman leaders happy without breaking God’s law. Jesus, however, was not helping their situation. He wasn’t paying proper allegiance to Roman politics or the agenda of the Jewish Council. It got so bad that Caiaphas, the high priest, called for the death of Jesus.

John 11:49–50 says,

49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all!

50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

Sadly, they killed Jesus but didn’t save their nation from Rome. Thirty-seven years after they hung Jesus on the cross, Rome besieged Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, and leveled the city to the ground. Those leaders who heard Jesus may have misinterpreted this parable. Overwhelmed with fear of the Roman empire, they made Caesar their king, leaving God out of the interpretation altogether.

However, we have learned that the first part of interpreting scripture is finding God. Like the parables before, God is the ruler, this king who is celebrating the marriage of His son. The Jewish leaders rejected God’s invitation. Some because it was more profitable, comfortable, and convenient to follow Caesar and let the Romans make them rich. Others rejected God’s invitation because they feared they would lose everything, including their lives, if they did not. There may have been some who had stopped believing in God and, therefore, did not believe the invitation at all. Whatever their reason, they did lose it all. Their city was burnt to the ground, and those who did not flee to the Gentile nations were killed.

All that because they would not accept an invitation.

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Accept the Invitation

Who did the invitation go out to then? Everyone else. The poor and lame, the blind, deaf and mute, and anyone near and far off who is willing is invited to attend this wedding in their place. The people are called to come and represent themselves because their leaders would not do it for them. They will bring their tribute and pledge allegiance to the King and His Son at this royal wedding.

Today’s parable and last week’s involve a son and heir to the kingdom. The introduction of the son into these parables brings out a messianic theme. This means that rather than just identifying God, others, and ourselves in this parable, a new person is involved - the promised Messiah, the Son of God. Even hinting about the Messiah would have given the Jewish people an emotional response similar to how we talk about the book of Revelation and the end of the world. It would have caught their attention in the last parable that the wicked farmers planned to kill the son, and it is even more blatant in this parable about the wedding of the king’s son that the leaders rejected.

This parable finally puts Jesus right in the center of the story of God. Jesus Christ, His only begotten son, was born of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem, the city of David, just as the prophets foretold. At the birth of this prince of heaven, the leaders of the Jews ignored and rejected him, and King Herod tried to have him killed. Yet the poor shepherds from the hills and the wise men from the Gentile nations of the East came and paid him the honor they owed Him. Should we be surprised that His wedding would be any different? This parable was not trying to hide the message from the Jewish leaders. It was told to reveal the truth of the hearts of all who listened. In addition to considering our relationship with God and others, this parable forces us to consider our relationship with Jesus, God’s son. This wedding is found at the end of the book of Revelation, so this parable was not only lived out 2000 years ago, it is still being lived out today. God is not done inviting, and we are still responding to that invitation.

“Many are invited, but few are chosen,” Jesus said.

Some were invited but did not accept the invitation and thus were not chosen. Being chosen here does not mean you got an invitation. It is not being selected to come to a wedding party. Remember, this is a wedding of the head of state between heaven and earth, God’s Kingdom officially taking over, and Jesus coming to reign forever in His Kingdom. This is a parable of the second coming of Christ, and everyone is invited because this will change everyone’s lives whether they want it to or not. Being chosen here means accepting your place and participating in this kingdom of heaven. The titles, positions, responsibilities, gifts, and honors intended for the leaders would have been given to those who accepted the invitation by showing up and participating. Those who chose disobedience would be stripped of their power and property and punished as insurrectionists.

And there is a third kind of response here as well.

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Participate in the Family

There was one unnamed person who accepted the invitation to the party. When the King went to greet His guests personally, He was shocked at the clothing this person wore. We are given no details about what those clothes were other than they were not “wedding clothes.”

Thoughts about dress code can send us all into an emotional hysteria, whether we take this to mean literal wedding clothes or spiritual righteousness that we are supposed to wear. The vast cultural differences between us today and in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago make the discussions about physical clothing here unfruitful and distracting from the main focus. The clothes identified the person and purpose for their attendance. Out of a multitude of guests, one man stood out to the king as a person who did not belong there.

When the king asked him kindly how he got in without wedding clothes, the man had nothing to say. There was no excuse. We don’t know if he was not invited or if he had not accepted his invitation in a way so that he knew what to expect. We know he tried to get in on his own, but it did not work. He was bound and thrown out into the cold and darkness outside the kingdom, where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The bottom line is this: no one gets into heaven as someone else’s plus one. You either come with your own invitation or not at all. There is no sneaking in the back door or slipping through a window. You come with your invitation or not at all.

Jesus taught in this parable that the invitation went far and wide to both good and evil people. If this singled-out man in the parable had an invitation, he chose not to participate like everyone else. He decided to do his own thing in the kingdom of heaven, and again, that will not be allowed. God doesn’t owe us eternal life. God doesn’t owe us anything. By His grace, we receive an invitation and are welcomed as part of His family. It is not grace to think that Jesus is just holding the door open for anyone to come and go as they please.

The king of heaven knows who we are, and we will see him face-to-face at the big wedding celebration at the end of everything. I expect that is why some people in the story turned down the invitation and continue to do so today. They don’t want to face God.

By your baptism, you were invited into the Kingdom of heaven, God’s family, and by your life every day after it, you choose to accept or reject that invitation. You need not fear being kicked out of heaven for not being good enough. No one who received the invitation deserved it or was good enough.

What do we wear? Our gratitude to God for inviting us to join His Kingdom and our obedience to Him as our Lord and Savior. We live into being chosen members of the Kingdom of Heaven when we respond with acceptance and give our obedience to God from this moment forward.

You have been invited. It is your decision whether to attend and stay or to go your own way.