Twentieth Sunday after Trinity

From beginning to end, the kingdom of heaven is about the invitation to the wedding banquet. You have all been invited to a banquet before, so you have some idea of what’s it’s like to get an invitation. This banquet is the wedding feast of the Lamb that has no end, and God the Father has been inviting people to it from the beginning of the world. Indeed, heaven and hell hang on this invite. To that end, God has been sending out His slaves for generations. Yes, our English bibles say “servants,” and it’s proper to think of your pastor as your servant. But he is, as St. Paul is fond of calling himself, “a slave of Christ.”

Normally, people are happy to receive an invite to an amazing wedding banquet, but something different is at play in this case. Because the world, the sinful nature, and the devil have all conspired against God and His heaven, the invite to eternal joy arouses deep hatred and resentment. People don’t just ignore the invite, they are angry to receive it, and they mistreat God’s slaves. Yes, some people are simply too busy—they go their own ways, one to his own farm, another to his business—but the rest seize the slaves, treat them spitefully, and even kill them.

On one hand the life expectancy for a pastor is somewhat longer at present than it was in the days of old. Pastors generally don’t get stoned anymore. But it doesn’t mean that the message is any better received. Many pastors are living martyrs, the subjects of malicious gossip and vile and hellish campaigns of mistreatment. And what stirs up such ire? As I said, the world, the flesh, and the devil conspire together to reject God’s invitation to eternal life.

When those who had originally been invited refuse to come, God gets angry. When the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city (Mt 22:8). Last week, a Lutheran woman was saying on Facebook, “God doesn’t punish. Only the devil punishes.” Somebody has not been reading her Bible. God certainly does punish. The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness. But notice what stirs up the wrath of God here. It’s not that people misbehaved. It’s not even about sin. All of God’s wrath over sin was poured out upon His Son, Jesus, upon the cross. What makes God angry here is that people who were invited into heaven refuse to come. That just ticks God off. You see that His wrath is actually His love. For God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (Jn 3:16). It makes God angry when the people He sent His Son to die for in order to open heaven to them, ignore and spurn His invitation.

Again and again He sends out His slaves, saying, “Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my banquet. My sacrificial animal has been slain—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world—and all things are now ready. Come to the wedding feast!” But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his slaves, treated them spitefully, and killed them (Mt 22:4–5). Can you see why this makes God angry? He desires that none would perish, that all would be saved. He sends His Son to suffer and die for the sins of the world. The door to heaven stands open. Everything is ready. And people don’t just decline; they mistreat and murder God’s messengers.

So God kills those murderers and burns up their cities. Cities are the pinnacle of human achievement. But what do our achievements matter if we reject heaven? What does a lifetime on earth amount to for someone who refuses eternal life? God will burn it all up. Everything that is not built upon the foundation of Christ will be destroyed.

But now we get to the good part. Then the King said to His slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy (Mt 22:8). What made them unworthy? What made them unfit for heaven? Was it their sins? No. Sins don’t keep people out of heaven. Jesus died to forgive all the sins of all the world. They were not worthy because they refused to come. God’s will was that all would be saved, but they refused God’s will. So finally, God allows them to have their will. God says to the damned, “Thy will be done.” What a terrible thing to hear! It’s why we pray the opposite: “Not my will, Lord. Thy will be done!”

But I said we were getting to the good part. The King said to His slaves, “Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.” So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both band and good. And the church was filled with people, I mean, the wedding hall was filled with guests (Mt 22:9–10). Did you catch that? Where did people get the idea that you get into heaven by being good, when Jesus tells us clearly that God’s slaves invite everyone they can find, both good and bad!

I told you this was the good part! Did you get the invite? Have you been gathered from the highways into the church of God? How did you get here? By being good? By living without sin? No. You’re part of the crowd of both bad and good. And how did you get invited? God found you, and He gathered you. This is what the Bible calls election to salvation. Where were you when God found you? On the highways and byways, that is, on the paths leading out of the city. There are many paths in life—all of them leading into destruction, away from the city of God, away from the banquet. Sorry, Pope Francis, you are absolutely wrong, a false teacher and a wolf among the sheep. There is only one true religion, one path to God: Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. And salvation consists of being stopped in your tracks on the road to perdition, being turned around by the mercy of God, and being led by God’s messengers, His slaves, back to the banquet feast.

God or bad—it doesn’t matter. A lifetime of sin is all forgiven. What matters is: Were you found by God’s slaves on the roads that lead out of the city? Did you hear the invite that elects you to salvation? For all within the sound of my voice today, the answer is, “Yes.” How do you know that you are saved? How do you know you are one of the elect? Certainly, not because you’ve been good, without sin. Don’t look to that. Instead, look to your baptism. This is what joins you to the death of Christ and the forgiveness of sins. This is your letter of invitation. It’s your guarantee of admittance to the banquet! In Holy Baptism, God forgives your sins and clothes you with the robe of Christ’s righteousness. It doesn’t matter what you brought to the banquet, or the table. In fact, you know what that was: sin and hostility towards God. But that is covered by the blood of Jesus. It is washed away. The servants gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. Go ahead and look at your neighbor. Look whom God found in the highways and hedges, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

But there’s one final warning: The King finds a man who does not have on a wedding garment. You see, there are two kinds of people who reject salvation: the ones at the beginning who refuse the invite, and also the man who thinks to enter heaven by His own efforts. Where is his baptismal robe? Where is his wedding garment? It was given him as a gift, and yet, here he is without it. This is a man who has despised his baptism and shown no regard for the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness which He gives as a free gift to all who receive it. This man says, “I know I’m going to heaven, because I’ve been a good person.” Many people think this way, but no one enters on his own merit. Good or bad, you will enter the wedding feast on the strength of Christ’s merit or not at all.

Ultimately, this is wonderful news. Heaven has never been about being good. It is about God’s desire to invite unworthy sinners and to give us what we could never earn or deserve. To that end God sends out His slaves to elect all that can be found to salvation. He found you and marked you for salvation through Holy Baptism. When you receive the Body and Blood of Christ a few minutes from now, it is a foretaste of the eternal banquet. God is hand-delivering His invitation to you today, “Come to the wedding feast, for all things are now ready.” Amen.