Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

This morning we are rejoicing with the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League and their work of service for the Gospel and the church. I am always amazed at the list of missions they are able to assist every year with the collections they get from the simple “Mite Boxes.” Many missions are helped so that the Gospel can go out to the entire world. So today we use the theme, “Compelled by Christ’s Love,” a wonderful theme that I worked on this week in preparation for this sermon. But we are also in the midst of our Stewardship campaign and we have a theme for that as well, “Every Gift is precious/valuable to God.” A good theme as well. So how can these go together?

So in my preparation I turned to our texts for today. I was drawn to Matthew’s lesson of Jesus Parable of the Wedding Banquet. Now this parable is not an easy one and I struggled with it. There seems to be so much violence in it and it seems to be so negative.

A king throws a wedding banquet for his son. He invites many to the banquet and sends out his servants with the invitation. No if I got an invitation from a great leader to come to a banquet feast I think I would gladly accept and go. But that is not the case in this parable. The first invitation is rejected. So the king sends out other servants to invite those chosen again and even to tell them what was on the menu. But still they reject the invitation and not only that a few decide to mistreat and kill the servants! So what does the king do? He avenges the servants’ murders and burns down their cities! Not a pretty situation. So, the king decides that since the banquet is ready he will invite anyone who will come. The servants go out into the streets and bring in anyone who will come. The story seems to be getting better. But then it appears to turn negative again. The king comes into the banquet and finds a man not dressed in the appropriate attire. After questioning him and getting no response the king has the man tied and thrown out into the darkness! Wow! This is not an easy parable to swallow.

What do we do with parable? And how will it fit with our various themes? As I have taught and been taught when you approach a parable there may be many points and meanings but there is always one main point, the point that Jesus intended for the audience He spoke to. So what is the main point of this parable? Well, we have to look to the context to help us discover the main point.

This parable comes in a series of parable of which this is the third and final one. The first parable deals with a father and two sons and who does the work the father asks. The second is about an owner of a vineyard who leaves home and “rents-out” his field to others. When he announces his return the tenants decide to rebel and kill the messengers and eventually kill the owners son. (Sound similar to the parable we are looking at?) Each of these parables seems to be dealing with rebellious people and what happens to them.

Jesus is also speaking to a specific group of people. He is not speaking to his disciples or to the crowd but to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. They were challenging Jesus and so Jesus response is with these parables. So what is Jesus trying to convey?

Two of these parables have a “hidden” meaning that the teachers of the Law would probably have picked up on. A vineyard was often a symbol for God’s chosen people (Israel in the Old Testament and the Church in the New Testament). So this parable on one level is directed at Israel. And the last parable has a wedding banquet which often would be a symbol for the

Messiah, which he would come and prepare a banquet for his people. Even the New Testament refers to Christ as the Bridegroom and the Church as the bride.

So, a secondary meaning, that I think the Pharisees and teachers of the Law would have gotten, is that Israel has rejected God’s servants (the prophets). This of course only angered the teachers of the Law.

But we also have to take the “violent” nature of these parables and see them in the eyes of a first century listener. The reaction of the invitees to the servants is shocking but the response of the king isn’t. A king (and actually others) had every right to avenge the murders of his servants and to burn down the city of these people was not unheard of. So this would not have been that shocking to the listener.

But what about the king throwing out the man who wasn’t dressed correctly? This wasn’t that shocking either. When a wedding feast was put on in Palestine often there was a dress code dictated by the host. In the case of a king often the dress code was to put on what the king made available for the guest. So the man was just not wearing “good” clothes but was rejecting the king’s gracious act of providing the proper clothes. The man’s guilt can be seen by his silence.

Now all violence is shocking but placed in the context of the time period it can be seen as not unusual and maybe even expected. So what is the main point of this parable?

The main point is the graciousness of the King!

The King showed his graciousness by inviting chosen people to a great banquet. His graciousness is shown in that he invites them several times (gives them every chance to be a part of the banquet). He again shows his graciousness by not letting the banquet not happen but inviting anyone off the street to come. And he shows his graciousness by providing the proper clothing. What happens in stark contrast to the main point (which often parables do to get us to pay attention) is the rejection of that gracious invitation. But it is the grace of God that is the main point. The rejection of God’s grace by the Jewish people is secondary to that point.

And that main point fits well with the theme, “Compelled by Christ’s Love.” How do you live out your life as a Christian? Are you compelled by the Law or by the Gospel? Often the Law compels us – “I must live my life this way because God said so.” And while there is some truth in that, only being compelled by the Law will only least to frustration. We are imperfect people and God’s law demands perfection. We can’t live up to God’s holy and perfect law. And, the Law is an awful motivator.

But the Gospel, that even in the midst of our sin and rebellion against God Jesus came and lived the perfect life for us, died the death we deserved and rose again so that we can have new life in Him, is a great motivator. Compelled by Christ’s love motivates us to seek God and to tell others about the Gospel. Are you motivated by the Law or by the Gospel?

And that fits well with our Stewardship theme, “Every gift is precious/valuable to God.” If we are compelled by the Law to give of our time, talents and treasures, we often give grumbling and complaining. But when we see the Gospel, God’s free gift of mercy to us, we then are compelled or respond out of gratitude for all that God has done for us. And when we view ourselves as the “gift” we can see that we are precious and valuable to God. He loves us and is merciful to us. That is a much better motivator, out of love, then out of demand. You are precious to God. All that you have and all that you are is a gift from God. When we are good stewards of our resources we are showing that God’s mercy has been accepted.

Another secondary point to this parable is the wedding clothes. You see the man was supposed to put on clothes provided by the king so that he would be properly dressed. We too are to be properly dressed when we come before God. That clothing is Christ. The New Testament uses the image of putting on Christ. When we are clothed with Christ we are no longer seen as corrupt sinful people but as those who have been made pure. It is not by our own clothes (ability) that we come before God and receive His mercy; it is with the clothes of Christ (God’s grace) that we are able to approach the “Throne of Grace” and be made clean.

Motivated by the Law or by Grace? That is the question we are faced with here today. Are we compelled by the “have too” of the Law to tell others about Christ or to contribute to the Ministry of Mount Olive? Or are we compelled by the Gospel, that God loves and cares for us so much that He sent Jesus to be our Savior, which excites us and moves us, out of gratitude, to share with the world the love of Jesus and to be a part of the mission of Mount Olive and the Church? Which compels you? May God’s Holy Spirit move you to be compelled by God’s love in Christ Jesus.

Amen