You have been cordially Invited - Matthew 22:1-14
For many people one of the happiest days of their lives was their wedding day. The setting, be it the inside of a sanctuary or out among God’s creation, is often chosen for its beauty or significance. You are surrounded by friends and family, some of whom traveled from afar or took time out of their busy schedules to be there to celebrate this moment with you just because they love you and want to support you. They are all dressed up and looking fancy. There is often a feast fit for a king. Hors d’oeuvres whet the appetite, an entrée satisfies hunger, and desserts are there for those who wish to indulge. And all through the night sounds of music and dancing, laughing and cheering fill the hall.
For many people one of the happiest days of their lives was their wedding day. For me it was my fifth happiest day. My wedding day was a very happy day, but I think the birth of my three sons were happier days than that. Sorry honey, I know those were traumatic days for you, with all the birthing you did, but for me those were three of the happiest days of my life, happier even than my wedding day. But not as happy as my happiest day. My happiest day is constantly changing. You see my happiest day is each new day I get to wake up beside the woman who stood beside me on my wedding day. See what I did there? It’s called romance fellas. Look it up. Romance is probably why many people consider the wedding day their happiest day because on that day you promise and are promised that, till death parts you, you will spend your days with the person you love and who loves you in return.
Even those who have not left their mother and father to be united as one flesh understand that weddings are happy occasions. Which is why, I suspect, one of the reasons God uses the concept of a wedding to help us better understand the kingdom of heaven. In our gospel lesson from Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus speaks to us in a parable saying, “2 The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.” Let’s take a few minutes to better appreciate what Jesus is teaching us this morning. But first, please join me in a prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for bringing us all together today and gathering us around your Word. Bless us as we meditate on the comparison between heaven and a wedding banquet so that we may better understand and more fully appreciate what you have prepared for us, the invitation you have extended to us, and the wedding garments in which you dress us. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Some of you have heard the story of how I was excluded from the planning of my own wedding. For those of you who haven’t, the short version is I was given three planning decisions that I could make regarding my wedding. My first decision was to have a replica of a 17th century bronze fountain sculpture called Manneken Pis (it is a famous work of art by a Brabantine sculptor named Jérôme the Elder). I thought a replica of Mannenken Pis would add an element of culture and class to my wedding. But when my mother-n-law found out my replica of Mannenken Pis was, in reality, a statue of a little man peeing punch into a bowl, she vetoed my idea and informed me that I no longer had any part in planning my wedding. At the time I thought she was overreacting, but now, nearly 30 years later, I realize my wedding was better without my input. My mother-n-law was wise to prevent me from getting involved.
The heavenly King is just as wise as my mother-n-law. He knew better than to ask for my input or your input when planning the heavenly wedding banquet. The only people around when the Heavenly King made plans for the heavenly wedding banquet were Adam and Eve and they had just demonstrated that their decision-making abilities were as poor as mine. So, the Heavenly King personally and meticulously planned the entire event.
Surprisingly it was His plan to unite His Son to a woman of ill repute. This woman had for centuries defiled herself with sins too numerous and too vulgar for me to adequately describe in the time we have this morning. But you have an idea of the number, and you know what sorts of vulgar acts this woman engaged in for you are the woman. The woman of ill repute to whom the heavenly King planned to unite his Son is also known as The Church; she is you, me, and all believers everywhere, and before we were united to the Son, describing us as a woman of ill repute is a generous understatement.
Since our numerous vulgarities, also known as sins, made it impossible for us to seek out the Son to be our Groom, the King sent His Son to seek out us to be His bride. The Son came to live among us as one of us but not live like us. The King sent His Son to live a pure life in our place and since our numerous vulgarities prevented us from being united with the King’s Son, the King asked the Son to take our numerous vulgarities to a cross where they could be paid for and we could be purified.
Having fulfilled the most important part of the Heavenly King’s plan, the Son returned to heaven and is as we speak preparing the banquet hall for His bride. Elsewhere this banquet is described as being absent of crying mourning and pain, but here it is described as a wedding banquet so that you might know it is a place of celebration and cheering and laughter, and I will not at all be surprised if there is some dancing. For, at long last, the Groom will be united with His bride whom He dearly loves and who dearly loves Him in return.
The heavenly king, thankfully with no input from me or you or anyone else, has personally and meticulously prepared an eternally happy occasion and the King is eager for everyone to attend the event. As the invitations go out, the first thing we notice is the King’s generosity. Jesus tells us that the King’s “10 wedding hall was filled with guests.” In order that the hall be filled, the King is exceedingly generous when it comes to who is on the guest list. Specifically, I am thinking about the King’s generosity toward you and me. In verse 9 the King instructs His servants to “9 go to the street corners and invite” the people you find there. We are the street corner people. We are not the genetic descendants of Abraham we were the outsiders. Inviting us to this banquet is kind of like inviting the Amazon driver that delivered a package to the next-door neighbor of a 5th cousin of a part-time employee of the catering company. There is absolutely no reason for any of us to be on the guest list of the King’s wedding banquet. And yet, because of His generosity, the Heavenly King determined it was too small a thing to only invite the tribes of Jacob and the people of Israel, so He also has extended an invitation to you and to me and to people like us.
The second thing we notice is the King’s persistence. In verse 3 Jesus tells us, the King “sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come.” Then again in verse 4 Jesus tells us the King “sent some more servants and said, … My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’” Then again again in verse 9 Jesus tells us the King instructed His servants “Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” On three occasions He sends out invitations, even though (if you are reading along in your bulletins, you will notice that) the King’s invitations are not favorably received. Apathy and anger are common responses to the King’s invitation. Yet the King keeps inviting?!? Why such persistence even in the face of such resistance? The King genuinely cares about and deeply loves the people He is inviting. Paul tells us in his letter to Timothy that the heavenly King “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”[1] The King sends out servants to go make disciples of all nations. Again, and again, and again, generation, after generation, after generation, the king sends out people like you and like me with invitations to the heavenly banquet that we are to share with our coworkers, and neighbors, and golfing buddies, and PTA members and anyone and everyone we happen upon as we travel the highways and byways of life. The King is persistent with His invitations because in his care and compassion the King wants everyone to be invited to the heavenly wedding banquet.
Having received an invitation, the wise guest will be sure to inquire about the expected attire, that is, what one should wear to the wedding banquet. It would be both embarrassing to the guest and insulting to the host to show up for a formal event in a gardening t-shirt, threadbare britches, and flipper floppers. In verses 11-13 Jesus warns us about showing up to the King’s wedding banquet without the proper attire. We read, “11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ 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.’” For reasons beyond explanation this guest either thought he didn’t need to wear the wedding clothes or thought he had something better to wear. The guest thought wrong. And his error resulted not just in an embarrassing situation, but in his expulsion from the wedding banquet to a place ominously described as an outer darkness of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
It is good for us to heed this warning lest we too attempt to show up at the heavenly wedding banquet not wearing the proper wedding clothes. The garments you and I naturally like to wear have been described by the prophet Isaiah as “filthy rags”. The filthy rags we like to wear are a patchwork of greed, lust, envy, indulgence, anger and neglect. We have lined the inside of our rags with a nice thick comfortable layer of pride. Take heed, my fellow guests. All are invited, but the heavenly wedding banquet is not a come as you are event. Should we, in our arrogance, attempt to attend the heavenly wedding banquet adorned in our filthy rags, we too will be cast into the outer darkness of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Without the proper wedding clothes, we will not be admitted to the heavenly wedding banquet. Thankfully the Heavenly King who personally and meticulously planned everything out and generously and persistently invited so many guests to attend His banquet also dresses His guests in the proper attire. The Prophet Isaiah described the wedding clothes the King provides us as “garments of salvation” and “robes of righteousness”[2]. In the book of Revelation, the cost the King paid for these garments is revealed. There we are told each and every robe has been washed and made white “in the blood of the Lamb”[3]. In his letter to the Galatians Paul tells us how these garments were custom fit to you. There we are told, “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”[4] The Heavenly King provides wedding clothes for His guest to wear and unlike the garments we fashion for ourselves, the wedding clothes the King gives to you and to me are not just the proper attire, but the perfect attire for the King’s guests. Dressed in the wedding clothes the King provides, we will be permanently seated at the wedding banquet of the Heavenly King.
Today Jesus tells us a parable to help us better understand heaven. Jesus tells us, the kingdom of heaven is like a wedding banquet that has been personally and meticulously planned by the Heavenly King. Generously and persistently the King sends out Invitations to this banquet to all people, including street corner people like you and me. So that we might not be cast into outer darkness, the King dresses His guest in robes of His Jesus’ righteousness. In other words, the banquet has been prepared. The invitation has been extended. The wedding clothes have been provided. Everything necessary for your salvation has been accomplished by your God. And you, dear Christians, have been cordially invited. Amen.
[1] 1 Timothy 2:4
[2] Isaiah 61:10
[3] Revelation 7:14
[4] Galatians 3:27