Matthew 22, 1-14

Rudolf Schmid - Pastor (retired)

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. Amen.

When you sit together at the table and eat and drink and chat, you come closer to each other. Sitting together at the table and enjoying a meal shows solidarity and community. ‘Who eats with whom and when’ says a lot about a person.

Jesus did not only sit at table with his disciples. He often ate with people who were denied table fellowship by others. He did not only share the table with those close to him. He also ate with the unclean, with strangers, with prostitutes and tax collectors - even with the opposing Pharisees and scribes. Jesus sat down with these people unconditionally and in doing so he accepted them and took them seriously as human beings. Those who experienced table fellowship with Jesus were often deeply affected - with life-changing consequences. Eating together was intended by Jesus as a foretaste of heaven. Every shared meal, every outdoor meal, every sharing that Jesus organised was in itself a parable of the kingdom of God. A few years ago, I was given the book ‘Leben am reich gedeckten Tisch’ (Nicola Vollkommer) as a birthday present, in which all these biblical events at the table, during meals, are examined. It's amazing what happens in the Bible ‘at the richly laid table’.

In his parables, Jesus sketched this image of the kingdom of God as a banquet to which God invites us. He himself lived like this. Today's sermon text is such a parable from the Gospel of Matthew. Earlier in the second reading, we heard the parable in the slightly different version according to Luke. I will read verses 1 to 14 from Matthew 22:

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. (New International Version)

The parable of this banquet that Jesus presents to us is not ‘light fare’. The ending in particular does not sound like gospel, not at all like good news. This parable is not about carefree, non-committal celebration and merriment. No party, no Braaivleis, no Oktoberfest. - Rather, it is about the seriousness of a decision for life. It is about the decision to follow the call of God / or not. Jesus talks about the inviting love of God, which applies to all people, / he talks about heaven, which is already open to all people on earth. BUT at the same time, he makes two things clear:

1. the love that God extends to people, demands a response. And:

2. the Kingdom of Heaven is open to all people. But it only remains open to them if they allow their lives to be clothed by God's love.

Firstly: The love that God bestows on people demands a response.

U.A.w.g. - in English: RSVP. This is what it says on invitations or in official letters from the authorities. U.A.w.g - a reply is requested. Who knows what RSVP stands for? It actually comes from the French ‘repondez s'il vous plait’ = ‘Please respond’. We ask for an answer - this also applies to God's love.

The kingdom of heaven is like a lavish banquet with God. It is like a banquet at a wedding. And love is celebrated at a wedding. A beautiful image! God wants to organise this wedding banquet for his Son, because God's love for mankind is shown in Jesus. And like a generous king, God is extremely generous in inviting people to this banquet. But those invited ignore the invitation. They seem to have more important things to do. God wants to give people a feast to celebrate love, but they don't want to open themselves up to God's love. They prefer to keep their distance from this love - they remain non-committal. Those invited respond with indifference, excuses and finally even aggression: The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. we read (v. 6).

When Matthew wrote his Gospel, he was already looking back on the fact that Jerusalem had been destroyed and burnt down by the Romans just 40 years after Jesus' death. Matthew interpreted the devastation of Jerusalem by the Romans as God's judgement. - He is thus following in the old tradition of the prophets of Israel, who often interpreted their suffering as God's judgement - for themselves and the people. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. (v. 7)

The angry God mentioned here and his punishment is a topic that we would like to examine briefly. In pastoral care, some make it too easy for themselves when they recommend a suffering person to accept their suffering ‘from God's hand’. As if the suffering was created and willed by God. Unfortunately, there are those so-called pastoral carers who also make suffering people feel guilty: as if their sins were the cause of their suffering. As if the illness would disappear if they followed some rules. And as if the healthy were less sinners than the sick. But in Jesus we see that he does both, because both are liberating: he heals suffering and illness, he casts out demons, AND he also forgives sins. Everything so that people are free again for God and for life.

Time and again we hear the saying: ‘God allows those he loves to suffer’. As if suffering were a special honour like a medal, a kind of proof of God's love. It cannot be God's will to cause or send suffering. - We humans have to look for the causes among ourselves.

But now back to the parable. A second time, the king invites people to the heavenly wedding banquet: 

So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find. (v. 9)

Everyone is now invited, regardless of who they are: cyclists and Porsche drivers, Harley drivers and pedestrians, children and the elderly, healthy and sick, students and school dropouts, successful and unemployed, rich and poor, black and white, natives and foreigners, Jews and Gentiles. God invites all people ‘off the street’ to the feast of his love. God does not sort out beforehand which of the people are ‘worthy’ of receiving his invitation. Without us having to do anything in advance, without having to show ‘merit and worthiness’ ourselves, God comes before us with his love and his invitation.

However, God also expects us not to close ourselves off to this invitation and this love. That we open our hearts to his love and accept his invitation. And that we set out to discover the kingdom of God in the midst of our earthly human world / and to celebrate God's love. In the midst of our lives and in the midst of our world on the path of following Christ. Mercy, justice and peace are his hallmarks. As long as we remain in the ‘council of the wicked’, we cannot discover these living sources. Therefore: Please respond – RSVP.

Now to the second point:

The kingdom of heaven is open to all people. But it only remains open to them if they allow their lives to be clothed by God's love. 

With Jesus Christ, God has invited all people to the feast of his love. He has promised the kingdom of heaven to all people. The wedding table is festively laid. Everyone is invited to celebrate God's love and grace - ‘good and bad’! - People do not have to ‘be good’ or ‘become good’ before God invites them. But part of our response to God's invitation is that we allow ourselves to be changed by God. That we make room for God's love in our thoughts, feelings and actions. That we allow God's love to ‘clothe’ us, as with a garment.

Paul coins this image in his letter to the Colossians (Col 3:9f) when he writes: ‘Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old self with its evil practices,’ The new man is the one who does not trust in himself, but believes in God's grace. The new man is the one who forgets himself, who no longer thinks of himself but rejoices in God's love with many others. The new man is the one who can celebrate joyfully because God, the King of the world, has invited him to the feast of faith.

If we accept God's invitation to the wedding feast, then we should always allow ourselves to be clothed anew by God's living Word in a ‘wedding-like’ way. God invites us without us already possessing this wedding garment, without us having to make or buy it ourselves. In his love, God will give us the ‘garment of salvation’and the ‘cloak of righteousness’ if we accept his invitation. But then we must also put on and wear the robe and cloak when we go to the feast. For the outer garment is a sign of the inner transformation that we have undergone. By experiencing salvation and forgiveness ourselves, we can have a healing effect in our own lives / and give forgiveness.

The basic motif of Christian life is to be reconciled with God through Christ, to become a new creature in Christ. This applies to the many small events in our lives, but it also applies to the big questions of politics - when people want to be reconciled, i.e. live together in justice and peace. Sitting down at a table together, eating, drinking, talking, celebrating. Come to an agreement. Celebrate reconciliation. Becoming one.

However, it is not the case that everyone who is baptised remains in the grace of baptism. Not everyone who is baptised remains in the beatifying faith in the forgiveness given to them through Christ. Anyone who is indifferent to the matter is not wearing a wedding garment, because he has overlooked the fact that his life is always in relationship. Those who do not wear a wedding garment live a life, as it were, as if there were only themselves. Because he does not seek closeness to others, to his fellow human beings - not even to God. It will fall back on this person himself when the host asks him to get up from the table and leave. For it is not the host who has excluded the person from the community - he himself has separated himself from the assembled festive community.

With this parable, Jesus told of both the great joy and the great seriousness of the invitation into God's kingdom. He did not threaten his listeners, he did not command anything, he simply told this parable. He also tells it to us today: he speaks of the joy of being invited by God AND of the serious consequences if this invitation is despised. The invitation is just as valid today as it was then. We will hear it again later at the Lord's Supper: Come, for everything is ready ... . And God's messengers still go out and invite both good and bad with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what does that mean for us? U.A.w.g., RSVP - Please respond. Follow the invitation. Come - and find out for yourself! Jesus simply told us. 

Amen.

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Host. Amen.