20TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

The grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God our heavenly Father, and the comforting fellowship of God the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ Jesus.

In our today's text the preaching of the Gospel of Christ is likened to an

invitation to a wedding. Thus is indicated that the Gospel is such a doctrine, which does not demand difficult works from us, yes, absolutely no works at all, but only tells us, what works God has done for us. This parable should show us, that one does not become a Christian by some personal piety but by listening to God's gracious voice, comforting oneself in Christ's grace and righteousness, and having the benefit of it. We are to learn from it, that Christ is not a new Lawgiver, that he does not wish to be our stern Judge to punish us for our sins, but that he wants to forgive us. our sins, that contrary to all our doubts of God's grace and the worries and anxieties of our conscience, he wants to give us freely a joyful certainty in God's good will, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and eternal life; although we have deserved nothing but punishment with our sins, he wants to seat us in eternity at the table of heaven to refresh and comfort us forever. In short, if in our text the Gospel is called an invitation to a marriage, we are to understand that the Gospel is something entirely different from the Law; whereas the Law is a message which hurls sinners into despair, the Gospel, on the other hand, is a sweet blessed message of joy, which fills even the greatest sinners with the hope of salvation.

Oh yes, there are many who cannot find this difference existing between the Gospel and the Law, many who view the Law just as joyful a message as the Gospel, yes, an even more joyful message. There are many who would much rather hear that a man is saved through his virtue and noble works than through Christ; who would much rather hear that a man must become ever better than that he can be righteous before God through faith; who would much rather hear one preach that man himself must reconcile himself with God than that he is reconciled through Christ the Crucified.

How does it happen that one would rather hear the Law than the Gospel? Perhaps from the fact that he can actually fulfil the demands of the Law? Ah no! rather because he hears the earnest voice of the Law, but does not believe that he means what it says; because, when they continually preach that by his good heart and noble works man must and can earn heaven himself, he is finally rocked to sleep in the sweet delusion that he actually has such a good heart and very often produces such noble works. Moreover, those preachers, who do not preach the Gospel of the Savior of sinners, do not preach the Law correctly. They, on the one hand, make the picture of a sinner so horrible and, on the other hand, the picture of an honorable man of the world too lovely, that even the rankest servant of sin blesses himself and thinks: No, I do not belong, to the wicked; why don't I reckon myself among the virtuous?

How far different the Law seems and works when it is preached to a man according to its true content, in its demands which are unfulfillable for all men, in its spiritual meaning which goes to the heart, with its hard and frightening threats directed against all transgressors! Alas, then the Law is not a sermon of joy; it is like God's thunder before which one convinced of his sinfulness trembles; the word: Ye shall be holy; you are, however, a sinner! like a deadly bolt of lightning from heaven pierces his quaking heart.

Blessed is he in whom the words of the divine Law have become flashes of lightning through his heart! If the Gospel is preached to him, that is, the doctrine of Christ's reconciliation on the cross, oh, what a happy message that is for him! Then it is as though the dark storm clouds were scattered, as though the shining heavens opened above him, and as though he now saw the Son of man standing at the right hand of God, who in inexpressibly grace said to him: Be not afraid! You have found grace!

Certainly, if only all men would recognize from the Law the sin and the

curse which lies upon them, all would also receive the Gospel of Christ as an invitation to a wedding. But since most men do not recognize nor feel the distress of their souls, what is the attitude of most toward it? Permit me to present that to you in this hour.

The text. Matthew 22:1-14.

In the Gospel just read Christ through a parable gives us a general view of the Gospel's fate among men in the course of the ages. He compares it to an invitation to a wedding and shows how it went out especially three times into the world, but that it went in vain. I, therefore, present to you

THE ATTITUDE OF MOST TOWARD GOD'S INVITATION

TO HIS HEAVENLY MARRIAGE

I. They Either Remain Indifferent and do not Want to Come, or

II. They Hate and Persecute it, or finally,

III. They Accept it Outwardly but not from Their Hearts.

Gracious God and Father! Through the Gospel of your Son you so kindly invite all men to the heavenly marriage of grace and salvation. But we must confess that by nature our hearts would rather remain in sin and in the deceitful lusts of the world or it would rather help itself than accept your gracious invitation. Oh, Lord, do not let a single one of us remain in this terrible delusion; grant that we all follow your gracious voice in your Word, cling to your grace with our whole heart, and walk in the power of your grace as new heavenly-minded creatures. Hear us for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Savior. Amen.

I.

Christ begins our Gospel with the words, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding; and they would not come." Vv. 2,3. In this first portion of the parable Christ describes the time in which the heavenly marriage was decided upon but not yet prepared; this is the whole time before Christ's appearance on earth. The results of this invitation to the heavenly wedding at this time, or the fate of the Gospel, Christ describes briefly in the words, "And they would not come."

These words give us important information. If we look back over the whole period of world history before Christ's coming, we notice with' dismay that during these four long millennia only so few knew something of the Savior of the world that these few believers in comparison to the huge host of heathen were viewed like a small ripple on the ocean, a grain of sand over against a mountain, a drop in a bucket. While, for example, at the time of the flood God graciously revealed himself to Noah and his family, millions lived on in the natural blindness of their hearts without the knowledge of God and his promised Savior. Later on when God sought out Abraham and made a covenant of grace with him, all the other nations lived without God's Word, sunk in the most miserable idolatry and in the most abominable worship of idols, the sun, moon, stars, yes, honoring wood and stone as their gods. Finally, later on in Canaan when the light of divine revelation burned brightly among the Jews, darkness covered all other portions of the world and gross darkness the nations who then inhabited the rest of the world.

If we ponder this, the question must arise: How does it happen, that in

the whole period before Christ's birth so many remained excluded from the heavenly wedding, that so many lived in this world and were finally lost without the Gospel, without the knowledge of the true God, and without the comfort of having a Savior? Did God according to an unconditional decree elect only so few, whom alone he would bring to the knowledge of his Son and the saving truth, whereas he passed most men by with his grace and without pity let them be lost? Many foes of Christendom have pointed to the fact that the teachings of Holy Scripture, especially before Christ's times, were known only in one corner of the earth. They exclaim, If the doctrine, of the Bible were God's revelation and contained the only saving faith, would not God, who is love, have also seen to it that this teaching would become known to all men of all ages?

Christ's words in our text, "And they would not come." give us the key to this seeming contradiction and puzzle. We see from this that the reason that before Christ's times most nations of the world did not take part in the spiritual wedding feast of the promised Savior and that they remained without the knowledge of the true way to salvation, was not that God had shut them out but that they did not want to come when God called them and thus excluded themselves. At all ages God made arrangements that no one need be lost but that everyone could come to the knowledge of the truth; men, on the other hand, did everything they could to hinder the Word of God from entering in among them.

Scarcely had men fallen when the Gospel, that the woman's seed would crush the head of the serpent, was already preached to them by God himself. Adam lived 930 years thereafter and in his time certainly faithfully and tirelessly invited his children,to the heavenly marriage feast. When Adam died he had lived 56 years with Noah's father, Lamech, who fell asleep believing the promise five years before the coming of the flood. Those who died in the flood in the year 1656 after the creation of the world, could have heard the preaching of a pupil of Adam. So what was at fault, that most even in the first sixteen centuries of the world did not receive the salvation announced in the Gospel? God sent enough messengers out who had to invite all, but, Christ says, "they would not come."

Later on God chose one nation to whom he entrusted his revelation, not because God wanted to pass the heathen by with his grace, but because God wanted to have his Son born from this nation, and because he, as it were, wanted this nation to be the torch-bearer for the other nations. God, therefore, also led it wonderfully and finally scattered it into all the world, so that they would testify of this promised salvation and invite all other nations to the marriage. So why did they sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, whereas in Israel the light of divine revelation burned so brightly? Because God had not wanted to show mercy upon them? No! Christ tells us, "They would not come."

You see, that is the tragic story of the Gospel of Christ. God let the world be told that he would prepare a marriage for his only Son and all men were to be guests at this wedding, but behold! the world did not believe it; it despised the promise of heaven by grace; it sought its Own heaven on earth.

II.

Let us continue with our parable. Christ proceeds, "Again, he sent forth other servants, saying. Tell them which are bidden. Behold. I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise; and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth;

and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." Vv.4-7.

What period Christ describes in these words is not difficult to recognize; he is picturing the days of his flesh; when Christ lived, suffered, and died on earth, the table, as it were, was set for all sinners; Christ the Lamb of God who carries the sins of the world was offered, and when he cried on the cross, "It is finished," all messengers of God could finally call out in the fullest sense of the word, "All things are ready; come unto the marriage." The forgiveness of your sins is ready, God's reconciliation with all of you is ready, the righteousness which you need before God is ready, light, comfort, power, eternal life, heaven with all its blessedness and glory, in short, everything, everything is ready; you need only come; you need only accept salvation in Christ by faith, rejoice and comfort yourself in him, and enjoy everything which he has won for you. That is what Christ, John the Baptist, and all the apostles preached at Christ's time.

And now, how did the world react to this friendly, comforting, and even more gracious invitation, the way the invitation of the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Covenant had been accepted? Did not the world at least now begin to be ashamed of its former indifference? Did it not at least now let everything go and hurry to the marriage, which the heavenly Father had, prepared and to which he had invited all sinners?

Alas no! the greater the grace was which was offered to men, the greater was their resistance; it was not enough that most despised the invitation to the marriage of grace and salvation and thought: Yes, if God's messengers were to distribute money, honor, and good days, we would gladly come; it. was not enough that they turned away, the one preferred his field, the other his business, some were even so embittered by this friendly invitation that they laughed and killed the servants of the Lord, yes, his Son himself.

Is not this a dark mystery of the malice of the human heart? If Christ would have come to impose many difficult works on the world, to lay an unbearable burden upon it, and only to show it how it must earn heaven for itself, then we might not be surprised,if the world would reluctantly accept his message, yes, if it would become angry with him and seize his servants; but who can understand why they raged and stormed when they were merely told, "Come, for all things are ready"? that they did not rest until they had nailed Christ to the cross and wiped his apostles from the earth?

But, my friends, that is the way man is, as long as his heart is not yet changed by God. The natural man joyfully hears the strictest doctrine of virtue and good works, even though he strives for anything but virtue and does anything but good works; yet if Christ the crucified is preached to him, if he is told that he must be a poor sinner, who can be saved alone by Christ's grace, and if all this is offered to him in the most friendly manner, this arouses him to the most bitter hatred, yes, even to the most inhuman persecution.

The preaching of grace did not have this result only in the days of his flesh; until this very hour that has always been the attitude of the world. Why did millions of martyrs shed, their blood in the first three centuries during the persecutions by the heathen? Because they admitted that there was no salvation in any other, that no other name was given men whereby they could be saved, than alone the name of Jesus Christ the crucified. Moreover, why were so many executed as heretics under the papacy? Because they had admitted that Christ was the only head of his church and that no works or penances dreamed up by men but only faith in Christ saves. And even now, what mostly awakens

the derision and mockery of the world, yes, even the scorn and ridicule of those who want to be the most zealous Christians? Nothing else but the teaching that everything is ready, that the sinner can find everything which he needs in Christ, that man dare earn and battle for nothing by himself, that only faith avails before God, and that in the Gospel, in baptism, and in the Holy Supper the table of grace is set for all sinners.

However, our text depicts not only the attitude of men toward the Gospel but also the attitude of God toward such despisers; we read, "But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." V. 7. In these words Christ tells us in advance what the fate of Jerusalem and the whole Jewish nation would be, when in part they despised the invitation to the heavenly marriage, in part had replied to it with burning hatred and murderous persecution. And as Christ had announced it, so it happened; the Romans came without their knowing it as the avenging army of God, prepared an unprecedented miserable destruction for the Jews, leveled Jerusalem to the ground, and wrote over the desolated place with bloody script, That is! the final fate of all those who despise and: reject the invitation of God's servants to the heavenly marriage.

To be sure, the despisers of the Gospel laugh at these threats. They think: Oh, that Jerusalem was destroyed amid such misery soon after the preaching of Christ and the apostles was an accident; many have rejected the Gospel, and they have prospered until their death! Of course, this last is true, but the true punishment for the citizens of Jerusalem was not the destruction of their city; that was only a brief prelude of that which awaited them in eternity to warn the world. Woe to the world, which does not let itself be warned; in eternity it will find out what it means: To despise Christ and persecute his messengers; they will not see the heavenly Jerusalem and will be hurled into the smoking pits of hell.

III.

But let us proceed to the last part of our parable. Christ concludes it in the words, "Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good; and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment; and he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither no having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants. Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen." Vv;8-14.

Here Christ pictures the attitude of the world toward the invitation to the heavenly marriage during the entire period of the time from his day until the end of days. Christ says that after the Jews will have rejected the Gospel and Jerusalem would be destroyed, God's messengers would go out into all the world and seek out the heathen everywhere and say also to them, "Come unto the marriage." And behold! a huge crowd will soon appear, not only the good but also the evil; the tables will all be full, though not everyone will appear in the wedding' garment of true faith.

We see from Christ's description that in his eyes the whole future lay revealed just like the present. For has not his prophecy gone into literal fulfilment? Yes, the servants of the Lord cast the empty net of the Gospel into the sea of the world, and drew it filled to the shore; they tilled God's desolate

acre among the blind heathen, and soon the richest harvest moved gently in the breeze; through holy baptism they opened the gates of the church and soon drew entire nations into it. Yet though the work of the Lord's servants at the eventide of the world appeared to be so successful, the results seem to be entirely different when they are examined more closely. The net of the Gospel contains only too many worthless fish; God's field only too many weeds; the Christian Church only too many hypocrites. If, therefore, the attitude of most toward the Gospel in the period after Christ should be generally shown, it consists in this, that they indeed come to the marriage hall of the Christian Church, but without the proper wedding garment; that outwardly they accept the invitation but most do not from their heart.

This part of the parable concerns us above all others. We are not numbered among those who, remained indifferent to Christ's call though his servants and did not want to come; still less do we belong to those who openly despised the Word of grace and laughed at and persecuted the preachers of the word; we have rather, when we received the invitation, appeared at the place of the marriage, the Christian Church; we have seated ourselves at Christ's table, for we use his means of grace, his Word and holy sacraments, but are we all also clothed in the proper wedding garment? do we really want to be spiritual wedding guests? is it our concern to please the true heavenly bridegroom? that is, do we really use the means of grace in order to receive forgiveness of sins? do we go to church in order to learn of the way to salvation and then also by God's grace to travel on that road? are we truly in earnest to have a gracious God? do we let God's Word actually enter our heart? in so doing, do we open our heart to the Holy Spirit and let him work true faith in us through the Word? have we let God's Word convert and change our heart, so that we now also walk as new creatures? Or do we perhaps suppose that everything is done when we merely come to church, read and hear God's Word, and use the sacraments? do we still serve sin secretly? are the temporal joys of the world as yet more dear than the spiritual joys of the heavenly marriage?

Oh, let us not deceive ourselves! If even here we are guests at Christ's table of grace but without the wedding garment, men can indeed consider us good guests, but there will come a day when the King of Heaven will inspect his guests who have appeared; how unhappy we will then be when our Christianity will be only pretense not power, only outward not inward, only half-hearted not with one's whole heart! how wretched when we will be found without the wedding garment of true faith! Then bound hand and food we will be cast out "into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

But happy will we be if, hungry and thirsty, we seat ourselves at the Lord's table of grace; some day he will let us take part in the wedding joy of eternal life. May he help us do that through Jesus Christ! Amen.

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