Perhaps you have heard it said that on the wedding day it is all about the bride, but in the days of Jesus, this wasn’t the case. It was a celebration of the bride yes, but very much also of the groom. It was not the bride’s family but the father of the groom or the groom himself who would be responsible for the celebration and the wedding banquet. The Old Testament reading describes the heavenly wedding banquet as including the best of food and wine. “The Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.” A feast fit for a king, His Son and all His guests.
The king in the Gospel text had already invited the people of his kingdom to the wedding feast of his son. The people had all been told to be prepared. Now the banquet was ready, yet nobody was there. Therefore, the king sent his servants to go tell the people and remind them that all was ready, to describe to them the awesome banquet that awaited them. “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”
You would think that the invitation of a king would have some standing. That it would be an honor to be invited. That a person would want to come just to see the inside of the castle or that the abundance of the great, delicious, and free food and drink would bring people in, but how was this message of the king’s hospitality greeted?
They paid no attention, either to the invitation or to the servants. One went off to his farm to work, another to his business. The rest actually seized the servants and beat them up and even killed them. Remember these were the invited guests who did this! Remember they had a place at the feast: subjects and citizens of the king! The king had long since invited them; he was expecting them, he had prepared for them. But now because of their rejection and cruelty, they would be punished, their city burned. The only reason they wind up in outer darkness grinding their molars is they would not come to the feast. They would not. They refused. It’s not that the king would not have them or didn’t want them or never invited them. They just wouldn’t go.
You should notice a pattern in Jesus’ parables. The unforgiving servant ends up being condemned even though he had been forgiven at first. The invited guests end up being treated as enemies even though they had had a place at the king’s table. It’s all their own fault. They refused the king’s goodness and so they get the king’s wrath. Turn away from the Gospel, and all that’s left is the Law with its punishment of attendant outer darkness and gnashing of teeth if you fail. If people refuse the grace and love of God in all its abundance then they will receive His righteous full judgment.
The king is God the Father, the groom is Jesus Christ. The great celebration is the of marriage of the bride (the Church) to the groom who loved her so much that He gave Himself up for her to redeem her and sanctify her with His own precious blood and His innocent suffering and death on the cross.
As Jesus tells the parable, those originally invited, the citizens, represent Israel and its religious leaders who were actively rejecting Jesus and in so doing forfeiting their seat at the feast. “He came to His own, but His own people did not receive Him.” “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone and cornerstone.” Jesus is the bridegroom, the rejected Messiah of Israel, the Savior of the world.
The king in the parable now has a bit of a dilemma. Those originally invited are quite dead. The feast is still ready. The only thing missing are guests. So, he sends out his servants again, this time out onto the roads and the alleyways, and he has them invite anyone and everyone, the good, the bad, the ugly, reputable and the disreputable. The least, the lost, the lowly, the good as dead. The feast is ready, come to the feast. Now the wedding hall is full of guests. Of course, this crowd represents the church, a gathering of all sorts of those who had been good, bad, or ugly, sinners of every stripe of Jews and Gentiles all now made clean by the blood of the groom.
At this point is there anyone who is not invited? Is there anyone who is left out? No. Those inside and outside the kingdom are invited. Do these guests “deserve” to be there? Not in the least! It’s grace, a gift, pure Gospel. Unearned, unmerited. The worthy are found unworthy, the unworthy are declared worthy.
The king looks over the crowd. They’re eating and drinking and having a great time. And then he spies a man who’s not wearing a wedding suit. These people were rounded up off the streets and given clean wedding outfits by the king. But for some reason, this man isn’t wearing the wedding suit. The king confronts him. “Hey,how did you get in here without a suit?”
Now the translation we have says the man was “speechless.” But what it actually says is that the man was silent. Speechless implies he was stunned at getting caught. Silent suggests that he refuses to even acknowledge the king’s presence or that he was proud of his own ragged garment. What should the man have said? “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” That always works in this kingdom. But instead he refuses to speak to the king and insists on being at the feast on his own terms. He winds up bound and unceremoniously tossed into outer darkness where he can spend an eternity weeping and gnashing his teeth. To this, Jesus adds the summary clincher: “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The many called are all who have heard the great good news: Jesus Christ, the groom has died to pay for your sin, Christ has risen to defeat your death and show that His crucifixion paid the ransom price for you. The feast is ready. Come to the feast. The chosen few are not those who plan to enter in on their own terms, clinging to their sins, their own gods, their own rules or their works. The chosen few are those who do not refuse this grace, who bear the fruit of repentance and faith. They know that they are unworthy according to their sin, but hope in the grace of the king and the king’s son. They are therefore gathered at the marriage Supper of the Lamb in His kingdom, clothed with the wedding garment of His righteousness given in Holy Baptism.
To be included is by God’s grace, His gift to you in Jesus Christ. To be excluded is entirely one’s own doing, by refusal, by turning away. God will compel you, lavish His gifts upon you, put the wedding suit on you, seat you at His table and feed you. But he won’t force you to stay. The guests at this table are free, they are not imprisoned. Luther once quipped that the doors of the church swing in both directions so that those who wish to come to feast may come, and those who wish to leave can leave. But be careful. The alternative to the wedding feast is outer darkness, and weeping, and gnashing of teeth. And it’s so entirely unnecessary because the king and His Son do not wish this upon you. They offer salvation free and gracious.
You have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, in baptism and your sins have been declared forgiven for His sake. You have the wedding garment of His righteousness upon you covering over the rags of your sin through faith. You are declared worthy. The feast of your salvation is ready. Let us shout with praises what Isaiah declares (61:10) “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
The foretaste of that heavenly and eternal banquet feast is offered here, where already the feast fit for the king and His guests is offered: a feast of food rich with marrow, of aged wine well refined, for it is the very body and blood of your Savior given for you. This is given so that you and all the Church can receive and be glad and encouraged in faith as together we wait in faith for that final gathering at the last day when all will come to pass. When Jesus Christ will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that He might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him;” But even now, let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation given to us in Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.
Pr. Aaron Kangas