Readings: Isaiah 25:6-9 | Philippians 4:4-13 | Matthew 22:1-14
Text: Matthew 22:1-14
It’s really not a stretch for Jesus to speak of the Kingdom of Heaven in marriage language, just as last week, we heard Israel compared to a vineyard. The Lord has often referred to His people in language of husband and wife. Most notably,
31“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:31-32)
16“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more…19And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord. (Hosea 3:16-17, 19-20)
This gives us the background for Jesus comparing the kingdom of heaven to a wedding feast. When do you have the feast? Not necessarily at the engagement. You celebrate when the couple is joined together and rides off into the proverbial sunset.
In a similar vein, the Lord’s wedding to His Bride, the Church is not complete. We are still apart from Him, waiting for the joyous and eternal union. In Revelation 19, it’s described this way:
“7Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 9And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:7–9)
We’ll hear this again in Matthew 25:1-13, from the perspective of the ten virgins awaiting the announcement of the arrival of the Bridegroom.
So, the Lord likens His Kingdom to a wedding feast, but we’re not totally there yet. It’s a thing we look forward to its fullness. Where are we in relation to this parable? We are still in the time when people can choose to ignore the invitation. They have farms, they have businesses to return to. They can mistreat the messengers and tell them, “That’s just your opinion” and “Don’t force your religion on me.” They can drag them into court and charge them with inciteful hate speech. They can sleep in on Sunday and pretend that the Church doesn’t even exist and they can get on with what’s important to them in their fleeting lives.
St. Paul pleads originally with believers at Corinth, but the Lord’s Words have lasting impact on us:
1I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! 2For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
(2 Corinthians 11:1-4)
For now, people can push off the King’s invitation, but the warning is that these days of longsuffering grace will come to an end. The invitation goes out to all, but those who exclude themselves from its invitation do so at extreme peril. Where will they turn when the King comes in His glory? What will they do when their life runs out, and they’ve already enjoyed their share of good things that were all temporal? [Luke 16:25] What will they say to Christ when they stand before His judgment seat?
“11But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This part disturbs us, because this is a man who dutifully responded to the invite. He did the right thing and got his lazy butt to church. He participated in the visible assembly of Christians. He did the red and said the black (referring to the instructions of our hymnal). He sent his kids through confirmation class and was maybe even actively involved in the congregation. Why then, is he pictured as having no wedding garment? Because He came to God with a false faith. In his unbelief, he determined that it was enough to do and say the right thing. Yet, he harbored in his heart an opinion that he deserved to come to the wedding feast.
What he missed in catechism is that no one “by [their] own reason or strength believes in Jesus Christ [their] Lord or comes to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called [them] by the Gospel.” (Small Catechism, 3rd Article). He missed the message that corporate worship is a rehearsal for the wedding feast.
The service on Sunday is not just meant to prepare us for the week ahead. In view of every celebration of Christ’s resurrection is His return in glory and the Judgment Day. The service begins with a preview of that great Day: We confess our unworthiness and our sins before God Almighty, and by faith in His gracious Word, we receive a preview of the Day of the Lord: “I announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins” (LSB 184). It’s a preparation for the Great and Awe-full Day when the King says to those on His right,
“Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matt. 25:34)
In a similar way, there is a Feast which anticipates this Marriage Supper of the Lamb and is a time to be made ready for that Day. When we come to the Lord’s Table, what is it that we seek? Martin Luther prepared a set of diagnostic questions called “Christian Questions with their Answers.” Turn to page 329 in the hymnal so you can see what I’m talking about.
These questions are asked in a very methodical way to guide each person seeking the come to the Feast to examine their intentions before God.
13. Do you believe, then, that the true body and blood of Christ are in the Sacrament?
- Yes, I believe it.
14. What convinces you to believe this?
- The word of Christ: Take, eat, this is My body; drink of it, all of you, this is My blood.
This clears out any sentimental, symbolic, or routine excuses that we are harboring. It clarifies that while Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, He has also promised in His Word to be with us in this specific place, truly feeding us with His Body and Blood, once offered for our sins, and touching our very tongues with His abundant grace and healing. Recall the leper whom Jesus touched: “3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” (Matt. 8:3) Recall also Isaiah in the throne room of the Lord: “7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:7) Believing these words, “Take eat, take drink…this is for you,” you are cleansed, your guilt is taken away, your sin has been atoned for.
The other question of Luther’s I want to focus on is number sixteen:
16. Why should we remember and proclaim His death?
- First, so that we may learn to believe that no creature could make satisfaction for our sins. Only Christ, true God and man, could do that. Second, so we may learn to be horrified by our sins, and to regard them as very serious. Third, so we may find joy and comfort in Christ alone, and through faith in Him be saved.
This is the error of the man without the wedding garment. He held out hope that there was another way to be saved. He didn’t really believe that God’s wrath was all that deadly. As he came to the wedding feast, he was indignant that the steward would hand him a wedding garment. The clothes I’m in are just fine. The King has to accept me the way I am.
This Divine Service is preparation for the true Wedding Feast. It’s a stark reminder that “every earthly prop gives way” and we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Is our joy and comfort in Christ alone?
This is the real reason for closed Communion. For the catechumen, it is because they are being diligently instructed in the true biblical teaching and prepared for a lifetime of repentance and all the ways that Christ supports him in the journey of faith. For the confirmed, it is the very comfort and strength they need to “fight the good fight” and “press on toward the goal of the upward call in Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 6:12, Philippians 3:14)
It gets awkward for those who are denied Communion. For those under church discipline, it is withheld because their visible life doesn’t conform to the Word of God. It’s done to prepare them to meet their Lord while they still have time to turn from sin (see 1 Corinthians 5:11-13).
For those from other church bodies, they are excluded because they belong to a church that has heterodox teaching, and this is not an indifferent thing. It really is harmful for the pure doctrine to be mixed with the errors of man. If they were admitted to the same Table, while also tolerating unbiblical teaching, it creates a disparity that we don’t want them to find out only when they meet the Lord face-to-face.
It is the King’s desire for His Son’s wedding hall to be filled with guests, whose sins are abundantly covered by the white robes of Christ’s righteousness alone. In this way, we will be found prepared, not only this day, but on the Last Day in glory.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
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