The Twentieth Sunday after Trinity – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 22:1-14

In Christ Jesus, who supplies all that we lack, so that we are worthy to take our place at the marriage feast of the Lamb, dear fellow redeemed:

In a few weeks, children across the country will be putting on costumes. They will dress up like doctors, professional athletes, superheroes, and famous people. Who knows? Maybe some will even dress up like pastors. But of course there is a difference between dressing up as something and actually being that. Putting on a doctor’s uniform doesn’t make someone a doctor. Wearing a superhero outfit with a cape doesn’t make someone a superhero. Dressing up like a pastor doesn’t make someone a pastor—at least not one that God recognizes.

When children play dress up, they are just doing it for fun. They are just pretending. But when it isn’t a game, when people pretend to be something they are not—particularly before the Almighty God—this has disastrous consequences for them.

The first pretenders we meet in Jesus’ parable are those who were first invited to the wedding feast prepared by the king for his son. By the fact that they were invited to the feast, we can assume that previously they had acted like loyal subjects of the king. They acted like faithful citizens in his kingdom. But it was all hypocrisy. When the time came for them to make good on their pledge of loyalty, many of them ignored the king’s summons and went about their own business. Some even reacted violently to the king’s servants and killed them.

Jesus told this parable in the middle of Holy Week, a week that He knew would culminate in His death. When He spoke about the people who ignored the king’s invitation or lashed out with violence, He was talking about the people of Israel who did not listen to God’s Word. In the past, they had ignored God’s servants, the prophets, and even put some of them to death. In the present, they were rejecting the King’s Son Himself, the Son of God incarnate, and they wanted to put Him to death.

These Israelites were proud to be called the people of God. They pretended to be His devoted followers, but they ignored His long-standing promise and plan of salvation. The chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees who heard these parables of Jesus knew that He was talking about them and calling them to repent (Mat. 21:45; Mat. 22:15). It made them want to kill Him even more.

Then Jesus said that the king sent out his servants again, telling them to invite anyone they found on the outlying roads. These were urged to attend the wedding feast. Can you imagine walking down the street or driving along in your tractor and having someone stop and hand you an invitation to a VIP banquet? Your response would be: “Are you sure you have the right person?” The king’s servants “gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

This was a hard teaching for the Jews to hear. In fact, Jesus’ own disciples did not understand this teaching until after He had risen from the dead and ascended into heaven. Jesus was saying that God’s invitation to salvation was being extended not only to the people of Israel but also to the Gentiles. The Gentiles were not the chosen people of God; they were the outsiders.

Most if not all of us have descended from Gentiles. We can’t claim any favored status with God from Old Testament times. The parable makes it clear that the Gentiles did nothing to be invited to the wedding feast. While they were going about their worldly business, giving no thought to the king, he invited them to attend the great wedding celebration of his son.

This is God’s invitation of grace. We confess it in Luther’s explanation to the Third Article of the Creed: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts,” and so on. We have a place at the wedding celebration of Christ because God is gracious toward us. He does not punish us for our sins. He forgives us and credits us with His righteousness.

Since salvation is entirely by His grace, we do not need to pretend that we are better than we actually are. We are not saved by God’s work and our own good works. There is no “God and…” in the equation of our salvation, only God. God the Father sent His Son to save us. Jesus died and rose again for our salvation. God the Holy Spirit applies the perfect life, forgiveness, and salvation of Jesus to us through the powerful Word. God does it all.

But there was a problem when the king entered the wedding hall to greet his strange collection of guests. He saw one man there who was not wearing a wedding garment. You need to understand that this is not because that guest was ignorant about the need to have a wedding garment or was unable to obtain one. The king would have provided one if this were the case. No, there was a reason that the man was not dressed properly. He was only pretending.

Perhaps in his pride and stubbornness, he thought that he could appear before the king however he wanted. He was going to wear what he wanted to wear. No one was going to tell him to do anything he didn’t want to do. What did he care about the king’s servants and officials? When it came down to it, what did he care about the king himself? Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Or perhaps he felt indifferent about the wedding feast. He could go or not go; it wasn’t a big deal. There were a lot of other places he could be, but he was willing to follow the crowd and take his seat. Maybe the party would be fun. Maybe the food would taste okay. But his heart wasn’t in it. He was lukewarm about the whole thing. Jesus says in Revelation 3, “because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (vv. 16-17).

Or maybe the man without a wedding garment showed up like he did because he thought the king would be impressed by how he looked. The king would notice his generous spirit, his kind demeanor, his willingness to let others take the better seats. In his own mind, he thought he would stand out for all the right reasons. Oh yes, this man was very good. But the king wasn’t looking for a show-off; he was looking for guests to receive his gifts. Isaiah 64:6 says, “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” And Romans 3:20: “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.”

These are all ways that the blessed guests of the King, the disciples of Jesus His Son, are tempted to pretend. We have done these things. We have given in to these temptations. We have played dress up in each of these costumes.

• We have been proud and stubborn, refusing to listen to the clear Word of God and instead choosing to go our own way and do our own thing.
• We have been lukewarm about the faith, putting many other pursuits and plans before the Word of God, not caring how much or how often we receive the gifts of God in Word and Sacrament.
• And we have been so focused on our good works, that we have failed to see our many failures, and how we desperately we need God’s grace and forgiveness.

If we had to gain entrance to the king’s wedding celebration by our own will or our own works, none of us would get in. We might take our seat in the church, just like the unworthy man took his seat in the wedding hall, but we wouldn’t actually be in. The only way to be in, to be a guest of the King, is if He makes you worthy to be one.

He sends His servants out to the wandering sinners on the road with a surprising and soul-saving message: “Come to the wedding feast!” they say. “There is room for you, even you!” Your invitation came when you were baptized. This is when God made known that you were chosen to be His own. This is when He cleansed you of your sins and clothed you in the wedding garment you need for the feast. That garment is the righteousness of Jesus, His holy life of love credited to you by faith in Him. This is why you don’t need to pretend to be good enough on your own or to imagine you have enough good works to earn eternal life. The perfect covering you need is already yours through Jesus who died and rose again for you.

God reminds you of this covering and continues to bring you cleansing each time you confess your sins and hear the words of absolution from His servant: “I forgive you all your sins.” Then He invites you to the holy Supper of His Son. By eating the body and drinking the blood of “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Joh. 1:29), you are preparing for “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9) in His kingdom, a feast which will go on with Him forever and ever.

This is what God does for you by His grace. “Everything is ready,” says the King. “All is prepared for you.” He does not want you to pretend to be something you are not, as though you are good enough to be in His presence. You are a sinner. He wants you to acknowledge this sin and to trust that it has all been removed from you by the willing sacrifice of His Son. “There is No Need to Pretend,” He says; “You’re Covered.” You are washed clean by Jesus’ precious blood and covered in His perfect righteousness.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.

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(picture from “Parable of the Great Banquet” by the 16th c. Brunswick Monogrammist)