God s Open House. Matthew 22:1-14

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1 God s Open House Matthew 22:1-14 Rev. Jeff Chapman ~ September 19,, 2010 ~ Faith Presbyterian Church When Jesus taught he loved to tell stories. In fact, if you read the Gospels, they are filled with all sorts of colorful parables about fisherman hauling in the catch of a lifetime, and desperate shepherds out looking for lost sheep, and hidden treasure, and good Samaritans all sorts of things. Jesus told parables to teach spiritual truth. Specifically, he used these stories to widen or correct our understanding of reality. In other words, when Jesus told a parable he was essentially saying, I know you think God is like this. And I know you think the world works like this. But that s not quite right. In fact, it s way off. So, listen carefully. Let me tell you a story that will give you a picture of what God is really like and will show you how things really work in this world. Each parable, you might say, was a wake up call. Each story was a crash cymbal, meant to startle us out of these crazy notions we tend to get about God and about life. And if we pay attention, if we open our hearts and our minds to what Jesus is trying to show us, we will find the startling truth woven into these stories, one of which we are about to hear, to be extraordinarily good news. Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet. But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet. Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, f both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:1-14, NRSV)

2 We receive all sorts of invitations. Some more eagerly than others. One week, for instance, you may be invited to a birthday party. And generally, that s a welcome invitation. But then the next week you re invited to a funeral. And that s not an invitation people usually want to receive. Then there are family reunions. Any of you been invited to a family reunion lately? Is that a welcome invitation or not? It s a mixed bag, isn t it? Depends on your family. Most of us have been invited to attend a jury duty party. Nobody I know likes to receive those invitations. Some of us have been invited to go in and have a scheduled visit with the principal of our child s school. Again, not an invitation most of us look forward to receiving. Other invitations, however, come as a welcome surprise. An invitation to an open house, or a grand opening, or a graduation. And, of course, there are those wedding invitations. In most instances, we receive those with joy. Two people we love, and who love one another, are going to blow the life savings of their parents by throwing an extravagant party and we get to come for free and enjoy the whole thing. What could be better! In Jesus day, wedding feasts were extraordinary events. Much like today, a family would make great sacrifices to put on the best party they could afford. But unlike today, these parties would typically last for two or three days. The food, the wine, the music, the celebration, would just go on and on. The Chicken Dance alone usually lasted for 2½ hours! Also, Jewish custom dictated that a host, long before the day and time of the feast were set 1, would send out an initial invitation to find out exactly how many people wanted to come. So if 4 guests RSVP d, the host would prepare a chicken. For 7 guests, a duck. For a dozen, a lamb would be slaughtered. If 35 people said they were coming, a calf would be roasted. If 100 people responded, he d go to Costco. Then, when the feast was prepared, a second invitation would go out letting the guests know it was now time for the festivities to commence. Then those who has said earlier that they wanted to come would now come. And again, they d come expecting to party for at least a couple of days. Understand that back then almost nothing was better than a wedding banquet. Nobody wanted to miss these parties. In the story Jesus tells, he says that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a wedding banquet. And not just any wedding banquet, but the wedding banquet thrown by a king in honor of his newly married son. This is not Mike and Sue getting married over at First Presbyterian and then gathering afterwards for a catered dinner and DJ dancing at the clubhouse. No, this is a grand banquet in Buckingham Palace for Charles and Diana. This is another Englishman, Peter Shalson, who hired Elton John, Kool and the Gang, and half the cast from the Lion King musical for his wedding and, before it was all said and done, spent $8 million. 2 That is the sort of wedding banquet that a king in Jesus day would have thrown. And that, Jesus says, is the sort of party that is going on in the Kingdom of Heaven. Wake up call #1. God throws a great party. God loves a grand celebration. When God puts on a feast, he spares no expense. It s the best blowout in town. 2 1 Apparently folks back then had very open calendars and could drop everything and come to a feast whenever it was announced. What a life! Especially considering that recently to plan a feast with two other families, we had to plan out 2 months in advance just to find an evening that would work for everybody! 2 See SIFY News, Headlines.sify.com/222news5.html. Retrieved April 15, 2002.

3 3 But is this how we normally think about God? Lavish. Extravagant. Generous. Festive. Joyous. Honestly, don t some of us tend to think God is, instead, ill-tempered and tight-fisted? A bit of a prude. Early to bed, early to rise. Stiff and formal, like a lot of church services we ve been to. Wake up, Jesus says. Think again. That is not what God is like. God, rather, is famous for his parties. Jesus himself loved parties. So much so that the religious leaders of his day called him a glutton and a drunkard. 3 He wasn t, of course. He just loved a great celebration. Good food. Good drink. Good music. Good people. How so many people have gotten the idea that God is a prude and a home-body, I have no idea. He is, after all, the one who created every taste pleasing to our pallets, every sound pleasing to our ears, every sight pleasing to our eyes, every scent pleasing to our nostrils, every pleasure pleasing to our bodies. Our good and generous God loves it when his people come together and enjoy all that he has created for us to enjoy. God loves a great party. So, Jesus says, this party-loving king sends out invitations for this wedding feast and, of course, all sorts of people RSVP. But when the feast is finally prepared, and the King gets word out that the banquet is now ready, nobody comes. All the people who said they wanted to come decide, last minute, to stay home. Has this ever happened to you? You prepare a party, send out invitations in plenty of time, scrub and decorate the house, cook all day, work hard to create a wonderful event, and then at the last minute, even the day of, some of the guests call and say, We re sorry, but something came up. We just can t make it tonight. No real good excuse, they just can t come. That s happened to me. And I don t like it. And I m not proud of this, but when I am snubbed like that, I don t easily forget. I remember. Next time I throw a party and choose my guest list, I remember. Next December when I m deciding who to send Christmas cards to, I remember. When we get snubbed, the last thing we want to do is reach out again. Right? But what does the king do? When his messengers come back with news that all of his guests have brushed him off, the king sends them right back out the door again. Get back out there, he says. Go tell my guests that the feast is ready and waiting. Make sure you tell them I have spared no expense. Make sure you tell them they won t regret coming. Make sure they know I really want them here. I can t have this party without them. He s almost groveling, isn t he? He sounds desperate. I mean, after you ve been snubbed, would you put yourself out there like that again? I don t think I would. I don t think I would want to sacrifice my dignity just to get people to come to my party, especially people who obviously don t really want to come in the first place. Wake up call #2.. When we reject God, God remains unexplainably persistent with us. God does not give up on us. God does not easily take no for an answer. God is not deterred when we snub him. God keeps coming after us, desperate to share with us what he has prepared. God is hound dob, relentlessly chasing us down. The other day I was sitting in a restaurant waiting for a friend and I overheard this older gentleman talking loudly in the next booth. He was probably 75 or 80 years old and I don t think his hearing was all that good. 3 See Matthew 11:19.

4 Without going into specifics, I could tell by the sorts of crude things that were coming out of his mouth that this was likely a man who had been saying no to God s invitation his whole life. 4 But since I had been studying this parable all week, do you know what came into my mind? I thought to myself, I bet God is still going after this guy. I just know God hasn t given up on him. Maybe he d been snubbing God for 80 or 90 years. Still, I just know God is doing everything he can to get this guy to come and join the party. For some reason, God is so unexplainably persistent with us. Well, when the king s messengers go out a second time, things get ugly. This time, not only do some of the invited guests make up all sorts of lame excuses why they can t come, but others even attack and kill the messengers. These people, who at one point had indicated an interest in coming to be with the king, now are so dead set against the idea that they murder those who are trying to get them to come and join the party. Unbelievable! What in those days could have been better than coming as a guest to a royal wedding feast? This is the invitation of a lifetime! And yet these people choose, instead, to go out and plow their fields? They head back to the office to put in a little overtime? And some of them even attack the men who bring the invitations. Somebody needs to drag these people to this party just to show them what they re missing! Crash Wake up call #3. The God of Heaven is a great respecter of our freedom. Nobody ever gets hauled off to heaven. Yes, God loves us so much he will go to the ends of the earth to share what he has with us. God even sent his only Son to die on a cross so that we could be forgiven and receive the eternal life and the riches of his grace. But these gifts, freely given, also must be freely received. God will not force them on us. Instead, God always respects our freedom to receive, or not to receive. To come, or not to come. Why? Because God is a lover and that s what lovers do. Twenty years ago when I met my wife, Esther, I was immediately captivated by her. And early on in our relationship I knew that she was the woman I wanted to spend my life with. It took her, however, a bit longer to come to that same, rather obvious (I thought!), conclusion. Now, imagine that back then I had magic potion which, if slipped into her drink, would cast a spell on her and make her love me and make her want to marry me. If I had such a potion, would I have used it? Of course not! Because the best part of being in love is knowing that the person you choose to be with has also freely chosen to be with you. God is a lover. God, who first chooses us, wants us, in turn, to freely choose him. God invites us to the party, but he will not drag us there. The tragedy, of course, is when people thus invited by God to share in abundant and eternal life say in response to God, over and over again, I don t ever want anything to do with you or your invitation. Thanks anyway, I ve got other plans. This choice to walk away from the one great source of joy, and hope, and life, and peace, and salvation, this choice made consistently over a whole lifetime, always leads eventually to

5 5 destruction. And in the end, the brokenhearted King of heaven can only watch in sorrow as ones he deeply loves reject his invitation and choose, instead, a destiny of emptiness and ruin. Because again, God, as a lover is a great respecter of our freedom. In Jesus story, then, nobody on the original guest list is coming to the king s wedding banquet. At this point, if I were the king, I d close up shop. Put the wine back in the cellar. Put the food in the freezer. Take down the decorations. Send the band home. But that s not what the king does. Unbelievably, he calls even more servants 4 and sends them out to the farthest reaches of his kingdom. To back roads, and ghettos, and all sorts of distant corners. And he instructs them, I want this wedding hall filled with guests. So go and indiscriminately invite whoever you can find to come and join me at my table. It doesn t matter who they are. The good. The bad. Yes, even the ugly! If they are willing to come, anybody and everybody is welcome at my feast. Wake up call #4. The God of heaven opens the doors of his kingdom wider than any of us could even begin to imagine. Apparently, it doesn t matter who you are. You are invited. Nobody earns an invitation. Even the unworthy get included. In the end, nobody gets left off the guest list. It is God s wish and desire that whoever you are, whatever you have done, wherever you have been, it is God s desire that you come to his party! Regularly one of my children will be invited to a birthday party of a classmate. Usually that means that my kid and about four or five other kids from their class at school get to go bowling, or swimming, or risk their lives in some sweaty jump house. But every once in awhile my kids have been invited to birthday parties along with the whole class. 25 first graders, every single kid in the class, gets included! These are parents who are, I m convinced, either wealthy or insane. And probably both. I m sorry, bowling, or swimming, or for that matter doing anything with 25 six year olds hyped up on cake and ice cream is not my definition a party. Still, a part of me admires the stunning inclusivity these parents show. There s not a single kid in that class who has to show up the next morning and listen to other kids talk about what a great time they had the night before. Our God is either wealthy or crazy. Probably both! Because God invites the whole class! Our Father in Heaven is the most inclusive being in the whole universe. For when all is said and done, he has gone and invited every last person on earth to come and share in the riches of his kingdom. Again, none are forced to come. And sadly, many may choose to stay away. But all, every single one, is invited. 5 In the story, it works. People come. And with the king s banquet hall now filled, Jesus ends the story this way. As the king mingles with his guest, he notices a man who is not wearing the sorts of clothes expected to be worn at such an extravagant event. Instead of a suit and tie, this poor guy came dressed in faded, torn and stinky jeans, covered with fish bait, just off the boat, wearing an old AC/DC t-shirt one size too small, a backwards baseball cap jammed on his head, and flip flops on his feet. 6 Clearly, he made zero effort to dress for the event. So the king asks him, How did you get in here dressed like that? In response, the man says nothing. He doesn t apologize, excuse himself, or go clean himself up. He doesn t explain that because he s so down on his luck that this is actually all he has to wear. He doesn t ask the king if he might borrow a clean shirt and tie just for the night. Nothing. Speechless, he makes no effort whatsoever to acknowledge the king s concern. 4 These guys must have been less then thrilled to go considering what had happened to the last guys the king sent out! 5 As Christ s followers, as the church, we must work hard to make sure that our front doors are as wide open as God s front doors! 6 I stole some of the imagery here from in their commentary on this particular passage.

6 And so in the same way that I would remove one of my children who showed up to Christmas dinner in the dining room in his sweaty gym clothes, the king removes this man from the party. The text says he is thrown outside where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, an ancient Jewish way of saying that he went to a place of great suffering. I bet he suffered! Keep in mind, he d already had a taste of the king s celebration. Better to have never even had a peek inside in the first place than to have seen such a banquet and then find yourself locked outside! Wake up call #5. God is one who invites everybody to the banquet but who does, ultimately, expect something of those of us who do show up. All are invited to share in God s kingdom. Anybody can come to the party. But when you come, if you come, God is going to expect to see some important changes in your life. I m speaking now to those of us here who have been Christians for some time, to those of us here, whether you are new this morning or not, who have accepted God s invitation at some point in the past. Understand, not a single one of us has earned our way into God s favor or presence. That s why it s called grace, amazing grace. God accepts our messed up lives, no questions asked. But once he does, understand that God, out of his love for us, is going to want to make some changes. Paul, who was a leader in the early church, often articulated this desire God has to transform our lives. In one of his letters, Colossians, Paul writes this is the 3 rd chapter: [Since you have been] chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. 7 You see, Jesus is just being honest with us here. You are welcome into the extravagantly rich life of God s kingdom. But you cannot come and continue to live the life you lived before you met Jesus Christ. Christ, for instance, says to me, Jeff, I love you. Just as you are, I love you. But still, there are a lot of things I need to help you change in your life. I want to make you into a man of compassion. A man of kindness. Somebody who is humble, and gentle, and patient. A person who loves deeply. And when Jesus says that to me, I cannot say back to him, You know, Jesus. I m really quite happy with the way things are not. Thanks anyway. Just let me enjoy the party. No, it never works that way. God, on the one hand, loves you so much that he accepts you just as you are. But on the other hand, God loves you too much to just want to leave you that way. Every parent knows this. We love our kids just as they are, mess included. But because we also love them there are ways we want to help them grow and change. Same with God. As one writer put it, The door [to God s kingdom] is open, but the door is not open so that the sinner may come and remain a sinner, but that the sinner may come and, [with God s help], become a saint. 8 Again, God is one who invites everybody to the banquet but who does, ultimately, expect something of those of us who do show up. 6 7 Colossians 3: From Eugene Peterson s The Message. 8 William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible: Matthew, Volume 2, (Philadelphia: Westminster, c. 1957), p. 298.

7 This, then, is where Jesus ends his story. A number of people see their lives in ruin because they refused, over and over again, to come to the banquet in the first place. One man suffers outside in the knowledge of what could have been if he had just agreed to put on some wedding clothes. But a whole bunch of others get to enjoy, long into the night, the party of their lives. 7 Along the way we ve been given at least five wake up calls. Five times Jesus has used this simple story to try and awaken us to the reality of what God is truly like and to the way his kingdom really works. And I happen to believe that God has brought you here this morning, whether it s your first time, or you ve been coming here for 40 years, to wake you up to one of these realities. In some way, I believe Christ wants to widen or correct your view of what God and God s kingdom are really like. The God of the universe throws great parties. When we reject God, God remains unexplainably persistent with us. The God of Heaven is a lover, a great respecter of our freedom. God opens the doors of his kingdom wider than any of us could even begin to imagine. And finally, God invites everybody to the banquet but does, ultimately, expect something of those of us who do show up. So which is it? Which crash of the cymbal took you most by surprise? What is it God most wants to teach you? Whatever it is, perhaps the most important line of the whole story is the line Jesus closes with. It s the line I ll close with as well. For many are invited, Jesus says in verse 14, but few are chosen. In one sense it s a warning. Lots of people will reject or ignore God s gracious invitation in life, Jesus says. Make sure you are not one of those people. In another sense, however, it s a plea. A desperate plea from the very heart of a God who is dying, literally dying, for us to take him up on his invitation to join an eternal party the likes of which we can never even begin to imagine. Amen. ~ What is one invitation you never pass up? The Next Step A resource for Life Groups and/or personal application ~ Read Jesus parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew 22:1-14. From your perspective, what is the most striking thing about this story? ~ Why do you think this king is so desperate to fill up his banquet tables? What does this teach us about God? ~ In verse 5, people dismiss the king s invitation and offer lame excuses why they can t come. Why would anybody pass up the chance to attend a royal banquet to, instead, go put in a few more hours at the

8 office? 8 ~ In the end of the story a man is kicked out of the party because he doesn t have on proper wedding clothes? What do you think Jesus is trying to teach us here? ~ In the sermon, Jeff suggested that Jesus parable gives us at least five wake up calls meant to widen or correct our view of God and/or God s kingdom. Which one took you most by surprise? And what might God be trying to show you or teach you? 1. The God of the universe throws great parties. 2. When we reject God, God remains unexplainably persistent with us. 3. The God of Heaven is a great respecter of our freedom. 4. God opens the doors of his kingdom wider than any of us could even begin to imagine. 5. And finally, God invites everybody to the banquet but does, ultimately, expect something of those of us who do show up. ~ Are the doors of our church as wide open as are the doors of God s kingdom? Why or why not? ~ Bonus Life Group Scripture: Read Colossians 3: What clothes in your life do you think God wants you to change today? Further Scripture Readings for the Week: Monday: Luke 14: Another version... Tuesday: Colossians 3: New Wedding Clothes Wednesday: II Peter 3: God is patient with us Thursday: Isaiah 25 - The invitation is sent out! Friday: John 10: Promise of abundant life! Saturday : In preparation for tomorrow, you can read Marriage 22:23-33.