Matthew 22:1-14 October 15, 2017 The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

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1 Matthew 22:1-14 October 15, 2017 The Parable of the Wedding Banquet Most of us have received invitations to events that asked for an RSVP. Especially in the case of a wedding, because it s very expensive to host a guest at a reception, the RSVP is necessary to figure out your approximate cost of the event. After all, who wants to pay an extra charge for a person who doesn t even attend?! I m not entirely sure that my mother has forgiven the people who didn t show up for MY wedding. And that was in the 80 s! RSVP comes from a French term that was first used around In French the acronym stands for, répondez s il vous plait which in English simple means, Please reply. The problem is that many people refuse to respond to an RSVP. They either show up without warning, not thinking that it matters whether they respond or not, or they don t understand what an RSVP is in the first place. And of course, there are always some folks who can t make up their mind until the very last moment before deciding to do anything. They can t seem to plan more than two hours ahead and are always operating in panic mode. They kind of remind me of the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, always running full speed saying, I m late, I m late, I m late for a very important date and most of the time they knew about the date for a long time. Procrastination is the name of the game, or perhaps a failure to think far enough ahead to plan, and it always results in what is called, the last minute syndrome. It seems that their lack of planning always constitutes an emergency situation in which they expect everyone else to respond as though it is their emergency too. This often puts a strain on the host, especially if there are very many guests who don t answer the RSVP. This tends to drive a lot of people nuts! I ve seen the meme over and over again Your failure to plan ahead does not constitute an emergency for me! I know how some of you are I can see it in your stress level when you walk in the front doors of the church. Perhaps you re not a morning person and so you wait until 9:45 to start getting ready, knowing that church starts at 10 o clock and it takes you a minimum of 10 minutes to get here if you drive 10 mph over the speed limit and don t get caught behind slowpokes on the highway. Then when you do roll out of bed, you take a really fast shower, and then you try to find something to wear because you forgot to wash or dry what you wanted to wear. Your shoes are scattered in different rooms for some reason. You wonder why your hair decide to be so wild this morning. Hmmm, where s my car keys; and my coat? Oh yeah, I left my coat in the car! And I know my keys are SOMEWHERE on my desk!

2 You finally get into the car, start it and realize that you forgot to put gas in it on the way home from Monroe yesterday and it s practically empty. So quick, switch cars! Hurry up, we re already late. So here we go, everybody is having to move in panic mode. Tensions are high. Tempers are flaring. It s fuss, fuss all the way to church about whose fault it is because we are always late. The reason I know this is because that s often the way that OUR household works. I try and I try to plan in advance and get out the door early. But it never seems to come together. But if you think about it, that really isn t the best way to get into the right spirit to worship God, is it? Then we finally get to church and we have to try to get in without anyone noticing how late we are. Then, 10 minutes into the service we finally realize that we have on two different shoes. In its own way, this Last Minute Syndrome has a lot to do with our message for today! God has sent out a very special invitation to all of us, to every man, woman and child on the face of the earth. It s an invitation to Come and it invites us into a new way of living and a new community of brothers and sisters. And Revelation likens that invitation to a marriage supper much like this parable. John tells us: Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God s holy people.) 9 Then the angel said to me, Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb! And he added, These are the true words of God. Folks, it is the church us-- that is the bride in this vision. It is Jesus Christ who is the Lamb and the groom. We were betrothed to Christ when we were baptized. But the MARRIAGE is an even more special union with Our Lord. The key to your very special invitation is that there is an RSVP attached that must be answered before you can go to the marriage feast. And we don t want to miss THIS invitation!

3 To think of the idea of not answering this RSVP from the King of Heaven is unthinkable. I would be willing to guarantee you that if any one of us received an invitation to go to the White House and be hosted by the president in the White House ballroom, that we would answer that invitation as quickly as possible, whether we agreed with his politics or not. It is a high honor in this nation to be recognized as a friend of the White House, and we would answer out of respect for the President of our nation regardless of who it might be or what party he belonged to. To refuse such a special invitation would be considered as un-american and unpatriotic. But that pales in comparison to the very special invitation we have from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You have been invited to not only meet Jesus in the very Throne Room of Heaven; but you are invited to come to the greatest celebration that Heaven has ever seen and then be welcomed as a son or daughter of God and become a child of God to rule and reign with the King forever. Boy, What an Invitation! Have you sent your RSVP yet? But look back at the verses we read. The King sent the invitation; his servants delivered it; but the invited guests didn t think it was important enough to answer the RSVP and refused to attend the wedding of the Prince. In the eyes of a worldly king this would constitute a slap in the face; a high act of disloyalty and in many nations it would mean imprisonment or even death. You just don t refuse the invitation of the king and live to brag about it. He carries the power of life or death over you and your entire household. And yet, those invited refused to go. Who are these rude guests?? Well, the parable refers to Israel first of all, but in another sense, it is talking about the Gentiles as well. Israel was invited to become the bride way back in the Old Testament. But they refused God s invitation and chose to go their own way. Unfortunately, too large a majority of the Gentile world has copied Israel s rebellious attitude and they we-- too have refused to answer God s invitation. This king was a man with patience. Instead of immediately taking revenge on those who refused his invitation, he actually sent more invitations though more servants, almost pleading for those who were invited to come to the wedding. Still they would not RSVP and spurned the invitation to attend the wedding. I can only imagine how much this would anger the king. Such disloyalty! Such utter disregard for the one who has power over them! Do they not know Who I AM or the power that I have over them? In God s special invitation to Israel he sent many servants to deliver the Word to them. Yet they killed the prophets, stoned those that were sent to them and snubbed their noses at God.

4 Israel refused God s call and just kept on doing their own thing. Whatever their job, they kept going every day; whatever their business was, they tended to it day after day as though they would live forever. It was really only a small number of the Jews that would kill a prophet, or stone a judge or oppose the man of God, but that small number kept the rest of Israel from hearing the truth and responding to the truth. Most of the Jews just followed their leaders blindly, giving little thought to God s invitation. They let their leaders lead them into the very pits of hell through lies, deceit and carelessness. I wonder just how many of the Jews who died, thought that they were okay just the way they were. How many of them found out after they died, that they had been taught wrong? I can t help but believe that many of them thought that they were all right with God until it was too late. They had been faithful to their religious beliefs and their system of worship, but that system was flawed by men and changed to make men rich or powerful. It wasn t focused on worshipping God alone. It was focused more on what man wanted than what God wanted and a mancentered faith is not good enough to bridge the gap between humanity and God. But the King was angry! And he would have his revenge on those who snubbed Him! Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Army. Every one of those Jews that turned on Jesus and caused him to be crucified are long since dead and gone. God s justice prevails. God will not allow sin to go unpunished. He will not allow man to refuse His invitation without terrible consequences. This is the King of Kings we re talking about; not just an earthly king. God s invitation to the nation of Israel is no longer the same. He still loves Israel, and the covenant will never be negated but God now deals with Jews more on an individual basis and less on a national basis. Israel as a nation still spurns God s invitation to this day. God, in his love and mercy, will save Israel, but what cost they must pay for their refusal of Christ is yet to be seen. One day they will confess Him but what a price they have paid, and will continue to pay for their refusal to RSVP God s call to love His Son! But the refusal of the Jews to accept Christ does not stop the plan of God. The invitation still goes out, only now it has come to the Gentile world. Jesus commissioned his disciples to spread the Word and build a Bride of Christ who would fulfill God s desire for children who would love Him. Notice something here though. The Scriptures say that they gathered as many as they could. Some were good and some were bad. There were a lot of people sending back their RSVP, desiring entrance into Heaven and wanting to be a part of the Bride of Christ. People from every walk of life, honest people

5 and evil people, all giving their RSVP and coming into the kingdom of God, getting ready for the marriage feast. Where does this whole good and bad thing come from? The good and bad are ALL a part of the guest list those who chose to RSVP God s invitation and come into his house. Is it possible that someone bad can be in the church? Does being in the church, identifying with the Bride of Christ, make us a part of that Bride? Could there actually be bad people, appearing to be Christians, expecting to be a part of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb? Could anyone appear to have sent their RSVP to God, become a part of God s church and still not be ready for the wedding? Yes all of this is possible and it is the part of this whole picture that is most disturbing to me. Just as many of the Jews missed out on Jesus Christ through following false teachers, the Bride of Christ is also losing many to false teachers today. Not everyone who names Jesus as their Lord, really SERVE Him as their Lord. Many who rely on their religion, and the obedience to the rules and laws of their church to make them good enough, will come to realize that they ve missed the whole point! Each of us must RSVP God s invitation for salvation in our own way. We need to trust in God s Word and nothing else. And we need to rely on Jesus Christ who has opened the way for us to be made new! To put on the appearance of serving God while not having a right relationship with Jesus is not going to be good enough. We must be fully sold out to Jesus, believing in Him and not in any form of earning our way into heaven. I think that s demonstrated most in the discussion about the wedding garment. In ancient Israel, when the king invited guests to a wedding, he would SEND the proper attire for the guest to wear. So this man who didn t have on the wedding attire had in effect rejected it. This wedding attire is symbolic of the righteousness of God. And without the righteousness of God, we ll be thrown out from the wedding feast! We won t be a part of that union with God. God s SENT us that invitation. We are invited to be a part of Christ s Bride. Don t procrastinate on your RSVP for the invitation! You will have new life here and now. And also be welcomed at the Feast in eternity to come. Let us pray: Jesus, through our baptism, we have become betrothed to you. And we know that one day, all those who come to you will be reunited with you in heaven. Most of us aren t quite ready for that day to come yet, but we still look forward in hope. But today.come into our lives. Change our hearts. Remake us anew into YOUR people, that as we go about our daily lives, people will see the change in us and want to know what caused it. Help us not to procrastinate, but to seek you TODAY and live with you as our Lord forever. Amen!