Title: A SERIOUS INVITATION

Focus: Wake up. Take seriously God’s gracious invitation to participate in his rule on earth today.

Function: To move the people to respond wholeheartedly to God’s call to turn to Christ in faith and produce fruit of repentance and service.

Text: Matthew 22:1-14

R.S.V.P.—Repondez s’il vous plait. (Please, respond). A wedding banquet invitation is a gracious gesture by the bridal couple and their hosts. A wedding invitation bestows honor upon those invited. And our acceptance of a wedding invitation honors the couple and the hosts of the wedding banquet with our presence. As the hosts value our presence at the wedding celebration, so we increase their festivity and joy by our presence.

By responding with an R.S.V.P. to a wedding celebration we also enable the hosts to make the necessary preparations. And when the invited guests send their R.S.V.P’s, the hosts and bridal couple can match the guests’ expectations of plenty of food and drink and joyful festivities. So I don’t think it’s hard to make the claim that requests for an R.S.V.P to a wedding celebration ought to be taken seriously. Jesus thought so as well.

In today’s gospel story, the Lord Jesus is saying to us: Wake up! Take seriously God’s gracious invitation to participate in his rule on earth today. And in telling us this story about a wedding banquet, the Lord Jesus moves us to respond wholeheartedly to God’s call—the call to turn to Christ in faith and produce fruit of repentance and loving service.

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As we crawl into Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet, I want to highlight some striking observations in the story. Note, for example,

#1. The persistence and the patience of the king. It is the king who issues the invitations to the guests. The king is preparing a banquet in honor of his son who seeks to be united with his bride in marriage. There is to be a royal wedding banquet. And the king sent out the invitation to people who are on his special guest list. These people are honored above all others to participate in the wedding celebration.

But the people on the guests list respond with indifference. They refuse to come. Perhaps they failed to see the urgency of the king’s request. Perhaps they did not realize that the wedding banquet leading up to the actual wedding consummation is about to begin.

So the king moves ahead--he kills the oxen and fattened cattle and sets the tables, so that the feast can start any moment. Then the king sent out his heralds or servants to the guests on the guest list. Surely, this is their second invitation. They must now sense the urgency of the king’s request., for “everything is ready.”

But a large number of the people on the guest list paid no attention to the king’s invitation. They were too busy. Some needed to work the fields for the crops; others needed more time for their business affairs. They can’t be bothered with this royal invitation. Then there were a number of people who actually became hostile and aggressive toward the king’s servants. They mocked and abused these servants; they showed enmity and disdain for the king by the way they treated his servants. Yes, they even killed a number of these faithful servants who dared to annoy or bother them with this wedding banquet invitation. “Away with them,” they said. “Who cares about this king, sending out ambassadors, encroaching upon our time and making a claim upon our lives and activities. Away with them!”

The king, however, is not deterred by their mocking and murderous responses. He now expands his guest list and instructs his servants to “Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” Indeed, what is so striking in this story is the king’s persistence and patience in extending a gracious invitation to his son’s royal wedding banquet. Here is another striking observation:

#2. Note the contrast between the king’s gracious invitation and the king’s rage against those who spurn him and humiliate him with their “No thanks-Get lost” responses. This king, for example, shows special kindness to those people who are on his particular guest list. He honors them by choosing and placing them on his list of cherished, favored people. And then he honors them again and again by twice extending his invitation to the wedding celebration. Even though they spurn his first invitation, he does not hesitate to send another invitation. That’s a gracious, generous, awesome gesture by this king.

But lest you think that this king is a pussy cat who can be easily ignored or who is not worthy of your presence at his son’s wedding banquet, we see another side of this king. When spurned, ignored, or mocked and challenged by his guests on the guest list, he responds with deadly force: “He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and their city.”

And when one of his generously-invited guests shows up at the wedding banquet playing by his own rules of what matters and of what is important (showing up without the wedding robe supplied by the king to all his guests), the king is enraged, saying to his attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This king, folks, is gracious. Yes! But you do not mess with him! He wants to be taken seriously. Therefore, I say to you today: take seriously God’s gracious invitation to participate in his rule on earth. Our R.S.V.P to the gospel of God in Christ Jesus matters deeply to God. Here is one more striking observation:

#3 The invisible or background presence of the king’s son. The king’s son is the one to be honored at his wedding. But the focus of the story is on the son’s father and upon the guests who are invited. The king’s son plays a very important role in this story. The entire feast centers on him. But he himself remains in the background, invisible in this story. That’s striking! Yet, his role in the story is crucial—and it comes out in the wedding robes that are worn by the guests. Do not be fooled! Even though the king’s son is invisible, in the background of the story, he plays a crucial role.

As we pay attention to these three striking observations, we now must grasp the essence of the story, by considering two particular insights. For example,

Insight #1. Jesus’ story narrates God’s story of salvation throughout history, especially God’s invitation to all people throughout the ages. Consider: the king represents God, whose Son is Jesus Christ. The wedding banquet represents the coming of God’s rule on earth and the consummation of Christ’s relationship with all who put their faith in him and serve him with love and obedience.

Those guests who were on the king’s particular guest list represent the people and nation of O.T. Israel, who ignored God’s servants, the prophets and priests and kings appointed over Israel. And when the particular guests spurned the king’s invitation, the king extended his wedding banquet invitation to everyone—Jews and Gentiles alike.

Thus we see that Jesus narrates the story of God’s salvation throughout the ages. And we notice how Jesus confronts his people and us today with that invitation and especially with the question, “What will you do in response to the invitation?” Wake up, folks. Take seriously God’s gracious invitation to participate in his rule on earth today! Here is

Insight #2: The wedding robe is crucial as part of our R.S.V.P.

The guests, you and me included, must wear a special outfit in order to participate in the wedding banquet. In order for us to participate in the rule of God here on earth, we must turn to a particular outfit. We must get “dressed.”

The wedding robe points to the king’s Son—the Lord Jesus. The wedding robe stands for Jesus’ sacrificial work on the cross, his atoning death, his power to forgive and cleanse us from our sins, to purify us and restore us into a new relationship with God the Father. The wedding robe stands for the person and work of Jesus.

And to wear the wedding robe means to put our faith, our trust in Jesus and his saving work. By turning to Jesus in faith and by repenting from our sins, and by producing spiritual fruit of love, service and obedience, we become clothed with the wedding robe that God calls for from all his guests at the banquet. Take seriously God’s gracious invitation to participate in his rule on earth. Turn to Jesus in faith and serve him with all your heart.

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Let me give you some take-aways from Jesus’ story. Let it be clear, first of all, that the wedding banquet is coming. Christ will consummate his relationship with his bride—the church that is made up of wedding guests. That truth is clear from Rev. 21 where we read of Christ’s return at the end of history. Listen to the vision of the apostle John: “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard the loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

The wedding banquet is coming. There is no doubt about that. Jesus himself has spoken of that day when he said to his disciples on the night that he was betrayed, “Take this (cup) and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

Ah, Jesus himself reminds us regularly by way of gospel preaching and by way of Eucharist or Lord’s Supper celebrations that there will come a day of great feasting, of great joy for the king and all his invited guests. Through the response of faith and love and service, we participate already today in that great future banquet.

Here’s another take-away. God’s invitation to participate in his rule or kingdom on earth comes to everyone—to all who are called. You and I and anyone who hears the gospel of Christ is called. We can never claim that we have not heard God’s invitation. God’s call, however, looks for an R.S.V.P. Those who receive and respond with faith, love and service to Christ and all he stands for—are chosen as well. Those who show indifference to God’s call or invitation will be judged by God as he judged those who mocked and murdered his prophets and servants throughout the centuries.

“Many are invited,” said “Jesus, but few are chosen.” That’s Jesus’ way of warning us today: do not be indifferent to God’s invitation. Do not be too busy and self-occupied. And do not make up your own rules as to how you will respond to God’s revealed will and invitation.

There are many people today who claim to be Christians, who claim to have a right to the wedding banquet, but who are unwilling to clothe themselves with the wedding robe provided by God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Many today write their own “rules” of spirituality. Using their own wit and insight and natural comfort zones as to how to enter God’s rule and live as guests worthy of the banquet feast, many put on garments that are nothing more but our own filthy rags of self-righteousness.

All are called, but few are chosen, that is, no one makes up his/her own rules as to how we shall participate as subjects of God’s rule here on earth. God has provided a wedding robe. It’s Christ the Lord.

And that leads me to my final take-away. We must put on the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the only proper R.S.V.P. Listen to Scripture: (Romans 13:13,14) “Let us not behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Or listen to Galatians 3:26 “You are all sons and daughters (children) of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

Today, God is calling you, inviting you to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, so that you may celebrate Christ’s salvation, secured on the cross and in the tomb, and now being prepared by the ascended Lord Jesus. He is coming again. The banquet is near. What is our R.S.V.P?

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.