Bible Text: Matthew 22:1-14 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus
Many are called, but few are chosen. Those are the words Jesus gives as the lesson, the moral, of his parable, and so they’re the words we should take to heart. Many are called means all are called. This is how the New Testament speaks, how the Greek language speaks, hoi polloi, the many, means the people, everyone. St. Paul writes about Adam plunging the entire human race into sin, “For if by one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ abounded to many.” Many means all – all die because of sin, and Jesus dies to take away the sin of all, the whole world. That’s what John the Baptist cries out – Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Thank God that the old Calvinist heresy that Jesus only died for some is mostly a relic of the past. Pastors used to teach it and people used to believe that Jesus only died for the elect, for the few. Can you imagine the uncertainty? If He didn’t die for all, how do I know He died for me? But thank God for the clarity of His holy Word – Jesus is always saying this, “haven’t you read the Scriptures? Don’t you know what they say?” – God so loved the world, that’s what the Scriptures say, and that means you, He so loved you, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life.
What Jesus makes clear in this parable is that God’s love for the whole world is also His calling of the whole world to His Church. Before the Father sends His Son into human flesh, to be born of the virgin Mary, and after, He sends out the call to everyone to repent and believe in Jesus. You see this already in our Old Testament lesson, “Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you.” So Jesus when He sends out His disciples, directs them to all nations, to all creation.
The persistence of God here is amazing. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. God doesn’t stop. The parable shows how ridiculous it all is. The king sends out the invitation to the wedding of His Son. They reject it. Okay, leave them be. But no, He persists. They reject it again. Then they take the messengers who invited them to the wedding and kill them. Who does this? It’s not something that has ever happened in the history of wedding invitations. I don’t want to go to a wedding so much that I kill the messenger who invites me?
But this is what has happened to God. He sent out the prophets, sent out the apostles, they sawed Isaiah in half, they kidnapped Jeremiah and stoned him to death in Egypt, they crucified Peter upside down, of Jesus’ 11 original disciples, they killed ten, all but St. John. And God persisted. Never stopped. Sent out more. From the beginning of creation to today, God hasn’t stopped. That’s His persistence and thank Him forever for it. We may give up on a friend, on a family member, we’ve invited him so many times to church, we’ve confessed the Lord Jesus so many times. It’s not working. We might give up. God never does.
That’s what the many are called means. But few are chosen. This is what people just don’t want to believe. They don’t want to believe that if you’re not at the wedding feast, all that’s left is the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. They don’t want to believe that everyone needs Jesus. And the only reason anyone thinks this is because they don’t believe they need Jesus. That’s the point. Don’t get caught up in this. Don’t say, what about all those Muslims, all those Hindus, all those Buddhists, they’re good people, can’t they go to heaven? The only reason you think that is because you think you can go to heaven without Jesus. You can’t. They can’t. You need Jesus. They need Jesus.
The pope recently announced that basically everyone goes to heaven, that all religions are a pathway to God, so long as you hold sincerely to your beliefs, doesn’t matter if you’re Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, even atheist, then you are the chosen. This is how you identify a false prophet, a false teacher, when his words directly contradict the words of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when they are anti Christ. But this is what people want to hear. They want to hear that they don’t need to go to the wedding feast. They can get to heaven without it.
But no, why is God so persistent in the first place? Why does He invite absolutely everyone? Why does Jesus command that the word go out everywhere? Because God knows what everyone of us needs. He knows what you need. Even if you don’t. And He wants to give it. It’s why you have the preaching of His Word here. Jesus made sure this happens. Why He gives His body and His blood to you. This is the marriage feast of the Son.
What happens in a marriage? We’ve lost this so much in our time, not only with so-called “gay” marriage, but with rampant fornication and no-fault divorce, and men not leading and wives refusing to be led, so we don’t see what is supposed to be a constant sign of a heavenly reality. Marriage is beautiful. A marriage is when a man gives everything to his wife. Everything. Himself, his body, his affection, his care, his thoughts, his possessions, so that nowhere and at no time is he not thinking about his wife; whatever he works, he works for her, whatever he suffers, he suffers for her. And the wife gives herself entirely to him, submits to him completely, her life is so entwined with his that it is indistinguishable – if he hurts, she hurts, his success is her success, her sorrows are his, everything is shared. That’s marriage.
The marriage feast of the Son is where we share everything with Him. Luther calls it the blessed exchange. Because we are not a beautiful bride, but He makes us beautiful, gives us His beauty, we were not a faithful one, but His faithfulness to us gives us faith in Him. We come with death, with sorrow, with guilt because of our many sins, and we give it all to Him, to the Son of God Himself, who says Come to Me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and we come and we give it all to Him and He takes it because that’s what marriage is – sharing in everything – He takes our ugliness, our unbelief, our hatred, our strivings after useless things, and He bears it away, suffers it Himself, it becomes His, He owns it, that’s what you see on that cross, a Bridegroom dying for His Bride, because He loves you, because He has married you to Himself, He’s taken your flesh and blood into His eternal Person. And then He gives you everything He is and has.
That’s why when the invitation goes out, it goes out to whom? What does Jesus say? To the good? to the righteous? To the beautiful? No, not just to the good but to the bad. Why? Because what makes us worthy to stand before the Son of Man is not our own goodness, it’s His goodness; and our badness, our sin, doesn’t make us unworthy. Who is unworthy? Only those who don’t come. Only those who don’t want it. “But they were unwilling.” This is what Isaiah says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” You come to church because here is the Bridegroom who pardons you, who has compassion on you.
There is one at the wedding feast with no wedding garment. And God kicks him out to the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now this is a very beautiful picture. For one thing, because there is no record anywhere, ever, in the ancient world, of there being wedding garments for people to wear at weddings. It’s not like this was just expected – of course when you come to a wedding, the bridegroom gives you a wedding garment. No. But at this wedding it’s exactly what happens. Because this is a wedding like none other. To this wedding everyone comes naked and dirty. It’s not an appetizing scene. Maybe some of us sew on fig leaves, like Adam and Eve, but it does no good. As Isaiah says, all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags. We need to be clothed. So Jesus washes us in Holy Baptism. He puts His robe of righteousness on us. He washes us clean in His blood. We repent of all our sins, we stop clinging to the dirt, and we trust in Him and though we can’t see it with our eyes we know we are beautiful in His sight. When St. John sees the heavenly scene He is startled by how beautiful the saints are. Who are these clothed in white and where have they come from? These are they who washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Jesus gives a warning here in this beautiful scene. There is one who isn’t wearing the wedding garment. He thinks he looks good without it. He’s a nudist. Shameless. Because he doesn’t think anyone can see. And of course for the most part we can’t see. I can’t see who’s faking it in the church. Who doesn’t actually believe, but just goes through the motions. Sometimes you do see, when people live in obvious open sin and refuse to repent. That’s where Jesus gives us the binding key, excommunication, and we cast the unbeliever out of the feast in hopes that he repents and returns. But most of it we can’t see. But God does. That’s why it’s the king in the parable, God Himself, who comes in and sees the one not wearing a wedding garment. No one else sees it. He sees it. We can’t fool Him.
So how do you know that you are clothed, that this wedding garment is on you? Few are chosen, says my Lord, but how can I presume to be one? Not by seeing if you’ve done enough good works. Not by giving enough of your money. Not by checking some box of perfect attendance at church. Not because your faith is so strong that it can move mountains. God didn’t invite you because you were so good. He invited you because you need Jesus. That’s how you know. You have doubts about God, and you want Jesus to take them away. You fear death, and you want Jesus to give you life. You have thought evil of your neighbor and desired what God never gave you, you are unsatisfied with this sinful life, and you want to be satisfied by knowing that Jesus gives you everything. And He does. He chose you from before time began. He’s called you by the Gospel, He’s given you the Spirit who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son, He’s baptized you and washed your sin away. He feeds you with the flesh and blood that He gave for the life of the world. He has married you to Himself. O you of little faith, put that faith, no matter how little, in Jesus and He will be your strength. He will remove doubts and fears and guilt and give you joy beyond measure, life with the God who is the Giver of every good thing, and you will feast forever with the Lamb in His Kingdom, which has no end. In the name of Jesus.