Matthew 22:1-14 - Which Would Be Worst? - October 25, 2020

Which would be worst? Hitting your funny bone or stubbing your toe? Losing your sense of taste or sense of smell? A Packers loss or a Bears win? Yes, these are silly hypothetical questions…usually pondered only by people with nothing better to do. But in the parable our Lord tells us today, we are led to consider three classes of people and ask: which would be worst?

What’s worse than not going to church? Nothing, right? Not only is not going to church a blatant sin against the 3rd commandment (Exodus 20:8), but it is a sin against the Gospel, which is the only cure for sin, death and the power of the devil. You may be an adulterer, a thief, a drunk, a murderer – and still come here to be cured of those sins. But what can be done for the person who ignores and neglects the only cure for their sins? (This is clearly an imperfect analogy – because whether or not a vaccine will actually be effective is highly debatable – but it would be like rejecting an opportunity to go get a free Covid-19 cure.) So, not going to church is the worst sin a person can commit, right?

Well, it’s certainly not good. Jesus begins his parable by describing people who don’t come to church. The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent out his servants to summon those who were invited to the wedding banquet, but they did not want to come. A wedding banquet. Free food. Free wine. Who would turn that down? But those who had previously been invited rejected the invitation. Why? At first, they don’t have any excuses, they simply didn’t want to come. (Which, incidentally, is usually the reason people don’t come to church today.) The king can’t believe it. He apparently thinks his invitation got lost in the mail. So he sends out more servants and has them explain that the invitation is real, the prime rib has been sliced, the wine is flowing, the meal is really ready to eat. All they need to do is come and feast. But they still don’t care. But now they have excuses. They had fields to tend to, businesses to run, money to make, football to watch. They don’t care about all the time and money and effort the king put in to preparing the banquet. They don’t care about honoring the king’s son with their presence. (And that’s the real sin at the heart of neglecting worship: you’re disrespecting and dishonoring God and his Son!)

Anyone who’s ever thrown a party can easily understand the king’s frustration. You send out your invitations and those you invite don’t even bother RSVPing. When you go to all of that time and effort to prepare a party, it’s infuriating when your guests don’t show up. Now consider the fact that this parable is not about you but about God. This isn’t just about a king planning and preparing a party but God planning and preparing salvation. God didn’t just butcher an ox or slaughter his only fattened calf – he slaughtered his own Son on the cross for your sins and for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). People who don’t come to church when they are able aren’t just rejecting prime rib – they are demonstrating by their behavior that they are rejecting Jesus, the Son of God, the only Savior.

If that sounds a little strong, a little extreme to you, then just open up Hebrews 10. There God says that if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice for sins. Instead, there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a raging fire that is going to consume the enemies of God (Hebrews 10:26-27). Why? Because they have trampled the Son of God underfoot, who considered insignificant the blood of the covenant…and…insulted the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29). And who is the author of Hebrews describing? Mass murderers? Abortion doctors? Pedophiles? Terrorists? No, those who neglect meeting together (Hebrews 10:25).

So that settles it, right? There is no greater sin than not going to church. Well, let’s keep reading. The rest seized the king’s servants, mistreated them, and killed them. You’ve heard the saying “don’t shoot the messenger.” It comes from an ancient tradition of granting immunity on the battlefield to envoys who would deliver messages between the warring sides. (Although today we use it to describe the hostile and sometimes violent reactions people have to the bearers of bad news.) But what’s bad about being invited to a feast where everything is provided, not just the food and drink but even the clothes, free of charge? Why would anyone kill a messenger with this message? Jesus is trying to show his audience how senseless it is to reject and abuse the envoys of his Gospel. And yet this senseless rejection of good news was and is all too common. It was senseless for Ahab to blame Elijah for the trouble Israel was facing when it was really the result of his own sins (1 Kings 18:17). It was senseless when the Jewish leaders rush at Stephen, covering their ears (like angry children) and stoned him to death (Acts 7:57-59) or when the Jews at Lystra dragged Paul out of the city and stoned him, too (Acts 14:19). It’s senseless when Christians today are hostile and indignant (or just indifferent) toward God’s servants when they invite them to come to church to feast on the Word and Sacrament. Where does such senseless rage against God’s servants come from? Hell. It’s only the devil and those who believe his lies who would show such rage and anger against the invitation to come to church to have your sins forgiven.

And the king responds to their violent rejection in kind. Our translation says the king was very angry. There are two Greek words for this kind of anger. One refers to a “flash in the pan” type of anger that quickly comes and goes. The other indicates settled, determined, and burning rage. The second type is the word used here. God is so furious with those who persecute his servants that he doesn’t just kill them, he burns down their whole town.

Well then, thank God that that’s not us. Thank God that we are in church today. Thank God that we haven’t persecuted the servants he has sent. Yes, thank God! But don’t get too comfortable. Let’s keep reading. When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wearing wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. Then the king told his servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ So, of the three types of people who reject God’s grace, who gets himself clearly thrown into hell? It’s not those skipping the banquet in their fields or at their businesses; it’s not those who mistreated and killed God’s servants; it’s the one who came to the wedding banquet but wasn’t wearing proper wedding clothes.

You see, this parable wasn’t really directed at those who ignore God’s invitation or those who persecute his servants – after all, what good would that be, they’re not here! – but for those who come to church, for you and me! This reality is hidden in the original Greek. It literally says that “Jesus answered them again in parables.” Who is he answering? The same audience as last week. The chief priests and Pharisees (Matthew 21:45)). These were the people who went to church every day. They gave their offerings faithfully. They went above and beyond in their outward obedience to God’s commands. They did everything they could for God. So what was the problem? They rejected everything God wanted to do for them in Jesus.

In the parable the man rejects the wedding clothes necessary for attendance at the banquet. He – to use a popular slogan – comes just as he is. The question is: what does this mean? How can a person be at the wedding feast, at church, and not be wearing the proper clothing? In one of two ways. Either because they think they don’t need wedding clothes or they don’t think they’re worthy of them. As we stand on our own, Isaiah says all of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a filthy cloth (Isaiah 64:6). Many church-going people, like the Pharisees, lack the appropriate wedding clothes because of their self-righteousness. You think that coming to church makes you righteous? Placing your offering in the basket? Volunteering your time or energy? Being a faithful husband or wife? Being a loving and diligent parent? Being a good employee or employer or citizen? Think again. If you think that this church (and this pulpit) is filled with good people who don’t need wedding clothes because they can qualify all by themselves, then you’re in for a nasty surprise. In the end, you’ll be tied up and tossed out of the banquet into the darkness.

On the other end of the spectrum are those who believe that they don’t deserve to put on the wedding clothes God offers them. They are fully aware of their sins but despair of ever being forgiven. They know themselves to be the worst of sinners, but they stop there (1 Timothy 1:15). They think that the forgiveness offered is only for other people, better people. Have you ever thought that way? Oh sure, it sounds pious, it may even sound religious – but it’s dead wrong. Perhaps that’s what the man in the parable thought about himself. He thought he would show the king how humble he was by not presuming to put on the wedding clothes. That could be why he was speechless when the king confronted him. He thought the king would be pleased with his humility. But it’s not our humility, it’s not the sincerity of our repentance that pleases God – because he demands nothing less than perfect righteousness.

The good news is that while our best clothes, our best behavior, our best efforts aren’t good enough for God – Jesus is. And Jesus – or more specifically, his righteousness – is what is distributed here each week to sinners like you and me. Every week you should look at the baptismal font and remember that you have been baptized, because Paul promises that as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ (Galatians 3:27). Every week when you hear the absolution you should remember and believe that your scarlet sins are made as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). Every time you receive the body and blood of your Savior you should remember that his blood has washed away the filth of your sins and made you spotless in the eyes of God.

We who come to church have made it, by God’s grace, over two hurdles. We are where the means of grace (the wedding clothing distribution system God has instituted) are, in baptism, absolution, and Holy Communion. None of us are open persecutors of God’s called servants. But that makes us vulnerable to the third hurdle. If we think that we’re either not so bad that we need Jesus’ righteousness or that we’re too bad for it – either way, we’re rejecting it; we’re refusing to put on the wedding clothes. And that, friend (as Jesus said), is the king of all sins before God the king. Don’t forget that no matter how good or bad we think we are, the reason Jesus wants to meet us here is to give us the wedding clothes of his righteousness.

And that’s why church is important. That’s why you’re here: to receive the wedding clothes, the righteousness, that only Jesus can provide through the simple means of baptism, absolution and communion. So it turns out that we’ve been asking the wrong question. The question isn’t: what could be worse than not going to church or persecuting God’s servants or going to church but not wearing the right clothes. The question is: what could possibly be better than coming here to feast on the all-you-can-eat buffet of God’s grace, mercy and peace? And the answer to that is: nothing. Amen.