The Church
Season of Trinity
The Second
Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior
Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (June 17, 2012)
Readings: Psalm 34 verses 12 - 22
Proverbs
9:1-101 John 3:13-18
Luke 14:15-24
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Grace, mercy and
peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and
the Holy Spirit, Amen
The text for today is as recorded in the
Gospel Lesson from the 16th chapter of St. Luke, especially the
following verse:
Luke
14:15-24 (NIV)
15 When one of
those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man
who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” 16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great
banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he
sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is
now ready.’ 18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first
said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on
my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ 20 “Still another said,
‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ 21 “The servant came back and
reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and
ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town
and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ 22 “‘Sir,’
the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ 23
“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes
and make them come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you,
not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”
Jesus tells this parable to a group of Pharisees gathered
for dinner, which appears to be spoken against the Jews as a nation. It is to
them, men who have already tried to put Jesus to the test at this very dinner,
and seems to be in response to an expression by one of the guests at the dinner
about how blessed they were to be God's Chosen people. Jesus said, "Blessed
is everyone who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." Jesus'
response is something to effect that those who will be doing that eating may be
different that you expect.
The people invited to the feast of God's favor are Israel,
in the time of Jesus. That would make God the man who was giving the big
dinner, in our parable. The feast of salvation rests on Jesus. You might also
see Jesus as the One who was bringing the invitation. He wasn't specifically,
but the Prophets, and John were calling the original invitees to the dinner,
and preachers of the Gospel ever since are involved in the second wave of
invitations in the parable.
The invitation is the Gospel. When Jesus arrived, the
invitation was given, but Israel was no longer interested, as a group. Some
Jews saved, of course, but most of Israel had better things to do. Faithfulness
was a minority report among ancient Israel. In the days of the prophets, they
had their ba'als and their Ashtorahs, and in Jesus' day, they simply did not
know, believe in, or love God. Jesus told them that and their various excuses
used in the parable are the story.
So, who was rejected? The Jews. Old Testament, First
Century, at the time of Jesus and since. Not every Jewish person was rejected,
of course, just those who were too busy, who had something better to do, who
did not believe. Life, pleasure, business, family, whatever excuses they might
have had, they were not ready or willing to come when they were invited to the
banquet of salvation, summed up finally in Jesus. God said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world!" And Israel responded, "It
is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole
nation should not perish."
The Judgment of God is depicted clearly enough: "none of those men who were invited
shall taste of my dinner." They were judged to be unfit and
undeserving, to use the words of our theme this morning. Some of the children
of Israel had taken their special relationship with God for granted. It was
about them and not about God, in their minds. It was about this world and this
life and nothing greater, as far as they were willing to see. So, naturally,
the things of this world were more important, and distracted them from God and
faith and faithfulness.
They were the sort of people who thought that being the
Chosen People of God obligated God to them, but not the other way around. God
had chosen them, so He had to take care of them, and give them special
treatment. There are Christians today who think pretty much the same way. They
believe that God will jump at their command and they can name it and claim it
and have whatever blessings that they want. Our political class even have a
word for that feeling now, entitlement. The Jews felt a sense of entitlement,
God owed them something. Christians who hold to theology of glory also have
that sense of entitlement. They may use the language of promise, but amounts to
the same thing: God owes them, somehow.
The entire history of the Christian Church is last half of
the parable. We are the ones that the servants were sent to find in the along
the highways and the hedges and to compel to come in. Of course, along the
highways and in the hedges one would find beggars and criminals, the homeless
and the worthless. We are described in the parable as, "the poor and crippled and blind and lame". We are the
ones who one would never expect to find invited to such a nice dinner. We are
the unfit and undeserving. That's the Gospel. We are invited by the boundless
grace of God to a salvation prepared without our knowledge and readied for us
by the generosity and goodness of God without any thought to our fitness or belonging.
More than just invited, He has sent His servants out to compel us to come,
forcing us against our nature to partake of a salvation we would willingly
reject, except for His compassion and love.
"While we
were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly." You still are not
worthy. I know that I am not. The true power of the Gospel lies in that one
fact. We are unfit and undeserving, and yet He speaks His absolution over us,
and feeds us with His holy Supper, and calls us His children, and claims us by
name for His family. What is He giving us? Peace and resurrection from our
graves, and the promise of life beyond sorrow and sickness, without pain and
facing no more death. The devil comes calling, and he does, and shout
accusations that we are not good enough, or that we do not believe strongly
enough, or that we have not shaped-up our lives enough - and he is right. But
God speaks to us, in Christ, and says that He has forgiven us, and He welcomes
us into His presence, stands us up when we fall and simply invites us to go and
sin no more.
The pains and troubles we face in life are not His
judgment against us. They are simply the pains and sorrows that befall everyone
who lives in this sin-distorted world. Jesus says to us that in spite of what
we think and regardless of how we feel, He does love us, we are forgiven, and
we shall live forever in glory with Him. When we are tempted to doubt, we are
invited to look at the cross, and see what He endured for us, and hear Him say,
"It is finished!" And
believe.
He isn't waiting for you to accept His gift, nor does He
expect you to shape up and finally deserve it. He paid for you. That is what "everything is ready now" in
the parable means. He has sent His Word and His servants to bring you in to
join the dinner of everlasting life. You are poor, crippled, blind, and lame, unable to save yourself, so Jesus
did it in your place and for you. The man at the dinner with Jesus was right, "Blessed is everyone who shall eat bread
in the kingdom of God." He simply did not understand who it was
that was going to be there. He thought he and his fellow Pharisees were the
ones - they worked so hard for so long, they were sure they deserved it. But
God has the feast of salvation planned for the unfit and undeserving - like you
and me. Let us rejoice and give thanks to the Lord. Amen.
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