Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen

Our text for today’s meditation is the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 22.

¹And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, ²"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, ³and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. ⁴Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.' ⁵But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, ⁶while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. ⁷The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. ⁸Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. ⁹Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' ¹⁰And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. ¹¹"But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. ¹²And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. ¹³Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' ¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen." (Mat 22:1-14 ESV)

On April 29^thof this year the world watched as the royal family of Great Britain celebrated the wedding of their prince. Everything was absolutely gorgeous and fitting of a royal wedding. 2,200 people were invited to the wedding. The queen hosted the reception at Buckingham Palace after the wedding where 650 people were chosen from the wedding ceremony guest list. The reception was fantastic and the food exquisite. The queen spared no expense on the menu; some of the items included were;

• Cornish Crab Salad on Lemon Blini
• Pressed Duck Terrine with Fruit Chutney
• Scottish Smoked Salmon Rose on Beetroot Blini
• Quails Eggs with Celery Salt
• Wild Mushroom and Celeriac Chausson
• Bubble and Squeak with Confit Shoulder of Lamb
• Smoked Haddock Fishcake with Pea Guacamole
• Miniature Yorkshire Pudding with Roast Fillet of Beef and Horseradish Mousse
• Rhubarb Crème Brulee Tartlet
• Passion Fruit Praline
• White and Dark Chocolate Ganache Truffle
• Milk Chocolate Praline with Nuts

Just to name a few items on the list.

As you can see this was an event you didn’t want to miss. Can you imagine receiving an invitation for the reception? The honor of receiving an invitation from the queen of England is quite great; even our president did not get one. I’m sure you would do everything you could to be there. Let’s walk along with the guests as they are about to enjoy this day. The guests approach the gate at Buckingham Palace where their identity is checked. Can you imagine the excitement as you are escorted through the tall iron gates to a gorgeous room in the palace where you wait as the reception is prepared? Suddenly the guests start grumbling about the queen and you hear them talking about insulting her. You can hardly believe what you are hearing after all this is the queen of England they are talking about. The guests have worked themselves into a frenzy when the doors open and the servants announce that everything is ready and they extend an invitation to come to the reception, the feast. One gentleman walks out saying he must tend to his farm while another leaves saying he has a business to run. These excuses are absurd, this is the wedding feast for the prince, and the excuses are an insult to the queen. To except the invitation, show up, and then leave with an absurd excuse is truly an intentional insult. Suddenly, the rest of the guests grab the servants, beat them, kill them, and leave.

Now imagine the queen sending her servants into the streets of London gathering anyone they can regardless of status and inviting them to the reception. Of course they don’t have time to do background checks so they are sure to get the "good and the bad" of society.

This whole scenario sounds ridiculous and if it happened it would be world news for many days. Who in their right mind would walk away from the

royal reception and worse yet beat and kill the servants? Remember the invitees aren’t just anybody; these are the elite, the chosen ones from another elite list. The talking heads would have a field day with this for quite some time.

Jesus describes an event just as absurd in today’s parable where he equates the kingdom of heaven to a royal wedding feast. The invitees here are also the elite, the chosen ones and they too insult the king with lame excuses.

There are lots of questions about this parable. First, what is the feast for; we see it’s for a wedding. So, who got married? Who is the king and who is the son? The king’s son is the groom but who is the bride? Who are the invitees? So many questions; let’s answer these questions. The king is God our Father and the king’s son is Jesus and he is marrying the church. Like the hymn says; the church is not a building, we are the church, the church is people. The invitees are some of the chosen people of Israel.

Let’s walk through the parable. Jesus is speaking to the chief priests and the Pharisees and He has a double meaning for the feast. It is the kingdom of God in the present here and now living as a chosen one in a Christian life and it is the gift of eternal life. The invitees are in fact the Pharisees and the chief priest not because of their positions but because they are some of the ones rejecting the invitation of Jesus. They are not responding to the message or the messengers but instead reject Christ’s teachings. They think they earned their place through their works by keeping the law. The invitees represented here is anyone who rejects Christ’s message not just the Pharisees and chief priest. The excuses given are truly an intentional insult to the king. As a result of the insult the king sends troops to destroy the murderers and their cities. This represents what will happen to all who reject Christ and His teaching on judgment day. The invited ones are declared unworthy because they rejected the king and His son. The invitation is what made them worthy and with their rejection the king rescinds the invitation.

As you can imagine the king is angry but instead of canceling the feast he is gracious and opens the invitation to all and he gets the good and the bad of society. He fills the hall with everyday people off the streets who would normally be unwelcome but the kings invitation makes them worthy to be at the feast. As the guests come in off the street they are given a wedding garment to put on. One man does not put his garment on and is noticed by the king and thrown out. He does not properly cloth himself and therefore is not worthy and is bound and cast into the outer darkness, hell.

So how can we read this parable today in light of what it meant for the Pharisees and the chief priest? The Jews, the chosen people of God did not have faith in Jesus and rejected Jesus and His messengers and therefore were declared unworthy. His message; that He willingly became man in order to marry the church. The message; that He willingly was to give himself to be the feast we celebrate in the Lord’s Supper. It is a feast that forgives our sins because he cares so much for His bride, the church, that He picked up our sins made them part of himself and carried them across the threshold of death and buried them there. The message; that he would defeat death so that all may also rise again on the last day to live eternally with Him. This is the message that the Jews rejected. God being gracious opens the feast to all and therefore everyone is invited to the feast, many are chosen. The good and the bad are chosen so it becomes obvious we are not invited because of good works and we are not excluded because of bad. The invitation makes you worthy. You must be wearing the wedding garment in order to enjoy the benefits of the feast. The wedding garment is the Holy Spirit washing and clothing you at your baptism. The Holy Spirit works faith in you at your baptism. I believe your baptismal certificate is your invitation. We don’t want to reject Christ’s message as the Pharisees did and be declared unworthy and suffer destruction and weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The feast is eternal life but remember it is also about the kingdom of God which is here and now. We have our invitation and we are clothed in our wedding garment so do we just wait around for the end times? No way, go in confidence that you have a place at the feast not because of anything you did but because of Christ’s graciousness and merit alone and live out His love in your community. Leave behind the unloving and sinful ways. Let the world and this community see Christ’s righteousness and love on you. Eat and be strengthened by Christ’s feast of the Lord’s Supper knowing your sins are forgiven and be Christ to your community. Live in God’s kingdom now and look for look forward to the wedding feast to come where God spared no expense, His only Son. At the feast we will all be raised and live eternally with Christ in the new heaven and the new earth. Amen