Trinity 2
Dear friends in Christ! A few weeks ago on Pentecost Sunday, we heard that the Holy Spirit had come upon the disciples just as Jesus had promised. The Holy Spirit equipped and strengthened and gave the disciples the gifts and all things necessary to bring the saving word of Jesus to a world so desperately in need of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins, life, peace and joy that He and His work brought about. The proclamation of the apostles has gone out and continues to go out into all the world, as St. Paul testifies [Rm. 10.18]: Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. But Jesus could only send out His Holy Spirit in full measure on His Church like He did on Pentecost only after He had completed the work for our salvation. When Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, then, on the day of Pentecost, He was saying that the work for the salvation of the world is done: our sin has been paid for, the righteousness God demands of us in His holy Law has been done, His wrath over our sin has been appeased, our spiritual enemies have all been conquered and heaven stands open to us. When the day of Pentecost had come, then Jesus’ words of promise were fulfilled to His disciples [Ac 1.8]: But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
The message of the apostles and thus the message of the Church down to this very day is pictured for us by Jesus in the parable He gives in our text: And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ As we examine Jesus’ parable we will see that everything is now ready, that is, God has prepared salvation for us; and therefore we dare not reject His gracious invitation.
1. Jesus begins the parable: Jesus said to him, “A man once was preparing a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ The custom was that invitations to banquets were extended and accepted. But it was a preliminary/ initial acceptance because the exact hour the banquet was to take place was not yet set—after all, how do you know how much time you’ll need until everything is done. When the meal and all the preparations were done, then servants would go out and announce to those who had been invited and accepted: ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ Many invitations had gone out and obviously many invitations were accepted to this great banquet.
As is the case in so many of Jesus’ parables the man is God. And He was preparing a great banquet. So what is that great banquet? It is the full and free salvation God has prepared for all people in Jesus. But notice carefully the words: was preparing a great banquet. Just like a great banquet is not something that is whipped up and pulled together in a short period of time, neither is God’s plan for saving the world from sin. Although God had promised Adam and Eve after their first sin that He would send a Savior from sin into the world, it was thousands of years—and one world-wide, world destroying flood—later before Jesus came. All during those years, God was preparing a great banquet. He did so as He separated the Israelites as a people from whom the Savior would come; as He sent them the prophets as His spokesmen calling them to repentance and faith; as through the prophets He gave the prophecies of the Savior so people would know and recognize Him when He would finally come. All during this time, He was also preparing the heathen world for the time of when the apostles or their successors would come to them. So, yes, all this time God was preparing a great banquet.
And because it is a great banquet, it shows God intends it for many people. In fact, what does Scripture tell us about the ones God intends it for? Through St. Paul He says [1 Ti 2.3-4], that He, God our Savior…desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; and through the prophet Isaiah [25.6] He says: On this mountain [here this is a reference to the Church] the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
When it comes to this great banquet, it is the banquet of salvation that God has prepared/ intended for all people and wants to give them. When it comes to the salvation of the world, this great banquet, God is not cheap. He sent His Son to be the Savior of all; He sent His Son to suffer and die for the sins of all; He sent His Son to reconcile the whole of lost humanity to Him, as Jesus says about Himself [Mt 20.28]: The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. Yes, the banquet of salvation that God was preparing all throughout the OT times and culminated in Jesus’ coming, His life suffering and death, is a great banquet, God has prepared for us sinners through Jesus. Now, in this life, we enjoy His grace, the righteousness of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins; after this life, in eternity, we enjoy eternal life and glory in heaven in both soul and body with all the saints, the angels and the holy Triune God. This is indeed a great banquet that God has prepared for us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus has come and has carried out the work of our salvation. By Jesus’ holy life and innocent suffering and death, by His glorious resurrection and ascension, the great banquet is ready. But that great banquet of our salvation would do us no good unless the message goes out: ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ That’s why in the times before Jesus’ coming, the prophets and the temple/sacrifices would point the people forward to the day of Jesus and His saving work—so certain and sure was it! But we, dear Christian, are so blessed! We live in the time after Jesus has come, when truly it is an accomplished fact. There is no denying it or thinking that it might not happen. Come, for everything is now ready, for the feast of salvation!
What do we read in our text? And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ All people had already been invited in and through God’s promise to Adam and Eve, our first parents, and the promise of the Savior given them. Now Jesus has come. During His earthly ministry, Jesus, the very God Himself, came and announced by His preaching and confirmed by His miracles, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ On the day of Pentecost, He sent His Holy Spirit on His apostles to go out into the world to announce, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ He continues to send out faithful pastors, teachers, missionaries, and all Christians to announce: ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ So serious is God that His banquet of salvation be full that He says: ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.” The meal/ banquet of salvation is ready and God wants to serve it! To be sure, no one enters God’s kingdom/ the great banquet without an invite, but in Jesus, God made all things ready and He extends the invite to all: ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ What a great mercy and grace of God—He wants His banquet hall filled. He wants all to enjoy salvation in Jesus. That’s how we compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. We take comfort in the Lord’s mercy and love to us; we need not have any doubts about our worthiness to be part of the great banquet/ Christ’s Church here and in heaven. The grace of God does not want the death of the sinner but that the sinner in faith turn to Him [Ez. 33.11] and receive His forgiveness, righteousness, salvation and life. In other words, we ourselves are compelled and we compel others with the attracting power of God’s grace and the cross of Christ. God has done everything and prepared our salvation for us. ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
2. As wonderful and gracious as our Lord’s parable is for us—that God, in grace, has done everything for our salvation and that He actually invites us, ‘Come, for everything is now ready,’ there is a warning in Jesus’ parable. And the warning is this: do not reject His gracious invitation to the great banquet of His salvation. Jesus’ parable is a warning not against gross, declared enemies of Jesus and His work, but against excuse makers: those who know they should come to the great banquet, those who know they should think more of their soul and their eternal welfare but do not, but make excuses instead!
Our text: But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ Not all regard God’s banquet of salvation as something wonderful. In the overall scheme of things, these excuses may look ok on the surface; they may seem legitimate but it is debatable, though, really how legit they are—after all who buys a field sight unseen? Who buys oxen without trying them out to see if they even work well together as a team? Or, a more modern day example—who buys a car without a test drive? Even if these are legitimate “excuses” they are wrong if they interfere with God’s invitation to us to the great banquet of salvation in Jesus. Other interests take a priority in life instead of the things of God, instead of concern for our soul’s salvation.
How foolish this is, dear Christian! Think about it. Isn’t contrary even to reason, the height of foolishness, to say, “No, I don’t want the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Instead, give me 5 pairs of oxen.” But guess what? There are all kinds of unreasonable/ foolish excuses people—you and me included—offer up when it comes to things of God and the salvation of our soul and because of our old sinful nature, we readily go along and believe it and so spurn God’s invitation.
Perhaps we can say, “Well I’m a Christian. See I accepted the invitation and I’m at the great banquet.” True enough! But what if you are like the ones in Jesus’ parable: But they all alike began to make excuses. Notice they began to make excuses. First one excuse, then another—I can skip church, I have to do this or that; that’s not a big sin, it won’t matter; I don’t have to pray or read my bible, I don’t have time. That’s what we must be on guard against, dear Christian, accepting the notion of one “little” excuse after another because before you know it, the invitation to the great banquet of salvation will have been declined.
Learn from our Lord’s parable how foolish/ unreasonable excuses are. Put things into perspective. For example, when tempted to skip church say: “No, I don’t want to be where Jesus promised to meet me; no, I don’t want the forgiveness of sins; no, I don’t want to receive His body and blood; instead, I want a lazy morning because I worked hard all week, or fill in the blank.”
Besides showing our Lord’s faithfulness and His total work for our salvation, another point of our Lord’s parable is to take our sinful nature seriously. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. The parable is a call to each of us to examine him/herself: Have I come into the great banquet? And if I have, am I holding the course, that is am I remaining in the faith and caring for the salvation of my soul?
Dear Christian, we have been called in the word and sacrament. Let us hold firmly to and treasure that invitation, Come, for everything is now ready. Our Lord’s wonderful promise in the word and sacrament both invites us, creating faith to accept the invite, and strengthens us to treasure it and hold fast to it. Come, for everything is now ready. Keep receiving His gracious invite. INJ