Trinity 18
Today’s Gospel is once again a parable of Jesus in which He talks about the kingdom of heaven. Luther points out: “Learn first of all that the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of Christ our Lord, where the Word and faith are present. In this kingdom we have the life in hope and are, according to the Word and faith, pure from sins and free from death and hell, though we are still retarded by this old hull and lazy flesh. The hull is not yet torn away, the flesh is not yet removed; that is still to be done, then there will be for us nothing but life, righteousness, and salvation.”
In other words, the kingdom of heaven refers to the Church, the Church as She looks outwardly and is in the world. Notice in the parable, She is compared with a wedding feast. Here, in Jesus’ parable, the king had everything prepared and he has his servants summon to the wedding banquet those who had been invited: I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. But what happened? Those who had been invited paid no attention and went off. Isn’t that the perfect description of Christ’s Church in this world? By His holy life and innocent suffering and death, Jesus set up His Church; He has His Christians go out into all the world and throughout history to invite people into His Church, into the kingdom of heaven. But what happens? The vast majority of people reject the invitation; they turn down the salvation that has been won and prepared for them by Jesus.
When Jesus first told this parable during that first Holy Week, during His final public preaching, it was clear that He was once again warning the Jews not to reject Him; and because they would reject Him they would be punished for it—and they were, by the Romans in 70 AD as Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. Jesus pictures it this way in our text: not only were Jesus and the Apostles rejected, but the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Because Jesus and His salvation were rejected by the Jews, those He came to first, in fulfillment of God’s promises, the Lord then had the Gospel go to the Gentiles: ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invites to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And 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. This is a picture of the outward, visible Church here on earth—not only can She and the salvation She offers and gives be rejected, but there are also false Christians, hypocrites attached to her, who lack that proper wedding garment—faith in Jesus. But like barnacles are scraped off a ship, so too the same happens in the final judgment: the false Christians and hypocrites will be scraped from the outward church/ believers. The king saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
The warning for us, dear Christian, is clear. The Gospel, Jesus and His kingdom can be and are rejected. Let us see to it that we who in God’s grace have been called to the kingdom do not reject that gracious invitation. Let us treasure that word of Christ and ever hold it fast. And let us see to it that once we have come to faith, that we do not let that faith die or that our Christian life becomes merely a show and we live the lie of a hypocrite. That means: let us seek each day to make our faith more sure by regular reading and studying of Holy Scripture; let us daily remember our baptism and grab ahold of its gifts and blessings by confessing our sins and receiving Holy Absolution; let us unite with Jesus as we regularly receive His true body and blood in the Blessed Sacrament; let us exercise our faith as we go to the Lord daily and often in prayer and follow the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit into a life of good works.
Our text is also about the feast that is the NT Church. In it St. Isaiah describes the blessings of the Church—blessings that are ours already now and blessings that are eternal. Notice how Isaiah begins our text: On this mountain 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. Notice again, like in Jesus’ parable in the Gospel: the feast is prepared for us. It is God who does all the work. That’s why this feast of salvation is never in doubt—God has done the work; it is prepared—everything is ready. In Jesus God offers us the blessings of the forgiveness of sin, of peace and reconciliation with Him, eternal life and every heavenly gift. It has been prepared for us by Jesus—by His holy life without sin for us, by His innocent suffering and death for our sin. And now, this forgiveness of sin, this peace with God, this rescue from sin, death and devil, and this eternal life are now proclaimed and offered to us. This is God’s superabundant grace! When this good news about Jesus—who He is and what He has done for us—is proclaimed to us in the word and preaching, God is inviting us—you and me—to His rich spiritual and heavenly Supper. These blessings won by Jesus are what God now gives us in the Church. Only in the Church—as members of Christ Jesus by faith—do we have and enjoy them. These are great blessings for us now and continue into all eternity. The feast begins now for us and continues forever.
Look at how the holy prophet describes this feast: of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. The well-aged and refined wine probably sounds pretty good but the rich food full of fat and marrow is probably not too good sounding to most of us today—or certainly too healthy. But the picture the holy prophet paints of this feast is what is vital for us to consider. In his day the rich food full of marrow was considered very desirable, the best of the best. So the image he gives is a rich and abundant feast filled only with the best/ most desirable food and drink. This is exactly what we have in the Church—Jesus is offering us the best, only the very best.
Think about what the world around us offers. It offers things that seem very appealing—money, power, pleasure, etc.; it offers various philosophies for life. But none of these things really satisfy. No matter how much money or pleasure a person has/ enjoys, it always leaves them feeling empty as if something is missing in life; as if there is something more. And there is! If you are feeling some emptiness in your life, hear our Lord’s gracious invitation to come to Him, to come to His feast. In each of us—that’s how God wired us—there is a void that only He can fill. And in His Church He is inviting us to receive Him, His gifts, His blessings. He is inviting us to His feast, so that we may be filled with His good things. In His Church, He is not offering us human thought and philosophy which can never satisfy but which changes with the season; instead He offers us truth—His eternal truth—the truth of the Gospel. What God offers us in the feast, which is His holy Church, truly satisfies, blesses and enriches us. It alone quenches our spiritual deep-seated thirst; it alone stills our true inner hunger.
And what is so wonderful to remember is that where there is a feast, there is the one who is giving the feast. He is there at the feast. So also in our text: On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast… The Lord is with His people! He is in the midst of His Church, His dear Christians. That’s what we especially rejoice in when we gather together for worship. We gather around our Lord—that’s what the altar points us to: our Lord’s presence with us—and He feeds us with the best and most wonderful food of His holy word and sacrament. That’s why David says for all the faithful [Ps 122.1]: I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” The Lord is always with His people, but here in church in a wonderful, glorious way feeding us with His gifts in this feast!
And then the picture shifts a bit in our text from our feasting at the Lord’s feast to another eating, but this is something that He eats: And He will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. If the feast the Lord has prepared for us in His Church is to be enjoyed, then first something has to be removed—something that prevents us from enjoying that feast. And what would keep us from enjoying His feast? – The covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. This covering/ veil is the covering of ignorance, the ignorance of the holy God and the things of God. Elsewhere Isaiah describes us this way [9.2]: The people … walked in darkness. This is our spiritual blindness. We know that there is a God, but in our spiritual blindness we don’t know who that God is; we don’t know Him rightly. Because of sin we lost that right and true knowledge of God. It’s like a thick covering/ veil thoroughly envelops us/ our hearts and minds. We do not and cannot know the true God and His ways and His love for us rightly. But what does God do for us in the Church? He reveals Himself to us in Jesus, His Son; in Jesus we see the Face of God. He reveals Himself, His heart and His will toward us in Him. In Holy Scripture He shows us Himself and who and what kind of God He is. Only here—in His Church—do we come to know God rightly. Because here in His Church, He pours out on us His Holy Spirit so that we know and love Him rightly, so that we are right now enjoying abundant, rich, spiritual life. And by this He swallows up, completely eliminates that veil/ web covering us, keeping us ignorant of the true God—the one that we are all wired to seek out. Now we know Him and love Him and long for the day when we will be eternally with Him in heaven and see Him face to face.
In order for us to do this, St. Isaiah continues in our text: He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. Again notice that eating imagery—the Lord swallows up death forever. Not a trace of death will be left. When Jesus rose from the dead that first Easter Sunday, death was completely destroyed. It had lost its hold. It no longer reigned. Jesus was victorious over it. The living and ascended Jesus now rules His Church and rules all things for His Church. Now in His Church He gives us the fruit of His victory over death as He gives us the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. The new life that we have in Christ, that life of faith, that He gives us by His Holy Spirit in the Word and Sacrament, begins now and continues into all eternity. Yes, because of sin we will all die—but death does not have the final word. Jesus does—who destroyed/ swallowed up death forever. Even though we Christians will have to endure death, what has made death so horrible—God’s wrath and punishment in hell, the outer darkness….[where] there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth—we do not endure. At death the soul of the Christian goes from life here on earth to the glories of heaven in bliss beholding the holy Triune God with all the saints and angels. And then come the Last Day, death will be completely undone as Jesus will raise all the dead and reunite soul and body—for His dear Christian, He will reunite soul and glorified body to spend all eternity in heaven. What a glorious life, joy and peace we will have. The feast begins here in the Church on earth and continues in the Church in heaven:
It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, that He might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”