Sermon: October 15, 2023
Reading: Matthew 22: 1-14
How do you respond to God’s invitation to the heavenly banquet? Do you set it aside, pretending you didn’t get it? Do you toss it in a pile with a bunch of other things to do, thinking you’ll get around to responding later? The warning Jesus gives the temple leaders also rings true for us. Not responding, is a response, and a rejection of God’s invitation.
Or do you respond, but only if it’s convenient and fits into what you want? Our response can’t be half-hearted like the person in the second part of the parable. The one who went to the banquet and was thrown out because they didn’t have the proper clothes on. How that person was treated can be a bit bothersome, but we must remember that clothing is sometimes used as a metaphor in the Bible because God doesn’t care about how we are physically dressed. He doesn’t care if we wear a three-piece suit or shorts and a tee shirt. God cares about what is in our hearts.
Paul used clothing as a metaphor in several of his letters. When Paul wrote to Colossians, he said, “As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.… Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.”
In Jesus’ parable, the clothing symbolizes the attitude and behavior that’s in the heart of a believer. So, in the parable, the person who went to the banquet and wasn’t properly dressed actually refused God’s invitation because they were unwilling to embrace and put on the love of Christ.
Jesus is cautioning us that we must discard things that we can sometimes clothe ourselves in that only draw us away from God, like anger, jealousy, hatred, fear, impatience, and pride. We are encouraged to clothe ourselves and our hearts with Jesus Christ, to robe ourselves in Christ, and embody his love, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness so we are dressed properly to proclaim the love God has for all of his creation.
The truth that Jesus tells us in the parable is that the choices we make have consequences. What we do and say matters. Accepting God’s invitation to the banquet and enveloping ourselves in his love so we are robed in the light of Christ, matters.
God deems us worthy and invites us to be part of the wedding banquet of His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, who redeemed us. God accepts us and meets us where we are, as broken and worn down as we might be, and through God’s amazing grace, helps us to grow evermore into the image of his love.
May we willingly and joyfully respond to God’s invitation by choosing to put on the garments that reflect and demonstrate Jesus’ grace and mercy and, more importantly, God’s love for all humanity, and bring a sense of God’s divine peace to a chaotic world.
