Trinity 2 – HEARING THE GOSPEL IS BEING INVITED
The Text, St. Luke 14:15-24 (v. 16-17). Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ ”
Lord, this is Your Word, and these are Your words. Make us Yours by the truth. Your Word is truth. Dear heavenly Father, You have invited us to Your great Supper; we pray that You would take not Your invitation from us, but give us hearts that accept it. Since You today have gathered us and permit us to hear Your invitation, help us that, by means of this Word, we may behold Your love, and be freed by it from whatever tempts and hinders us, to be drawn to You, come to You and abide with You always. Amen. (U.V. Koren)
Dear people who are loved by God in Christ from before time began: Grace and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The main thing in this parable is the inviting. But we shouldn’t miss, or skip over, what comes first. It’s that short opening phrase, “A certain man gave a great supper.” It actually says he “made” a great supper. Then the servant has to say that “all things are now ready,” or prepared. So the first thing is the preparing, or making, of this great supper. If we understand the parable, this is about a massive undertaking which takes a long patient time.
It’s about the preparing of salvation, which is pictured as a feast of joy. This began way back as soon as the Fall into sin happened, when Adam and Eve heard the first promise of the Gospel spoken by God, about the Seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head, that is, conquer the devil.
The entire Old Testament is about how God prepared this salvation. If you read the Old Testament, you’re struck by how long it takes and how patient God is with sinners; they reject Him constantly to follow false gods. While the Old Testament tells what happened to Israel, it’s not aboutIsrael; it’s about the Christ, the promised Messiah. By sending prophets to preach repentance, and by punishing Israel to lead them to repent, God was preparing His people to put their hope in the promised Christ, and when He would come to receive Him with joy, to recognize Him, believe in Him, and listen to Him. The Old Testament is full of laws, but its essence is the Gospel, the promises. This is what Simeon said when He held the Infant Jesus in His arms: “My eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared …”
This is Jesus’ first point, the preparing. It’s about the salvation God has prepared. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Christ came down and did all the work to save us. Then the Holy Spirit does His part: to call – invite – people by the Gospel, by Word and Sacrament. The first thing we learn about the Holy Spirit in the catechism is that “He has called me by the gospel” – that is, “invited” me by the Gospel.
The beautiful thing is that while in the parable the inviting comes only after the preparing, God was inviting from the beginning. The Old Testament is full of examples of God’s people rejecting Him and following false gods. They were rejecting His invitation to belong to Him, His invitation to abide in His love. But He kept inviting them, kept sending prophets to preach this.
The tragic rejection is that they refused to believe in Jesus. In this parable, obviously the first ones “who were invited” are the Jewish people, those who descended from Old Testament Israel. Long before Good Friday, Jesus shows here that “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (Jn 1:11).
We know Jesus isn’t exclusively singling out the Jews in this parable, since He makes “excuses”the means of not accepting His invitation. These three excuses aren’t unique to one ethnicity. The first one – about the newly bought “piece of ground” – applies to concerns about material stuff; this is how you obsess over what you do or don’t have. The second one – “I have bought [some] oxen”– is about money and work obligations; don’t worries about money and work take over in your life? The third – about a recent wedding – brings in family attachments and social time that can crowd out God.
Whatever people’s reasons for not accepting God’s invitation, we might wonder why God would leave it up to something as weak as an invitation that can be rejected. If God is all-powerful, why can’t He just make people believe? That’s what the gods of the myths, or powerful beings in the movies, do – force people to their will, or control their minds so that it can’t be resisted. But forced obedience, forced love, is not willing obedience, or true love. God doesn’t force faith. He doesn’t force anyone into His kingdom or to His table.
Part of the problem is if you think that to “accept” the invitation is within your ability to do. We hear this inviting business in a Law way. We’re used to receiving invitations; the issue is what you do with the invitation. It’s natural to think that accepting or rejecting the invitation is a work – what we do.
But the Bible teaches that when it comes to this salvation, and believing in Christ, you aren’t able to do it at all. The Bible says we are by nature unable to accept what the Holy Spirit says in His Word (1Cor 2:14), we are by nature opposed to God (Rom 8:7), and we are by nature totally dead in sin (Eph 2:1). So we cannot, by our own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
That is, in fact, what Jesus teaches here. If you look at the rest of the parable, you find that, actually, nobody accepts the invitation. After the first excuses, the servant doesn’t ask anyone; now he is to drag them in. It starts with the ones who can’t come themselves: “the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.” The poor who can’t afford to leave their begging corner. The lame or maimed people who can’t walk. The blind ones who have to be led.
Finally, the master tells the servant to find anyone he can and “compel them to come in.” But God doesn’t force anyone into His kingdom, so the reason it’s said this way is to show that everyone is totally unable to accept the invitation by our own powers, reason, or strength. In fact, left to our own reason and strength, all we would do is what the Jews did who rejected Jesus.
Indeed, don’t you still do this? It isn’t only the unbelieving Jews or atheists who do this. There are other ways of rejecting the invitation. You can be in the church and still reject the invitation: it’s when you hear the Gospel but don’t really hear it, it’s when you refuse to let God’s Word rule how you live, it’s when you won’t forgive and make the excuse that someone has hurt you too much, it’s when you can’t believe you can be forgiven, it’s when you listen to your doubts instead of God’s promise or when you listen to your guilt and don’t want Jesus’ loving words spoken to you.
All we’re able to do is reject the invitation. What we’re good at is excuse-making! This frustrates us about ourselves and when we see it in others. So we’re tempted to use the Law to overcome it. God’s way of invitation seems weak. So for some people even a religion like Islam or Mormonism looks attractive at this point, because these religions use threat and guilt and force to produce godliness. Their results look better. But it’s only outward righteousness. It doesn’t produce confidence before God, or give peace.
But we’re tired of the excuses people make, we’re tired of the excuses we make, we’re tired of shoddy Christianity. So we turn to the Law. You guilt others, you browbeat yourself, into better behavior. You look to what you do and depend on your determination to do better. See how the devil gets you to force your way into God’s kingdom, not to be content with God’s inviting. He makes a new god for you: your own obedience. But this is fooling yourself. You-doing-it isn’t the way in; you’d be left outside.
It might be discouraging to hear you have no ability to have faith or keep faith by your doing and effort. What appeals to us – to the old Adam in us – is to be in control, in charge. But this teaching of the Bible is exactly what I need. Being unsure of self when it comes to faith and salvation is the best thing for you. It drives you to God. He leaves only one option: to let your faith and salvation rest in His hands, to be sure of Him and His Word.
So now to hear this inviting business the way Jesus intends it to be heard – in a Gospel way. It isthe Gospel! The Gospel is an invitation that contains a promise – a promise that God Himself fulfills!
When the master in Jesus’ story – who represents God – has the message spoken, “Come, for all things are ready,” it isn’t a demand of the Law as something for you to do, since you have no ability to do it. Instead, this is the Gospel. It’s by God’s grace – it’s a gift of the Holy Spirit – so that you believe.
To “accept” the invitation is to have faith in Jesus. Faith isn’t a work. It’s the gift of God. The way we traditionally picture faith is not as the hand that does things, but an empty hand into which God places the gift. To say “Come, for all things are ready,” is not making a demand to do something. It’s inviting a starving person to sit down at a table and help him/herself. It’s not taking orders but being refreshed. For the Law makes you alarmed over your sins and creates a thirst to hear that you are forgiven. The single word of Jesus, “Come!” says: “You are forgiven! Now just enjoy it!” That’s what He invites you and all of us to: a feast of joy, to have joy emanating from Him.
The Gospel you hear is Jesus inviting you. All the time. That’s what life in His kingdom is: always being invited. There’s no time He’s not inviting you.
In Your baptism He invited you, so each time we begin “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” the baptism words, it’s a sign that He wants you, you’re His child. When you hear His Word, He’s inviting you to this joy. In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus’ words “This is My body …” etc., not only do something to the elements; but He is inviting you to His feast of joy.
He’s always inviting you. So this is how to think of yourself: you are “the invited one.” You are one who is wanted, by God! It’s how heaven sees you. This teaches us to see everyone as an “invited one.” He calls you to see each person as one invited by Him, to whom He speaks the Gospel which removes sin. His invitation doesn’t only remove your sin. It also removes the sins of others. His invitation calls you to not give up on anyone. Emblazoned on them you are to see: “Invited!” Which is emblazoned on you. Amen!