The Hottest Ticket in the Kingdom ~ Matthew 21:1-15 ~ Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

I officiated a wedding last weekend.

It happens all the time that I end up sharing funny wedding stories…

I mention the wedding cake that fell apart on delivery…

I talk about the two times I’ve been shot in the head with champagne corks during the toast…

I recall the poor groom, whose tuxedo pants fell down during the vows…

But a lot unfunny things happen, too—and one of the most frequent is the number of guests who promise to come, but don’t show up…

Granted, it’s to be expected that things will happen keep prevent people from coming, like an illness or problem at work.

But it really hurts when invited guests simply shrug off the invitation, either by forgetting or by choosing to do something else “more important.”  Not only does this hurt feelings; families still have to pay to feed and entertain the absent guests.

All too often, friendship and hospitality get abused. 

This is exactly what happens in Jesus’ parable.  A king throws a wedding banquet for his son, the crown prince—and there’s no doubt that this is the hottest ticket in the land.  But not all people respond to the invitation—even after the king’s slaves try to convince them as to what a great banquet this is to be.  They make light of the invitation.  They go off to more important matters.  Some even despise the invitation to the extent that they assault and assassinate the king’s slaves.  This is insane!  (What’s even more insane the way the king “handles” the rejection…)

But he’s determined to fill his banquet hall—and if the invited people won’t come, he’ll find people who will.  So his slaves go out into the streets, and they bring in everyone they could find, both good and bad.

So now, the wedding hall’s full—but there’s one more problem.  A man’s there who’s not appropriately dressed for the occasion.  And when he can’t explain to the king why he’s not wearing a clean shirt, the attendants bind him up and toss him out like a sack of trash.

I don’t know about you, but I find this parable a bit perplexing.  I certainly don’t think I’d want to stick around at a party like this.  Who knows what would happen if I spill my coffee?

But there is a lot of grace in this parable.  Normally, only the wealthy elites would be invited to a royal wedding.  But they make themselves unworthy by refusing the invitation.  Now, the tables are turned: The “least” of their society are now feasting in the king’s banquet hall.  Both good and bad.  What they get is so much more than just free food.  Now, they are part of the royal family.  That’s the real grace here: the relationship.  Bear in mind that weddings in Jesus’ day lasted for a week or more—so this invitation is definitely worth the time and getting fired from a job.  Life will never be the same again.

This is how grace works.  It doesn’t matter if you’re good or bad, least or lowliest.  God lavishes love on you just because.  Everyone’s invited in.

Still, there’s the matter of the guy without a clean shirt.  In all likelihood, most of the people the king brought in wouldn’t have had money to buy a wedding garment.  But in those days, if you didn’t have one, the host provided one for you.  That was basic hospitality—grace, once again. 

But in this parable, we see grace abused.  The people who refuse the invitation and the guy who won’t wear a clean shirt are all guilty of this. 

The thing about grace is that there is a cost that comes in giving it.  If we were to take this parable as symbolizing the marriage of Jesus to his bride, the church; this wedding cost Jesus his life.  But many reject the gift of grace—and the one who gives it, once again for the reason of cost.  Some wouldn’t go, because there were more important things to do.  A few were so determined to get the king out of their way that they killed his slaves.  As for the man without the clean shirt, he was very willing to accept the invitation and free food—but far be it that he’d make the effort to change his clothes.

God’s grace brings sinners like us directly into the family of God.  It washes away our sin and makes us holy, not by our actions, but by the action of Jesus Christ for our sake.  It gives us a clean shirt of holiness.  Grace will raise us up on the last day to live forever in God’s kingdom.  All these gifts we are more than happy to receive.

But grace has a flipside.  It isn’t about you.  It’s about Christ.  Grace inherently eradicates the sin that turns us inward, and takes life as the pursuit of ambitions and agendas.  Sin has no tolerance for anyone or anything that gets in our way.  Sin tells you that you can’t afford to give grace—or receive it if it’s not going to bring you what you want. 

If we’re going to receive grace from God, we’re only going to receive it on God’s terms.  That’s the parable’s “punch.”  We must work out the grace that the Holy Spirit works in.  We must wear holiness through acts of grace and love for our neighbor’s benefit.  I can’t help but feel extremely vulnerable with the words “many are called; few are chosen.” 

But God’s grace begins right here, right now.  You know you’re not worthy of God’s invitation.  You know you’ve probably refused him before, perhaps even shooting his messenger.  You know you don’t have a clean shirt—and you don’t really belong in God’s family.  But right now, none of that matters.  You’re invited in.  If you can be vulnerable enough to believe that you’re life’s not going to be the same when you go into the king’s banquet; that you’re plans might change and that you just might come out healed and restored, say yes.  Come and be his guest.