Jesus calls his disciples to a transformational mission.
The challenge for them was to capture the vision, scope, and heart of his plan. They often missed it. Let us not miss the life-changing mission that God has for us right under our noses if we will only have the ears to hear and the eyes to see.
Changing Lives for God in Christ: Sermon on Mark 9:33-37
Sermon preached at St. John the Divine in Houston, TX on 19 September 2021. Come visit: https://www.sjd.org/
Mark 9:33-37 (ESV Version)
30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.
33 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”
Is Jesus challenging you today?What question are you too afraid to answer, and what answer are you too afraid to give?And what is the mission to which God is calling you to engage that is right under your nose?
I looked up the meaning of the acronym RSVP, and I discovered that it stands for the French phrase, “Répondez, s’il vous plaît.” That translates to, “Would you reply, please?” I’ve been involved in a fair share of weddings throughout my life and ministry, and I have seen how important each RSVP is for the purposes of planning. However, in my experience, Americans aren’t very good about returning an RSVP.
I looked up what etiquette says to do if someone doesn’t return their RSVP, and modern practice says that when planning who to invite to your wedding, you should create an A list and a B list. You invite the A list first, and then if they don’t respond, you write them off and send out invitations to the B list. Isn’t that interesting? It’s exactly what happened in this Gospel parable… This has been going on for over 2,000 years!
It’s interesting to think about the attitude of the king of heaven toward those who don’t RSVP and still show up anyway. Unlike a modern day wedding, in which every seat must be carefully planned, there is always room in the kingdom of heaven, and you are always welcome to come, no matter how late your response. Thinking of some of the other parables from the Gospel of Matthew, we’ve seen that the vineyard keeper will give the workers their full pay even if they only worked for an hour (Matt. 20:1-16). Or the father will appreciate the work of the son even if he at first refused to do it (Matt. 21:28-32). The king is very generous to all comers.
However, in this parable, we examine the way some responded that were not acceptable. When the people who were invited to the wedding did not reply, the king in this parable did what Emily Post Institute tells us is the proper approach to those who fail to return their RSVP – a follow-up call. Rather than writing them off, first reach out politely and ask them if they are coming. The king did this by sending servants to ask them in person if they are coming. However, the rude invitees dismissed and ignored the servants and the invitation.
Andy Stanley wrote a small book called “Choose to Cheat,” in which he says you have to choose what part of your life is going to be cheated in favor of something else. You have to choose to sacrifice work in favor of family or family in favor of work. Choosing priorities has to be intentional. We can say that one thing is our priority, but when we step back and examine what we are giving our time and money to, we find out that something else is actually our first priority. All of us struggle with upside-down priorities – when things that we want to be less important tend to dominate our lives. This is what happened with these rude invitees – their priorities were placed in work, in family, in anything but accepting the call of their king.
C.S. Lewis said it this way:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
We see this same thing from the Israelites in the book of Exodus. God’s people have seen astonishing demonstrations of God’s power on their behalf, but when Moses spends just a little too long up on the mountain, the people ask Aaron to make them an idol, and they turn away from worshiping the one true God (Exodus 32).
The human heart is so fickle. We do it all the time. We take the work of our hands and make it our gods. And we have an amazing capacity to self-deceive. We make up stories that convince us we are not at fault, but those are lies. We are responsible for creating our own idols.
This was the problem that kept the first group of people from accepting the king’s invitation – they were busy devoting themselves to work, family… All idols. Then we have a second group of people who refused to attend the wedding of the king’s son out of contempt for the king and his son. When we think of it in the framework of the kingdom of God, the son in the story is Jesus. And those who refuse to attend his wedding are those who reject him as the Messiah, the Son of God.
In the wedding parable, the rebellious invitees refused the king’s servants and treated them shamefully. In the kingdom of God, the people refused, rejected, abused, and killed God’s servants when they invited them to enter the kingdom of heaven. In return, the king in the parable reacted with anger and judgment to this rejection, and so did God when his people rejected him.
And so, when the original invitees refused and rejected the king’s invitation, he moved to the B list. “Go out to the roadsides and bring in anyone who will come!” In the kingdom of heaven, this is when the invitation opens to the Gentiles, to all the nations… And this is how we fit into the story! When the original people of God refused the invitation, then the invitation was opened to the whole world. That is the Gospel!
Then at the end of this parable, we have one guy who showed up in the wrong clothes, unprepared for the party. What is the deal with this one guy? His coming dressed inappropriately shows that he wasn’t sincere in wanting to celebrate with the king. He simply showed up, possibly wanting to cause trouble or just to see what he could selfishly get out of the party.
What we’re talking about here is not when someone doesn’t wear a suit to church. What we’re talking about in the kingdom of heaven is that sincere seekers of Christ are to bear his image. We take off our sinful actions and attitudes and put on the righteousness of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit. We put on Christ and fully devote ourselves to his worship and work. The king delights in genuine seekers! This is in sharp contrast to those who show up to church looking to see what they can get from God, with no intention of genuinely repenting.
May we never forget that when we come to worship the Lord, we are accepting his invitation to celebrate the wedding feast of his Son! We must come fully dressed, preparing our hearts to enter into genuine worship. And we must also go out to the roadsides, the ends of the earth, and extend the invitation to all those who have sincere hearts to receive God’s invitation to this glorious banquet.
After a week like the weeks our nation has just had, when we see injustice and violence on the streets, racial tension building, protests erupting, and even rioting and looting, I’m always nervous when I get up to preach on a Sunday following that. Even though I have seen this before in my 22 years of active ministry, there’s still always a fear that I’m going to say the wrong thing or that what I say would not be helpful or cause more division. However, I can always return to the Scripture, the words of the Lord. It’s not my eloquence needed in these moments, but we need to hear from God. He is the source of hope and truth.
I see those who are raising their voices in protest, and I feel a sense of solidarity with them. I’m not of the same skin color or background or socioeconomic class as many of them, but I firmly agree with them that things are not right in this country. Although our country and government are very good, we cannot be satisfied until we have justice for all. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it perfectly in his “I Have A Dream” speech:
No, no, we are not satisfied and will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.
We need to acknowledge those who suffer under oppression and injustice, but we need to make sure to place our hope in the right thing. Our hope is not in a president or a political party or a change of government; our hope can only be in the gospel of Jesus Christ and his Lordship, in the plan of God for this world manifested on the Day of Pentecost and the outpouring of the Spirit of God.
The Day of Pentecost represents a reversal of the divisions among men. The Apostle Paul puts it plainly:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Ephesians 2:13-18
Paul says that through the work of Christ on the cross, Jesus created even ground on which all of us stand, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, or even our sin. We are all standing at the foot of the cross on the same ground. We are equals in our need for grace and forgiveness.
We all receive that grace and forgiveness freely through Christ, and therefore that same grace and forgiveness must be manifested in our lives in the way we treat each other. Paul’s vision of a unified body of Christ must happen now, in our day, through the ministry of the Church.
The Day of Pentecost represents the culmination of the story of the people of Israel that began with the first Passover, their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Then they went through the Red Sea on dry ground. They are brought through the desert to Mt. Sinai, where they are given the Law of Moses, instructions for how to be the holy people of God. Then much of the rest of the story of the Bible tells how ultimately there is no sacrifice and no law that will truly and finally deliver people from sin and reconcile them to God. We need a new covenant that will be based in better blood and a better law.
This new covenant was foretold by the prophets:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Ezekiel 36:26-27
The prophets recognized that external law was not sufficient for our ultimate deliverance. We need God to do his work inside us by his Spirit. Without the gift of the Holy Spirit, human beings will forever be trapped in bondage, injustice, unrighteousness—our sin nature. External human leadership and governance is irrelevant because only the power of the living God being poured into human beings by the Holy Spirit will bring ultimate deliverance.
This what we see manifesting on the Day of Pentecost—the outpouring of the new covenant, the fulfillment of the prophecies, even the fulfillment of the Law. We see Jewish people from everywhere—different races, different languages, different cultural backgrounds—coming together to celebrate the giving of the Law—the Old Covenant. But instead God institutes his New Covenant. He declared that it is time for the dividing walls to come down, so he can bring peace to those of different languages and backgrounds.
I remember 8 years ago, when Trayvon Martin was shot in my neighborhood in Florida, my first instinct was to stay out of it. However, as I saw it enveloping my own community, I realized that as a pastor, I needed to step up on behalf of the Gospel. I asked a black pastor friend to explain the situation to him from his perspective, and he explained to me the way the justice system was failing the black community, especially young black men. I had to enter that uncomfortable place and truly just LISTEN, to try to learn what I did not naturally understand. Only then was I able to engage in the circumstance with any kind of effectiveness.
The Lord calls us into uncomfortable places, Pentecost moments, when we have to go across divisions—across race, across language, across background—to hear things we would not naturally hear. On the Day of Pentecost, they were declaring the deeds of the Lord, not making a name for themselves. God ordained that those who were divided would be united, but only in the worship of his name and praise in the power of his Holy Spirit.
So in these moments we have a choice and an opportunity. We may choose to devolve, to hunker down into our divisions and tribalism, our political party’s talking points and our own limited worldview. Or we can step out in faith, listen with the ears of the Holy Spirit, and call upon the power of God to do mighty things that none of us could do on our own.
I got a tiny taste of this in Florida, when a large gathering of black pastors and white pastors all came together to pray for our community and nation, that God would heal us and reverse the effects of sin—injustice, divisions, unrighteousness. It was a powerful moment in which I experienced the power of Pentecost, and I believe it was a glimpse of God’s ultimate plan for all of creation.
In Ezekiel 47, Ezekiel writes of a vision he was given by the Lord. A stream begins at the temple of God, and it flows out of Jerusalem toward the Dead Sea. It gets bigger and bigger, eventually so large that it cannot be measured, and as it enters the Dead Sea, the water becomes fresh and life erupts, abundance overflows.
The Jews would commemorate this prophecy at an annual feast, where the high priest would pour out a pitcher of water at the altar of the temple in Jerusalem, symbolic of beginning the flow of that river in Ezekiel’s vision. The Jews knew that the flow of abundant life hadn’t begun yet, but they celebrated it annually in the hope that it would. It was at this very ceremony when Jesus stood up among the crowd and said these words:
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
John 7:37-38
Jesus explained that he was the source of abundant life, and the source of the living water that would flow out and renew the whole world. When Jesus poured out his Spirit at Pentecost, that’s when he began the flow of that river of Ezekiel’s prophecy.
Acts 2:37 says that those who were there on the Day of Pentecost, who heard Peter’s sermon, were “cut to the heart.” They were deeply affected and convicted within of their need for God. My prayer is that we will be affected the same way.
May we all be “cut to the heart” at what we see in the world around us. May we feel convicted of our need for God. May we not be satisfied with what we see, but feel the urgency and the desire for justice, righteousness, peace, reconciliation, and healing. May we cry out to God from a posture of humility and repentance. May we repent and turn to the God who alone can save us, who alone can heal our divisions.
Only then will “justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).
In the first session of the Crucified Life I say, “Christians are the most forgiven people in the world, and therefore Christians should be the most forgiving people in the world.” I recently had a parishioner ask me if I would elaborate on that statement.
Christians believe that Jesus has forgiven all of our sins, past, present, and future on the Cross. He has paid the price in full for our entire debt and burden.
That is not to say that other people in this world who are not yet Christians do not have that same grace available from Jesus’ work on the Cross. They do. As we say in our Eucharistic prayer, Jesus’ offering of himself on the cross was “a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.” However non-Christians either do not understand the offering of Jesus, do not know about it, or do not believe it necessary or applicable to them. We have our work cut out for us. For, that same grace and forgiveness is available to everyone in this sinful and fallen world, and everyone desperately needs it. And so do we.
As Christian believers, we have seen the depth of our need and called out for grace to the living God. Yet, if a person on one hand trusts in the words of Jesus, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”, then on teh other hand harbors unforgiveness in the heart, we reveal a profound spiritual disconnect. To be forgiven and not forgiving betrays a character that has not truly internalized or comprehended the magnitude of God’s gift. Forgiving others is costly. Forgiving us was costly.
Christians are the most forgiven people on the planet. Therefore, we should be the most forgiving people on the planet. As we make the grace in which we stand our character, God reconciles the world to himself through our proclamation and character witness to the Cross. As we forgive those who trespass against us, we loose on earth those bound under the burden of guilt, shame, and law.
No other religion or belief system in the world offers absolute unearned forgiveness and grace for any and all who believe. The price is paid in full by God for us.
As Jesus taught, “For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
When Savannah Guthrie of the TODAY show broke the story of co-host Matt Lauer’s sexual misconduct and abuse in the workplace, she acknowledged her pain with tears and words:
How do you reconcile your love for someone with the revelation that they have behaved badly? And I don’t know the answer to that.
I appreciate the honest vulnerability of her question. Whenever someone behaves badly, the hurt caused by their actions spreads far and wide. Private immorality always has public consequences—the collateral damage of sin. In the case of Matt Lauer, the collateral damage caused by his sin has already spread far and wide, and will likely spread farther.
Ms. Guthrie then added,
But I do know that this reckoning that so many organizations have been going through is important, it’s long overdue and it must result in workplaces where all women—all people—feel safe and respected.
Indeed, a reckoning is long overdue. The statistics on sexual abuse in the United States are staggering and heartbreaking:
One in four women and one in six men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.
Sexual assault is the violent crime that is least often reported to law enforcement officials. A 2000 study from the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that only 28% of victims report their sexual assault to the police.
Only about 2% of all sexual assault accusations reported to police turn out to be false. This is the same rate of false reporting as other types of violent crime.
Of course, there are false accusations that are made. But with the release of Matt Lauer’s statement on the TODAY show, we know that, in his case, the charges are by-and-large true. Here is the full text of Mr. Lauer’s statement:
There are no words to express my sorrow and regret for the pain I have caused others by words and actions… To the people I have hurt, I am truly sorry. As I am writing this I realize the depth of the damage and disappointment I have left behind at home and at NBC.
Some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed. I regret that my shame is now shared by the people I cherish dearly.
Repairing the damage will take a lot of time and soul searching and I’m committed to beginning that effort. It is now my full-time job. The last two days have forced me to take a very hard look at my own troubling flaws. It’s been humbling. I am blessed to be surrounded by the people I love. I thank them for their patience and grace.
As far as statements of regret and confession go, this one has much to commend as a start. There is some honest admission of wrongdoing and the expression of a desire to take personal responsibility for that wrong. I pray for him, that God will help him do the hard work needed to repent and recover from these sins, as well as for the recovery and restoration of his victims.
However, as an object lesson in confession, there are places where his statement falls short. I take Mr. Lauer at his word that he has a long road ahead of him of “soul searching” and “repairing the damage,” so this is just the beginning of his own personal reckoning with God and the people he has hurt. But with any statement of apology, there are vital components that need to be included—and here we can learn something for our own confessions.
The Seven A’s of a Good Confession
As a priest, I have often been called upon to hear confessions, make confessions, and work to bring about the reconciliation of parties through confessions. One tool that I have found to be very helpful in evaluating confessions and helping people make believable and effective confessions comes from Ken Sande’s book, The Peacemaker. Sande outlines the Seven A’s of a good confession:
Address everyone involved (all those whom you affected).
Avoid “if,” “but,” and “maybe” (do not try to excuse your wrongs).
Admit specifically (both attitudes and actions).
Acknowledge the hurt (express sorrow for hurting someone).
Accept the consequences (such as making restitution).
Alter your behavior (change your attitudes and actions).
Ask for forgiveness.
The more egregious the sin, the more important it is to do a good job hitting all seven of the “A’s”. Let’s evaluate Mr. Lauer’s statement using the Seven A’s as a test.
Address everyone involved (all those whom you affected)
There are no words to express my sorrow and regret for the pain I have caused others by words and actions… To the people I have hurt, I am truly sorry. As I am writing this I realize the depth of the damage and disappointment I have left behind at home and at NBC.
Mr Lauer makes an attempt at the first “A” of a good confession here. But what is notably lacking is any specific reference to the victims themselves. While he does use the catch-all phrase, “to all the people I have hurt,” he then qualifies that statement by specifically naming “home” and “NBC.” What about his victims?
When we are caught in sin, often our first and biggest regret is over the consequence of the sin more than the actual commission of the sin. This is subtle, but we mainly regret getting caught and the consequences that we must now face (in Lauer’s situation, marital problems and loss of a job) rather than the fact that we sinned grievously (abuse of power, sexual harassment, and adultery). Mr. Lauer is “early days” in coming to terms with his accountability. The more he looks in the mirror honestly (if he can do that, with God’s help), he will see that his sin was a heinous violation of the women who were victims of his abuse of power and influence.
It was also a grievous violation of God’s call to covenant faithfulness in marriage, by the breaking of God’s law against adultery and covetousness. This sin, as he has begun to acknowledge, has caused real damage to his own wife and family.
Avoid “if,” “but,” and “maybe” (do not try to excuse your wrongs)
Mr Lauer struggles here when he says:
Some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed.
While the trauma experienced by victims can sometimes lead to an exaggeration of the facts, by this statement Lauer discounts his victims’ charges off the bat. In order to be helpful, a confession must be believable. When we qualify a confession with “if’s,” “but’s,” and “maybe’s,” we let ourselves off the hook from bearing the full responsibility of the pain we have caused. Mr. Lauer should have left out this qualifying statement. If there was enough truth in the stories, then there was enough to simply express wrongdoing without qualification or rationalization.
Admit specifically (both attitudes and actions)
Here is a real weakness that ties into the previous point about believability. A good confession admits specifically the wrong that was done.
While Mr. Lauer refers to his “words and actions” that caused pain, he does not specifically mention how these words and actions were wrong. Using terms such as “adultery,” “abuse,” “sexual harassment,” or “moral impropriety” would have helped to convince his hearers that he actually “gets it” that he did something wrong—seriously wrong. When we make a confession, it’s helpful to remember that those receiving it know the details; we do not need to rehash them, but we do need to include enough specifics to demonstrate that we understand the pain we caused, rather than using blanket phrases such as, “the words I said,” or “my actions.”
Acknowledge the hurt (express sorrow for hurting someone)
Mr. Lauer does a pretty good job acknowledging the hurt and disappointment he caused his family and NBC. The area in which he could have done a better job is in acknowledging the hurt to the victims of his “words and actions.” We’ve already discussed using more specific terms of what he did wrong, but he also could have more specifically addressed those to whom he did wrong: the women whose boundaries he violated. Acknowledgement of the very real hurt to the very real victims of our sin is one of the hardest but most important aspects of a good, believable confession. (Given the litigious nature of our society, it’s probable Matt Lauer’s lawyers helped craft a statement vague enough to allow themselves room to defend him from the legal consequences of his actions.) This is one of the places where his confession could have been more believable.
Accept the consequences (such as making restitution)
Mr. Lauer’s commitment to repair the damage through soul-searching as a full-time job is encouraging. This is actually the best part of his confession:
Repairing the damage will take a lot of time and soul searching and I’m committed to beginning that effort. It is now my full-time job. The last two days have forced me to take a very hard look at my own troubling flaws. It’s been humbling.
He uses the words “repairing the damage” rather than “make restitution,” but this is essentially the same thing. That damage repair will be needed not only to his home and career, but also—very importantly—to the victims of the abuse. Few are willing to openly state that they are prepared to make such amends and restitution for fear of just how costly such a process might be—materially, emotionally, and spiritually. But abusive behavior has real costs; restitution, to the extent humanly possible, should be offered and made. Lauer’s willingness to make “repairing the damage” his full-time job gives us hope for his future, hope that he will receive a measure of grace.
Alter your behavior (change your attitudes and actions)
Matt Lauer makes a good beginning here by soberly acknowledging the humility that has come to him by seeing his “troubling flaws.” The language of Step 4 in the 12 -Step Program to sobriety is helpful: “Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” To do a thorough job, this process takes a lot of time and soul-searching. With situations such as Mr. Lauer’s, such a process should be engaged in with the help of accountability partners, such as pastors or godly counsellors. It is not easy, but Matt Lauer is to be commended for his first steps.
Ask for forgiveness
The last “A” of a good confession is tricky. If we have not done an adequate job with the first 6 “A’s” of a confession, asking for forgiveness can feel inappropriate and even insensitive. It is probably best that Mr. Lauer left this part out because of the lack of specificity of this confession and the fact that it is too soon in the process for him to truly come to grips with the damage he has caused and the extent of the forgiveness being sought.
Ultimately, no amount of restitution can eradicate or pay for the violations against the dignity and personhood of another human being or against God’s holy law. Only Jesus accomplished such complete redemption through the ultimate sacrifice he made on the Cross. Matt Lauer will need to rely on the grace of God for help in his journey of restoration—as will his victims.
In this week’s gospel (see below), we learned about a man who came to the party at the King’s invitation but ultimately was thrown out for not being properly dressed. What does this man signify for the kingdom of God, and how do we avoid facing the same embarrassment?
All Come Earlier in the story there was a group of people who were invited first to the King’s son’s wedding banquet, and yet they rejected the invitation. In the original context of Jesus’ story, these were the unbelieving Jewish people who were unresponsive to the announcement of the Messiah. The day of the Lord’s visitation was upon them, only they were too focused on their own lives and businesses to give any heed to the invitation of the Gospel.
In our day many people are so focused on the things of this world, such as building their careers or retirement lifestyle, that they miss the incredible invitation offered in the Kingdom of God. To them the question is rightly raised, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)
As the story continued, the party’s heralds went out to the streets to invite others. Again, in Jesus day this could include people from other nations other than Israel, Gentiles. Interestingly, Jesus’ story mentions that the new invitees were both “good and bad”. Truly the offer of the Gospel is an invitation of forgiveness and grace. No one is truly worthy or deserving of an invitation to the King’s party. As Paul says in Ephesians, “it is by grace we have been saved”. (Ephesians 2:5)
Evangelists call this the free offer of the Gospel. The kingdom of God is offered to everyone on the planet regardless of ethnicity, race, creed, gender, age, or social status. Someone might say, “I am not worthy to go to the party, you do not know how bad I am or what I have done.” The invitation is even to those who have sinned greatly. The offer of the Gospel is to everyone.
The man with the wrong clothes was a person who responded affirmatively to the invitation of the Gospel. He had come to the party and was included among its participants, but something was amiss.
Come as you are?
There is an old evangelical hymn entitled “Just as I am…” It is often played at altar calls as a way of encouraging people to come to faith in Jesus. It is a bit of a miss-invitation. The invitation to the king’s party included a line about “proper attire”. Today at church, I did an inspection of the attire. Some were dressed in suits and ties; others were wearing flip-flops and tee-shirts. But that’s not the type of attire mentioned here. We are not called to a dress code of externalities; it is an internal dress code. Consider Paul’s words to the Ephesians. He was addressing the problem of the new Gentile converts who were continuing “to live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.” He writes: “That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:17-23)
Paul reveals for us the wardrobe change required before coming to the party. God calls us to “put off” the “old self”. There is a false Gospel making its rounds in the church again that trumpets inclusivity without conversion. The invitation of the Gospel is a call to obedience of life. Jesus would see us transformed into his likeness and holiness. The unconverted heart may make it through the doors of the church building and into the fellowship of the people of God, but it has no place in the Kingdom of God.
For Paul, the transformation of our minds overcomes the natural carnal desires of our hearts. A new mindset leads to a heart reset. Yes, this man came to the party, unlike those who refused the invitation. Unfortunately for him, he still had the same heart condition as those who had outright rejected the invitation. His heart was enamored with the things of the world rather than with the King and his Son. Even though he was at the party, his heart wasn’t there. This fact was made obvious by his lack of appropriate attire, and the King was not impressed.
The man without the party clothes represents a person in the fellowship of the church who is continuing “to live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.” Yes the King says, “come all” but not “come as you are”.
Proper attire required!
As we consider our own response to the King’s invite, make sure you notice the wording about “proper attire”. The King is not merely expecting our presence at the banquet; he wants us to come as fully dressed participants. Parties are much more fun anyway when we dress up and get with the program. So put off the old self, put on your new party clothes through the renewing of your minds. Let’s celebrate and have a great time at the King’s Son’s wedding party!
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
