Sunday 13th October 2024. Trinity 20.

Pastor Pete Myers explains Matthew 22:1-14.

Why do people reject Jesus?

Why do people reject Jesus?

Why do people reject Jesus?

Our Gospel passage today is a story Jesus told in response to the Jewish leaders who had reject him. And Jesus makes the point of the story crystal clear in vv. 1-3:

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.

And in this story: the king represents God, the wedding feast is the New Creation Jesus is bringing, and the king’s servants are those who speak Jesus’ Word

The king has sent out his servants: And week in week out, people here in this room: go to your school, go to your work place, go to your family and you share God’s Word, you speak of Jesus’ invitation. But you see that Word rejected. As Jesus says in v. 3:

…but they would not come.

An experience we are all familiar with. An experience that Jesus will now explain. As we hear in this story an answer to that question: Why do people reject Jesus?

And what we’ll see is very simple. The heart of the reason some people reject Jesus is this: Because inside all of us, by nature, is this internal belief: I have to prove I’m good

And we’ll see that the only thing that can overturn that belief is the alternative: He’s already proven he’s good to me.

These are the two messages of Jesus’ story: We reject Jesus because we believe I have to prove I’m good. But, the good news is: He’s already proven he’s good to me.

Let’s think about those two messages together.

I have to prove I’m good

So, the first is: We reject Jesus because we believe I have to prove I’m good. So after the mini-overview of the story in verses 1-3, Jesus’ zooms in to explain things from v. 4. So, the king repeats his call to join the wedding feast. And then in v. 5 we get the first explanation as to why people have not turned up:

But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business,

People don’t pay attention to the king because they are too busy proving themselves. The people who are called here are successful people. And they have worked hard to build and maintain their success: A farm owner. An entrepreneur.

These are people who are self-sufficient, self-supporting, self-sustaining.

They don’t have time for the king’s invitation, because they have to focus on their clients and careers, their brands, their businesses. Successful people work hard. And therefore successful people have no time or need for the call of the king.

If you want to build a business, then by definition: You have to prove you’re good.

And that is the heart of the reason why people reject Jesus. So we see it firstly in people ignoring him.

But, for some, particularly those with a religious background… that need, that desire, that internal belief that I have to prove I’m good responds to God’s invitation, responds to God’s kindness… …with frustration and with fury.

Take a look at v. 6,

while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.

And of course, if you’re a very religious person who thinks you have to prove that you’re good and you’re confronted with a completely free, gracious, open invitation from God, then of course you will respond in anger and frustration.

All the sacrifices you made: pointless. All the discipline you built up: achieves nothing. All the prayers you recited: empty air.

That’s why this response to God’s grace was the particular response of those who were unbelieving among God’s chosen people. As Stephen, the first Christian martyr, said: They rebelled against Moses. They persecuted the prophets. They murdered God’s Son.

And anger is the attitude of every religious person today who is presented with the scandal of God’s free grace.

What does that look like in the modern world?

Take the person in public ministry who has suffered for being an evangelical. He was bullied. He was publicly shamed and gossiped about. He was lonely.

But he stayed faithful to what he believed. Eventually he is forced out of his denomination, his church. And someone says to him: “I’ve discovered this different thing, it’s new to us, but actually quite old, it’s called Lutheranism. It says you’re accepted, freely, and loved unconditionally. But, it does mean you were wrong about some of the things you suffered for.”

But this man is feeling frustrated, he’s almost angry. He can’t bring himself to read or hear about this new thing, because it would seem to negate so much of what he suffered for, so much of what he worked for.

Because, if I I have to prove I’m good, and I’m religious, it is really difficult, it is impossible, it is enraging to be told that what God offers is totally free. Because I want my work, my suffering, to merit something.

But that attitude of righteous anger, that religious rant that all of us can recite in our heads, only provokes anger in return, v. 7:

The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

And finally there are those who agree with God’s invitation, they receive it… they confess it… they are baptized into it… and eat at the king’s table! But they do not trust him… …and their lives betray that fact. Verses 11-14:

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he 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 the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Faith expresses itself in good works. As Paul says in Galatians 3:27:

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

And there are people who have the name of Christ outwardly, but have not clothed themselves with him.

Perhaps you were a Lutheran from childhood. Perhaps you were a member of WELS for decades. Perhaps you were a diligent minister in public ministry.

You’re in fellowship, in good standing, included. You’re on the books, registered, and down to vote. You can sign every confessional document. You’ve passed every course the church offers. You receive communion every week.

You can be all these things: but still be here without a wedding garment: Secure by resting on your standing within the church, but not secure through faith in Christ.

Because faith—trust—in Him is the only way to dress for dinner. Because this is the heart of what it means to reject Christ: It is the belief that: I have to prove that I am good.

Whether you prove that through secular success, through religious rites, through confessional compliance, it all amounts to the same thing.

He has already proven he’s good to me

And that false belief, that pernicious heresy, is only overturned with this incredible message: He has already proven he’s good to me.

Look back again at vv. 2-3:

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast,

The picture Jesus uses in this parable is no accident. Genesis 2:24:

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

In the beginning God made man and woman and designed them for marriage, because we are built to join God in marriage.

And as Paul says in Ephesians 5:32:

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

Marriage, sex, intimacy: Manchester is obsessed with them. But these things are not an accident of nature.

God designed marriage to convince you of one thing: He loves you unconditionally:

Hosea 2:16:

 “And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’

Hosea 2:19-20:

And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

Isaiah 62:5:

as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Ephesians 5:25-27:

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Revelation 21:2:

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

You are invited to the Son of God’s wedding feast, not just to be a guest, or even an honoured one, but to be His bride.

And God’s invitation is free, it requires nothing from you, v. 4:

Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’

And still a third time the king issues the call, vv. 8-10:

Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite 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.

The call is urgent and sincere: it is made repeatedly. The feast is ready: it requires no preparation. The guests require no qualification: both bad and good are at table.

Do you see the strength of feeling God has that: He has already proven he’s good to me.

The only requirement to be at banquet is to be clothed correctly: to actually believe this truth: You have not need to prove that you’re good. Because God has already proven he’s good to you.Jesus forgives your sins.

Why do people believe Jesus?

And so, Why do people reject Jesus?

Because inside all of us, by nature, is this internal belief: I have to prove I’m good

And different people are trying to prove that in different ways: through secular success, through religious rites, through confessional compliance.

But whether you are trying to prove you are good irrespective of the church, in opposition to the church, or from inside the church …it all amounts to the same thing: A rejection of the basic truth of the Gospel that you have not need to prove that you’re good. That is a false belief.

Instead, hear this: God has already proven he’s good to you. Ephesians 5 again:

Christ loved the church

Past tense

and gave himself up for her,

a completed action.

One that we will see proven true with our eyes in the New Creation, when we finally know from experience this prophecy of v. 10 that:

the wedding hall was filled with guests.