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Sermon for Trinity 20
Ephesians 5:15-21 + Matthew 22:1-14
It’s been a long time since I’ve tackled math problems. But teachers and students of math are familiar with a concept called “order of operations.” In certain math expressions, you have to multiply before you add. You have to do what’s in parentheses before you multiply by numbers outside the parentheses. You have to divide before you subtract, etc. If you do things out of order, you’re going to come up with the wrong answer.
“Order of operations” also applies when it comes to the doctrine election, which the Holy Spirit has set before us today in the Gospel, in Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet, at the end of which He declares, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” The choosing, the electing of certain people to eternal salvation, took place, from our perspective, before the foundations of the world were laid. The election happened “first,” as we view time, and then everything that was necessary for mankind’s salvation was done and is being done and will still be done. And so we’re tempted to use that “order of operations” to understand God’s plan of salvation, starting with our election, and then going forward from there.
But we make a huge mistake if we approach the doctrine of election in that order. You see, God isn’t bound to any “order of operations,” because His foreknowledge means that He sees all the past, present, and future all at once, including His own operations in history, including each person’s operations and decisions. From God’s perspective, election happened at the same “time” as everything else in history happens, because it all sits before Him in one giant picture—a picture we can’t begin to fathom.
So, we need to follow a different order of operations. We can’t think of our salvation as “starting with” our election. If we do, we’ll mess up the whole thing, because people will inevitably conclude that, since everything has already been decided by God in the past, nothing they do matters. If they were chosen before the earth was made, it doesn’t matter what they do now. They must be safe, no matter what, because they were chosen! If they weren’t chosen before the earth was made, it doesn’t matter what they do now. They can’t be saved, no matter what! What a horrible doctrine that would be! In fact, that’s what makes the doctrine of historic Calvinism so horrible. It makes the fatal error of using the wrong order of operations, starting with election, because that’s the logical, reasonable order. But this is one of those times when human logic and human reason causes nothing but trouble, because the revealed Word of God instructs us to follow a different order of operations.
Does this sound complicated? Let Jesus simplify it for you with the parable of the wedding banquet. If we simply follow the order of operations as it’s outlined for us here by Jesus Himself, we’ll understand the doctrine perfectly well.
In the parable, a king arranges a wedding banquet for his son—clearly a picture of God the Father preparing for His Son, the Lord Jesus, an eternal celebration of salvation in His heavenly kingdom. Already here at the beginning, the focus is on Christ, who is the Book of Life, in whom alone is salvation. The kingdom is His. And so is the celebration.
To this banquet the king invited certain people early on, and then, when the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to invite those pre-invited guests to come to the feast. Well, who were the ones who were specifically invited ahead of time into the kingdom of the coming Christ? They were the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were told specifically throughout the Old Testament that God would send His Messiah to Israel, and that they should be looking for Him, and that they should be ready for Him and listen to Him when He came.
But what happened? The invited guests were unwilling to come. Why? Because the king didn’t want them there in the first place? Or because the king failed to call them when it was time? No, this wasn’t the king’s fault. Not at all. It was the fault of those who refused the invitation. It was the fault of those who refused to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus.
Still, the king didn’t give up after just one try. He sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See! I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding!” God sent the prophets long before Jesus was born, to testify about Him. Then He sent shepherds from Bethlehem when Jesus had finally arrived. He sent wise men to Jerusalem, and Simeon and Anna, to tell the Jews the Christ had come. Later, He sent John the Baptist, and some of Jesus’ own disciples, and Jesus Himself, showing from Scripture that Jesus was the promised Christ, pleading with them to recognize this time of their visitation, this crucial moment when the kingdom of heaven was being opened to them, not because they had earned it or deserved it in any way, but because God was faithful to His promise, because God, out of pure mercy and grace, wanted them to come in.
But they disregarded it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The Jews, for the most part, stubbornly turned down God’s invitation to come into His kingdom through Jesus the Christ. Was it because God had failed to elect them in eternity? Was it because God’s invitation wasn’t intended for them? Wasn’t sincere? Had no power? No. The invitation was genuine and heartfelt and powerful. It was the Jews’ own fault for turning it down.
As a result, when the king heard about it, he was angry. And he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. It was Holy Week when Jesus told this parable, almost 40 years before the Roman armies came into Jerusalem and destroyed it. But already during Holy Week Jesus warned the Jews through this parable of what would happen if they continued to reject their Messiah. They weren’t worthy of God’s kingdom, not because God had failed to elect them, but because of their own stubborn rejection of His Word.
But then! Then the king in the parable did something unheard of, unimaginable, really. Instead of calling off the banquet, instead of inviting other good friends, or deserving people, he sent his servants and told them, Go into the streets and invite to the wedding whomever you find. So those servants went out into the streets and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good, and the banquet tables were filled with guests. That’s exactly what God did when He sent out His apostles and said, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Or again, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. That’s what God did when He had Peter announce on the Day of Pentecost, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. Jews, Gentiles, rich, poor, male, female, old, young, bad, and good. Everyone who hears this Gospel invitation to repent and be baptized, to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus is being called by God into His kingdom, because God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world—all people!—might be saved through Him. Truly, as Paul writes to Timothy, God our Savior wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Now, the parable ends with a kind of warning. Because just being there in the wedding hall wasn’t everything. There was a special wedding garment, provided by the host to all the guests, that they were to be wearing when the king arrived. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who was not wearing a wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
This “wedding garment” isn’t something you have to buy in the store or knit together on your own. When God brings a person to faith, He recreates the person, giving him new birth and new life. A new man emerges from the waters of Holy Baptism. And that new man is always wearing the robe of Christ’s righteousness. But the Old Man, the sinful nature, doesn’t go away. Old Man struggles with New Man to regain control of the Christian. And if he’s successful, if he’s allowed to smother faith and sin freely, without repentance, if the Christian stops relying on God’s strength, on God’s promises, if the Christian doesn’t use the Means of Grace that God provides, if the Christian fails to pray for God’s help in these life-and-death spiritual battles, then that person returns to a state of unbelief, and the wedding garment, the robe of Christ’s righteousness, is removed. That person will not be eternally saved. That person who didn’t keep wearing the wedding garment, like all those who turned down the invitation in the first place, will not be found among the elect.
You see, here, at the end of the story, is where Jesus teaches us to view election. For many are called, but few are chosen. Yes, our election took place, from our perspective, before the foundations of the world were laid. But that’s not where you go to see if you’re one of the elect, or to make your calling and election sure. You use the order of operations that God teaches in His revealed Word. So let’s lay it out as simply as possible.
God wants all men to be saved. And so God gave His Son into human flesh, to suffer and die for the sins of all people, that all men might be saved through faith in Christ Jesus. God accomplishes this salvation through the preaching of the Gospel, working powerfully through His Word and sincerely calling all people to repentance and faith in Christ, so that all men might be saved. God justifies all those who believe in His Son. God works in those whom He has justified, so that we live according to the New Man that He has created in us. God hears the prayers of His people and continues to provide His Word and His Sacraments to believers, along with His continual help and strength, so that we have all the help and strength we need to finish our race, to keep the faith until the end, at which point we will see that, all along, God had been there, working out this plan of salvation that He made before the foundations of the world were laid, when He first chose us, in Christ, to be eternally saved.
Follow that order of operations, and you won’t despair, nor will you foolishly turn down the Gospel invitation, nor will you slack off in your prayers, or in struggling against temptation, or in using the Means of Grace that God provides for your help. Follow that order of operations, and you will know the comfort that God intended with this doctrine all along, that everything having to do with your salvation, from start to finish, was planned in eternity, and that God has committed Himself to seeing it through, all the way to the end. Amen.
