On this Mountain — in the midst of this City, His new Jerusalem — the Lord of hosts, Yahweh Sabaoth, has prepared a Wedding Banquet, a great Feast to the glory of His Son and for His Bride. Not with the flesh and blood of bulls or goats, oxen or sheep, but by the sacrifice of the same beloved and only-begotten Son, who loved His Bride and gave Himself for her, even unto death.
By His death He has swallowed up death forever. And in His bodily Resurrection from the dead He has been glorified, so that His beloved Bride should also be saved and glorified in Him.
This is the glory of the Bridegroom, indeed, that He lays down His Body and Life for His Wife, and that He also feeds and nourishes her and glorifies her with His own sacred Flesh and Blood.
Whereas earthly husbands often hesitate and fail to give themselves so completely to and for their wives, for fear of losing themselves and being lost, the Son of God has spent Himself entirely for His Church, and He gives Himself to her without fail — trusting His God and Father at all times, who raises Him from the dead, and glorifies Him, and gives life both to Him and to His Bride.
This “love story” — this divine and holy Matrimony — is the Holy Gospel. And by this Gospel the Lord calls and invites people from all nations to be His disciples, to be united with Him and joined to His Bride, the Church — to join the wedding party — and so to eat His Feast. For it is to His disciples that our Lord Jesus Christ gives His Body to eat and pours out His Blood to drink.
So has He called you by His Word and Holy Spirit to be His disciple — and thus to feast both with Him and on Him in this Supper. He calls you by the ongoing catechesis of His Word, the Law and the Gospel, unto repentance and faith in His forgiveness of your sins. Just as He called you to Himself — and wed you to Himself — by the washing of the water with His Word in Holy Baptism. For your Baptism is the fount and source, the heart and center, of your daily and lifelong repentance and the forgiveness of your sins, whereby you are crucified with Christ Jesus, raised up with Him to newness of life each day, and clothed in Him and His beautiful Righteousness.
These are your wedding clothes, by which alone you are worthily attired to enter the Wedding Hall and to eat the Wedding Feast. Not by any goodness of your own, but entirely by the grace of God.
You are a guest of the King. Do not despise or reject His hospitality. Rather, just as the Father of the Bride adorns His daughter to be given to her Groom, and just as the Husband adorns His Wife with His own honor and glory, so are you attired and adorned by the Father and the Son. You do not adorn yourself, but as you are dressed by and with Christ Jesus in your Holy Baptism, so are you truly worthy and well-prepared to eat and drink His Supper, His Body and His Blood, by His Word of forgiveness and by His gracious gift of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel.
To wear these wedding clothes — which you have received in Holy Baptism — is to live by this grace of God through faith in His Gospel, instead of relying on yourself and your own resources.
It is to pray in faith and confidence, to trust your own dear God and Father in Christ Jesus, and to receive from His hand whatever He provides, be it much or little — living under the Cross in the hope of the Resurrection — and thus to be content and satisfied in any and all circumstances.
To wear the wedding clothes provided for the Feast is then also to do good works of love within your vocation — to glorify the Bridegroom and the King through your behavior — and to serve His other guests, your neighbors, with your words and actions — as a kind of outward vesture.
Compare it to the way a woman honors her husband and glorifies his name — which he has given her and shares with her — by receiving and using whatever he provides to care for their home and family and to share hospitality with others. For a woman who knows herself to be loved by her husband, is able to love her family, friends, and neighbors generously and well. And a woman who is fed and clothed and sheltered by her husband, is likewise able to feed and clothe and shelter her own children and many others, also. A woman who is thus adorned by her husband, need not adorn herself, but she is eager and able to adorn others with mercy and kindness and tender care.
So do you also honor and glorify your Royal Bridegroom with reverent humility, and with artistic beauty, with gracious conduct, gentle words, and godly piety. As your God-given abilities permit, according to His all-sufficient providence, you praise and give thanks to Him, you confess His faithfulness and magnify His loving-kindness, and you declare yourself to be His very own.
None of this as though to clothe yourself; nor to justify yourself; nor to make a name for yourself; nor to make yourself worthy. You live in the strength of Christ, your Savior, in the abundant love of your heavenly Bridegroom — in the peace of His Gospel of forgiveness — in the confidence that death has been defeated by His death, and that heaven is open to you in His Resurrection from the dead — in the sure and certain hope that you have Life freely and forever within His Body.
Those who live by faith in this Gospel are fully covered by the perfect Righteousness of Christ. From head to toe they are beautiful with His royal beauty and glorious with His divine glory.
By striking contrast, as you have heard from His striking Parable this morning, those who reject His Wedding Banquet will be condemned; their homes and their cities, their businesses, their fields and cattle, all of it will be utterly destroyed, and they will be left with nothing but punishment.
And in a similar fashion, those who attempt to enter and to eat the Feast by their own merits and worthiness — that is to say, those who refuse to wear the wedding clothes provided by the royal Host, but presume to wear their own attire, whether it be a tux or a t-shirt and jeans — they will be cast out of the Kingdom forever into the darkness of eternal death and neverending despair.
These are sobering words and a serious warning against all unbelief, false belief, and self-idolatry.
Fear God, therefore. But do not be afraid. Rather, fear, love, and trust in Him as your Lord.
Where you have despised and rejected His Gospel, Repent. Return to the significance of your Holy Baptism, and to the life of discipleship, and so receive the Word and Sacrament of Christ Jesus by way of His mercy and His promise. Or, if you are not already baptized into Christ, submit to the catechesis of His Word, become His disciple by repentance and faith and by the New Birth of water and His Word, and so follow Him into His Feast by way of His Cross and Resurrection.
In either case, wherever you have relied upon your own righteousness, Repent. Humble yourself before the Lord your God, in order to be stripped of your old wardrobe, and to be clothed instead with Christ and His Righteousness — by His grace through faith in His Gospel. Hear and heed His gracious Word of Life, and rest yourself in His free and full forgiveness of all your sins.
Rest assured that you are not here by mistake. The Lord your God, the King of heaven and earth and all that is in them, has called you by the Gospel of His Son, the Royal Bridegroom. Indeed, He has called you and invited you, not only to join the party, but to be a member of the Bride.
He has removed the shadow and stink of death from your body and life by the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, by the shedding of His Blood for you, and by His glorious Resurrection from the dead.
He has cleansed and refreshed your body and soul, your flesh and blood, your heart, mind, and spirit, with the washing of the water with His Word and Holy Spirit in your Baptism.
And as you are His own dear child by virtue of that Sacrament of Holy Baptism, your dear God and Father in heaven pours out His Holy Spirit generously upon you through the Gospel, and thereby adorns you with all the Glory of Christ Himself, as a royal Bride made beautiful for her Husband.
Indeed, the Lord Himself who is your Bridegroom has forgiven all your sins — as He daily and richly forgives you still. As often as you fall, He raises you back up. He beholds no flaw or fault or failing in you, but He rejoices over you in His love, and He delights in you with all His heart.
Now in this Feast of His Life and Salvation, which He has prepared and made ready for you here — in this Wedding Hall and on this Mountain, which is His Church on earth as it is in heaven — He gives Himself to you most intimately. He feeds you with His own Body of Flesh and Blood. He nourishes and cares for you. He provides for you, as a Husband for His Wife. And He guards and keeps your body and soul in Himself, in His Word and faith. He gives you all good things here in His Supper, here within His own Royal House, unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.
Behold, this is your God, your Savior and your Lord, your Husband and your Head — who with the Father and His Life-giving Holy Spirit is one God forever. And you are His dearly beloved. Let us rejoice in Him, and rejoice in His Salvation, today, tomorrow, and always.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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