Spiritual Warfare

SPIRITUAL WARFARE:                                                         WHAT IT IS AND WHY IT MATTERS

 

Spiritual warfare! What does this expression bring to mind? Do you envision angels and demons locked in combat over unsuspecting humans? Do you think of demonic possession and exorcisms? Do we as Christians think of the conflicts of our day as some hint of spiritual interference?

            Frank Peretti wrote This Present Darkness 35 years ago, a novel about angels, demons, prayer, and spiritual warfare. In the story, angels and demons struggle for control over the citizens of a town. I recall reading how a pastor’s car wouldn’t start and he needed to get somewhere in a hurry. Unbeknownst to him, a demon had plunged his sword into the engine block of the pastor’s car. The pastor decided to pray over the engine and an angel came to battle the demon away. The car started. 

            As a young person, I found the message of these novels to be frightening. To think that demons are so involved in our lives – even our cars – that they are all around us. I have since come to the conclusion that Peretti was sensationalizing the subject, not maliciously, but without biblical basis. It was fiction. These books are no longer in my library. 

            This is not to say that spiritual warfare is not a real struggle in the Christian life. Demonic forces are at play in our lives. However, we need to move away from fictionalizing the struggle and focus on what is really happening in the spiritual realm. Where is the real battle taking place? 

            If we consider what Paul has shown us in the entirety of his letter to the Ephesians, we will understand that spiritual warfare is not about casting out demons per se, but about living for Jesus.           

As we consider spiritual warfare, what it is, and why it matters, I want to affirm its reality by saying this: Spiritual warfare is an ongoing reality that urges us to put on the character of Christ at all times. Indeed, this is what Ephesians 6:10-20 teaches.

 

1. Spiritual Conflict is a Real Thing

 

With the word, “Finally,” Paul brings to conclusion this amazing letter to the church at Ephesus. Paul has shown his readers that God is in the act of redeeming all things and bringing them back to unity under Christ. And to demonstrate this redeeming unity, God has chosen the church to express the new humanity. You and I, as God’s church, are the example to the watching world of what this new humanity looks like. 

            But there is a threat to the church. The devil, that ancient adversary of God’s people, does not want this project to succeed. The devil is going to throw everything at us. 

            This is why Paul commands the church to “be strong in the Lord and in the might of his strength.” The root word in Greek is “dunamis” or “power.” Paul has been teaching about God’s power throughout the letter. It is the same power that raised Christ from the dead and is now at work in us (1:19-20); it is the power that took an enemy of the cross like Paul and made him a preacher of the gospel (3:7); and it is the power that strengthens our inner being through the Holy Spirit (3:16, 20). 

            In and of ourselves we are too weak to fight this kind of battle. Paul knows that. But in Christ, be strong. Claim his victory on the cross; don’t rest on your own achievements or virtues. Be strong in the Lord. 

            I believe this is the theme Paul continues as he says, “Put on the whole armor of God…” This is the same expression Paul used in chapter 4 when he said that we are to “put off” the old self and “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness,” (4:24). 

In this way, we see that the armor is not simply God’s armor, but it is Christ himself that we put on. The new self is godliness. Think of the pieces of the “armor of God” as Paul describes them (don’t focus on the pieces but the virtues): 

·      Truth (Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life). 

·      Righteousness (Christ is our righteousness). 

·      Peace (we greet each other with the peace of Christ; Christ is our peace). 

·      Faith (Christ’s faithfulness before God has become our faithfulness; his obedience in place of ours). 

·      Salvation (Christ’s death and resurrection are our salvation). 

·      The Word (Christ is the Word). 

So, as we consider the pieces of armor that we are to “put on” we recognize that we are putting on Christ, like a garment, like armor. 

            This is the only way to stand in this battle. Victory has been won by God in Christ and the devil has been defeated. The task then, for you and me, is not to win the battle, but to stand. We are to maintain our position of victory by standing firm on the truth of Christ and his cross and what it means for us. To “stand” is to resist or stand against. “Stand” is used four times in this section and infers that retreat is not an option. We have the victory in Jesus, so standand resist the enemy. The battle belongs to the Lord.

            The battle imagery arouses a sense of intensity. This passage does not or should not invoke a sense of panic, but the reality that God and his goodness are opposed by evil and wickedness. As we have seen, there is also confidence conveyed to believers that we have nothing to fear in this battle. Fear is the tactic of the evil one, and Paul does not want Christians to fear this reality, but to be ready for it. 

 

2. Who we are fighting

 

We know who our enemy is, but in the midst of our daily challenges we forget the nature of our battle. That’s the way the devil likes it. 

            Paul challenged his readers to stand “against the schemes of the devil.” That word “scheme” suggests that the devil will not come at you head-on, but will use cunning and surprise. He will try to catch you unawares. He wants you to forget that you are in a battle, to lull you into complacency so that you scoff at spiritual warfare as a reality.         

            Talking with my seminary student some years ago, I discovered that we are in danger of this very thing. His dissertation theme focuses on demonic infestation (not possession, but the idea that demons fill a room). The natural inclination of most people is to judge this as superstitious nonsense, silly, not worth thinking about. As C.S. Lewis has been quoted frequently, the two schemes of the devil are to get people to think about him too much or not at all. 

            Now we don’t want to go looking for the devil behind every trouble or crisis. And we don’t want to use “the devil made me do it” as an excuse. But we do experience those moments where we get into an argument with a friend or a spouse and we don’t know why this issue is such a big deal. Churches have split over the color of carpets. Really? I think that underlying these surface issues are deeper issues that the devil likes to hide: unconfessed sin, selfishness, agendas. 

            This is why Paul reminds the Ephesians, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (6:12).  People are not the enemy; your spouse is not the enemy; your co-worker is not the enemy; Trudeau is not your enemy. 

            The wrestling is not Olympic style, but hand-to-hand combat, grabbing a wrist holding a dagger to keep it from plunging into your chest. We are face-to-face with evil. But do we recognize it? Those who persecute the church by informing on neighbors in China and Iran are not the enemy. Even those who shut down churches in Canada are not the enemy. The person who argues with you and curses you is not your enemy.

            Paul describes the enemy as NOT flesh and blood, but various levels of SPIRITUAL forces, dark powers. John Stott once said that if we hope to overcome them, we need to keep in mind that they have no moral principles, no honor, no feelings of compassion for humankind. They are unscrupulous and ruthless. They are devious. Satan masquerades as angel of light to fool believers into thinking they are following a right path (2 Cor. 11:14). To that end, we need to be discerning when we encounter conflict in our relationships and evaluate the true nature of our crises with people. 

 

3. Where is the Battle?

 

God has given us his armor to fight in this unusual battle. “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm,” (6:13).       

            Preachers have done a disservice to the armor of God when they try to explain why truth is a belt or salvation is a helmet. I don’t think that was Paul’s intention. Instead, the focus is on the combined virtues – the whole armor – and how Paul has referred to these virtues in the letter. 

            The armor is a metaphor for putting on Christ. The question we need to answer is: Where is the battle? According to the entirety of the letter to the Ephesians, Paul has neatly described many of the battlefields we will encounter. 

            Battlefield #1: My Mind! One of the targets of Satan and his demonic forces is the mind of the individual. Many of us struggle with who we are as Christians. We feel that we do not measure up, we don’t have enough faith, we are not serving enough, and we feel that we are inadequate as witnesses of Christ. The devil likes to play on these negative self-talk markers and drive us down in feelings of worthlessness. But in Paul’s opening words to the Ephesians, he tells us the truth about who we are in Christ. (READ 1:3-14): “he chose us…he predestined us…in him we have redemption…making known to us the mystery of his will…we have obtained an inheritance… were sealed.” 

            Battlefield #2: The Church! The church in Ephesus was divided by the Jewish and Gentile cultures. Paul taught them that the dividing wall of hostility between them was demolished in Christ and one new person had been established. In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, free or slave, male or female, rich or poor. 

            The devil wants to divide the church, and to rebuild the walls that separate the people of God’s church through ethnic issues, languages, and cultures. But in Eph. 2:14-18, we read how Christ has become our peace and has broken down all the walls that divide us. We are one body with Christ as our head. There ought not to be an outsider in the church of Christ who believes in Jesus. 

             Battlefield #3: Relationships! Between friends and co-workers, we find tensions over convictions and beliefs. Best friends can become adversaries when differences arise. Sometimes we don’t know where the conflict comes from, but we find ourselves at odds.  

            What do we do when the fight gets hot, and relationships are in serious danger of being broken. Paul invites us to remember our transformation in 4:32-5:1 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” Nothing says you understand your salvation more than when you forgive those who hurt you.

            Battlefield #4: Marriages! We have heard the popular culture reference “Women are from Venus; Men are from Mars.” It is true that men and women are different, think differently, process problems from uniquely gender-based standpoints. That’s where tensions arise. My wife and I were moving a heavy TV from upstairs to downstairs and found ourselves in conflict (mildly, but conflict). My thought was to pick it up and move it. She wanted to talk about it. Later, when we decided to move it again, a male friend helped me. I said, “Do you want to discuss how we do this?” (Ha ha). He said, “Duh, no, let’s just do this.” And we had no problems whatsoever. This illustrates how a little thing can become a big thing if we don’t stop to communicate as married couples. And if we don’t communicate, Satan takes the opportunity to emphasize the misunderstanding. It happens so easily. 

            Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:22-33 that the solution to our marital troubles begins with understanding in Christ what love is: to serve at great cost the other person. He says to husbands, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” (25). When we see our calling in marriage is to serve each other, to think of the other before ourselves, it is then that we deal a great blow to the kingdom of this world, the realm of Satan. Love conquers when we remember that true love serves the other. 

            Battlefield #5: Parents and Children! The theme keeps repeating itself. Satan wants to create divisions between the various relationships in our lives. Our sweet babies grow up to be teenagers who strive to exercise their independence and to prove that their ways are innovative, new, and young. Parents get their backs up (pride is hurt) and we lose touch with our children, wondering what happened to our communication. 

            Paul urged the parents in this congregation not to provoke their children to anger. He also reminded the children to honor their parents since it also honors God. It is to their great benefit to do so, “that it may go well with you.” Life is more pleasant when we live in harmony and avoid creating regret. 

            Battlefield #6: Households (businesses)! I insert “businesses” here because the household codes of Paul’s day included servants and slaves and the work they did for the household. In a sense, this is business. How do we treat our workers? If we act as tyrants rather than benevolent benefactors, we create a culture of injustice and ultimately, bitterness. These relationships matter to God.

            Ephesians 6:5-9 exhorts servants to obey masters as if they were Christ. Rather than seeing “the boss” as the enemy (we struggle not against flesh and blood), we are to view him or her as the representative of Christ. Bosses are not exempt, urged not to threaten workers, but to remember that God is the master of both them and their workers. 

            These are the everyday battlefields we find ourselves engaged in as we fight this spiritual war. 

 

4. Our Most Effective Battle Posture

 

Posture in battle is important. You don’t stand with your hands hanging at your side and shoulders drooped in apathy. You stand with your hands filled with your shield and sword in an aggressive posture. 

            Remember the Karate Kid posture. I think it was called the Crane pose or something. It looked silly to tell the truth, but it worked (at least in the movies). When I was pastoring in Kleefeld, I would often pray in my office with the door open. Some days were intense and I would get on my knees. One time a lady walked by in the foyer and asked if I was okay. Like the Crane pose, our posture in prayer may seem odd even to Christians. But are we not supposed to pray all the time? 

            One of Satan’s schemes is to get us to rely on our own strength and confidence. This is why Paul appeals again to where we find our strength for spiritual warfare. He says that we are to pray “at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints…” 

            Notice the “all” challenge in the verse. Prayer is an ongoing activity. 

            Darryl Dash said, “The devil trembles when he sees the weakest Christian on his knees.” When we don’t pray, we are relying on our own power and have not put on the armor of God. However, when we recognize the reality of the fight we are in and we begin to pray, we find our strength in the Lord. We are fighting for the lives of those we love who are lost without Christ. We are fighting for our nation on our knees. We are not being idle when we pray; we are not wasting time. As the old Christian rock band Petra crooned, “Get on your knees and fight like a man.” Pray! 

So let us enjoin the conflict through prayer.

 

I like what Andrew Lincoln says about this passage. Lincoln reflected on the letter and wrote that for the writer of Ephesians, “the individual who engages in productive work or who speaks the truth or who loves his wife is successfully resisting and standing his ground in the fight against the powers,” (AL 445). In other words, by being human the way God intended us to be, we are engaging spiritual warfare. Christ is the supreme example of humanity, so to be like Christ is to stand against the inhuman-demonic forces. 

            What is spiritual warfare? 

            Spiritual warfare is not casting out demons, though at rare times it may require that response. It is not searching for demonic influences in society and culture. It certainly does not involve praying over your Dodge (nothing can help you there). 

            Spiritual warfare can be summed up very simply: Living for Jesus in a world that does not acknowledge the King of Kings. Or, to put it another way, living according to the values of Jesus – loving, forgiving, uniting with others in his name, loving your children, loving your wife or husband or family – in a world that teaches living for self, first. 

             

AMEN

            

Parables of the Kingdom: Matthew 25:14-30

THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS:

A Story About Risk and Faith

 

There are a lot of risks in life. You can go to college, study hard, graduate with honors, and then find that your chosen field doesn’t have any openings. Or there may be openings, but there are many qualified applicants including one whose dad works at the company. You are more qualified, but you don’t have the connections. 

            Life is a risk. Ask our farmers this year. Rip open a bag of seed (that’s a risk) and plant a crop. You hope for a harvest. The risk is crop failure. There may be too much rain, or as is the case this year, not enough. 

            Life is full of risks. And we must decide if the risk is worth the bother. I took a risk in crossing the “friend zone” line and shared my growing love for Sharon. She was a really good friend, and I didn’t want to lose that friendship. But my heart was telling me to go for it – to risk the friendship for something more. 

            We must take risks, or we will never move forward in life. But it can be frustrating. You would think that if you plan carefully, work hard, and play by the rules, success should be guaranteed. But it’s not always. Sometimes we fail. We risk and we lose. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just make decisions without risk and succeed every time? We can’t for two reasons: we are not all-powerful, and we are not all-knowing. In other words, we’re not God. 

            Risk, however, is at the heart of discipleship. Jesus said, “…whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” (Matt. 16:25). To follow Jesus is to risk losing reputation, safety, even your life.

            Jesus told a simple parable about a master who goes away on a trip and gives a lot of money to his servants. It’s one story in a series of three that Jesus uses to respond to a big question: How will we recognize the end of the world? (24:3). Jesus doesn’t answer the question. Instead, he tells his disciples how they can be ready for his return and for the end of the world. Spoiler alert: It involves taking a risk. 

            Follow along in Matthew 25:14-30 as we study the elements of this parable and what they mean.

 

The Master Risks Entrusting Money to Servants (14-15)

 

Jesus’ story opens with a man going on a journey and entrusting a great deal of money to his servants. 

            There are two details Bible readers get hung up on as they read this story. First, in our culture and language a talent is a skill, an aptitude, or a natural ability – like playing piano. So, we trip over that word and allow it to confuse the interpretation and application of the parable. A talent in the first century was NOT a skill, gift, or ability, but a weight or measure, usually of copper, silver, or gold. It was about 30 kg. A talent was money, a lot of money. 

            But surely it represents something like a gift? Yes, but I would say in advance that it represents FAITH. More on that later.

            The second detail that we trip over is that the master gives money “each according to his ability.” This is often interpreted as one Christian receiving more spiritual gifts than another or more responsibility than another. Don’t get hung up on that one phrase. It’s a story whose larger point is immensely more important than this detail. 

            One preacher I usually like to follow commented on this saying: “It’s the same with us. God gives to each of us according to our abilities. There’s a reason not all of us are rich and famous or in positions of power or authority. God knows what you can handle and what you cannot. Some of us are more limited in our abilities. Some of us can handle much more.” Do you agree with this?

             I don’t! This is simply not true. Many Christians have been gifted with power, authority, wealth, and other gifts, who have completely abused and mishandled these gifts. They have crashed and burned spiritually because the responsibility of these gifts was too much for them. Ravi Zacharias, Bruxey Cavey, Bill Hybels, and many more brothers have proven this interpretation to be false. 

            Let us simply say this: The master went away leaving a lot of money with his servants and it was a risky decision.

 

The Servants Risk Investing the Money (16-17, 19-23)

 

Do you want to know something funny about the servants? The master gave them money, but never told them what to do with it. 

            What we read is an immediate response. “He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more,” (16). Either there was an understanding with the master that this was expected, or he took a risk to please his master. The second servant did the same thing. The trust was different, but the rate of return was the same: they doubled the master’s money. 

            What if the first servant had traded with the five talents and earned only three more talents? Would the master have been just as happy? You may think it doesn’t matter – it probably doesn’t. However, the point of the parable is that the two servants DID SOMETHING with what they were entrusted. 

            There was a definite risk involved in this venture. What if the servant had failed and lost all the money? Judging from what happened to the third servant, the consequences may have been severe. That’s not the point either. What we see instead in the first two servants is a model for enthusiastic discipleship. They were not going to waste their lives sitting in fear of the risks. They took what was given and did something.

            Check out the reward for their success. The master returns to settle accounts and is pleasantly surprised to find two productive servants. He commends them saying to both, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master,” (21 & 23). 

            I have been impressed that the biblical word “good,” as in Genesis 1 when God created the world, does not mean “perfect” (though it can), but “useful.” These servants were useful to their master; they took what was given to them and worked with it. 

            Then when the master saw how “useful” the servants were to him, he gave them back the talents and implied “do it again.” The reward for reliability for the servant is not to be set free from responsibility but to be given more of it. That’s not a bad thing; that’s an honor. These servants were a delight to the master and earned his favor.

 

The One Servant Feared Failure and Took No Risk (18, 24-27)

 

The third servant took the one talent he had been given and buried it. He did not want to take a risk and fail. And it seems odd that he would be so honest with his master and telling him what a rotten person he is. No groveling. No wild excuses. He straight up says, “You’re a hard man…I was afraid…I hid your talent in the ground,” (25).

            There is no doubt that the parable focuses on the servant that risks nothing. Who does the “wicked and slothful servant” represent? In Matthew 23, Jesus blasted the scribes and pharisees for making it hard for people to find God. They added laws to laws and buried the truth under tradition. The useless servant buried his talent in the ground only to hand it back to the master exactly as it was. The goal of the scribes and pharisees was to keep the law exactly as it was – “to build a fence around the law.” Any new interpretation was condemned. 

            In this parable, Jesus taught that there can be no growth in faith without adventure, without risk. If you don’t risk failure, you guarantee failure. If you’re a student and are afraid to start writing an exam unless you’re absolutely certain you will get every answer correct, you’ll never start writing and you’ll fail. If you need a job but won’t apply anywhere for fear of being rejected, you will remain unemployed. If you want to get married but you are waiting until you know beyond a doubt that the marriage will be nothing but sweetness and light 24/7, you will remain single. And here’s the point of this parable: If you say you have faith in Jesus Christ, but do not take risks based on that faith, your faith is mere words. 

            The talent represents faith. I know this because if Madison doesn’t play the piano ever again, she’s not going to hell. But if you don’t act on your faith, the master will say, “What have you done with this gift of believing?”

            The Pharisees and scribes had everything they needed to build a vibrant faith. Paul wrote in Romans 9:1-5 (read). They had the scriptures, they had the prophets, they had the genetics linking them to Messiah, and they had Jesus himself. But they did not take a risk and work that faith out in life.

 

The Principle of Risk and Reward in the Kingdom (28-30)

 

Paul took the words of Jesus and identified a principle that the gospel teaches: sowing and reaping (2 Cor. 9:6; Gal. 6:7-8). Whatever you sow, that’s what you will reap. We find this in the parable as well. The good and faithful servants took what was given and made more of the same. Jesus said, “…to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away,” (29). 

            Jesus said this more than once, “…whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” (16:25; John 12:24-25). 

            Life is full of risks. The Bible even tells us that. When you don’t know what the future holds, it’s natural to feel anxious. But if you have a relationship with the one who knows the future, you see things differently, you can take risks. You have two choices: you can either sit in fear and keep your faith in a box, or you can take your faith and see what it looks like in the world at large. Take a risk. Try something. Feel free to fail. Leave the results in God’s hands. Life is an adventure full of challenges and risks, but faith helps us to take those risks. 

            The ultimate risk is trusting God for the hope of eternal life. Eternal life is found in trusting a God you can’t see, putting your faith in a Savior you can’t touch, and investing yourself in a future you can’t imagine. That’s faith in action. Faith means risking your life, betting everything on the power of Jesus Christ and his resurrection. 

 

I can’t say that I have taken risks every time I should have. I’m learning what faith means too. I haven’t got it figured out. 

            This week, Judy brought a man to see the table that Neil built and put in the meeting room. I noticed that this man’s left eye was seemingly damaged. Because of a book I’ve been reading about acting on faith, I thought about asking this man if he was blind in his left eye. If he said he was, I was going to ask if I could pray that the Lord would restore his sight. I know, crazy, right? 

            I’ve prayed for healing before without any dramatic results, so I hesitated. Would he think I was stupid? If he wasn’t healed would it wound his faith, if he had any? Would it turn him off from Christianity? But what if he was healed? Did I prevent him having the opportunity to see and to believe in the power of Jesus? Risky, isn’t it? 

            But I’m growing bolder. There is less to lose and much to gain. William Carey said, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.” 

            What is God asking you to do? What risks are you willing to take for the kingdom of God? 

            In conversation with a couple of people this week, I have discussed what it would look like to have the Holy Spirit fill this congregation. Different answers emerged: hunger for the Word, deeper prayer lives, love for the lost, openness to the Spirit’s moving in our midst. It is no secret I have prayed for a fresh filling of the Spirit in RFC. But are we open to such a movement? Are we willing to take the risk of what that means? What if we have to give something up? What if we have to move out of our comfort zones? 

            But what if we take a risk and get to experience a faith in Jesus Christ that moves mountains? Wouldn’t it be worth it? 

            A faith that is not tested is a faith that cannot be trusted. God is asking us to invest in our faith, to multiply it by trusting him and risking everything to follow Jesus. 

            Are you willing to take the risk with me?

 

                                                AMEN

 

 

Parables of the Kingdom: Matthew 22:1-14

“YOU’RE INVITED”

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

 

A wedding is probably the most happy and joyful event that people can attend. I’m not a big fan of weddings, yet I feel offended if I’m not invited to some. Though, I don’t enjoy them, I take it seriously to bear witness to the promises a couple makes to each other. It is an honor to be invited to such an important event and a joy to witness a couple begin their marriage. One does not say “no” easily to an invitation.

            Jesus tells a story about a wedding. It is outrageous. It is strange. It is a shocking parable. Here’s why:

·      A wedding reception is planned and none of the original guests who were invited attend. NONE!!

·      Reminders are sent out by messengers and the messengers are either ignored or killed. Imagine Lorie at Rosenort Post Office being lynched because she put a card in your mailbox about an upcoming wedding.

·      The father of the groom is so insulted that he kills the non-attenders and burns their town to the ground. 

·      When other guests are invited, one fellow is thrown out because he attends wearing shorts and a t-shirt. 

            A story like this is so unbelievable it’s hard to take literally. Yet Jesus wants us to take it seriously. Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son…” Do we conclude then that God is an angry king who, if he doesn’t get his way, destroys his own people, burns their city, and throws guests in wrong clothing into utter darkness? That doesn’t fit with the God revealed by Jesus in his message of good news. 

            To be clear, this parable is about judgment, it just may not be judgment the way we think of judgment. What is this parable about? What are we supposed to learn? The short answer is: You’re invited to participate in the new kingdom Christ is establishing on earth – how will you respond to the invitation? How we respond is critical.

Two Kinds of Invitees (22:1-10)

 

Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who throws a wedding feast for his son. First, to be personally invited by the king to an event is in itself a great honor. Second, it’s a very special event, the wedding of his son. The twist in the story hits us immediately in the response of the guests. There are two kinds of invitees described in this parable.

Those who refuse to come – The king has a pre-arranged guest list. These people had been invited long before the feast was prepared since the king “sent his servants to call those who were invited,” (3a). They knew it was coming. They may not have known the date, but when the king calls, they were supposed to be ready. Yet in response to this first reminder, we are inexplicably told “they would not come,” (3b). 

            The king’s servants are not people to be ignored. Though they are slaves they are important people in the kingdom. So, to ignore them is a serious offense already. But the king demonstrates great patience and grace by calling the guests a second time. 

These guests of the king are no peasants; they are the elite of the kingdom, the people who are part of the inner circle and rule parts of the kingdom. We can assume this because Jesus told this parable to the chief priests and Pharisees who were questioning his authority. They were the people with the inside track on God; they were the ones who should have recognized the Messiah; they were the ones who God originally called into his kingdom. 

How do these privileged guests respond to the second summons? They have better things to do. It’s not important to me. I’m too busy. One has a farm; another has a business. In Luke’s version, a man has bought five yoke of oxen, and another married a wife. A literal translation of their refusal is “they wanted NOT to come.” These are passive reasons.

            There’s being passive (not caring); then there’s being Canadian or passive-aggressive (cursing someone behind their backs while smiling to their face). But these guests are downright aggressive – they kill the messengers! 

Those who do come – Following the bloody carnage that interrupts the wedding festivities, we find the king issuing new invitations. The king said, “The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find,” (8-9).

            Of the original guests, the king declares they were not worthy. There’s the judgment call. But it’s not based on what you would expect. If the chief priests and Pharisees (the pastors and college professors and college grads) are not worthy of the king’s invitation, who is?

            The servants go out and gather an indiscriminate collection of people from the streets, people with no special standing. They are the lowest social groups in society. As Jesus said earlier to the Pharisees, “…the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you,” (21:31). There is a further jarring note in this ragtag group of new guests as the servants go out into the streets and bring “both bad and good” (10) into the wedding hall. 

            Judgment takes a strange turn. Those we deem worthy are not, and those who are homeless, jobless, and shiftless, are deemed worthy of being the king’s guests. Our idea of judgment probably rests on our assumption that God judges us in the same way we judge other people. Our judgment is one of exclusion. Who’s in and who’s out. Who makes the grade of spirituality and Christian piety in our estimation. What if God doesn’t look at it like that? What if Jesus’ story is supposed to shock us into seeing God’s judgment differently – a judgment of grace, acceptance, and invitation – a judgment of inclusion? 

What’s the difference between the first guests and the second batch? What makes the second group worthy? 

            Was the second group more deserving than the other? No, the first guests were the original recipients of the king’s invitation and favor. So were the second group of guests. They were all invited. They were all favored by the king, and none had done anything to deserve an invitation. 

            Did the king like the second group more than the first? No, if we examine the king’s motivation for throwing the feast, it’s that he just wanted people to come and share his joy for his son. He wants to throw a party and have people celebrate, be part of his kingdom, and rejoice in life. 

            Did it matter that the second group had good and bad folks in it? No, there is no distinction or judgment made on behavior, attitudes, or morals. The king sends his servants to find everyone and anyone. Invite them all. No exclusions. 

            There’s only one thing that separates the second group of guests from the first: Presence!! The second group showed up. They came to the feast! The first group “would not come” but the second group filled the wedding hall. 

            What does it mean to be present? It means making the king’s (God’s) invitation a priority. It means seeing God for who he is and not what we think he should be. It means opening our lives to receive the life he wants for us. It means giving up control of our lives to God and trusting his ways are for us. It means listening to God and really hearing him in Scripture and through the Spirit. It means letting go of our agendas and plans and believing that God’s plans are actually better. It means bringing all that we are and putting it before God such as it is. 

            If we are not truly present it is because we are going after our “businesses” and “farms” (see 22:5). We get caught up in the busy stuff and we are too tired, too distracted to be present before God. If we don’t earn it or work for it, we assume that it has no value. Grace is hard to receive then. That’s why the first group didn’t come to the banquet. 

            To just come and be a guest at the banquet is to be worthy before God. We just show up. It is in God’s presence that we discover what he thinks we are truly worth. Paul said it best, “…whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ…I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ…” (Phil. 3:7-8). He came with nothing because all his spiritual, theological, genetic, family lineage, works-based advantages were garbage compared to the riches of Christ Jesus. 

 

Breaking the Dress Code (22:11-13)

            

What about the guy who showed up without a wedding garment? 

            There are different interpretations on this matter. One interpretation implies that the king offered wedding clothes to all his guests and this guy preferred his t-shirt and shorts. In plain language, he came on his own merits and refused the gracious and righteous clothing of Christ. Another said that the guests were to go home and put on their best and come to the wedding. These are responding to the grace of Christ by working out their faith in deeds. Both have possibilities. 

            One thing that is peculiar is that the man in the wrong clothes is speechless. Why doesn’t he say anything? What if he had made his presence known to the king? What if he said:

·      I was hungry. I smelled the food. I trust you to feed me.

·      I was lonely. I saw the lights on. I trusted you to take me in.

·      I was thirsty. I knew there would be wine. I trusted you to give me a drink.

·      I was naked. I knew people would be well dressed. I trusted you to clothe me. 

·      I was sad and grieving. I heard music and laughter. I trusted you to share your joy.

·      I was empty. I saw abundance. I trusted you to fill me.

·      I was dying. I saw the door was open. I trusted you to give me life. 

             If he has said something, anything like this, it would have been enough. He would have shown up with all that he had and would have been present. Then the king would say, “My dear friend, I’m glad you got my invitation. Welcome here. You are worthy.” (Michael Marsh – An Open Invitation)

 

Jesus ends this story with a saying, “For many are called, but few are chosen,” (14). This phrase is both comforting and disturbing. It is comforting to believe that the only reason we are saved through faith in Christ is because God called us out of darkness. It is disturbing because we wonder why some are not chosen. All are invited, but some are not chosen. Why is it that some people who grew up in homes of faith rejected the seeds of the gospel? 

            If you want me to preach on the doctrine of election, I won’t. It is too mysterious a teaching to squeeze into a conclusion. At the same time, I think I have been talking about it this whole sermon long. 

            Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…” (John 6:44). It sounds as if those who do not believe were not chosen. 

            Charles Spurgeon said, “I believe in the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen him; and I am sure he chose me before I was born, or else he never would have chosen me afterwards; and he must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why he should have looked upon me with special love.” 

            My issue with teaching the doctrine of election is that some of you are sitting there wondering if you are worthy of God’s grace. You are wondering if you made it in. You are thinking of what you could do to be a better “wedding guest,” to be chosen. 

            In a moment we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper, a preview of the wedding feast of the Lamb and his Bride, the church. Do you have to do something to be worthy? Do you have to feel something mystical? No! Just show up! 

                                                            AMEN