This parable is one of Jesus' last ones. These are His last days. The Jewish rejection has just about reached its peak, as they are about to kill him. The parable tells the story. We can't say the leaders of the Jews have merely shut the door; they are not even coming to it. It's like seeing those people from the Jehovah Witnesses coming up your sidewalk. Quick, pull the shades. Turn off the T.V. Let them keep knocking. Maybe they'll think we're not at home.

Although they call themselves Jehovah's witnesses, which they can't be, since they really don't know who Jehovah is, this is Jehovah, and He's getting the same kind of reception. He keeps knocking, but they keep ignoring the door.

He checks the address on the card. Yep, He's at the right house. Years ago they were told He was coming, and they were actually excited about it. They were ecstatic. The first owner of the house, Abraham, was contacted a long, long time ago and told that Jesus was coming. His joy could be not contained. This was the best news he had ever heard in his life. Again and again reminders were sent to the people of the house that the Promised One was coming, and the reaction was the same as before. They couldn't wait. Now He's standing on the porch. And they won't even answer the door.

Do you follow what I am saying? The Jews, that is the descendants of Abraham, had been told they were to be the nation that would have the Messiah. Out of all the nations of the world, the flesh and blood relatives of Abraham, his descendants would be the grandfathers and the distant cousins of Jesus, the One who had been promised. Jesus was one of them. And they reject Him.

These were the ones originally invited to the wedding feast. They were given the invitation eons ago, but when the day finally came, they weren't interested.

Oh, they loved being the people who had been given the invitation, but they weren't interested in the event. It's like they even had the invitation framed. They would show it off to people. "Look, see, we've been invited to the King's son's wedding feast. I bet you wish you could. So sorry. It's for us. We understand the king would like for you to come, but if you did then we wouldn't be so special, so we don't want you to go." They got so carried away with the invitation that they built their whole identity on it. "Wow! The King wants us. We must be something really special."

Never mind that He just simply chose them. He made that clear through words Moses spoke right before his death: "The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the people who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you for you were the fewest of all people, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your Fathers." You know, that kind of talk hurts. It says, "Sorry, there isn't anything all that special about you. He just chose you."

You see, that's grace. Grace. It's the reason why you have been chosen. God didn't look ahead to see what you would do, or what you would be like. He just chose you. He chose you to be His before time, just as He had chosen this entire race to be blessed with the honor of being the ancestors of Jesus. Some of them understood that it was simply His grace, that they were chosen, but many didn't, and by the time Jesus arrived, they didn't care what they had been invited to attend, they just loved the invitation.

So, when it came time for them to go, most chose not to go. That's what is happening in the parable. They knew they should, but they found it easier to just blow it off.

The Lord sends out messengers a second time. Now they aren't being allowed to ignore the invitation and they get irritated. They knew what is the right thing, but they don't want to do it. Their guilt gets to them. Rather than responding with the right thing, to relieve the guilt, they silence the messenger. They kill Him. How much easier it is to get angry with the one who reminds you what is the right thing, rather than listen to him.

The Lord sent prophets all the time to keep them in the right perspective. They ignored them. The Son comes; they ignore Him. The Apostles try to reach them, particularly the apostle Paul. He poured out his heart and soul, wanting nothing more than to see his people, the Jews, recognize Jesus as the Messiah. How frustrating for him when they refused. After a while, the original invited guests, kind of got forgotten about.

In the 16th century, one man took a special interest. Have you ever heard about some Lutherans who want to distance themselves from the very man who recovered the teachings they confess, because they believe he was anti-Semitic? That's right. They claim he was. One guy even wrote a book where he tried to claim Hitler came by his desire to wipe out the Jewish population by reading Martin Luther. That's so bogus. Hitler didn't like Luther because Luther spoke so favorably of the Bible, and the Bible didn't fit in with Hitler's game plan, but it's still true that Luther made some statements about Jews that would cause us to wince. He did make some statements about their religion and their religious habits, which were pretty violent, but let me tell you why.

Martin Luther was an Old Testament scholar. He was very familiar with the fact the Jews were the first invited guests, especially from his studies of the Old Testament. After the truth of the Gospel was recovered from all the additions the Roman church had put on it, after all the veils that dimmed the light had been removed, Luther hoped the Jews just might listen. He hoped they might want to reclaim their heritage as the first invited guests. They still didn't. Instead, they continued to mock the Gospel and Jesus. They made statements about Christian sacred things that were completely unacceptable. Frustrated with the same frustration the King felt in our parable, he responded in kind with blistering verbal attacks that were actually par for the course in those days.

Martin Luther lay down that banner but some groups that started up in 20th century, like Jews for Jesus and the LCMS' own Apple of His Eye, picked up that banner and began to carry it. Their sole purpose is to reach the Jews, and although a few Jews have responded favorably, most continue to ignore the invitation.

By now, you should be able to tell the invitation is more than just heaven. Jews for Jesus and Apple of His Eye; Martin Luther and the Apostle Paul weren't interested in the Jews simply going to heaven. Spending an eternity with God is what will come when we die, but the kingdom of heaven is more than just when we die. To be in the Kingdom of Heaven is to live in the confident assurance that though you are a sinner, Christ's righteousness covers you. It is to be able to wake up and say, "I know I am God's child because He has chosen me. I was destined to be His child from before time began. He knew who I was. He knew my name. Then He signed the adoption papers when He baptized me. He sealed my eternity at that point. He gave me Christ's pure white robe, so that I stand before Him, spotless, just as it say in Eph, 'He has cleansed us by the washing of water and the word so that He might present us to Himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that we might be holy and without blemish.'"

Alright now, remember when the King sends out servants to get everybody else? They are sent out to the busy parts of the streets, and bring anybody they find. Not a whole lot of honor here. It just sounds like grabbing warm bodies, which is what it is. We are warm bodies. But here's the beauty of it: you are part of that number of warm bodies. You are here. You are in the kingdom of heaven, because you have been brought into it, and that should be proof enough God didn't make His selection based on any kind of criteria. He chose the Jews by grace, but they rejected His grace. Now He has brought you into it by the same system.

I don't know how this is happening, but weddings seem to be getting more and more expensive. They even seem to be challenging the costs of a college education. "Alright, do you want to go to college, or have a wedding?" With the gown, the hall, the flowers, the tux, the musicians and officiants, the meal, the license, the DJ or band, the limo service and all the party favors at the reception, it's not too surprising that it could cost a year's worth of college tuition and room and board. And that's without paying for the wedding parties' dresses and tux. But has anybody ever considered paying for the guests' clothes?

That's what the king does in the parable. He provides the guests clothes that they are to wear at the wedding feast. He does that for you. You are brought into the wedding feast, that is, into His gracious reign and as you enter, He gives you a beautiful white robe, the robe of His Son's righteousness. As St. Paul says to the Galatians, "As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Our spotless baptismal gown.

There they are. Table after table of people sitting there in these gorgeous, white robes. We're sitting there with all who have ever looked to God for mercy, finding that mercy in Christ-saints who knew only mercy from God, who populated the New Testament and the Old Testament, as well as the pages of history after them. Most of them are already in glory. Some of us aren't there yet, but all of us sitting there, in an ocean of white that would take your breath away.

But something is not quite right in this wedding hall. All of our attention is drawn to one of the guests. He's sticking out like a sore thumb. He's not wearing his beautiful white robe. He is sitting there in his street clothes.

It's sort of a "Where's Waldo" for three year olds. If you recall those books, there would be a picture of a large group of people, on a beach, at the mall, at the airport, at a ball game, and somewhere in the crowd was a tall, lanky kid wearing a red and white striped shirt. When you find him you have found Waldo. But this guy in the wedding hall is easy to find, that's why I said it's like "Where's Waldo" for 3 year olds.

The king goes up to him. "What are you doing? What happened to your robe? You had it when you came in. Where did it go?

He responds, "I thought what I had was good enough. It may not be perfect, but it's pretty good." He sounds like what each of us would do. "I don't want to say I had nothing to do with the fact that I am here. I want to point to something I've done that makes me special. I don't like the idea that I have simply been chosen, and that I'm lumped with a bunch of other people. I want to say, 'This is what makes me special.' I want to say, 'At least I chose to attend the feast, unlike those Jews or other people who aren't in the hall.' I want to say, 'There's something that sets me apart from everyone else.' But to do that, is to strip off the robe. It is to say, "I don't need God's grace." A step with eternal consequences.

Just as hearing about our sinfulness can be humbling, understanding grace is not any easier on our ego. It allows no room for pride. There is nothing special about us in God's eyes. He loves us because of His Son. That's why the Jews rejected the invitation. They were chosen because they were simply chosen. They were to enter on the basis of the son's work, and nothing of what they had done.

And even the supper we are invited to, as wonderful as it is, is no reward to us. We are not awarded it because of our faithfulness, or because we keep ourselves pure. We are given it because we are not faithful, because we don't keep ourselves pure. We might think, since some can't come to the supper and share it with us, it must mean that we have a leg up, but it means no such thing. It simply means we all believe and confess the same thing, and nothing more than that.

But this hard truth doesn't change what you and I are given. We are still in kingdom. We still can wake up each day and say, "I know I am God's child." We can still hear His Word spoken directly to us, and even receive His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. We can know when our life ends, we will be with our Lord forever in eternity, and this is because He has dressed us for the feast.

AMEN