Scripture/Sermon of the Day

Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ 5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”

I. For the last three weeks, Jesus has been fighting with the leaders of Israel and Judah. They have plots to kill him and they want to arrest him but they’re afraid of causing a riot because a lot of people like him. People like Jesus because he gives them free food and medical care — how can you not like that?

II. But Jesus, by making the people less dependent on the rulers, the politicians, the religious establishment — is causing the rich and powerful to lose a lot of money. If Jesus is forgiving people’s sins — now they don’t need to pay a lot of money to buy and kill animals to have the priests grant them forgiveness. I imagine there was a livestock lobby that was also against Jesus because what are the animal suppliers to the temple going to say when the Temple tells them Jesus is making animal-sacrifice unnecessary?

III. So Jesus’ time was running out and he knew it. In Jesus’ most recent clashes with the leaders he told them the gangsters and prostitutes would go to heaven before them, AND THAT GOD WOULD KICK THEM OUT OF HEAVEN AND INVITE S T R A N G E R S AND F O R E I G N E R S WHO TREATED PEOPLE WITH RESPECT AND LOVE.

IV. Looking at the world right now, especially what just happened between Hamas and Israel and there’s a clue here as to WHAT REALLY BOTHERED people about Jesus — not just the religious leaders but all the citizens of Israel, it bothered the poor people as much as the wealthy — and that WAS JESUS’ LOVE AND EMBRACE OF PEOPLE WHO WERE NOT LIKE HIM, whose language, skin color, religion and nationality were not Mediterranean Jewish.

V. Look at the world now. There’s Russia — Ukraine, Hamas — Israel, China —Taiwan, MAGA-Americans and NON-MAGA Americans, white supremacists — people of color.

What is it that makes us NATIONALISTS? This is what really got Jesus in trouble — it’s what signed his death-sentence and launched the contract on his life. Jesus made the fatal mistake of telling his Jewish listeners that God loved other people as much as them and that being CHOSEN didn’t mean God liked them more or that they were superior but that they simply had a different job to do.

And Jesus made this mistake early in his short ministry, in Nazareth when he preached there for the first time. He told his hometown people that their God was also the God of the Syrians and the Sidonians and the Canaanites and their mortal enemies the Philistines.

VI. THIS IS WHAT REALLY DRIVES PEOPLE CRAZY ABOUT JESUS — THAT ACCORDING TO HIM, GOD IS EVERYONE’S FATHER, INVITES EVERYONE INTO HEAVEN, THE GOOD AND THE BAD.

None of us has favored status with God — we’re all invited to the wedding — the kingdom of heaven. And if we refuse the invitation? God will keep sending it until we’re exhausted from refusing. If we throw the invitation away, God will keep sending it — like the Harry Potter admission letter to Hogwarts that the Dursley’s kept destroying and the letters kept coming.

We may be stubborn, angry, God-rejecting — but our stamina for refusal is no match for God’s love. Love is relentless, all-forgiving, all-powerful. And eventually even the most mean-spirited and cantankerous of us will go to God’s wedding feast — the kingdom of heaven. THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS THAT MADE JESUS THE MOST WANTED CRIMINAL IN ISRAEL.