The Feast Is Ready
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
It was to be the party of the
century. The highest of high society was invited. It is understandable, then,
why the man in today’s parable became angry when so many people rejected his
gracious invitation to his banquet. He had extended an invitation to all, and
yet only a very few came to his supper. Many had taken that precious, honorable
invitation and flushed it away. Finally the man dis-invited those who refused
his gracious offer. “I say to you that
none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.”
How sad for them. This supper to
which they were invited is a never-ending one. It is the heavenly Banquet, the
everlasting Feast of victory over sin and death and Hell that Jesus Christ has
won for all mankind. The supper in this parable is symbolic of eternal
salvation; God in grace has issued an invitation to the Banquet to all people.
The Holy Spirit, the Servant of the Master, continues to go to all the world,
down the streets and lanes of the city, along every highway and behind every
hedge, compelling everyone to come in, so that God’s house may be filled for
this fabulous Feast.
There still is room—room for us who
are beggars in our sins, who come up with poor excuses for not responding to
God’s gracious invitation. Yes, the great supper of which the parable speaks is
the eternal Banquet, but that Banquet has already started. Our Lord’s
proclamation from His cross—“It is finished!”—announced
the end of all of the preparations for the Feast. His life of perfect innocence
fulfilled the requirement that man live in perfect obedience to the
commandments of God. His death fulfilled the requirement that sinful man must
die, for He was covered with the guilt of every one of your sins when He died
upon that cross. And His resurrection from the dead is the announcement to the
world that “all things are now ready.”
Nothing more needs to be done for mankind’s salvation from sin. Therefore, the
invitation is now extended to all: “Come.”
But still, some refuse to come. The
daily grind of this world is their only concern. “I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you
to have me excused.” “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test
them. I ask you to have me excused.” “I have married a wife, and therefore I
cannot come.” They have taken that gracious invitation and flushed it away.
And before we judge too quickly,
let us see ourselves as no different from these men. The Banquet has already
begun; now is the time to come into God’s house. The Servant does not say,
“Come when you are ready;” He does not say, “Come when you think you need it;”
He does not say, “Come when you think it needs to be offered.” He says, “Come, for all things are now ready.” To
excuse yourself by saying that you are not ready is to deny the truth of God’s
declaration: “All things are now ready.”
Therefore, repent of your
hesitation. Repent of thinking you know better than God when He should offer
His Supper. Repent of putting first the concerns of life in this world: home, land,
work, hobby, or even family; repent and come. Come. “Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His
righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you.” That is
God’s promise to you. Come to His Feast, and He will add to you every blessing.
Come. Come to the place to which
the Holy Spirit calls you now by the Gospel. Come to the place where you are washed
in the grace of your Baptism and dressed in the spotless robe of Christ’s
righteousness. Come to the place where the Son of God comes to feed you with
His very body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins, a foretaste of the Feast
to come. “Come, for all things now are
ready.” “Do this in remembrance of
me.” In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all
understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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