Trinity 2Jesse JacobsenTypeset
Last Modified: "Sat May 31 13:59:53 2008" |
1 Blessed are those who will eat in the Kingdom of God!
From ancient times,
the act of one person breaking bread with another
created a bond with them.
It was an honor to eat with well-respected people,
a way to gain respect for yourself.
Yet in our text, Jesus had just instructed His hearers
that they should invite those of humble reputation
to their meals,
and they would be rewarded in the resurrection of the just.
If we were guests of humble reputation,
we would all surely appreciate the favor of being invited.
The meal might be much better than we are accustomed.
The entertainment would be an unusual treat for us.
The company would be delightful and gracious.
If we were respected hosts inviting humble guests to our meal,
we might consider it to be a burden,
a risk to our own reputation.
But in reality we would only be imitating God.
He invites humble guests all the time.
God, our Creator, is the ultimate host.
His meal is of far better reputation than we are –
even if we were kings and queens on the earth.
Yet He has invited to His meal, to break bread with Him,
even such as you and me.
Blessed are those who will eat in the Kingdom of God.
Because the Master has invited and compelled them.
Because this meal is the blessing of eternal life.
2 Luke 14:16–24
Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many,
and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come,
for all things are now ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make
excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must
go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought
five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’
Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So
that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of
the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets
and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame
and the blind.’ And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded,
and still there is room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into
the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be
filled. ‘For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste
my supper.’ ”
2.1 Because the Master has invited and compelled them.
Blessed are those who will eat in the Kingdom of God.
Our confirmands know that Christ has a threefold kingdom:
God’s kingdom of power, encompassing all Creation.
God’s kingdom of grace, encompassing all who are saved.
God’s kingdom of glory, encompassing the saints in heaven.
When Jesus speaks about the Kingdom of God,
He usually refers to the kingdom of grace:
all who are saved, both on earth and in heaven.
But the man who spoke just before our text
meant the kingdom of glory, which we call heaven.
“Blessed is he who shall eat bread
in the kingdom of God!
Jesus did not contradict the man who said this.
Instead, He used this truth to teach His hearers
with a parable.
In this parable, Jesus uses the picture of a meal
to represent the kingdom of God.
Does it represent His kingdom of power, grace, or glory?
It’s clearly not His kingdom of power,
because everyone who eats on earth eats food from God.
We might think it’s His kingdom of glory,
because that’s what the man meant
to whom Jesus is responding.
But in heaven, all who are invited will also eat.
Jesus was teaching about His kingdom of grace,
which includes all believers here on earth.
Another word for this kingdom is “Church.”
When Peter confessed that Jesus is the Son of God,
He responded:
…on this rock I will build My church,
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Because we are all here today,
it’s clear that we’d all like to be part of His Church.
That’s also why we have four young people
ready to be confirmed today.
We’d all like to have the honor and blessing,
to eat in the Kingdom of God.
The parable of Jesus shows us why it’s such a blessing.
This is a meal given by invitation only.
We live in our Lord’s kingdom of power: in the created world.
It’s a wonderful world, with great diversity of life.
It shows the mighty power and wisdom of God,
far beyond our own tiny power and limited wisdom.
But it’s also a fallen world,
subject to man’s rebellion against God.
Holy scripture says,
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because
of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God.
Though the creation awaits its deliverance
from the corruption of sin,
There are many people who do not.
In fact, it’s our natural condition to prefer rebellion.
When we all were born, we were already avowed enemies of God,
inheriting the spiritual death of our ancestors,
and the guilt that leads to eternal death.
That’s where the parable in our text begins.
The master sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were
invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’
God prepared a Kingdom of grace,
where we may have life instead of death,
based upon His mercy.
But those who were invited had more “important” things to do:
I have bought a piece of ground,
and I must go and see it.
I have bought five yoke of oxen,
and I am going to test them.
I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
They all preferred the necessities of this world
to the meal of salvation.
We have the same problem, don’t we?
“I’d like to attend church every week,
but with my responsibilities, I just can’t.”
In other words: “I have bought a piece of ground,
and I must go and see it. Please have me excused.”
“I’m really a devoted Christian,
but I need my Sundays free to find something more in life.”
Translation: “I have bought five yoke of oxen,
and I am going to test them. Please have me excused.”
“I know I should sit my family down around God’s Word,
but I just don’t want them to be turned off.”
On other words: “I have married a wife,
and therefore I cannot come. Please have me excused.”
Those excuses are critical signs of rejecting the invitation.
Remember what the master said in response:
None of those men who were invited
shall taste my supper.
Remember that this supper is by invitation only.
As sinners, we blew our chance long ago,
but God wants everyone to be invited — even us.
Though we’ve shrugged it off before,
though we’ve continued to sin against Him,
He still holds the invitation out for us.
If you hear my voice now, then you are invited.
But that doesn’t remove your ability to reject it.
Don’t be so attached to this fallen world
that you reject the invitation to eat in the Kingdom of God.
Blessed are those who will eat in the Kingdom of God,
Because the Master has invited and compelled them.
2.2 Because this meal is the blessing of eternal life.
You may wonder what the food actually is in God’s kingdom.
It’s really no more than His gracious forgiveness and favor.
That doesn’t sound like much,
but when you don’t have it,
life is not life, but death.
There are some people who disagree.
They think they’ve outgrown the need for forgiveness.
In reality, they have become hardened in sin,
deceiving themselves into thinking they are free,
when in fact they are bound to sin,
and to a living death that will never end.
I say “they,” but maybe I should say “we.”
We all entered the world as rebels against God by nature.
We had no desire in us for anything else.
Then something changed.
The meal of God’s kingdom shows us what changed.
We find it in His Word,
and in the Sacraments where He bestows forgiveness of sins.
You see, it was’nt really us that changed.
It was God.
Instead of punishing us as we deserved,
He relented and justified us.
There are plenty of people who think of their saving faith
as something they have done themselves.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Yes, we have freedom to choose lesser things in our lives,
but not in our relation to God.
You confirmands are not here today
because of anything you have done,
but because of what God has done for you and in you.
God began in your life with His Word.
This was the same Word He used to create all things,
but this time, it came with a particular message:
Sin, or Law, and Grace, or Gospel.
God’s Word instructs us about sin
to awaken a hunger for forgiveness.
Only then are we ready to receive the invitation itself:
your own name engraved upon the front by God’s own hand.
“Come, for all things are now ready.”
The Gospel of grace is proof that you are favored by God.
Not because of anything in yourself,
but only because of His love for you in Christ.
When you have this invitation, the meal is already yours.
Also through His Word, now attached to earthly water,
God personally ushers each one of us into His Church,
using Holy Baptism.
By faith, we are made members of that Kingdom,
and given dual citizenship:
We live in this world, under worldly authority and powers,
but also under the greater authority of the Gospel.
We still live in this world, but as Jesus said of us:
They are not of the world,
just as I am not of the world.
Faith in Jesus Christ allows us to see what the world can’t see.
We can see that God’s Word is not powerless,
but is really the creative and saving power in all Creation.
We can see that our Baptism is not just water,
but is the water used according to God’s command,
connected with His Word,
a gracious water of life, a washing of regeneration
in the Holy Spirit.
We can see our trials and temptations
are not punishments or curses from God,
but His tools to train and purify our faith,
so that we will keep His Word for eternal life.
And through faith alone, we also see that the Lord’s Table
is not just a supper of bread and wine,
as it appears to our eyes of flesh,
but the body and the blood of Jesus Himself,
present in a special way,
to fill us with forgiveness and eternal life.
But let us all take to heart the warning in our text:
those who were invited may yet come to reject the invitation.
The years between confirmation and your own family,
between about 15 and 30 years of age,
are times when the devil, the sinful world, and your own flesh
will have great and terrible influence upon you.
The devil, the sinful world, and our own flesh
have terrible influence upon us all.
But do not fear.
Only remember your one advantage:
the meal of forgiveness in God’s kingdom of grace.
When you slip and fail:
repent as soon as possible, and come to receive God’s forgiveness.
It will happen daily. We need that forgiveness daily.
Don’t forget that need.
Don’t neglect to fill that need when Sunday comes,
when God is here to feed you in His kingdom of grace.
This meal is the blessing of eternal life.
It’s yours now.
Blessed are those who will eat in the kingdom of God.
Come, for all things are ready.
This document was translated from LATEX by
HEVEA.