Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Does anyone here know what the average American wedding costs today?

According to a 23 June 2011 ABC News report, the average cost of a wedding today is $26,501.00! That’s actually DOWN from 2009's $28,082.00! Now that price includes everything directly and indirectly associated with the wedding, including things like the engagement and wedding rings, the wedding dress, the photographer, the reception, the invitations and the postage to send the invitations. That’s a pretty shocking figure when you stop to think about it! That’s more money than some of you paid for your homes. By comparison, according to wiki.answers.com, the average salary for an American person is about $30,000.00 per year (that’s $14.50 per hour) and the average cost of a car is $32,000.00 Any way you look at it, the average cost of a wedding today is a whole lot of money!

Now by raw dollars, a wedding in Jesus’ day, of course, would not have cost anywhere near as much, except if you look at it in terms of percentage of income earned. Then, a wedding in Jesus’ day may have actually been much more expensive than weddings today. That’s because in addition to all of the standard costs associated with weddings today, it was the responsibility of the wedding host in Jesus’ day to also provide the wedding apparel for his guests. Can you imagine what weddings today would costs if the hosts had to provide all the clothing for all the guests?

But that was customary in Jesus’ day. And that explains the often puzzling interaction between the wedding host and a wedding guest in Jesus’ parable this morning [Matthew 22:1-14]. You know where the host had received a whole bunch of last minutes rejections to his wedding invitations, but he already had the bride and groom ready to go. The banquet hall was decorated. The caterer had all the food prepared, but there were no guests. So the host sent his people out into the streets: “Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you can find!” The host didn’t want to disappoint anyone nor did he want to lose any of the money he had already spent. So in comes all the riff-raff, drooling at the thought of free food and drink.

Then the host seems to target one guest – and this is what often confuses us. It seems as if his people had done their job. They had guaranteed people at the wedding. They had guaranteed people at banquet, mouths to eat all that already-paid-for food. But then that interaction: “Friend, how did you get in here without any wedding clothes?” You see that statement is puzzling by North American standards. It seems the host should have been happy to simply have people there, people, after all, who literally had just been pulled off the street corners from the midst of whatever they were in the process of doing. You have to expect there are going to be some people there in shorts and t-shirts and flip-flops. But, remember, it was part of the responsibility of the host to clothe the guests, even at the last minute, even people right off the street. So the question really didn’t have to do with attire. The question really had to do with etiquette – with the host properly doing his job and the guest properly allowing the host to do his job. Here was a guest for whom the host would have been obligated to provide proper clothing – and he was ready to do just that – but a guest who had refused to allow the host to do that, deciding instead to simply come as he was, graciously accepting the host’s invitation, but doing so by writing his own rules.

And that’s where Jesus’ parable this morning again becomes for us “an earthly story with a Heavenly meaning.” Jesus’ parable was not to set the standard for weddings today. Many parents of the bride will be happy to hear that! Jesus’ parable, instead, is meant to get us to ponder something deeper than just the cost of a wedding today. Jesus’ parable leaves us to ponder that Heavenly meaning, applying His words to the matter of our own salvation.
It has often been proclaimed from this pulpit that God’s gracious invitation of salvation is for ALL PEOPLE and that is true! To be one of God’s people is not an exclusive invitation that only a few people receive. No, God’s gracious invitation is for ALL PEOPLE! God sends us to the highways and byways of our world with the simple Gospel message: “Ya’ll come now, ya hear!” There’s nothing more to it! And that invitation garners response from all the riff-raff. If you don’t believe that, simply look around you today. Riff-raff. If you don’t believe that, simply look in the mirror. Riff-raff. Every one of us!

God has every right to look at each of us and say, “Friend, how did you get in here without any wedding clothes?” Oh, we might be wearing brand new clothes. We might be wearing our “Sunday best.” Bill Files might have clothed each of us in his distinctive formal ware, but that’s not good enough for God. Even though we have responded to His gracious invitation, that doesn’t give us the right to set our own rules, to come as we are, even if we are well-groomed and well-dressed. No, when we respond to God’s gracious invitation, we must allow Him to do it His way. We must allow Him to fully clothe us. We must allow Him to create His banquet the way He was envisioned it in His mind. Anything else will just not do because it compromises the integrity and the reputation of our Host.

And what a Host we have! You think weddings today are expensive? You think weddings in Jesus’ day were expensive? Well just listen to this! Isaiah [25:6-9] says it like this: “On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine – the best of meats [no need to ask “Where’s the beef?”] and the finest of wines [that’s not “Two-Buck Chuck,” folks].” But this is no wedding feast, either! It’s something more! Listen up! “On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all people, the sheet that covers all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.” The Lord says, “Ya’ll come now, ya hear!”

Talk about an incredible feast! A feast celebrating the death of death! A feast celebrating the absence of tears from our eyes! A feast totally removing our shame, turning us from riff-raff into God’s treasured, priceless people! No wonder Isaiah tells us that people respond joyfully by saying, “Surely this is our God! We trusted in Him and He saved us! Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation!” How are those words summarized? Here it is: “We’re so glad we let God have His way! He’s not failed us yet and He never will! We’re here in His way, on His terms, and we’re glad we didn’t try to pull it off ourselves! We knew we could trust Him!”

But talk about the expense! ALL people – all who are here on earth now; all who have ever lived; all who ever will live. ALL clothed properly in appropriate garments, garments that only God, our Host, can provide – pure garments, spotless garments, perfect garments, expensive garments. ALL people dining on the absolute very best – far finer than anything I ate on the cruise ship a month ago (and let me tell you, that was some good stuff!; far finer than anything you’d ever be served in Paris or at the White House or at Buckingham Palace.

Talk about the expense! On that mountain, Jesus Himself died for us in order to destroy death! Jesus Himself died for us to wipe the tears from our eyes! Jesus Himself died for us to remove our shame, to turn us from riff-raff into God’s treasured, priceless people. Jesus Himself died for us to clothe us properly in His garments, His perfect garments of salvation, so that we may dine on the finest of fare – His own Body and Blood!

Talk about the expense!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena