Matthew 22:1-14 [Pentecost 21 CWS A]
Pastor Ron Koehler Grace-Tucson, AZ October 25, 2020
Jesus Guides His Church with a Gracious Invitation Dear friends in Christ, Certainly you know what it is like to have a really rough day, right? Even children and young people know what this is like. Everything goes wrong. You can’t do anything right. Mom and dad aren’t happy with you. School is awful. These days happen for adults when the whole day at work is stressful, and relationships are tense or on the verge of breaking apart, and the kids just won’t listen or behave. You have experienced really rough days. We all have. But you should know that Jesus had them too. Tuesday of Holy Week—just days before he would be put on trial by the Jewish leaders and sentenced to death on a cross by the Roman governor—was a day like that for Jesus. It started in the morning as Jesus and his disciples entered Jerusalem. Those Jewish religious leaders questioned his authority to clear the temple the day before and his teaching there in the temple courts. That day, one by one, each of the religious groups would come to him with a question designed to trap him in his words. They wanted to discredit his claims to be the Messiah and give them an excuse to put him to death. The chief priests, teachers of the law, the elders of the people, and the Pharisees questioned him. Then it was the Herodians…then the Sadducees… then the Teachers of the Law again. After they all put him on the spot, Jesus did the same with them, asking them what they thought of the Messiah. After they would not give an answer, Jesus taught the crowds and warned them about these leaders. Then he taught his disciples. Finally, he gave the “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees” sermon where he called them blind guides, whitewashed tombs, hypocrites, snakes and vipers. That was a long, rough day—and all that with his suffering and death on his mind! On that day, as the chief priest, teachers of the law, and elders of the people were gathered around him, Jesus spoke to them again in parables—the ones we have heard the last couple weeks and this one before us today. As we listen to Jesus teach through this story, we discover this truth: Jesus Guides His Church with a Gracious Invitation. I’d like you to keep in mind something that may not at first be obvious—even on this difficult day for our Savior, he was still trying to get the attention of those religious teachers with this story so that they would repent of their sins and accept his invitation of grace. His effort today with us is that we also might repent of similar sins, recognize his gracious invitation, AND that we serve him like the servants in the story.