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THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST October 11, 2026 Pastor Tom Steers Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto Our Bible Readings: Old Testament – Isaiah 25:6-9 Psalm 23 Epistle – Gospel – Matthew 22:1–14 Our Hymn for the Day from Lutheran Service Book is 510, “A Multitude Comes from the East and the West” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9MS57osWeI&list=RDG9MS57osWeI&start_radio=1 THE SERMON, Clothed in the Righteousness of Christ – “Everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” These are the King’s words in today's Gospel text. His son is to be married, so the King prepares a magnificent feast. The food is ready, the celebration about to begin. Only one thing remains: the invited guests must come. Yet, astonishingly, they refuse. Some pay no attention and return to their farms and businesses. Others seize the king's servants, mistreat and even kill them. What should have been a joyful occasion becomes a tragedy. Jesus tells this parable to reveal both God's extraordinary grace and the terrible consequences of rejecting His invitation. It is a warning against unbelief, indifference, and self-righteousness. Yet above all, it directs people to the salvation God has prepared for us in His Son, Jesus Christ. The king represents God the Father, and the wedding feast is prepared in honour of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Throughout Scripture, Christ is portrayed as the Bridegroom, and the Church His beloved Bride. He has given Himself for her, purchasing her with His holy and precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. The wedding feast, therefore, points us to the blessings of God's kingdom, which we receive now through faith and will enjoy in their fullness when Christ returns. It is the celebration of our salvation, accomplished entirely by God's grace. Consider the promise given through the prophet Isaiah in today's Old Testament reading. The Lord declares that He will prepare a feast for all peoples. He will swallow up death forever, wipe away the tears from every face, and take away the reproach of His people. What a glorious promise! The greatest enemy of humanity is death, and no amount of human wisdom, morality, wealth, or religious achievement can overcome it. But God Himself accomplished what we could never do for ourselves. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, sin has been atoned for, death defeated, and everlasting life secured for all who believe in Him. This is the feast our heavenly Father has prepared. Everything is ready because Christ alone performed the work of our redemption. Yet the first guests refuse to come. These ingrates remind us of those who rejected God's messengers throughout the history of Israel, culminating in the rejection of the Messiah Himself. The prophets had announced God's promises. John the Baptist had prepared the way for Christ. Now the Son of God stood among His people, yet many denied Him. Some were indifferent. Their private affairs seemed more important than the King's invitation. Others were openly hostile, attacking the servants who brought the message. Here we encounter a searching word of God's Law. Sin does not always appear as open rebellion. Sometimes it manifests as indifference toward the things of God. The concerns of life, our work, possessions, our plans and pleasures, can take the place of God's Word. We may never imagine ourselves attacking God's messengers, yet we can still disregard the message they bring. We can neglect worship, treat the preaching of the Gospel as unimportant, and become so preoccupied with earthly concerns that we give little thought to eternal blessings, to the redemption Christ offers us. The Law exposes our sin. It leaves us with no excuse or any claim to a righteousness of our own. But notice what the King does next. His grace is not exhausted. He sends his servants into the roads and commands them to invite everyone they find. The servants gather both bad and good, and the wedding hall is filled with guests. Here is the wonderful breadth of the Gospel. God's invitation is not restricted to those who just appear respectable, successful, or morally superior. The invitation goes out to sinners who have nothing to offer the king. Their entrance depends not upon personal worthiness, but upon the king's generosity. This same grace is proclaimed to us through the Gospel. Christ came to save sinners. He did not incarnate into human flesh because we made ourselves worthy. He came because we could not save ourselves. He bore our sins upon the cross, suffered the judgment we deserved, and rose again to give us forgiveness and life. The Pastor who announces the forgiveness of sins in Christ name is a messenger of the King. The Church's mission is not to offer people a ladder to climb to heaven, or present some other way to earn God's favour. It is to proclaim what God has already accomplished for them through His Son. Then, in today’s Gospel text, Jesus adds a detail that brings the parable to its most searching point. The King enters the wedding hall and notices a man not wearing the wedding apparel the King provided. He asks, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” The man is speechless. The King orders that he be cast into the outer darkness, where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth. Why is the man condemned? He had accepted the invitation and entered the hall. Why is his presence not enough? The answer lies in the garment provided. This fellow’s problem is not a lack of wealth or social standing. The issue is that he has rejected the King’s gracious provision. He wants to attend on his own terms, rather than receive what has been freely given. The wedding garment points us to Christ’s righteousness. We cannot stand before the holy God clothed in our own supposed merits. Our best works cannot erase our sins; our religious endeavors do not make us righteous before the Almighty. Even our most sincere attempts at holiness fall short of God's perfect Law. We need a righteousness that is not our own. And this is precisely what Christ gives us through the Gospel. By His perfect obedience, atoning death, and victorious resurrection, He has won the righteousness we need. Through faith, we receive His gifts and stand before God forgiven and accepted for Christ's sake. As St. Paul writes in Galatians 3:27, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” In Holy Baptism, God clothes us with Christ and makes us heirs of His promises. Through the preaching of His Word and the gift of Holy Absolution, Christ directs us away from confidence in ourselves and toward the forgiveness He won for us. At His Holy Supper, our Lord gives us His true body and blood for the forgiveness of sins and strengthens our faith in His promises. Martin Luther, writing on today’s Gospel, explained, “This wedding garment is Christ Himself, whom we put on through faith. He is given to us through the Gospel and the Sacraments, so that whoever believes in Him is clothed with His righteousness and holiness. Without this garment, no one can remain in the presence of God.” (Luther, Church Postil, Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, Matthew 22:1-14.) What comfort this is! Our confidence before God does not rest on us. It rests upon Christ, who has done everything necessary for our salvation. At the same time, the man without a wedding garment warns us against presuming upon God's grace while refusing Christ and His righteousness. We cannot claim the blessings of the kingdom while insisting our own goodness is sufficient. True faith receives Christ as He is offered in the Gospel. That faith bears fruit in repentance and a new life of love toward the neighbour. Our good works do not purchase the wedding garment. They are evidence of the faith that receives it. This also helps us understand the closing words of Jesus: “For many are called, but few are chosen.” The invitation is proclaimed broadly, but not everyone receives it in faith. Some reject the Gospel outright; others seek God's blessings aside from the righteousness He provides in Christ. The warning is serious. It calls us to repentance, and to complete and continual reliance upon our Saviour. That is why St. Paul can write in today's Epistle, even amid imprisonment and hardship, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Christian joy is not founded upon favourable circumstances, but the certainty of God's grace in Jesus. The peace of God guards our hearts and minds because, through Christ, we are reconciled to our heavenly Father. And so, we return to the king's invitation: “Everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” Dear Christians, Christ has prepared the feast. He has borne our sins, conquered death, and clothed us in His righteousness. Through His Word and Sacraments, He continues to deliver the blessings of His salvation to us. We come not boasting in our achievements, but trusting in His mercy. Like the sheep in Psalm 23, we are entirely dependent on our Shepherd. He restores our souls, leads us in paths of righteousness, and remains with us even in the valley of the shadow of death. He prepares a table before us and promises that we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. One day, our faith will become sight. Our tears will be wiped away, death will be swallowed up forever, and the Bridegroom will welcome His Church into the eternal marriage feast of the Lamb. Until then, let us cherish the King's invitation and cling to Christ alone. For everything is ready. The Bridegroom has come. The garment of salvation is given. And our Saviour welcomes believers into the feast that has no end.