Second Sunday after Trinity

Text: Lk 14:15-24

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

First things first—and second things second.

I

In the parable before us this morning, our Lord teaches us that the Gospel comes first and earthly callings and concerns come second. “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and he sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.” In the parable, the man is God. The great supper he holds is God’s kingdom we get to enjoy now and in eternity. The servant is a preacher. The invitation is the Gospel. And what an invitation—‘Come for all things are now ready.’ This man has prepared everything. There’s no entry fee. There’s no expectation they help out or bring something to share. All they need do is come and enjoy. Now, the Gospel Christ’s servants preach is such an invitation. In His word, Jesus does not tell you to come and work to earn a place at His supper. He does not tell you to come and help out. He does not tell you to come, take your fill, and then get on the payment plan to pay Him back.

But the Gospel simply says “Come.” Why? “For all things are now ready.” Come buy and eat without price. Come, be satisfied with the fullness of His house. Come, drink from the river of His pleasures. Come, o sinner, forsake your sins and draw near to God; He will not turn you away. For all things are now ready. A sacrifice was made for sin and God’s anger is turned away. Reconciliation is completed and God’s mercy is yours. Come you hungry, and He will fill your empty soul with good things. Come you weary, and He will give you rest. Come you downcast, and He will seat you with honor among the princes of His people. Come you lonely and sit in His presence. Come, you sinner, and live and feast and joy in your Lord.

Could you ask for a better invitation? And see when the master sends out his invitation. He sent it in advance, and then he sends his servant out to gather the guests at supper time, at the end of the day when you’re tired, when you feel your needs, when the promise of a feast is most inviting. Even so, the Gospel comes to us in the hour of our need. Its call to come is there for us when we need it most. Our Lord is showing us that, obviously, answering this gracious, wonderful invitation should be our highest priority. To heed His summons and receive His blessings is what’s most important.

But in the parable, people don’t. Even though the man sent out the invitation previously, so it was on the calendar, even though its suppertime, the perfect time to sit down and enjoy a free meal, what do they do? They begin 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 aid, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’” Here Jesus gives us a warning against putting second things first. Is it wrong to own property? No. Indeed, in the Old Testament God gave His people land as their inheritance. Is it wrong to work? No! On the contrary, the Scripture says, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” Is it wrong to be married? No. It is written in the Proverbs, “Rejoice with the wife of your youth.” Taking care of your property is good and important. God gave Adam the garden of Eden. He has given you your portion, too. Work is important. God set Adam in the garden to tend and keep it. He has given you your work, too. Family is important. God gave Adam Eve as a helpmeet. He has given you your spouse, your family, too, that you might share your life with them. Work, land, family— all are good things. Their enjoyment, the blessings that are in them, the satisfaction we find in them, is a gift from God. But they’re good in their proper place. Their enjoyment also has its proper place. And they don’t take priority over the Gospel. They don’t come first. They come second. Beware of trying to put them first and the Gospel second.

Those people who rejected the invitation came up with excuses that didn’t sound that bad. But their rejection of the invitation remained incredibly rude. As if suppertime was the proper time to be out plowing or inspecting land. As if your wife wouldn’t be happy to go out to dinner instead of cooking it herself. There’s no good excuse for neglecting God’s word and refusing His invitation. People try to soothe their consciences by telling themselves that work or family is important—and it’s not like they don’t come to God’s house because they got drunk on Saturday night or something like that. It’s true that from time to time, work or family or other earthly things may prevent you from coming once in a while. But earthly callings and cares are secondary. You must do everything in your power to keep them secondary. As a Christian, you prioritize the Gospel first. Earthly life comes second.

II

And that is because the Gospel is what you need the most. That the Gospel comes first and earthly callings second isn’t arbitrary on God’s part. It’s not as though He’s trying to keep you getting done what you need to get done or that He doesn’t want you to enjoy earthly blessings. Listen to the second half of the parable. “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, ‘God out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.’” In the parable, the people who were busy with things rejected the invitation because they thought they had it all. But when the master is angry and sends out his servant to fill his house with guests for the supper, who accepts the invitation? The needy. The poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. Those wandering out on the roads with nowhere to spend the night. Now, in the parable, the supper is an earthly banquet, and the people have physical needs. But Jesus’ point is spiritual. The Gospel is the invitation to come to a spiritual supper and be filled spiritually.

And that is why it’s our highest priority. Because even if we have the world in our pocket, every one of us is a spiritual beggar before God. Sin has made use spiritually poor, maimed, lame, and blind. We’re not rich in good works with which to please God. We’re poor. Sin has maimed us. we cannot lift our hands to do the good required of us. We are lame—we cannot walk in the ways of the Lord and keep His statutes. We are blind. Sin has clouded our reason. We do not see eternal truth clearly. We have no lasting home, but we wander the streets and haunt the highways and hedges because like our first parents we have been cast out of Eden. In our sinfulness we are like Cain, a vagabond and wanderer on the earth.

But God sees and provides. He says to the spiritually poor and maimed and lame and blind, “Come, for all things are now ready.” And indeed, they are. Jesus has gone to the Father to prepare a place for us all. His death on the cross to atone for sins is finished. He is risen from the dead. He is ascended into heaven. He has poured His Spirit upon the Church. And He sends out his servants to say, “Come.” You have a place at His banquet now. You have the forgiveness of sins in the Gospel. You have His Spirit in your heart. You have His body and blood from His table as food for your troubled soul. You have a deep, lasting, spiritual refreshment in Him through faith. This is always yours. And the time will come when it will get even better. As Isaiah says, “The Lord of hosts will make for all people A feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, Of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wine on the lees.” That is the eternal banquet, the marriage feast of the Lamb, we shall all enjoy not for one evening but forever in the age to come.

So first things first, and second things second. Our earthly callings with their blessings are good and important. But they always come second. They’re never excuses to neglect the eternal call of the gospel. And that’s because they don’t offer us what we need most—a spiritual refreshment that fills our souls and makes us whole. That is found only in call of the Gospel, and that is why the Gospel always comes first.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.