People from the Crossroads
14th Sunday after Trinity Sunday
2 Corinthians 1:21-24; 2:1-4; Matthew 22:1-14
The king sent his servants, his messengers, to call certain people to the wedding, “but they did not want to come.” The king was holding a wedding for his son, but the invited guests did not show up as one would have expected. However, the feast had been prepared, and the king wanted his house to be filled, so he said to his servants:
“Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.” (Matthew 22:9-10).
We all know that the mentioned king is our Heavenly Father, the bridegroom is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father, and the bride is the Church of Christ. Therefore, when the apostles and their followers—God's servants—called people from the crossroads, among those people was our nation as well. Essentially, the Church of Christ was also recruited almost from the crossroads, because the majority of the general Jewish population did not follow the apostles of Christ but followed the scribes and the Pharisees.
But let us never forget that among the called people, among those who went to the Lord's banquet, there were both good and evil people, as the evangelist asserts. Thus, in Christ's Church, there are not only saints and good people: there are those who only formally acknowledge Jesus as Lord, but have not given their hearts to the Lord. Alongside people who live virtuously and serve God, there are also people who are not entirely sincere...
The Lord will tolerate all people in His Church; all of them will be given the opportunity to be saved until the second coming of the Lord, when the Lord will separate the “sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25:31-45).
When the Gospel was read, you likely noted that the host-king saw a wedding guest who did not have a wedding garment, and commanded his servants to throw him out—“into outer darkness” (Matt. 22:13).
Once upon a time, kings and nobles in Israel and generally in the East had the custom of giving each wedding guest a wedding garment, which was worn over regular clothing. But in this case, the Lord has spiritual attire - His own. Let us not forget that God invited guests to the wedding feast in honour of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
As we know, we all receive Christ's garment at holy baptism:
“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Hallelujah.” (Galatians 3:27)
All who are baptized receive a wedding garment of equal value, but over time their condition may vary; some care for the purity of this spiritual garment while others do not. And those who have not received baptism do not possess Christ's (wedding) garment; and these Christ cannot accept. The Lord clearly warned about this at the beginning of His sermon during a conversation with Nicodemus:
“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5).
Thus, Christians who, based on faulty human reasoning, wait 30 years to receive holy baptism, thereby deprive themselves of the garment of Christ. If for some reason they depart from this world earlier, they will not be able to “enter the Kingdom of God,” as Christ commanded.
But Christians who will receive Christ’s garment soiled, defiled by sins, which they do not cleanse in the Confession commanded by Jesus Christ (Jhn. 20:23), which is not refreshed by manifested faith and good deeds – they themselves must feel their spiritual nakedness before God. The Apostle Paul warns us:
“If indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.” (2 Corinthians 5:3).
Exactly such a condition may exist in those formally clothed in baptism who in this world have renounced unity with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must always be enlightened about this so that we do not cloud our consciousness with false notions, thinking that expensive coffins can adorn our fate in eternity. We, who are called from the “crossroads,” should first and foremost care for the purity and holiness of Christ's garment.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
