# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1949 10 25_S349
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner
God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall pass away now and nevermore.
And I saw an angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Rev. 14:6-7.
Edited by the faculty of the theological Concordia Seminary in St. Louis through a committee:
J. T. Müller, J. H. C. Fritz, Theo. Hoyer, F. E. Mayer, A. W. C. Gübert, O. E. Sohn
Official Organ of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Published biweekly by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis 18, Mo. Subscription price, $1.50 per annum anywhere in the world, payable strictly in advance. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., under the Act of March 3, 1879 Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 5, 1918
Volume 105  St. Louis, Mo., October 25, 1949  No. 22

The Parable of the Royal Wedding
God's Grace and Judgment
Matt. 22:1-14
For the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity

Miles Coverdale, the English Bible translator, once spoke a wise word: "It shall help thee to understand Scripture if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but also of whom, to whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, and with what circumstances, considering well what goeth before and what followeth." This parable of the royal wedding Jesus addressed on the Tuesday before Good Friday, thus immediately before His death, in the temple precincts, to the members of the Sanhedrin, who had already resolved to take Him prisoner and to kill Him and were only still asking themselves how and when it should be done. He proclaimed to them the judgment of God upon them and upon the people who together with them had despised the Word of God and were still despising it. This Gospel is therefore "a terrible Gospel," as Luther called it. And yet it is also a lovely Gospel, full of God's royal grace, full of wedding joy, a Gospel of God, who wants to be the great host of all men. For precisely while Jesus proclaimed the judgment of God to these men who stood over against Him with murder in their hearts, He once more spread out before them the fullness of their God's grace. It is as if in this last word to His people there was still to be included a call to repentance and conversion, a last "Come!"

The grace of God is painted broadly and in rich colors. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son and called guests. These are the three rays that shine forth from this parable: God's grace is royal grace, is wedding grace, is calling grace.

Royal Grace

God's grace is royal grace. In sovereign royal freedom He shows it. The grace of God is not brought about by anyone, not enticed, nor wrung from Him. The kingdom of heaven, the gracious, saving, and salvation-bringing rule of God, Jesus likes to compare with those events and happenings in which human doing and managing is entirely shut out: it is like the growing of a seed, the leavening of the dough. The kingdom cometh not with observation, which a man might watch or even measure. Man can wait for it, as Joseph of Arimathea waited for it (Mark 15:43); he can receive it as a little child (Mark 10:15); he can inherit it (Matt. 25:34); but the rule remains in God's royal hand. God has promised the kingdom. God gives the kingdom, God calls into the kingdom, God translates men into the kingdom of His Son, the Lord will preserve His own unto His heavenly kingdom. "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy," Rom. 9:16. God makes the wedding, God has made all things ready, God sends out His servants, God has the guests called. And thus the judging, too, lies in His hand where grace is despised or scorned. It is a great and glorious thing, this grace of God, a condescension without equal, a free, overflowing, unmerited mercy.

Wedding Grace

The grace of God is a wedding grace. Who the bride of the Son of God is, is not said in this parable. Yet the picture of the people of God as the bride of the Lord was a long-familiar picture, and everyone of the house of Israel, when he heard "wedding," had to think of words of the prophets like those of Hosea, which in the picture of marriage portray the glowing love and the unbreakable faithfulness of the covenant God: "I will betroth thee unto me for ever; I