Word of Salvation – Vol. 28 No. 01 – February 1983

 

Many Are Called, Few Are Chosen

 

Sermon by Rev. J. W. Deenick v.d.m. on Matthew 22:14

Holy Scripture: Matthew 22: 1-14; Luke 13:22-30

Liturgy: BoW H 13; 129; 389; 424; 385

 

Not everything the Lord Jesus has said is equally popular in the Church.  There are words of the Saviour that we never even seem to notice; or quietly ignore.  The text that we have in front of us this morning/evening is one of these: “many are called, but few are chosen.”

It is one of those statements that we calmly pass by as if Jesus never said it.  There are learned theologians who have written ponderous books about election and predestination in which these words of the Lord are passed by as totally irrelevant.  Theologians, too are often selective in their use of Scripture; precisely as ministers are often selective in the choice of their texts for sermons.

As far as this particular word of Jesus is concerned, there are two aspects to it that we have reservations about.  We do not like this emphasis on the “few” that are chosen; and in the second place we wonder why this element of God’s choosing, of election, should come into it.

Why did Jesus say that there are only few?  We prefer to hear about the multitude of those who are saved and that no one can number.  The N.T. teaches that too.  And did God not say to Abraham: as many as the stars of heaven and as the sand on the seashore?  Why then this emphasis on the few?

And further: why this word “chosen”?  Do we have to believe then that from the beginning it was God’s desire that only a few should be saved?

Let us try to listen to this word of our Saviour; and hear the gospel in it.  It is all about the call to the kingdom.  The first point then must be that many are called; and the second that few are chosen.

It is essential, however, that we first carefully notice the context in which Jesus made this statement.  It is the concluding remark of a parable.

The parables are the parables of the kingdom.  They explain how things happen, what God does and what we are supposed to do within the kingdom of God’s wonderful grace in Christ.  Here we have the parable of the al wedding and it explains (in the manner of a parable) how God calls sinners to take part in the feast of His love.  We find this a few times in the N.T. that the call to the kingdom is a call to a feast.  In the kingdom we celebrate the fact that God has adopted us again to be His children.

In this parable the king had invited to the wedding banquet of his son a great many people, and when things were ready they were asked to come.  That may have been the way in which things were done at the time: first an invitation and then later, when things were ready, the request to come.

But they refused to come; and when the request was repeated they refused again.  Some even expressed their irritation and annoyance at the insistence with which the request was repeated.  Obviously they were no great friends of the royal family.  Some went so far as to ridicule and insult the messengers who came with the request.  A few messengers were killed even.

A this point we can see that the parable begins to explain itself.  It was the Jewish nation which Jesus had in mind.  For hundreds of years they had been invited to the kingdom and the feast of God’s amazing grace.  But they had refused to come.  Not all of them.  There had always been a loyal remnant who loved the LORD for his unfailing faithfulness to a rebellious nation.  But most of them had not been interested.  They had disbelieved and ill-treated God’s messengers; some of whom they had even killed.  And so by their own persistent refusal they had missed out on the LORD’s love and blessing.

Now, here we see the prophetic element in the parable.  When Jesus spoke of the nation and the people who were to be destroyed he referred (as He had done before and would do again) to the rejection of that part of the Jewish nation (the dead branches of the nation) that would refuse to hear His call.  The final destruction of the Jewish nationhood and of the city at Jerusalem by the Romans is foretold in this parable.

But then the parable goes further.  It nearly becomes a second parable when Jesus tells about all those others who were invited and rounded up from the city streets.  They come!  Both good and bad, it says.  That means, people who had been living a decent life and others who had not.  Some of them weren’t the types at all that you would expect at royal wedding.  They all came, dressed up for the occasion.  All, except one.  He came as he was.  He refused to make use of the opportunity to honour his host and present himself as best he could, in some kind of wedding outfit.  When the king saw him, he instructed his men to throw him out.  He could not be there and take part in the feast, since obviously there was no happiness in his heart and no loyalty to the king.  In the nonchalance, the carelessness with which he appeared at the feast he expressed that there was no joy or thankfulness in his heart for being there.  He did not belong there because his heart wasn’t in it.

So far the parable; and then follow the words of our text: many are called, invited, but few are chosen.  Many are called.  All through the ages the Lord our God has called sinners to repentance.  Not just one here and another there.  Countless numbers!  Only for a relatively brief period God limited himself largely to one nation, but for the purpose of reaching out to ALL nations again later.  We find that expressed in the parable: Israel was called first.  When in great numbers they refused to come, God reached out to the Gentiles.

We do not have to quarrel about the question whether God’s call has always been, and is to-day, seriously meant.  It is.  God calls sinners to the kingdom of His grace with unfeigned sincerity.

Theologians have debated that point.  Is the offer of salvation to all who hear it meant seriously?  Some have denied it.  They have argued that only the offer to the limited number of the elect is meant seriously.  It is foolish argument.  How could God ever be insincere?  Moreover, it is not only an offer; it is a CALL.  The invitation is never on the basis of: take it or leave it.  It is call in the sense of a summons.

It is God who calls with all the sincerity and authority of His divine majesty.  The apostle Peter says that God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

The question could be asked whether the call goes out to ALL.  Certainly it was always meant to go out to all.  Jesus said: go and make disciples of all nations.  But not all have been called, or are called to-day, in the sense that all have been confronted with the call of the gospel.  Not all have heard the voice of Jesus.  In other ways they may have been confronted with God’s presence and God’s righteous decree (as Paul says in Romans 1), they have not heard the call of the gospel; and God knows that better than we do.  As a just God He will also take that into account in all His dealings with them.  One day you and I, with all the saints, will sit in judgement over all the world; and when then a little Chinese boy, who has never heard the voice of Jesus calling him, appears before the judgement seat, don’t you think that God would want us to take that into account?  The Bible teaches clearly that such indeed is God’s will and purpose.

But many DO hear the voice of Jesus.

Many ARE called, with undoubted sincerity.  And so are YOU.  There is no one here in church, who has not been called, most sincerely.  There is no young fellow and no elderly sister here in church who could deny having heard Jesus’ voice calling them.  He calls us this moment; to the festival of God’s grace; to the forgiveness of our sins; to a new life and to eternal life.  Today then as you hear His voice do not harden your hearts.  Do not reject God’s love with arrogance or contempt.  Humble yourself before God and come at His call.  Even if you are only one of the few.

And that leads us to our second point: few are chosen.

At this word of our Saviour many stumble.

First of all, why only few?  Should we not rather think of God’s grace as being as wide as the ocean?

Did not the Lord Jesus himself say that the Son of Man came to give His life as a ransom for many and that the blood of the covenant has been poured out for the forgiveness of the sins of many?

Yes, that is true, but this about “only a few” is also true.  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said that since the gate is small and the road narrow that leads to life, only few find it.  And Jesus knew that His disciples were only few; He said to them: fear not, you little flock.  Not, that the Saviour wanted His disciples to be inquisitive about it.  When someone asked Him: Lord, are only few people going to be saved, He refused to answer that question.  No comment.  He said: You better make every effort to enter through the narrow door.  But he confirmed that many would try but not be able.

No, we cannot avoid the conclusion that there are limits.  Not that God’s grace is limited, but the number of those who enter is limited; and in relation to all people who ever lived and to all who have ever been called one could say that they are only few.

People have tried to escape from that conclusion by saying that the Lord only meant to warn us about the seriousness of His call and the necessity of accepting it.  That may be true, but even in His warnings the Lord is truthful.

Admittedly, we have trouble to be happy about this aspect of Jesus’ teaching.  We may even rebel against it.  Many Christians do; many theologians do; understandably so.  We would prefer to think of God as triumphant over all His enemies also in the sense that all His enemies are brought to repentance, on their knees.

And because we would like that so much, we make an image of God according to our own liking.  We do not let God be God, as the first commandment demands that we do.  People have made images of God from the beginning.  Adam and Eve did it in paradise.  But we must let God be God; the God who hides himself in the glory of His grace and of His justice.  You and I have no right but to obey Him and to enter through the narrow gate by faith.

Finally, we do not like to hear this word: chosen.  Few are chosen.  Whenever the idea of election comes up we tend to feel uncomfortable inside.  Largely for two reasons: it tends to rob us of our quiet assurance and secondly we have this feeling that election is discrimination and discrimination is not fair.

But on both accounts we are wrong.

We can see this in the parable.  As far as it will ever be revealed to us, Jesus explains it in this parable.  The Lord used the word “chosen” and He did not do that by mistake; nor did He mean anything else but “chosen”.  He did not mean: many were called but only a few were found worthy.  He made it perfectly clear that the king’s guests were not chosen because they were such worthy people.  They were rounded up from the streets, both good and bad.  Sure, it says in the parable that many were found not worthy.  They refused to come, made excuses, were disloyal to the king’s son and (like the one man) unwilling to celebrate from the heart the king’s feast.  THEY were passed by.

This message of the parable is still valid.

Only the relatively few (though in number as many as the stars of heaven) will share in God’s grace.  Not because they are worthy; only because God in His electing love brings them in.  Out of a world of enemies, of (in their own eyes) good, moral and deserving people, much too big and too upright to enter, on their knees, through the small gate, God has chosen the relatively few.

But this has not been made known to us to rob us of our assurance.  In fact, it is only on account of God’s electing love that anyone can be assured.  Praise God, that our assurance of salvation does rest in God and not in us; in God’s coming to us; in His choosing and saving us, while we were yet enemies.  We did not love Him.  He loved us, and loved us first.

Apart from God’s choosing there IS no assurance of salvation.

But we live by faith.  Assurance too we can only have by faith; faith that helplessly, searchingly and trustingly flees to God and holds on to Him.

Firstly, in His electing love the Lord, our God, is not unfair or unjust He could not be.  He is God.  The very heart of the message of the kingdom and of our faith, is that our God is supremely just and gracious, fair and merciful.  We only protest against election because it does not fit in with the more comfortable images we prefer to make of God, and theology makes of Him.

To the feast of God’s grace we come by faith and by faith we share in the blessings of the relatively few who enter by the gate through which only the smallest can pass; only children whose hope is in God.

Amen.