October 11, 2026 | 20th Sunday after Pentecost
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church — Buffalo, NY
References
Scripture: Matthew 22:1–14 (The Parable of the Wedding Banquet), with reference to Matthew 21:33–46 (The Parable of the Wicked Tenants).
Video of worship/sermon
Are We Good Enough?
Many of us spend a good bit of time thinking about … and worrying about … whether we are good enough.
Good enough in school to make the grade or pass the test.
Good enough at our jobs to keep our jobs, but maybe even to get a raise or promotion.
A good enough friend or spouse or parent.
A good enough … “Christian.”
I have a pretty good understanding of what good enough means in school. For example, a math test is clear … there are correct answers. Getting enough correct answers will be good enough for a grade that is above the threshold that defined whether you passed or failed.
But what is good enough when it comes to relationships?
There is no line … no threshold … that determines whether you meet the criteria to be considered good enough in your relationships.
And, if you’re good enough today, what does that mean about tomorrow or next week? Do you have to keep doing good enough? What happens if you fall below that ambiguous threshold into the realm of … bad?
We apply these good enough and bad labels to our faith as well. And we can reduce our faith and our relationship with Jesus to an oversimplified statement like: “People who are good enough go to heaven, and bad people who are not good enough go to hell.”
A Wedding Feast and a Difficult Parable
Especially in challenging readings like we have from Matthew’s gospel, reading this parable as if it stands alone can lead us toward categorizing the people as either good enough or bad.
To help us better understand what Jesus might have been saying, it is very important to also read what happened before and after the passage.
Without reading more, we’re left with this odd parable of a king who hosted a wedding feast. The king had a lot of food and everything was prepared. The people initially invited had other things to do and didn’t come. The parable turned violent and there was a lot of killing.
Oh … and let’s not forget there was a wedding to celebrate.
So, the king filled the space with people from the city streets.
Did you catch in the reading that it was both the good and the bad who were invited?
But one of the guests wasn’t wearing a wedding garment. The king told his servants to “Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Seems kind of harsh, right?
Do we surmise, then, that the people wearing a wedding garment were good enough and the one guy without was bad?
What a terrible reading if the lesson we are to glean from it is that our salvation and our relationship with Jesus are so fragile that they can fall apart based on something so seemingly trivial as what we’re wearing!
Recognizing the Gift of the Invitation
Jesus told this parable to a crowd gathered in the temple in Jerusalem … a crowd that included the scribes and Pharisees.
These religious leaders were increasingly angered and threatened by Jesus and his message. And Jesus was speaking with increasing intensity — perhaps because the religious leaders weren’t recognizing the gift they had.
They … the religious leaders … were the ones who, in the parable of the vineyard, received the vineyard and everything was prepared for them. Yet, they thought the field and its produce were theirs instead of belonging to the landowner.
They … are the ones either initially invited or invited in from the streets.
They HAD THE INVITATION … yet they turned away or found ways to justify themselves as good enough.
But our relationships with each other and our relationship with Jesus aren’t merely about being good enough.
We, too, receive an invitation to Jesus’ feast. This feast isn’t only about heaven and hell, and it’s certainly not about us being good enough.
The invitation to you and me is not because of our goodness, but because of the generosity and grace of God.
The feast of Jesus is an invitation to participate fully in life as God’s people … here … in our time and place.
An Invitation to a Living Relationship
Salvation and our relationship with Jesus are not transactional … not a box to be checked … not a trophy to receive only to be put on a shelf to gather dust.
It’s not salvation to be earned, but a relationship to be nurtured … cared for … and this happens over time.
The invitation is offered to each of us.
In God’s eyes, you are already MORE than good enough.
Questions for Reflection
- Where in your life do you find yourself worrying about whether you are good enough? How might God’s grace change the way you understand your worth?
- What changes when we understand Jesus’ invitation not as a reward for being good enough, but as a gift of God’s generosity and grace?
- What might it look like to live more fully into God’s invitation — nurturing your relationship with Jesus and participating in God’s work in your community?
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