Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
I once attended a church whose pastor was a master storyteller. I have never in my life had the pleasure of being entertained by someone so gifted in making a story come to life. Often, the story illustrated a Bible passage. One Sunday, he told a story about the parable of the wedding banquet from Matthew 22: 1-14.
The story was told in his unusual, vivid style. I remember it to this day. The mental images he conjured in my mind are indelible. Sadly, his telling of the story seemed to muddle the point of the Biblical account.
In his telling, the man who is ejected from the part has had soiled his wedding clothes trying to get to the party. Unlike those who rejected the king’s invitation, the man in this telling rejected it and then changed his mind. In truth, he wanted to be there, but he somehow missed the part about getting in line for wedding clothes from the king.
In the actual parable, the king sends his servants out to collect “anyone you find.” The servants did that and brought in “the bad as well as the good.” The king was pleased because his banquet had people to celebrate with. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like, Jesus says. It is not about how good you are, it is about accepting the invitation.
There is an odd clinker at the end of the story though. One of the guests is not wearing wedding clothes. My understanding is that the king would have supplied all his guests with clothing to wear for the feast. This fits with the teaching that it is not our righteousness that is acceptable to God (Romans 3:23) but instead we must wear the righteousness of Jesus Christ (Romans 3: 25-26; Ephesians 4: 22-24). The man who gets tossed out of the banquet hall has rejected the Son of God. The rest, no matter how good or bad they might have been, have accepted the wedding garment. They gladly wear the righteousness of their host’s Son knowing that their own is inadequate.
The people who accept Jesus’ offer of forgiveness are given this wedding garment. In spiritual terms, we are talking about party clothes for the most amazing event in the history of the universe.
Application: Accept the invitation Jesus offers you.
Food for Thought: Having received the wedding clothes for God’s wedding feast, what do we do with them?
I like how you laid out the significance of putting on Christ’s righteousness rather than our own. Great point. As to the question, I think the answer is simple, put the new clothes on. Putting Christ’s righteousness on also applies in bearing fruit through His power rather than our own (Ephesians 4: 17 – 24 – notice the parallel of putting off the old self and putting on the new. The fruit that is born is seen in Ephesians 4: 25 – 5: 2).
Thank you, Rich! I always appreciate the encouragement. 🙂
I also appreciate your point that there is fruit that comes from putting on the wedding garments, Christ’s righteousness.
Having received the wedding clothes for God’s wedding feast, what do we do with them?
As Rich says, put them on, Immediately!
We live minute by minute day by day having no concept of time. As young people we look at the old people and see them as ancient. As old people we look at young people and wonder where the time went. How did I get old so quick?
Mayflies, usually only have a 24 hour lifespan. We humans live so much longer In fact three hundred and sixty-five times longer in a single year, pretty impressive. A lifetime could be 80 to 90 times that, WOW! Yet I can tell you, at 76, it will seem like only minutes have passed.
Gods Word tells us, Christ is coming SOON. Revelation1:3, and 16:15. Yes very soon, I don’t know when that will be, I don’t know how many earth years that will be. It could be One, Two, to One thousand earth years. The point is, the Bible was not written to the earth, God has written His Word to all mankind, and what applied thousands of earth years ago, applies today. SOON is the word written personally, to each person receiving Gods message, and we need to pay attention to it NOW. This will definitely be SOON.
Listen to What God says in 2 Corinthians 6:2
2 Corinthians 6:2, for He says, “AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I
LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.” Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION”–
.
Colossians. 3:1, Paul explains our clothing is defined and seen in our attitudes and actions each day. We must put on our new identity NOW, and reflect our present heavenly position. We have been raised with Christ to a new life, sharing in His resurrection from the dead, and are to keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Our clothes, outward actions will mark the citizens of heaven. Can people tell that you are a citizen of heaven by the clothing you wear? Do others, neighbors, coworkers, friends see us as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience for others?
Romans 13:14 Rather, cloth yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
Ephesians. 2:6, The believer has been raised with Christ and is NOW seated with him in the heavenly realms,
1 Corinthians 12:13, This happened because at salvation we were all baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ,
Ron,
You have ad-“dressed” (Sorry, couldn’t resist the pun!) a very important point about the wedding garment Jesus gives us. He does not give it to us with the intention that we put it in the closet and wait for the right day to come along. We need to put them on now. Not tomorrow, now.
Thank you!
Excellent point Ron. Right now is the best time to act.
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