WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?
Opening Prayer
Thank You, God, for inviting me to Your “wedding feast” and for clothing me in Your righteousness.
Read Matthew 22:1–14
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
22 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Think about the last time you went to a wedding. How did you prepare? What did you wear?Same story—different setting. After being a landowner with unruly tenants, God is now throwing a wedding banquet, this time with unruly guests. So a replacement crowd is invited in: “the bad as well as the good” (10). It sounds like Jesus is still haranguing the religious leaders and telling them that the kingdom has gone to others.
Then something strange happens: a real twist in the tale. One of the guests does not have wedding clothes on and is thrown outside. Being invited, it turns out, is not enough.
This time Jesus’ words challenge the newcomers. Good and bad are invited, but that does not mean that good and bad are all the same to God. Instead, God expects us to put on new “clothes,” or as Paul puts it (Rom. 13:14), “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.” Exactly what the wedding clothes are (faith, resurrection life, Christ, righteousness…) is not spelled out here, although the main point is clear: Change is required.
Apply
Read Colossians 3:12. Have you put on God’s clothes?
Closing prayer
Lord, help me to live a life worthy of Your invitation.
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