Wedding Clothes
Updated: Apr 30, 2023
What do you wear to a wedding... God gave us some insight on this subject...
I was sitting on the couch, upset about something – the way someone treated me and needing some reassurance from the Lord… I was praying – asking for a word I could stand on … and he said – I have called – I have chosen … Many are called….” And He left off the end, So I went and looked up the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22…
Once again, Jesus spoke to them in parables: The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to call those he had invited to the banquet, but they refused to come.
Again, he sent other servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
But they paid no attention and went away, one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged, and he sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the crossroads and invite to the banquet as many as you can find.’
So the servants went out into the streets and gathered everyone they could find, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to see the guests, he spotted a man who was not dressed in wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’
But the man was speechless. Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
For many are called, but few are chosen.”
I have heard that the wedding guests represented the Jewish people, many of whom rejected the Messiah– the bridegroom and refused to partake in the wedding feast. (That was what made them unworthy) The gentiles – the rest of the world were then called – or invited to partake in the wedding feast. All of the benefits of the Kingdom of God. Everything that the Lord had prepared and provided to the guests to celebrate his Son -but there was a man who showed up without wedding clothes.
Clothes define a person – We choose what we put on. Maybe we dress casually because it’s comfortable or we dress to be noticed but the guests of the wedding feast were expected to celebrate the bridegroom and dress well - in the clothes that the bridegoom had died to provide.
In the Old Testament the guests could only wear those clothes (Holiness) - the finery that the Lord provided - through sacrifice - and they had to keep washing them in sacrifice. Thanks to Jesus making the permanent sacrifice (of dying on the cross for our sins and paying the price to make us worthy) the guests can now wear clothes that stay clean - but they have to keep them on! - interesting thought!
The guests were expected to wear their wedding clothes.
Today your clothes may be guilt. Your clothes may be addiction. You might be holding onto your past or your illness and saying that these things define you. You might say you aren’t worthy to wear God’s finery of Holiness. That you aren’t good enough to put on the clothes of righteousness. That, that just isn’t who you are. But that is what makes you one of God’s “chosen” his elect.
It requires sacrifice to put on the clothes of God. You need to take off the things that you have put on over the years. You need to take off all of the clothes that others have dressed you in also. You need to give all of that up- everything that you “are” besides what God has called you to be.
I Corinthians 6:9-11 says:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor [a]effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
You might feel like that wedding guest was treated unfairly – that God should have had compassion on the guy who didn’t want to dirty the good clothes. God's name is compassion after all. (See my blog post on "Who is God") ... But God provided the clothes for the wedding feast. Maybe that guest's parents gave him his old clothes and he didnt want take them off. But God's Son died so that every guest could be one of Gods chosen few and it was up to that guest to step into the clothes. To lay aside his old clothes of unworthiness, to lay aside his clothes of 'I’m not good enough' and step into what God provided for him so that he could be a good representative and ambassador of the King.
If you see someone in old clothes dont make fun of them - dont get mad at them for wearing old clothes - Dont judge them for wearing old clothes - Just share with them that Jesus gave them new clothes and why and then help them get dressed!
The guests didn’t have to be special to be called – The king invited everyone to the feast. But the guest did have to choose to be a participant and be all that God called him to be and it required personal sacrifice.
We as believers need to help others clothe themselves. Sometimes they are stuck in their clothes and need deliverance.
And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well. Mark 16:17-18 NAS
Today we need to tell God that we will wear what he gave. That we will do what He wants us to do – that we will participate in whatever he wants us to. That we won't hang on to depression, guilt, insecurity, trauma, everything we have been through or how someone treated us… those are all of our old clothes and we need to put on Goodness, gentleness, faith, kindness, holiness, purity. We need to help others do the same. We need to realize that Holy is who we are now – because of what Jesus did for us. That is our description. That is our new identity.
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