What Are You Wearing?

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

October 15, 2017

Matthew 22:14

What Are You Wearing?

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So a clown walks in and goes up to the front. She stands next to the guy in the tuxedo. A wedding where the bride dresses up as a clown will be remembered.

Jesus described a wedding celebration that His Father is having for us. Of course as with any party it started with the invitations. But the A-list guests rejected His call to come and be with Him and His Son. His reaction is just and right: He destroys these enemies who were sincerely called, but who chose to say no to His Father.

But the party is going to happen, even though the original guests wouldn't be there. So more invitations are sent out to gather up the B-side, both those who look good on the outside and those who don't. Soon the party is full of guests.

These guests were going about their lives and the Father's invitation came unexpectedly. So helpfully and as was the custom in those days, the wedding party provided wedding clothes to the guests. You showed up in your old clothes, you changed into the free new clothes, and then you went into the wedding.

Everyone was wearing their free new clothes, except for one. He insisted on wearing his own clothes. What does this mean? It doesn't mean that Jesus will accidentally allow in an unbeliever to heaven and have to correct it later. It does mean, as Jesus said at the end of the story, that

MATTHEW 22:14 NIV 1984

many are invited, but few are chosen.

The wedding hall was full of guests, so Jesus' point shouldn't end up with us trying to guess the stats of heaven and hell. It means that those who have Jesus have been given Jesus.

They are wearing Jesus because He called them and chose them. They are wearing His perfect life that was full of honoring His heavenly Father and doing His holy will and obeying His earthly parents and speaking the Gospel truth in perfect love to miserable sinners and treasuring the gift of marriage and blessing children. He never had a sinful thought, spoke an angry word, or failed to do the right thing His whole life long. His clothes are perfect, clean, and wholesome. And He gives them to you.

The man who refused Jesus' clothes is the unbeliever who wants to wear good clothes, but insists on doing his own thing. He refuses or ignores God's things. He thinks his life is pretty good and feels that he tried hard to be a nice guy. He worked hard, made money, spent it on his family (and on himself), gave offerings to charities and did the 50/50 raffle at church, and stayed out of the newspaper. He loves his country and even knows the words to the anthem and hold his hand over his heart and says UNDER GOD nice and loud when the pledge is recited.

His funeral obituary is a long list that proves that he was a nice guy, and why everyone at the funeral will say that this guy is in a better place.

But this guy is a clown, like a bride dressed up like a clown at her own wedding. My choice of illustration isn't perfect, but Jesus' point is that what you are wearing matters. Isaiah the prophet told the truth about all our good deeds: to God they are bad.

ISAIAH 64:6a NIV 1984

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags

Doing your own thing and wearing your own filthy rags, your own sin-twisted goodness, is a rejection of Jesus. I do wonder about those who dress up like Princess Leia and Han Solo to get married. Or those who wear the regular fancy clothes, but write their own wedding vows. More often than not, their vows reveal that they think marriage is about them and their choices and their feelings of love.

But true love is Jesus. And He called you and chose you. He dresses us up in His clothes, His righteousness, so when His Father sees you, He sees Jesus.

You wear Jesus. You can certain of this because He died for all and then He spoke to you. He said, “I baptized you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Because He makes you clean, you are going to the wedding. And it is already in full swing. And probably and hopefully we all will get to join the party today. The apostle John heard Jesus tell this story in real time, and before John was called to the wedding feast, he saw this vision of reality of heaven, filled with sinners who were wearing Jesus.

REVELATION 7:9–17 NIV 1984

⁹After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,

who sits on the throne,

and to the Lamb." ¹¹All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying:

"Amen!

Praise and glory

and wisdom and thanks and honor

and power and strength

be to our God for ever and ever.

Amen!”

¹³Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”

¹⁴I answered, “Sir, you know.”

¹⁵And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore,

“they are before the throne of God

and serve Him day and night in His temple;

and He who sits on the throne will spread His tent over them.

¹⁶Never again will they hunger;

never again will they thirst.

The sun will not beat upon them,

nor any scorching heat.

¹⁷For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;

He will lead them to springs of living water.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,

and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Mark 10:45