I am looking forward to a very special family occasion in a few months time. My son, whom we all thought to be a confirmed bachelor, is getting married!
He is tall and handsome and well built, and his fiancé is surely going to be the most beautiful bride who ever walked down an aisle. (If you detect a little maternal bias, you could be right.)
And what are my first concerns about this? You guessed! What shall I wear? Wouldnt this be the thought of most mothers whose offspring are about to tie the knot? I know without a doubt that there is absolutely nothing in my wardrobe which would suit the occasion, so Ill have to go out and buy something. And it will have to be special and fit properly. Whether I like it or not, the mother of the bridegroom occupies a place of honour at any wedding.
The Bible also tells us about a special wedding celebration. For this one you cannot possibly come up with any suitable outfit no matter where you shop or even if you have it custom designed. It is in fact, supplied by the host!
Uninvited guests discouraged
First century Jewish wedding customs held that the father of the groom was in charge of the event, and bore all the expenses of the wedding and reception. In the case of royalty or the very wealthy, this often included providing a specially made garment to be worn over the guests regular clothing. This wedding garment was presented to the guest on arrival and donned immediately. Although wearing it wasnt mandatory you could still be admitted to the feast – it was considered to be a great insult to the father of the groom if refused, and could get a guest ejected from the festivities. In the case of large gatherings it also served as identification to discourage uninvited guests from crashing the party.
A serious offence
In Matthew 22 we read about a King who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants out to tell those who had been invited to come, but they simply werent interested. They had farms and businesses to attend to. To add injury to insult, some of those who were invited turned on the kings servants and abused and killed them. So the king, enraged by their behaviour, sent some other servants out to the street corners to invite anyone good or bad to this special feast. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Then the king noticed that one of the guests was not wearing a wedding garment. The man was completely tongue-tied when asked how he had managed to get in without the proper apparel. This was such a serious offence that he was literally thrown out of the assembly.
And why is the correct clothing so important on this occasion? And why cant we obtain it ourselves? Because when the bride of Christ those who are his at his coming (1 Corinthians 15:23) is united with her Lord and Master, she will be clothed in spotless white garments which can only be provided by Jesus Christ himself. In the parable, those on the highways and byways could hardly have had time to get the proper attire, so it would have to have been given to them on arrival.
Spotless garments
In the parable the guests who accepted the wedding invitation, both the good and bad, taken from the highways and byways, will in fact become the corporate bride of Christ. And that is why the garment was of crucial importance.
Many references to spotless white garments in the New Testament make it clear that these represent the righteousness of Christ, which cover our own sinfulness, as in the case of the prodigal son, who didnt even have time to take a shower before being clothed with a beautiful robe.
In the Book of Revelation, where John has a vision of the wedding of the Lamb, we read : Let us rejoice and be glad for the wedding of the lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean was given to her to wear.
These beautiful words of prophecy in the book of Isaiah are worth remembering whenever we feel discouraged at our own lack of righteousness:
I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels (Isaiah 61:10)
How amazing to realise that God himself is preparing and designing our wedding garments. All we have to do is to trust him to know exactly what suits us.
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