My message is a reflection on the combination of a parable (Matt 22:1-14) and a rather special visit to Buckingham Palace which I trust will act as an illustration. When I partially retired I was asked to take on the task of the honorary treasurer of Welfare Service Charity. I found it quite interesting and rewarding to do a little service for the needy minority of our Island home. The charity was entered for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Award for voluntary groups who do service in the community and it won the award for Guernsey. Besides receiving the "Unsung Heroes" award and a certificate signed by Her Majesty, two of the honorary workers, with their spouses, were invited to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, and I was fortunate enough to be one of those nominated. Lots of people can pay to have a tour of the Palace when the Queen is away on holiday, but to receive an invitation was a really special and an unexpected reward.
When Jesus spoke to the crowds that gathered around Him, He often used everyday events to illustrate His teaching. Parables are "earthly stories with a heavenly meaning". The parable we’ve read gained a new meaning for me when we went up to London for the special occasion. The story Jesus told was of a man who was invited to a king’s wedding feast. He went along and presented himself at the entrance gate but something terrible happened - the palace guard took one look at him and threw him out! Why was this? It was because he wasn’t properly dressed. He hadn’t taken the trouble to come in the clothes required for this occasion. Of course, he stuck out like a sore thumb.
It was the custom in the East for the host to provide each guest with a wedding garment, probably just a clean white robe. In this way the poor needn’t be ashamed of their rags, and the rich no right to be proud of their morning suits or gowns. Our society is ridden with class structure but in God’s sight we’re all the same - sinners in need of the garment of salvation. But here was a man who had accepted the invitation but ignored the conditions attached to it. He pushed his way in without wedding clothes. He had been offered a garment, but he refused it, presumably because he thought he was "smart enough" without one. It was an insult to the host. His attitude was that his best was good enough for God! And God says that it isn’t! The king in the story has the man ejected. Jesus was saying that God would do the same to anyone who relies on his own fancied goodness to gain entry into His Kingdom.
My wife and I weren’t provided with court dress for the palace but, like the several thousand people who presented themselves at the Palace gates, were given strict instructions as to the style of dress required, including hats for the ladies. I’d never seen such a fine collection of ladies’ headgear! What a fashion parade! There was a great deal of security around the Palace - policemen were everywhere. As we approached the gates, we were checked that we were dressed appropriately and had to show our entrance card and passport to prove our identity in order to get in. How sad it would have been if we’d forgotten the instructions and gone in our beach clothes or lost the special cards and our passports to confirm whom we were! We would have been sent packing as gatecrashers. That’s what happened to the man that Jesus spoke of who didn’t meet the entry requirements for the king’s wedding feast.
There was a bishop next to us in the queue, resplendent in his purple gown. He told me that this was his fourth Garden Party and that the Queen "liked a splash of purple!" But even he had to show his identification documents! This reminded me that in coming to God’s Kingdom even the great and the good of this world need to prove their entrance qualifications. The Bible tells us that it is having our names inscribed in "the Lamb’s Book of Life". The wedding garment in the parable speaks to us of the righteousness of God which is offered to all in Christ Jesus, and which is upon all who truly believe in Him as Saviour and Lord. All our own righteousness are as filthy rags, but when we come to the Lord Jesus in repentance and faith, then God imputes His righteousness to us, reckoning Christ’s righteousness as ours.
The Kingdom of God is for the humble and obedient. Never mind the superficial surface evidences like so-called fashion or style. We’re all invited to join God’s party on the basis of admitting that we didn’t make the grade. Thank God, His banquet isn’t a garden party for the successful and the smooth. The broken down, the come in last are offered a seat at the King’s table. Far from being an exclusive gathering of the great, the loaded, the top dogs of society, the Kingdom offers a free pass paid by the blood of Jesus for those who normally would be left outside. The superficial badges of appearance and competence that we wear must be left outside the door. It’s because of the knowledge that we’re all messed up - all have sinned - that we can come into God’s house. Stripped of pretence, we’re all ordinary - but much beloved.
This parable has something to tell us of the attitude we should have in coming to worship. The way we approach anything demonstrates the spirit in which we come. Is it willingly or do we begrudge the time out of our lives? If we go to visit in a friend’s house, we don’t go in our gardening clothes! We know very well that it’s not the clothes that matter to our friend. It’s simply a matter of respect that we should present ourselves as neatly as we can. The fact that we prepare ourselves to go there is the way in which we outwardly show our affection and our esteem for our friend. So it is with God’s house.
The parable has nothing to do with the actual clothes in which we go to church; it has everything to do with the spirit in which we go to God’s house. Of course we want to be reasonably clothed out of respect for our Lord but He’s not expecting a fashion parade! What He’s looking for is a garment of the mind and the heart. It’s to be clothed with expectation, the garment of humility and penitence, and the robe of faith and reverence. It’s all too easy to go to God’s house without preparation of thought and prayer and self-examination. If I went to my services as carefully prepared as I went to the Palace my worship and ministry would be richer by far.
Well, we got into the Palace. Previously we’d only been able to peer at it through the railings. When you walk through the passageway at the front you see it’s a huge complex built around a square courtyard. The sheer size reminded me of the words of Jesus, "In my Father’s house are many rooms". Our homes are very modest compared with the Palace, but if we are believers in Jesus we can rest assured that He’s in heaven, as He said, to "prepare a place for you" (John 14:2). Having crossed the courtyard we went into the Palace to reach the gardens. What magnificence in the huge rooms - the chandeliers, the gilt decorations, the portraits of the Queen’s ancestors, the long staircases leading to the royal apartments! This is all for an earthly monarch of flesh and blood like ourselves, so what must heaven be like for the King of Kings and those He has redeemed! The Apostle Paul quoted from Isaiah, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor 2:9).
The afternoon we were at the Garden Party was blessed with perfect weather. In fact, iced drinks were more in demand than tea! But it was nice to enjoy some royal hospitality. At precisely 4 o’clock the pleasant socialising stopped as the Palace doors opened and the Queen, together with the Duke of Edinburgh, walked to the steps leading to the lawns where the guests were gathered. The military band played the National Anthem and the royal party began their slow stroll through the lines of guests waiting to see Her Majesty.
The Queen was given all the due deference and acclaim by her subjects because she was born to her rank and position. As a constitutional monarch her powers are strictly limited although her prestige is great. Her subjects, by virtue of who she is and her devoted service to the nation, give honour to her. But even she freely defers to God as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Our heavenly sovereign, the Lord Jesus Christ, is beyond all comparison to any earthly prince. He’s "the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15). In the book of the Revelation Jesus says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" (22:13). In His earthly life He claimed that "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Matt 28:18) and He remains "the same yesterday and today and for ever" (Heb 13:8). But it’s not only what He is in Himself, it’s what He has done. God in Christ so loved His creation brought down by sin that He forsook the glories of heaven to take a body of flesh and blood. He lived a life unstained by sin that uniquely qualified Him to become the Saviour of the world by voluntarily dying in the place of sinful humanity. When Jesus died on the Cross, "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ" (2 Cor 5:19).
Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son who became the Emptied Servant but is now the Exalted Lord. The glory of the Christian message is that Jesus, having come right down, God raised him up. The Apostle Paul describes the glorious exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ. It tells of the reward that God gave him: "therefore God has highly exalted him." God can only use the humble. God’s way is down first and then up. Jesus willingly went through a severe reduction programme before his Father could exalt him. Earthly sovereigns give themselves and their families grand titles and honours but they only last for their brief life on earth. But the honour bestowed on Christ is "the name that is above every name" and the purpose of His exaltation is that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Phil 2:9,10).
As the Queen slowly walked down the crowded line the Court officials selected couples, apparently at random, from those eagerly waiting for her to pass by. They were brought into the open area and briefed by the Gentlemen at Arms in their Court dress as to how they would be introduced to Her Majesty. I calculated that perhaps only one half of one percent of those present had the privilege of a few moments chat with the Queen. No, I wasn’t one of the fortunate ones but I reflected that I and all who have a saving relationship with Jesus have access to Him in prayer and His presence through the Holy Spirit. One day, of course, faith will be upgraded to actuality and it won’t be for a few moments but for all eternity.
Those who had the opportunity of meeting and greeting the Queen did so with appropriate bows. But just in case anything got out of order, her personal protection officers were close at hand and on the Palace roof there were police marksmen with binoculars and guns watching the crowds below. Every Christian humbly and adoringly bows to our Sovereign Lord, but one day even His enemies will bow in recognition to who He is. Every created intelligence will have to acclaim him, whether "in heaven, and on earth and under the earth." Angels and redeemed human beings will do this joyfully; the devil and his followers will do it with remorse, but so great will be His glory that all will feel impelled to render homage to Him. "Every tongue shall confess to the glory of God the Father that Jesus Christ is Lord."
This universal acclamation is the confession that forms the earliest Christian creed, "Jesus Christ is Lord". Jesus is identified and crowned as Lord of all. The day is coming when He will be given his due. He will be recognised as the One who He really is, when the obscurity of the past and the invisibility of the present will be completely removed and every eye will see Him for what He is in all His glory.
When the Queen had completed her "walk-about", as the politicians would say, "to press the flesh", she went to the Royal Tent to take tea, which left us lesser mortals to walk around the extensive grounds and admire the lake, the lawns and flower beds. When she emerged from tea it was time for her to take her leave and again pass through rows of her guests. There was a long line of people in wheelchairs and she and the Duke spoke to quite a number of them. The royal party finally made their way back to the entrance to the Palace and again everything came to a halt while "God Save The Queen" was played followed by a round of applause as she was acknowledged as Sovereign.
Our unforgettable day at the Palace ended but as believers we look forward to an even greater day when we meet the Lord. Until that time, we’re in the process of being changed into His likeness, although painfully slowly. We have the assurance, though, unworthy as we are, that we’re wearing the correct "wedding garment" as part of the Bride of Christ and look forward to being welcomed into the presence of God and to be with Him for ever.
Yes, Jesus is Lord, but there’s a question each one of us must ask ourselves: "Is he my Lord?" Jesus wants to give us the integrity, the courage, the honesty to live right. He wants to take away our selfishness and give us love. He wants to take away our hypocrisy, our bitterness and hurts - and give us His peace. Let’s make sure that we give Jesus the rightful place in our hearts in the here and now.
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Share with me in a prayer:
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time of meeting with you. We thank you for having revealed yourself in the coming to Earth in Jesus Christ. We think with shame of our unworthiness. We confess that we’re not ready to receive your Son. We’ve been proud when we should have been humble, and thought ourselves mighty when we were weak. We ask you to forgive us, Lord, for all our sins, especially our pride, our wrong actions and attitude of mind. Help us to be more honest with ourselves and more loving to our fellow men and women. Help us to live our lives in the prospect of the coming again of Jesus as king and judge.
