Dressing for the Wedding
Matt. 22:1-14
Today when you enter various restaurants, you are confronted by a sign that says “No shirt, no shoes, no service.” A sign like this is also a sign of the time, I suppose, for it would not be necessary to post such a sign, except that there are a number of people who will enter restaurants these days wearing no shirt and no shoes. We’re not talking about people who are so poor that they cannot afford shoes or cannot afford shirts. If they were indeed that poor, I question whether they would be entering a restaurant in the first place, since shoes and shirts that would satisfy the requirement cost less than the food they can buy in the restaurant.
So, no, it’s not the poor that the sign has in mind: it’s those who don’t care for the standards of the owner or his guests.
This kind of sign isn’t the only version, of course. There are restaurants or clubs where the dress code requires coat and tie, and a sign at the entrance will tell you this. Perhaps you have been invited to a formal occasion – a wedding, or wedding reception, for example, where the required dress is formal, or black tie. Again, guests at such an affair are expected to comply with the standards of the host.
We have something like this going on in the parable found in today’s gospel lesson. The parable which Jesus tells is fairly clear, and I dare say his immediate audience – the Pharisees and Sadducees – didn’t miss his point. We, however, might miss the point about that wedding guest who shows up without the proper attire. On one hand, “proper attire” for a wedding is not alien to our way of thinking; on the other hand, what is Jesus’ point of mentioning this in the parable?
Before attempting to answer that question, let’s look over the first elements of the parable as Jesus unfolds it.
Jesus sets up the parable with these words: “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, 3 and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. “
By this time in Jesus ministry, there can be no question about what these elements in the parable mean. Jesus has been preaching the gospel of the kingdom of heaven for almost three years now. No one – particularly the religious leadership of Israel – has any question that as Jesus tells the parable, the King in the parable is God, the Son is Jesus himself, and the invited guests are the chosen people, the Jews. The Messianic age, in the Old Testament, was often compared to a grand feast. We saw this in the lesson from the Old Testament that we heard read a while ago. In Isaiah 5:7, we read, “6 And in this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, Of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees.”
So, here is a great King, sending out invitations to the wedding of His Son. And what do those invited say? Well, Jesus says they were not willing to come.
So, what does the king do? Jesus tells us: “4 Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”’ 5 But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. 6 And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. “
Again, I suspect that Jesus’ audience here knows exactly what he means by this part of the parable. For, before Jesus began his ministry, John the Baptist was preaching the coming of the Kingdom. And, once Jesus had begun his ministry, he had sent out his disciples to preaching the good news of the Kingdom of heaven. And, their fate was the same as those servants in the parable Jesus is telling: they were ignored, or they were treated spitefully, and John the Baptist was killed.
If Jesus had stopped here, he would have done a thorough job of recapitulating his previous ministry and the reception it had received from the religious leadership of Israel. But, at this point in the parable, the meaning of the parable turns away from representing the past in parabolic form, and instead begins to look to the future.
Jesus continued with these words, “But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.” What, do you suppose, this is talking about? I submit that it is not talking about something that has already happened. Rather, Jesus is telling those who are plotting to kill him what God is going to do to those murderers. He is going to send out his armies and , destroy those murderers and burn up their city. And, of course, this is exactly what happened about 40 years after Jesus spoke these words. God raised up the Roman army – just as He had raised up gentile army after gentile army in the past – to judge his own people. And, Jesus is telling his opponents here that this is going to happen to them and to Jerusalem.
But, Jesus has more to say about the future:
“8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ 10 So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.”
Now, what Jesus is communicating here is not new. He has sounded this note before, most recently in the previous chapter of Matthew’s gospel, where he said to the religious leaders:
Matt. 21:43: “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.
And back in Matthew 8, after the Roman centurion made his candid statement of faith in Christ, Jesus made this remark:
Matt 8:10- 12: 10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! 11 And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
And the fulfillment of this is found in Acts 13, when Paul was opposed at Antioch by the leaders of the Jewish synagogue. At that time, Paul declared, ““It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.
This turning from the Jews – the sons of the Kingdom – to the Gentiles, those who are beyond the pale, this was no surprise, for Jesus had been telling the Jewish leaders who were trying to kill him that this is precisely what God was going to do.
Finally, at the end the parable, Jesus speaks, I think, to an audience that directly includes us, when he relates what happens when the King comes to survey the guests who have filled his wedding hall. When he looks over the guests he notices one who is not properly attired.
Now, to understand Jesus point, we have to understand two things: One thing we need to understand is that some occasions have dress codes. We do understand this, and I trust that when we see a sign that says no shirt, no service, we are sure to wear a shirt before entering! If a wedding invitation says “Black tie,” we men wear a tuxedo with a black tie, unless we wish dishonor the host.
The second thing we need to understand, for Jesus’ hearers understood, is this: when a host invited guests to a wedding in those days, he provided his guests with the festive attire that was required. All one needed to do was to accept the attire from the master of the feast, and to put it on. Ordinarily, it was a simple garment, a white robe. And, so when the King in the parable surveys his guests, the guest without a wedding garment stuck out like a sore thumb! At first the king is gracious and asks, “Friend, how did you get here without a wedding garment?” But, the man is speechless – since he had no excuse – and so the King says to his servants, “‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
I do not think Jesus’ parable, at least this part of it, is talking about literal clothing or literal dress codes. However, I will take this opportunity, since the subject is before us, to make a couple of passing comments about clothing, particularly as it relates to Christians dressing for church.
First of all, please note that when a host summons guests to his house, what one wears can say a lot about the attitude of the guest to the host. And, this is true, even if there is no stated dress code. All of us apply a dress code when we come to church. Surely you understand this: you would not appear here naked, I trust. Nor would you come to church wearing a bathing suit, or a Halloween costume.
It is fairly common nowadays for churchgoers to dress very, very casually. The rationale seems to be that it would be unwelcoming of the church to expect those who show up to dress up. I’ve heard all sorts of snide remarks about Christians who wear their better clothing for Church and about Churches which expect this of those who attend its services. Both are charged with snobbishness, or slavish idolatry to fashion, and similar things.
But, the generations of Christians who have always dressed modestly and soberly for Church are not worshiping fashion; they are worshiping the Lord of Hosts, and it is in respect to Him that they clothe themselves as they do when they appear at his table.
My advice to you today concerning your dress is this: ask yourself if you can think of a situation where you are invited to meet a mere human, and you would without question wear better clothing than you wear to church. I’m not talking about acquiring new clothing; nor am I talking about wearing the latest fashions. I’m simply asking about the wardrobe you presently have. If you’re wealthy (and most of us are not), you might have quite a selection to draw from. And, if you’re poor (and most of us are), then your wardrobe is going to be limited.
But, from whatever you have at your disposal, what do you wear to worship the God of the Universe? It is Christ and his table to which we come this day; let us not clothe ourselves with something LESS than we would wear for a mere human. Don’t wear for God something less than you would wear for a man.
Second, I would point to two explicit dress codes which are mentioned twice in the New Testament. Once in 1 Timothy 2:8, where Paul directs that women in the assembly “ adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation.” The other dress code is found in 1 Corinthians 11, and it concerns not the clothing of the body, but the clothing of the head. Men are expressly told not to wear anything on their heads, and women are expressly told to wear something on their heads.
Now, in the parable Jesus is telling in today’s gospel, he speaks of the King who has provided wedding garments and the man who has appeared in the wedding hall without one. What is Jesus talking about?
Teachers in the Church have understood Jesus’ words here in two ways. Some suppose Jesus is looking forward to the time described by the Apostle John in the Apocalypse in several of his visions of heaven, when the elders before the throne, or the martyrs from the Great Tribulation, or simply the redeemed saints are seen by John to be wearing white robes. If this is what Jesus is talking about, then the King’s removal of those who aren’t properly attired is speaking of a final purging of interlopers from the Church.
The other way Christian teachers over the centuries have understood this part of the parable focuses on two things in the parable. First of all, they note that the attendees in the wedding hall are both good and bad. Next, they note that the wedding garment, as I said before, is a gift of the King who is hosting the wedding feast. The fact that a man is present in the wedding hall without a garment shows that he is just as insulting to the host as those who refused to accept the invitation.
On this view, the wedding garment is a picture of the righteousness of Christ. And, indeed, the righteousness God grants to the redeemed is sometimes viewed in the Old Testament and the New Testament as clothing, as a garment which God provides and which covers the guilt of the sinner.
Paul, in a typical passage in Ephesians 4, tells Christians that they should “put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man … and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” The verb here is the one used for putting on and taking off clothing. In a similar manner, Paul says in 1 Tim 2, where he told the women to dress modestly, he also says that women should adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, 10 but, with that which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.” So, good deeds are likened to clothing.
At the marriage supper of the Lamb which John saw a vision of in Heaven, John writes concerning the Church, [Rev. 19:8] … for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”
We all, I trust, are among those whom the King’s servants have called out of the highways and byways, to the Marriage of His Son, Jesus Christ. Today, in the Eucharist, we enjoy a foretaste of the age to come, as the author of Hebrews tells us. Then we will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom heaven with multitudes from the East and from the West. God grant that this day, in preparation for that day, we are clothed in wedding garments. May be put off the old man which is perishing day by day, and put on the new man which is created in righteousness, a garment of faith and good works, a gift of the Great King, and fitting attire for the wedding hall of His Son.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
