Evening – Day 8
“And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.” Matthew 22:10
The next time you go to a wedding take a moment to look around at the people. Look at their faces. Look at how they are dressed. How much can you tell about them? Are they good people, bad people? Are they rich or poor? Are they honest? Are they liars? What kind of people are they? Do they have marriage problems? What have they done with their lives? Kind of hard to tell, isn’t it.
A person who doesn’t dress for a wedding, kind of stands out like they belong somewhere else. Most people understand, when someone invites you to such a special occasion, which they dress up for, that you put on your best. In a sense, you put on your wedding garments.
The king sent invites out for his son’s wedding and yet when the time came, they were too busy to attend. They had other things to do. Who does that? So the king says to himself, if they are not going to come and enjoy the finest occasion this kingdom can provide, I will invite everyone else. So he sends out his servants to the streets and invited anyone to come and enjoy the occasion and the hospitality of the king.
I love this passage. The above verse says the servants gathered all whom they found, both good and bad. It seems that all of them went home, put on their wedding garments and came to the wedding – well all except one. If you were sitting there and you took a look around the room, could you tell who was good and who was bad? Which ones are the sinners? You can’t tell. All you know is that everyone is dressed for the wedding. All you see are their garments.
When we put on Christ, we are clothed in a garment of righteousness. Whether you’ve been good or bad, when you are clothed in Christ, He is all the King sees. It is no longer what you’ve done, it’s simply that you chose to answer the invitation of the King to come and to put on the garment of Christ.
The King knew there were good and bad people invited but all he was concerned with was did you come and did you put on you wedding garments?
