Put on the Garments of Praise

Matthew 22, NLT... "Jesus also told them other parables. He said, 2 “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. 3 When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!

4 “So he sent other servants to tell them, ‘The feast has been prepared. The bulls and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the banquet!’ 5 But the guests he had invited ignored them and went their own way, one to his farm, another to his business. 6 Others seized his messengers and insulted them and killed them.

7 “The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town. 8 And he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor. 9 Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.’ 10 So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn’t wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?’ But the man had no reply. 13 Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

What does it mean to be at the wedding feast but wearing the wrong clothes? Do you think Jesus is down on people that have no good clothes to wear? Is this a verse about dressing up for church? Lord, I hope not!

One custom in this time was for the wedding host to give out clothes to the wedding guests as they came into the party. The man that got kicked out would have refused the clothes of the king.

Think about the myriads of stories you hear about pastors or people in “Christian” organizations that abuse people and children and have affairs and defraud people and get caught and then just start another church somewhere.

There are many examples in our world, Internationally, nationally and locally, of people who claim to be Christians but do not look or act at all like Jesus. There is a permeating glee in violence, cruelty, harsh language, mockery, judgement, chest puffing, braggadocios anger and bravado that has nothing to do with the humble way of Jesus and we must resist it.

The way of Jesus is the cross and our scripture says that we must take on the way of Jesus…giving, sacrificial love…looking to the needs of others and laying down our life.

There is a word…cruciform…that means…shaped like the cross. The Christian life is a cruciform life. If there is a voice out there that is claiming to be christian but does not look, sound or act like Jesus on the cross, it is not christian. Being smug, being mean, speaking cruelly, bragging, lying, mocking, abusing, and glorying in violence is not the way of Jesus. In fact, it is anti-Christ.

To be welcomed into the party, you have to trade your clothes for the clothes of the king! Everyone is invited…the good and the bad…they’re all there. But they have all taken on the clothes of the kingdom.

That is the picture of baptism…baptism is a way to identify with Jesus…being buried with him and being raised with him to newness of life.

It’s a new way to walk, new clothes to put on. What are these new clothes?

Let’s look at some of the places that scripture tells us what kind of clothes to put on…

1. Humility

1 Peter 5:5 – "clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another,"

2. Compassion, Kindness, Gentleness, and Patience

Colossians 3:12 – put on "compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience".

3. Love (Over All Else)

Colossians 3:14 – Above all other else "clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony"

4. The Lord Jesus Christ

Romans 13:14 –"clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ”

Galatians 3:27 – "clothed yourselves with Christ".

5. Righteousness and Salvation

Isaiah 61:10 –"clothed me with the garments of salvation" and "arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness.”

Isa 61:3 Put on a garment of praise in exchange for a spirit of heaviness…joy in stead of mourning…beauty instead of ashes

Humility, compassion, kindness, gentleness, patience, praise, beauty, joy.

In short…Jesus himself.

Put on Christ. He is our life. Jesus IS the clothes of the kingdom. All are welcome! The good and the bad…but all are required to change into the clothes of the king. Put on Christ.