Sermon - Trinity XX 2018 - Matthew 22:1-14

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.” This almost sounds like a bad dream you might have, right? You receive an invitation to the party of the year by the wealthiest and most influential family in the state. So you show up at the big fancy wedding gala, and suddenly the king comes up to you, what an honor! But he gives you one sideways glance, and asks why you’re naked!

How humiliating! But in this nightmare it gets even worse: “Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” So what you wear obviously matters. It leads us to ask ourselves the question: Are we clothed in the wedding garment? To which we gladly answer: God clothes us with the wedding garment so that we may enter into the great heavenly wedding feast.

Being properly clothed has always been rather important. We recognize this in our daily lives, so for instance when you go to an interview, you know that you need to dress up. Or when you come to church, you don’t just wear your hog chore clothes, but you put on something nice. When you go to a wedding, even if it’s not yours, but especially if it is, you dress up! 

Or even if it’s not something you have to dress up for, it’s important to wear the right clothes for the occasion. If you go hiking in the mountains, you don’t wear heels and a dress or slacks and loafers. If you go do farm chores, you’re not going to wear a tuxedo or a ball gown. It’s important to be properly clothed.

But unfortunately we’re not very good at clothing ourselves. Adam and Eve, when they had eaten the forbidden fruit, “the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” Notice that as soon as sin entered the world, they both became aware of their nakedness and tried to cover it up.

But why did this matter? There were just two of them, and they were husband and wife nonetheless, so why did they care? They cared because they were ashamed of who they were, they were ashamed because suddenly they were filled with sin. If they were naked, then their sin was bared to each other and to themselves, and it’s just too painful to see that. 

As such, they tried to hide their sinfulness, they tried to cover it up by sewing figleaves together. Now figleaves are rather durable and leathery, so they probably kind of worked to hide their outer nakedness. But ultimately, the clothes they fashioned didn’t truly cover their nakedness. So instead, “the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” God clothed Adam and Eve, truly covering their nakedness.

How often are we like Adam and Eve, trying to hide our sinfulness behind loincloths of leaves? When we try to hide our sinfulness behind self-righteous, self-justifying, behaviors, it’s as if we’re clothing ourselves with withering leaves and filthy rags. “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” 

Our whole lives are filled with us trying to cover ourselves up and hide our iniquities. Think about it, when a bride wears a beautiful white gown and a groom wears a sharp clean tuxedo, they’re trying to hide their imperfections and impurities. When you get dressed up for the job interview, you’re trying to hide that you’re really a slob. When you dress up everyday, your goal is make yourself look better and more important than you actually are. The reason a pastor wears special robes is to hide the sinful person that lies beneath. 

So we really cannot cover ourselves up. Any covering up we do is like dressing up in leaves or filthy rags. Instead our Lord clothes us. The reason the king made such a big deal about the man lacking a wedding garment was because the king had himself provided the garment to the man. But the man refused to wear it! The man rejected the wedding garment!

Understand that it was the practice in the ancient Israelite world that the host provided the garments which the guests would wear. In this particular scenario, it was even more important because of where these guests had come from: “And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good.” People came to the wedding right from the road, they weren’t prepared to go to a wedding so they wouldn’t have been dressed for one. But the king provided the clothes. 

Our Lord clothes us as well with the clothes He provides. Not with leaves or dirty rags, but like Adam and Eve, with garments of skin. For the nakedness of our sin to be clothed a death had to occur. Jesus Christ when He went to the cross, was stripped naked, bare for all to see. Upon Him was laid the chastisement of all people, all of our sins were laid upon Him as He was clothed with our iniquity. But from this death we have all been clothed in Christ’s righteousness. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Christ was killed so that you would be clothed in His wedding garment, in His righteousness.

You dear Christians have been clothed in the wedding garment of Christ’s righteousness at your baptism. In the ancient Christian world it was the practice to be baptized naked, to go into the waters with nothing, but as you exit the baptismal font you are quickly clothed in a white gown. It’s a symbolic tradition still today that the person being baptized is clothed in a white baptismal gown. This white gown symbolizes not the purity of the person about to be baptized, but it symbolizes the purity of Christ which the baptized person puts on when they’re baptized.

For when you were baptized, your sins were forgiven you, your impurities and filth were washed away, and your nakedness was covered. How? Your robes have been washed and made white in the blood of the lamb. The only way that you could be saved is through Christ’s righteousness which now covers your nakedness.

God the Father has provided in Christ the wedding garment for you to wear. He gives it to you free of charge, no rental or cleaning fee, it’s all taken care of. This wedding garment is provided for all people who are invited to the wedding feast. Who’s invited to the wedding feast? Who’s invited to heaven? The King instructed His servants, “Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.” All are invited to the wedding feast! Good and bad alike! It doesn’t matter how filthy and sinful you are, because all are invited, you included! 

God is a very generous host, He provides everyone with the clothes needed to wear to get into the heavenly feast. But you need to wear the clothes that He gives. You need to put on Christ in order to stay in the wedding hall. If you reject Jesus, if you reject your baptism, if you reject Christ’s blood bought gift to you, then you will be cast out of the wedding hall into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

But for you who don’t refuse the gift, for you who gladly put on Christ and rejoice in your baptism, for you the feast is ready! The Master of the feast, God Himself invites you saying “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” The feast is prepared, the wedding banquet, of which you are not only a guest but you are the bride and Christ is the groom, is ready right now. You have been clothed in your Christ’s righteousness, wearing the pure white gown of holiness, and the wedding hall is filled with guests! 

““Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Come, the feast is ready and so are you.