Dress for success

 

Jesus directed several stinging parables to the religious leaders during His ministry, like the story of a king who had prepared a huge banquet celebrating his son’s wedding (Matthew 22:1-14).  Servants, (representing the prophets within the history of God’s relationship with Israel) were sent by the king to make invitations.  These servants were met with some disinterest by those who continued their personal lives.  Others mistreated and killed the king’s servants.  Prophets in Israel didn’t have it easy, that’s for sure!

The king, in anger, destroyed those who had refused the invitations and instead, sent his servants out into the common areas, streets and alleys to invite the “bad and the good alike.”  There seemed to be plenty of them around; the hall was full.

There is an ear-catching ending to this parable. The king found one person attending the banquet who was not dressed properly.  The king had this person bound and thrown out into the darkness outside where ‘wailing and grinding of teeth’ would be experienced.   Why such selective brutality?

According to the parable, the “wedding garment” was the issue.  When my family visited Italy during the hot summer several years ago, there were obviously many churches, cathedrals, basilicas, and other holy sites.  Most of them had dress codes and codes of conduct posted outside of the doorways.  Many of them strictly enforced those codes.  When we approached one of the more sacred churches, there was a woman posted to hand out shawls to anyone who in their opinion were not dressed ‘appropriately’ or what they deemed ‘respectable’ for visiting in ‘God’s house.’    We noticed several women who made a brouhaha about the shawl, refusing to wear one.  There were docents inside who quietly tossed out the ‘ne’er-do-wells’ outside to wait for the rest of their parties, presumably wailing and grinding their teeth.

I’m not sure that’s the meaning of the ‘garment’ in Matthew’s gospel, though.  I’ve read that some experts in scripture write that it’s a euphemism for Baptism, the proper incorporation into the “hall” or community.  But others write that the “garment” represents how the invitation has changed the invited guest.  Perhaps the invitee just sat there eating and drinking, but not relating selflessly with the others.  Perhaps he was even taking food and drink from others.  He might not have been acting as invited, but rather entitled.  Perhaps he’d forgotten that there was more than food and drink provided.  There was a relationship extended which should have rearranged the fellow’s actions a bit.  Perhaps he wasn’t even wearing a ‘respectable’ demeanor, and a ‘shawl of dignity’ would have corrected the problem.

The “elders and priests” knew that Jesus was telling them that He was the same invitation to change, because of the relationship to which they had always been invited and they didn’t want in.  Jesus was telling them that they were getting tossed out, not because they were not baptized, but that they refused to let Him into their temple, because He was dressed differently than they expected or demanded.

Today, let's put on a wedding garment, committing ourselves, and witnessing to everyone, that we’re ready for the banquet of heaven.