Wedding Clothes

The other night, a friend and I were talking about the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22.

Jesus tells this story about the kingdom of heaven being like a magnificent wedding banquet that a king holds for his son. Everything is prepared, but none of the guests who were invited decide to show up; instead, they ignore the invitation and kill the deliverers who had come with the good news. So the king tells his servants to go out to the streets and invite as many people as possible to join the celebration and the wedding hall is filled with many guests of all kinds. Then, the king notices a guest without appropriate wedding garments, and he asks, “How did you get in here without a wedding garment?”. And the man is speechless, so the king throws him out, saying, “many are called, but few are chosen.”

We were talking about this, especially the last part of this parable… and what it means that the king is so full of joy that he invites everyone, but still rejects some. And it reminded me of people I know who have come, and seen, and know much about Christianity – like those friends who can even tell me how to get back on track with God when we aren’t doing well – but are there just enjoying the knowledge from afar. Like a guest who has been invited off the street, welcomed in without attachment, or knowledge, or relationship with the king and his son.

But then, we realize that the king doesn’t accept everyone; all are invited, but there’s an expectation to prepare, to come ready to meet the king. And it makes me think about these friends, or these kinds of people, who come for probably a lot of different reasons…but are unprepared to really meet him and unprepared to really become a guest that is known and an actual part of the celebration. So why do they come? What draws them to come to the feast at all, and what stops them from intimately knowing the king? We were talking about this, and how sad this is… to know, and to be so close, but not to really know at all.

But I think after our conversation last night, I realized that it also makes me think of myself, in how often I come to God just wanting to observe or receive. Like wedding crashing or something, all the benefits without the real heart investment and preparation. But with that, you also don’t experience the shared joy the same way you do when you are invested, when you personally know the hosts and are able to share in their joy with them. And I think, too, that when you know someone intimately – and in this parable, when you know it is the banquet of a king, and who the king is – you will prepare, because you are aware of the context and your company. And preparation says a lot about how much you value that company.

Anyway, writing this post reminds me of this song and this song… which I just realized Feist also
covered! Thank you, YouTube, for making my Tuesday playlist.