Matthew 22- The Wedding Garment

Read this: Matthew 22:1-14

Are you confused? Bush looks about like I did when I first read this. I literally looked at my girlfriend and said, "Wow, this is straight confusing, it doesn't make any sense!"

Since you have now read the text, please click here to see my guess as to what this wedding garment may have looked like.

Q: "So what is Jesus saying through this parable of the wedding feast?"

A: This king punishes this guy for something that at face value seems to be insignificant, simply not having the garment that he was required to have to come to the wedding.

So whats to big deal? I mean, he simply didn't have his garment. Well here is the problem, and it is a big problem. From the text we are given some clues:

1. That anyone was allowed to come to this wedding. In vs. 9 we find that these people were from the "highways", they would not have been expected to be dressed nicely, already possessing this garment on their own.
2. We also see that all who had shown up to the wedding had been given a wedding garment.
3. The response of the king tells us that this garment must be worn to come into the wedding.

So it is not that this guy just snuck in, didn't recieve a garment, and was thrown into outter darkness for no reason. He refused to wear this garment, he thought he could come in garmentless.

Christ here is speaking of the kingdom of heaven and the imagery of this parable is what allows it to come to life and make sense. To get into heaven you have to have a on a garment, just as with the wedding. That garment is King Jesus' righteousness. (Isaiah 61:10 is a beautiful picture of imputed righteousness.)

You can't enter into heaven without wearing Christ's righteousness, just as they could not enter the wedding without their wedding garments.

From the imagery we can see that Christ is comparing people who claim Christianity, but try to establish a righteousness of their own, with the man without a garment. Jesus is would rather we reject His garment of righteousness, than try to get the benefits of it (namely heaven), without truly accepting the garment, and wearing it.

Bottom line: Christ willingly, graciously, and joyfully offers us His garment to enter into eternal life, but we have to chose to wear it.