On the Way to the Dance-Floor

"Then the king said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is quite ready, but those who were invited were not good enough for it. So go off now to all the street corners and invite everyone you find there to the feast.’ So the servants went out on to the streets and collected together all those whom they found, bad and good alike. And the hall became filled with guests. But when the king came in to inspect the guests, he noticed among them a man not dressed for a wedding. ‘How did you come in here, my friend,’ he said to him, ‘without being properly dressed for the wedding?’ And the man had nothing to say. Then the king said to the ushers, ‘Tie him up and throw him into the darkness outside. There he can weep and regret his folly!’ For many are invited but few are chosen.” Matthew 22:8-14

Since you and I have already been "invited" to the Wedding Feast, and now are getting ready, standing in front of the mirror, combing our hair, checking our teeth, what are we meant to be wearing... today and everyday?

How about these:

Isaiah 61 – “he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness…”

1 Peter 5 – “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’

Ephesians 4 – “… be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Colossians 3 – “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…”

Oh, but how will we ever put on all of these things; how will we ever be properly clothed; how will we ever fit in at this wondrous Wedding Feast?!

Romans 13 – “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ…”

The reason that the king in the parable so immediately noticed the wrongly-dressed man was that he specifically wasn't "dressed for a wedding." The reason that this Christianity thing doesn't seem to be working, seems hard, seems burdensome, is because we haven't started by putting Jesus on. "Abide in me," He says, "and I in you." 

Friends, don't try to come to the Wedding Feast dressed as yourself: the only way through the door, the only way out onto the dance-floor, is in His likeness. The Father wants to see Jesus. He is the Bridegroom and the way for the Bride to get into the party.