(Matt. 22)
WHEN a great person invites to a feast in Eastern countries it is customary to send not only an invitation, but also a garment to those who are bidden; further, it is usual to send not only the invitation and the garment, but, just when the feast is ready, a messenger, saying, “Come, for all things are now ready,”
Should a king send the invitation to any of his subjects it would be almost the same as a command — contempt of the message would be contempt of the king, and disobedience would be regarded and treated as treason.
Men think but lightly of their offense in slighting the message of God to them. Not only is it written, “As though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5: 20), but it is also said, God “commandeth all men every where to repent.” (Acts 17:3030And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: (Acts 17:30).) To turn to the farm and to the merchandize, instead of heeding the divine invitation to joy, is a crime against the majesty of God.
The robe sent to the invited guest would be one just suited to the occasion. We read of garments kept in the royal wardrobe to be used for state occasions — garments which cannot be bought, but which belong to the king, and are bestowed by royal favor on such as are honored to stand before him. However fine or beautiful the clothes of the invited might be, the eye of the king would be satisfied with none other garment for his guests save that of his own providing.
So is it with God and the guests whom He in infinite condescension invites to partake of the joy of the feast in Honor of His Son. He sends out His invitation, and along with it what we may term the robe of perfect fitness, to appear before Him. The invitation comes to whom He pleases to send it. “Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.” It is to the Honor of the King that there should be guests at the feast; hence many are called.
The terms of the invitation include the reception of the robe. There is a story told of an English officer in India to whom an invitation came from a great ruler to be present at a marriage feast. The Englishman prepared to go, but as he was leaving his house, one of his Indian servants said to him, “Sahib, you have not on the wedding garment.” The officer at first did not understand, for he had not heard of such a robe being sent to him; indeed through the ignorance of his English servants it had been put aside. But enquiries were made, the garment was found, and attired in it the officer went to the feast. How often it is that a poor sinner, who receives God’s invitation, knows not that God sends not only the gracious call to come to Himself, but bestows on those who accept His word of love, perfect fitness to appear before Him. “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” (Col. 1:1212Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (Colossians 1:12).)
The servants of God should, like the officer’s native servant, know well what their God’s ways as to the invitation are. Never should an invitation be given without the perfection of God’s way of salvation being shown. A veteran in God’s service was telling us, the other day, how that, when God first awakened him to his need of salvation, he heard over and over again from godly ministers the invitation, “Come to Jesus — come to Jesus,” but so little of what God’s salvation really is, that he despaired in his soul of ever being saved: how to come he knew not. Now he most earnestly presses upon all the servants of God who go out into the highways and “bid to the marriage” to explain to their hearers what God’s salvation is; and we would echo the same wholesome truth, saying, “Remember the robe is sent with the invitation.”
When God, through His servants, invites a poor outcast to Himself — to the joys of heaven — to the everlasting feast and song above, He provides, not only the joys of the feast, but presents also perfect fitness for the invited to be present. In Christ all perfections abound. In Christ “we have redemption... the forgiveness of sins.” (Col. 1:44Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, (Colossians 1:4).) In Christ Jesus we Gentiles — we men and women of the highways, once far off — are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Eph. 2:1313But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13).) So that when a sinner truly believes he truly receives. He is by God accepted in the Beloved. (1:6.)
The best robe wherewith the prodigal was clad upon entering his father’s house marked at once the richness of the father’s glory in grace, and the fitness of the son to enter and to be at home in the house. He was welcomed outside the house when in his rags; he was brought into the house worthy of being his father’s son. The robe he wore came from his father’s wardrobe — it came not from the far country. So it is with the wedding garment — it is all of God’s handiwork. No human hand has woven its perfections — no human hand has added a stitch of broidery thereto. However we view the garments in which we may be attired in our daily lives — and some are, no doubt, very respectable compared with others — the fitness to be present before God depends solely upon His grace and the favor He bestows upon us in Christ.
How great was the indignity, yes, the insult, rendered to the king by the guest who accepted the invitation but rejected the robe! “And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?” The servants would not have dreamed of asking the man into the palace without leaving the robe for his attire. Was he like so many — oh, so many! — in these days of Christian profession, who speak gaily of going to heaven, yet who leave Christ out of their religion? who say they expect to dwell with God in the joy and the glory of His presence, yet who are content to fix their hopes on the future upon religion, morality, or simple good-nature! Did Christ the Son of God come then from heaven to earth for nothing? did He die upon the cross for no end? Oh, terrible will be the awakening of the vain, proud heart, which discovers, when too late, that to dream of a title to glory without Christ is but an insult to God, and an unpardonable crime against His eternal majesty!
At the king’s question the man was speechless. There was no excuse to render, he had despised the king’s gift, and had come into the king’s presence according to his own proud thoughts.
“Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” — taken away from the joy of the feast, and cast into the dungeon below, because of his pride in willfully rejecting the wedding garment.
The Lord says, “Many are called, but few are chosen;” and in our day, how true it is that many are called, for the very highways and the byways resound with the call; but too few who hear the call care to appropriate to themselves the wedding garment.