Proper 23 (Pentecost 20) October 15, 2023
DRESSING FOR THE OCCASION

Matt. 22:1-14

The chief priests and Pharisees were getting restless. Jesus was really
starting to get under their skin. He was relentlessly attacking the
righteousness they had worked so hard to achieve. In the two verses
which precede our text we read,
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they
knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest
him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that
he was a prophet.
The Pharisees knew without question that Jesus was talking about
them. They were the invited guests. They were Israel, God's chosen
people. Yet, Jesus was saying that because they refused to heed God's
invitation, they would be destroyed. The invitation would go out to others,
namely, the Gentiles. The verse following our text shows us the impact of
Jesus parable. "Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him
in his words." We can see why, can't we. Jesus' words cut deep, and
straight to the heart of their condition. But this isn't the only point Jesus is
making, nor are the chief priests and Pharisees the only people He's
addressing.
Once the hall is filled, the king notices a man without a wedding
garment. When the man is asked how he got in without one, he is
speechless. The king orders Him bound and thrown outside into the
darkness. This sounds rather frightening, doesn't it? Without the wedding
garment, we cannot enter heaven. Without the wedding garment, we are
destined to hell. Now Jesus begins to get under our skin, doesn't he? Are
you confident the king will accept you when He comes to see His guests?
Do you have the wedding garment required to get in? What is this
garment? How do we get it? Jesus doesn't say what the wedding garment

is in the parable. Scripture, however, plainly tells us in many places what
the required garment is. We read in Lev. 19:2 "Be holy, because I, the lord
your God am holy"; or Jesus' words in Matt. 5:48,

"Be perfect therefore, as

your heavenly father is perfect."
Our garment must be perfect righteousness to be in the presence of our
holy God. As our God is holy, so we must be holy. We must be in His
image, as Adam and Eve were before the fall into sin. We have a definite
problem here, don’t we? We are born with sin. For all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God. We are born with a garment made of filthy
rags, and we are unable to do anything about it.
No matter how hard we try, we cannot tailor the garment we need to
enter God's kingdom. Our righteous acts are like filthy menstrual rags, as
Isaiah so graphically describes them. We have only smelly rags, yet we
need to be dressed in robes reflecting the glory of the king. Because of our
sin, we were destined to be cast outside into the darkness. Our eternal
future was one of weeping and gnashing of teeth. In short, we were
destined to hell.
But God didn't leave us in our hopeless condition. By His grace, He
made the garment for us that we so desperately needed. He created our
robe of righteousness by sending His Son into the world to be our tailor.
Christ earned the righteousness needed to create our new attire. His
righteousness is perfect righteousness. This righteousness isn't an abstract
concept. This righteousness came through God himself becoming a man
with flesh and blood, walking, talking, eating, and drinking among us. He
lived in our world. He was confronted with temptation as we are. Yet, he
actively obeyed the law of God in His every action, His every thought, and
His every word. Every day that He lived for us, He added another stitch to
our sleeve, another button to our collar. Through His obedient life, He
tailored for us the perfect garment of righteousness.

He not only tailored our new garment, but He also removed our filthy
rags of sin as well. Removing our sinful rags was no easy task. God
demands that sin be punished, and the punishment He demands is death,
eternal death and separation from His presence. Sin cannot be
overlooked. It must be paid for. Christ paid the price when He took our
sin upon Himself and suffered our punishment on the cross. He died the
death we deserved to suffer. 2 Cor. 5:21 sums this up for us nicely. God
made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God.
Having had this garment tailored for us, how do we receive it and wear
it as our own? The king didn't merely ask the man if he knew where a
wedding garment was, he asked him why he wasn't wearing one. We
would expect the man to respond with a reason, but he had none. He was
speechless. For you see, it was customary for the king to provide his
guests with the appropriate attire. Especially having pulled his guest off
the streets, he would have needed to provide them with an appropriate
garment.
The garment was provided, yet the man refused to wear it. God also
provides our garment for us and makes it available to us through faith. We
read in Romans 3:22,

"This righteousness from God comes through
faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." We need to believe in order to
receive this righteousness, but again, because of sin, we aren't able. As we
confess in the explanation of the 3rd article in the Apostles Creed,

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in
Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him.

We're much like an infant lying in our crib with a diaper that needs
changing. We can't remove our dirty garment, nor can we put on the clean
one either. We're dependent on someone to do it for us. If left to our own
power, we would lie in our filth forever.

But the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened
me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.

Again, God comes to our rescue. Through the waters of Baptism, He
brings us to faith by the power of His Holy Spirit, and clothes us with the
righteousness of Christ. As we read in Gal. 3:27, for all of you who were
baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. The wedding
garment we so desperately needed was not only made for us, but it was
also placed on us as well. We now live in His kingdom by faith. This
faith which we've been given, however, is constantly under attack. We
still have the Old Adam within us who would have us discard this new
garment at the drop of a dime. We can't put it on, but we can reject it and
take it off. Like the man in the parable, we often feel we can clothe
ourselves and have no need of the garment the king has provided. We're
proud. We don't like to be told what to wear. We like to feel we're good
enough dressed the way we are. The devil and the world would have us
trade our new garment for another as well. "Clothe yourself in pleasure."
"Clothe yourself with power." "Clothe yourself with wealth and money."
"Clothe yourself with reason." "Did God really say you needed to be
perfect?" "Rely on yourself." "How can your trust someone you can't
even see?"
In the midst of all these temptations, how can we keep our wedding
garment on? Again, by ourselves we can't. We need the means of grace
God has provided for us. When we hear His Word and receive His Holy
Supper, God gives us the strength we need to resist temptation, remain in
the faith, and continue to wear the wedding garment we need so
desperately. He provides the means to keep our new wedding garment
buttoned and firmly secured on our back. He invites us to His Holy
Supper. He also invites us to read and hear His Holy Word. He doesn't,
however, force us to come. Our Old Adam would have us be like those on
the original guest list, ignoring God's invitation and going on with our
lives as though we don't need Him. But we do need Him, and we need
Him desperately. We need Him to earn and create our garment for us. We
need Him to create the faith through which we receive the garment of
Christ's righteousness. We need to means of grace whereby God preserves
and strengthens us in this faith to which we've been brought.
You see, we don't need to be afraid of our heavenly king. We need not
worry about whether we have a wedding garment. Our God so loves us
and wants us at His feast that He sees to it that we are clothed in the
righteousness He requires. May we, by the power of His Holy Spirit,
continue firm in the faith until that day when we see our king in the
heavenly banquet hall, welcoming us with open arms. Amen.

Sermon from 

Pastor Mark Griesse