Are you without a Wedding Garment?

When we read verse 10, “So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests,” about the calling of the bad and good, we get the impression that all are called, and this is true. But it is also true that though all are called to this glorious salvation and the life of yieldedness and faith, yet the universality of the call, the fact that whosoever will may come, does not alter in the least the truth, that the requirements are definite and inflexible.

So many seem to feel, that because the call goes to the many and that salvation is free, that the plan of God is a rubber band kind of business that takes in everyone no matter what their condition of mind and submission. And though in the beginning this is true, still the time comes in each of the ones who are called, that they who have answered the call—and the call was a definite one—a call to do a certain thing, to come to a certain one. The trumpet in calling gave no uncertain sound. Those who come, come to Jesus because of the certain sound of a definite call.

Yet here is one who has answered the call and not fulfilled the definite requirement of having on a wedding garment. The others had them, we may be sure, and this man stood out in the guests. No need to ask which one lacked the garment, it was plain to be seen. He could have had one—the others had theirs—but he had somehow answered, entered the banquet hall and mingled with the others without a garment.

Things apparently went along very well until the king arrived. And then, immediately seeing this one without a garment, after questioning him, the king ordered him cast into outer darkness, just as one would be ejected from a brightly lighted hall into the darkness of the night outside. This would seem rather a severe punishment for what would seem to be only a sin of omission. Why did not the king simply advise the man to go to those who distributed the garments and get one and let matters stand, and after he had the garment, to allow him to remain? What kind of man was this who went so far without the required garment?

One lesson that this account teaches us is that disregarding the requirements laid down by the king is no light matter. Jesus did not simply say that those who came in by another way than the door were those who just had a different opinion, but that they were thieves and robbers. And we know that thieves and robbers are not dealt with just as people who simply would rather enter houses in other ways than by the doors. No, they are treated as what they are—the enemies of society, and their place is in jail.

This man, who had gone so far and was at last dealt with so severely, was quite likely a man who wanted his own way. He had had the opportunity of getting a garment as the others. Possibly he saw no need of it. Possibly he thought that the clothes he had were plenty good enough, and also that his own clothes or ideas were even better than those robes which were being required of the others. And he got by with it for quite a while.

This is the serious part of rejecting the requirements of the King and of thinking our ways and ideas are just as good. We get away with it so long. If judgment came immediately, there would not be so much danger. But one of the things that we must guard against is thinking that because we are apparently going along fine with our own ways and ideas, that we will get away with them. The more we seem to get away with it, the more startling the revelation, the more shocking the seeing that it is all wrong, and also the terrible risk of being cast out when it is too late to do anything about it.

This man could have had the garment. He possibly was offered one, and maybe was even urged to cover his own clothing with the wedding garment the king required. But he thought his was good enough and possibly stood up for it, until the time for garments was over. And he had to stand before the king without one, and we see what happened to him.

Let us take warning. Possibly many things come before us that seem like something just as good as obedience, some inviting place in the wall or some lower, open, window through which we may climb instead of meeting the requirements to go through the door. But such are the ways of men, the end whereof are the ways of death. What God requires of one in many ways, He requires of others, let us beware of refusing the garment because it may not seem just the thing to us. The entering through the door requires submission.

There are many today who are running up and down and around the walls looking for a low place to jump over or a window to get through, who, even if they were to find entrance, with be dealt with as thieves and robbers. Also, many are pressing and brushing up their own coverings or clothes. But without the wedding garment, one end awaits them—outer darkness. Let us beware. Amen.