What's it like? What's it like? Well, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. The kingdom is like a wedding banquet. Now, I've been to a lot of weddings. Went to one chapel on a college campus and there were a few people scattered here and there in an old stone church with no air conditioning in the middle of July. People packed tight. I've been to weddings in barns and stables, cornfields. I've heard stories of brides not showing up or the groom. But I've yet to see a wedding that looked like the kingdom of heaven. Certainly, never been to one where the guests refused to come. I mean, the king was furious, and I can't blame him. If it's like most of the weddings I've seen, he had a lot invested. A caterer, a reception, musicians, a priest, florist, invitations. So, he sent more servants to go out and invite more people. "Look, we've got the best calf. Come on." And they still refused to come. Now. they had their excuses. They had good ones. One had to go plow his field. One had to tend to business. Finally, the king sends them into the street corners to invite anybody they could find, invites everybody. Now, that's not my focus today, but there would be a good message in that. Allow me to pause right here and point out that this is kind of just like another parable that you may remember, where God is the king and Jesus is the son. And He prepared a wedding banquet for the Jews and He sent prophets, and they refused to come. So, what does God do in that parable? He invites everybody, not just the Jews, good and bad. That's good news for us. It means that you and I are invited. But there's one catch. We have to RSVP. And then we have to show up. Not only attend, but as we'll find out right here, proper attire is required. So back to our story. The wedding hall is filled. It's teeming with people of all kinds. The king comes in, he views the gala, and he sees one person that's not wearing wedding clothes. And he asks the startling question, "How'd you get in here without a wedding garment?" He doesn't ask who invited you or who let you in. He's focused on what the guy's wearing. And he has him thrown out into the darkness. And what Matthew means here is he has him cast into hell.

Now, I went to a wedding once where the in-laws were obnoxious. They made fun of my suit - and it was a good-looking seersucker, by the way - but they didn't throw me out. Is God a snob? Just because the poor guy didn't have the right clothes, he throws him out? Okay. Stop for a second, and travel with me to Revelation Chapter 19 that describes the last days. Right before the final judgment, the New Jerusalem, the end is approaching. A glorious wedding is about to occur. Jesus' official wedding to His church. It's about to happen at any moment, and the angels cry out and rejoice, "Be glad. Give Him glory. The wedding of the Lamb has come. The bride has made herself ready. Fine linen bright and clean has been given to her to wear." Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. In other words, what we wear to the wedding banquet is the sum total of what we've done with our lives. Oh. Some of us may need to go by the dry cleaners. And some of us may actually need a new set of clothes altogether, huh? But what Jesus is getting at in this parable is we wear the clothes of our acts and deeds for everyone to see.

So, think about it. All those little holy moments in your life add up into something beautiful and wondrous. And when the wedding invitation says the right attire is expected, that actually means it's your righteous conduct. The sum accumulation of your holy moments, the conduct becoming of a child of God, someone who calls themselves a follower of Jesus. So, when God throws the man out, it shows that everyone is invited, but not everyone's accepted. Only those who wear the clothing of righteousness. Accepting the invitation is important, but Christianity involves a change of life. A life that bears fruit. To love God, to serve God, to love neighbor, and serve neighbor. 

God slowly transforms our earthly clothing into heavenly wedding attire. God's grace, mercy, and love envelops us and changes our overalls and seersuckers. And how we act makes all the difference in the world. In other words, a cup of cold water can mean the difference between heaven and hell. Now I don't know about you, but when Jesus marries His church once and for all, I want to be there. I'd like to see you and me able to model the clothing of righteousness for all the world to see. It doesn't mean our clothing will be pretty. In fact, it may well be quite stained, may be ragged, tattered, a little shrunken. But remember in the gospel of Matthew, as they finished mocking Jesus at the cross, they took the robe off of Him and placed His own clothing back on Him to lead Him on the road to the cross. Probably so He wouldn't get their robes stained with blood as He carried the cross. But you and I, we want Jesus' blood on our clothes because when Jesus' blood touches our sin-stained earthly garments, they become whiter than snow. And that means that they are perfect clothes to wear to a wedding.