"Dressed for Success" August 22 Readings: Matthew 21:28-22:14, Mark 12:1-12, Luke 20:9-18

Today's Reading -  Matthew 21:28-22:14, Mark 12:1-12, Luke 20:9-18

Background

Jesus returns to his parable-telling ways, these ones not nearly as mysterious as some of the previous ones. Matthew records three parables in our reading today, each one designed to insult the Pharisees and religious leaders who were following him and trying to trap him. Jesus didn't back down, didn't try to curry favor. He trained his verbal guns at them with full force and they understood exactly what he was saying. Mark and Luke repeat only one of the parables.

Matthew first told a parable about two sons. The first son refuses to obey his father but changes his mind and submits to his will. The other assures his father of his intent to obey but does not follow through. Jesus pointed out that it took more than just talking a good game to be a true servant of God. 

He then spoke of a master who left his servants to tend his house. The tenants beat them and killed them. Finally, he sent his son to them and they killed him as well. 

The final parable concerned the guests invited to a wedding feast. Again, the parable had to do with those who were called; invited to the feast but who refused to come. 

The religious leaders were clear about what Jesus meant here. He spoke of them. They were those who talked of following God but didn't live it. They mistreated the servants of God and now his Son. Though they had been invited to the feast they were not attending. They understood what Jesus was saying and it infuriated them. 

Devotional - Dressed for Success

"Dress for the job you want." 

There is all kinds of advice for people about the importance of buying and wearing the right kind of clothing. I'm not sure how important it really is, but there are certainly those who place a high value on looks, fashion, and clothing. 

In the third of the parables that Jesus told in Matthew 21 and 22, there is a strange addendum at that end about clothing. Jesus was skewering the attitudes and actions of the Pharisees and religious leaders, telling a parable about a wedding feast and the guests invited there. At the end of that story, having made his main point, he then spoke of a man who showed up at the wedding feast in the wrong clothing. Look at Matthew 22:12. 

And he said to him, "Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?" 

This man got into the wedding feast but he wasn't ready to be there. He wasn't properly dressed. Unfortunately, the church is full every week of people who are improperly dressed for the feast Jesus has prepared. They come clothed in their own works or in their religious rituals and find their garments are too shabby - not brilliant or beautiful enough for the great feast of Christ. There is only one garment that is sufficient for anyone to enter that feast. Only those clothed in the righteousness of Christ may enter. Anyone who attempts to enter in any other garment will find himself cast into outer darkness. 

But praise God, through what Christ did for us, sinners such as we are can be clothed in white robes of righteousness, clean and pure! We are not only invited to the wedding feast but made fit to be there by the work of Christ. 

Father, I thank you for your work of grace, making me fit for an eternal feast of glory. 

Think and Pray

Spend time today thanking God for his grace and saving power, which not only invited us to God's heaven but also made us fit for eternity!

Think on it, meditate on it, and give God praise!