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PREPARING OUR GARMENTS...

 

Matthew 22: 8-14 “Then He told His servants, ‘We have a wedding banquet all prepared but no guest. The ones I invited weren’t up to it. Go out into the busiest intersections in town and invite anyone you find to the banquet.’ The servants went out on the streets and rounded up everyone they laid eyes on, good and bad, regardless. And so the banquet was on—every place filled.

11-13 “When the king entered and looked over the scene, he spotted a man who wasn’t properly dressed. He said to him, ‘Friend, how dare you come in here looking like that!’ The man was speechless. Then the king told his servants, ‘Get him out of here—fast. Tie him up and ship him to hell. And make sure he doesn’t get back in.’

14 “That’s what I mean when I say, ‘Many get invited; only a few make it.’”

The first time I read this story I thought “aww but why did the King do that?! what if the man didn’t have money to buy new clothes or make nice clothes to come for the wedding,” until I looked at it closely. If President Buhari invited a homeless beggar on the streets of Lagos to come and dine with him and his friends at the Aso Rock, what do you think that beggar should do. The fact that he got the invitation in the first place is a miracle because he knows his life will never be the same again after the dinner, so he should do whatever it takes to have a bath that day, shave maybe, look for clean and presentable clothes to wear, even if he has to borrow from someone. Just imagine if he goes for the dinner just like that, no bath, and with his usual, smelly, filthy clothes. The security will stop him at the gate, rough him up, before they eventually let him in, that is if they do, maybe because he has an invite, but when he gets in he would feel out of place in a clean house, clean environment, with clean people, they will even give him great social distancing, even the President that invited him will be worried and sad.

Zechariah 3:3 ‘Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the Angel. Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him saying “Take away the filthy garments from him”. And He said, “See I have removed your iniquity from you and I will clothe you with rich robes.”    Joshua was covered in iniquity, sin represents filthy garments in our lives.

In the parable we read the man was not necessarily clothed in filthy garments, but he was dressed inappropriately for the wedding. I read in an article that men are not allowed to wear shorts to a Jewish wedding so perhaps this man was wearing shorts perhaps with a sleeveless top. In both cases these men were unprepared. This is how a lot of people look in the spiritual realm, when the King of Kings looks at them all he sees is a filthy garment or inappropriate clothing, so it doesn’t matter if we are putting on Gucci, Prada or slaying in our physical appearance our real state is how we look like in the spiritual realm before God.

If we appear to God looking like that beggar who was filthy or the man dressed inappropriately for the wedding, God will cast us out into hell, but this will not be our portion in Jesus name. Amen

How are we preparing to dine with the King? How are we preparing to attend the King’s son’s wedding? What type of garment will we be wearing? Will it be appropriate or inappropriate? This is what life is all about, life is all about that preparation. Whatever we are doing with our lives now will translate to how we are preparing to meet the King. If we are wise, we will put on clean and appropriate garments. The first step to wearing clean and appropriate garment to meet with the King is genuine repentance to God, we need to surrender our lives completely to God.  

President Joseph F Smith defined true repentance so well he stated ‘True repentance is not only sorrow for sins and humble penitence and contrition before God, but it involves the necessity of turning away from them, a discontinuance of all evil practices and deeds, a thorough reformation of life, a vital change from evil to good, from vice to virtue, from darkness to light. Not only so, but to make restitution so far as is possible for all the wrongs that we have done, to pay our debts and restore to God and man their rights, that which is due them from us.

For those who are yet to surrender their lives to Jesus. The time is Now. Please pray this prayer; Father Lord I repent of my sins, come into my heart and be my Lord and Saviour in Jesus name. Amen.! 


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