Wear the Right Clothes

At the conclusion of the parable of the wedding banquet, a guest did not have on the right clothing and was thrown out. Why? A look at history helps. Guests at weddings of the time were expected to wear white. In the parable, couriers invited guests from the streets, indiscriminately. Yet, they still would have had time to go home, clean up and change into some appropriate clothing.

Even though someone had accepted the invitation, it still would have been an insult to show up smelly from a day’s work and wearing dirty clothing. The individual’s sloppy attitude is implied in the parable. And so the lesson for us is that we ought not to approach Christianity with a careless attitude either. Elsewhere we see that fine white clothing symbolizes righteous deeds. Even though salvation is a free invitation, we ought not to take it for granted by neglecting to produce fruit. Wear the right clothing. That’s what Jesus said.