Where’s Your Robe?

     This can sound like much ado about nothing.  A guest, invited late to the king’s marriage feast, enters without a wedding garment/robe.  And while this may seem like no big deal, the reaction of the king is over the top and seems way out of proportion.  So many things in this parable seem odd, strange, bizarre and violent.

First, it is odd and strange why ANYONE would come up with excuses for not attending a marriage feast given by the king!  No one in their right mind would make light of such an invitation.  The king then takes matters into his own hands, going out into the streets to invite one and all.  People can’t believe they got such an invite and came.  The banquet hall is full.  But one person does not wear a wedding garment and is asked by the king:  “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?”  As the parable unfolds, we learn that this is not simply “bad manners.”   It is more likely that one person didn’t think he needed a robe.  We come to find that this is actually an act of defiance.  The robe represents a confession that we make.  Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except though me.  There is not some other way, some other path or some other god.  This is a way of saying: You can’t wear your own robe.  It is Jesus only.  This is a confession of faith on which there is no compromise.  And with this, it follows that our righteous is NOT OUR OWN.  It is given by Christ alone.  The lack of a robe is a way of saying, I don’t need what you are offering, God.

In this parable we hear how both God’s judgment and grace converge.  As you “live with the Word” this week, be prepared for what your Lord has to declare to you!