The Parable of the Wedding Feast
Let’s start with a parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 22, saying
2 The kingdom of heaven is like And then note that His description of the Kingdom of Heaven is that He says is like . . . “unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son.” This is clearly a reference to the King being God and His Son being the Lord Jesus who was gathering His Bride or Church to make His own.
And (The King) sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden (the Jews – Yeshua’s own) to the wedding: and they would not come. 4 Again, he sent forth other servants, (Prophets and apostles) saying, Tell them which are invited, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. 5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: 6 And the remnant took his servants, (prophets and apostles) and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. 7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, (Roman Armies) and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. (Which occurred in 70AD) 8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were invited were not worthy. 9 Go ye (these who were SENT – which is the very definition of Apostles) Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, invite to the marriage. 10 So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
Invitation to All
Notice that all were invited from the highways, good and bad! And they filled the wedding with guests! HERE IS THE POINT I WANT TO MAKE remember, those originally invited and refused were slain. This is a picture for the 70AD destruction of Israel. Now everyone has been invited in, the good and the bad, right? This is Yeshua’s description of the wedding scene above ostensibly in the Kingdom or New Jerusalem.
11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: Again, this parable is describing the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, which is above, and in the parable the Nation before this event has been destroyed and then all are invited into the Kingdom – the good and the bad. Invited in where? Into His Kingdom! Where is the Kingdom? Above. It is the New JerusalemThe spiritual reality of God's fulfilled presence with humanity—replacing Sheol after 70 A.D. as opposed to the former or old. So, what is this wedding garment that was lacking in this particular man at the wedding in this parable?
Paul appeals to similar imagery when he instructs the believers in that day to put on Christ, saying to the Church/Bride in Romans 13:11-14
11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
He also adds in Galatians 3:27
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Referring to the Baptism Jesus brought which was of the Spirit.)
The Imagery of Garments
Then looking to 2nd Corinthians 5 we read from verse 1-4
1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
All of this imagery speaks to all human beings forevermore entering and remaining in the Kingdom only if they have been rightly and properly clothed. Yeshua says in Revelation 16:15
Living by the Spirit
“Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” The point? Because of Christ, the world has been cleansed of all the sins of the flesh. We have ostensibly and collectively been taken back to the Garden of Eden by the last Adam where we are free to choose to either live by our own will (flesh), or by the Spirit of Christ.
This caused Paul to write:
Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Then eight verses later,
Roman 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
The Parable of the Wedding
Back to the parable of the wedding where does Yeshua wind up? He says (beginning at verse 12)
12 And (so) He (the King) saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
When Paul said in Galatians 6:7 that every person on earth should pay attention, do you remember what he wrote? He said, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Heavenly Clothing
In this age of fulfillment what is every individual sowing to? I suggest that the lives we choose to live is going to somehow serve as our heavenly clothing, which might be seen as or is synonymous with the resurrected bodies we will all receive. Sow to the things of the Spirit and you will reap accordingly in the place where all there will be is spiritual bodies. Sow to the flesh, which only has application here and we might find ourselves like the man in the parable – speechless.
Of what, can we say that our heavenly apparel or our resurrected bodies will consist? Perhaps we could be so bold as to suggest that heavenly bodies are all created and crafted by Christ and our “outfits” each consist of what we allowed Him to do and be through us while mortal? We might even be able to suggest that our lives as believers consists of our choosing to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, which will be what clothe us in the hereafter. Of course, faith alone is the garment required for entrance, so no body that receives Him in faith will be naked and all will be received in the Kingdom by the King who did the clothing.
But there many houses in the Father’s mansion and many bodies of various resurrected glories according to Paul so the message seems to be – if you are yet to receive and believe in Christ, make the choice now. And if you have received and believed, look to Christ, and you will not ever be found naked.
