Episode 103: The Wedding Feast Garment

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit, forever Amen. Glory be to the everlasting

mercies which sent you to us, O Christ, the light of the world

and the life of all. Give us wisdom by your law and

enlighten our impulses by Your knowledge.

Sanctify our souls by Your truth and grant that we may be

obedient to Your words and may fulfil Your commandments at

every hour. O You who enlightens the

rational with the knowledge of Your greatness, do enlight, O my

Lord, our thoughts, that we may meditate upon Your holy and

divine Scriptures at all times. O Lord of all, Father and Son

and Holy Spirit, forever. Amen.

When receiving a wedding invitation, we all do the famous

Assyrians weddings, especially the the outpour after the Great

Lent. There are generally 2 reactions.

It's oh wow, how nice or it's it's Oh no, not another one.

And we start thinking dollar signs right?

But when we Reebonde or is it the Reebonde silver play?

It's French for please respond when we Reebond.

It's then clothed shopping time, you know, especially my dear

sisters, not content with the 105 that were, you know, dresses

we have in the in the wardrobe or the closet.

We go out and we go clothes shopping, shoes shopping because

we have a wedding coming up. But As for men, a new tie or a

shirt basically does it right? Convenient contentment.

I think contentment and convenience came about when men

was created, right? But that's not going to be our

discussion today. We're going to have a look at a

wedding feast. In the Holy Scriptures, Jesus

tells a parable or a story of a wedding feast.

And in this wedding feast, there is one guest who's not properly

attired. He did not have he did not have

on wedding clothes. And this is in Matthew chapter

Matthew 22:11–14

22 verses 11 to 14. And here, unlike Luke chapter 14

Luke 14:15–35

verses 15 to 35, which is another story of the wedding

feast in Matthew, the the marriage feast or the wedding

feast and the IT represents the church, the church as at the

present time, as opposed to Luke in chapter 14, which is the end

time wedding feast. Let me read it to you.

And Jesus answered again, and this is Matthew chapter 22

Matthew 22:11–14

verses 11 to 14. And Jesus answered again by

parables and said, the Kingdom of heaven is like a king who

gave a marriage feast for his Son, and he sent his servants to

call those who are invited to the marriage feast, but they

would not come again. He sent other servants and said,

tell those who are invited, behold, my supper is ready,

that's the Holy Eucharist, My supper is ready, and my oxen and

fattened are killed as Christ himself and everything is

prepared. Come to the marriage feast, come

to church on Sundays basically. But they sneered at it and went

away, one to his field and other to his business, and the rest

seized his servants and mocked them and killed them.

When the king heard. When the king heard it, he was

angry, and he sent out his armies and destroyed those

murderers and burnt their city. Then he said to his servants,

Now the marriage feast is ready, and those who are invited were

unworthy. Go therefore to the main roads,

the crossroads. Go therefore to the main roads,

and whomever you may find, invite them to the marriage

feast. So the servants went out to the

roads and gathered together everyone they could find, bad

and good. And the banqueting house was

filled with guests. So everyone was invited to the

church. When the king entered to see the

guests, he saw there a man who was not wearing wedding

garments. And he said to him, my friend,

how did you enter here when you do not have wedding garments?

And I love this. He was speechless.

He couldn't say anything. Then the king said to the

servants, bind his hands and his feet and take him out Into

Darkness. There shall be weeping and

gnashing of teeth. Let's stop.

Oh, for many are called and a few are chosen.

So basically, that's the story behind what we're going to speak

about today. Again, this is the present

church we're talking about. And in Luke chapter 14, verses

Luke 14:15–35

15 to 35, if you want to read it, there is a dinner

representing the final and eternal banquet.

Two things that catch my mind and we will discuss amongst

others is #1 the wedding clothes.

What are these wedding clothes and the speechlessness of the

guest. What is meant by the wedding

garments? If we say it's baptism or faith?

The question is, is there anyone who can enter the marriage feast

without them? Can anyone be a member of the

flock of the church without believing and being baptized?

You know a person is outside of the church because he or she has

not come to believe in Jesus Christ and to be baptized in the

name of the Holy Trinity, which is also referred to as the

baptism of Jesus Christ. In Mark chapter 16 verse 16 we

Mark 16:16

read whoever believes and is baptized has life and whoever

does not believe is condemned. Galatians chapter 3 verses 26 to

Galatians 3:26–27

27. Saint Paul writes For you are

all children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.

For those who have been baptized in the name of Christ have been

clothed with Christ, there is neither Jew nor Armian, there is

neither a slave nor free, there is neither a male nor female.

For you are all one in Jesus Christ.

So if you belong to Christ, then you are descendants of Abraham

and his heirs according to his promise.

So we can't say it's talking about baptism or faith, because

this guest would not be in the wedding feast in the church.

What then must we understand by the wedding garment?

What can it be, except one of the Father's rights is love?

You see, the guest enters the marriage feast, but without

wearing a wedding garment, though one may be present in the

Holy Church. He may have faith, he may be

baptized, but he does not have love.

That's what Christ is talking about.

Why love? Why not other things?

Why is it that the the garment is likened to love or signifying

love? Because that is what our Creator

himself possessed when He came to the marriage feast.

You know Christ came down. Christ came down from heaven.

The Father had a bride prepared for the bridegroom, and the

bride was a dreadful, stinking, stenchful bride, which was us.

And he took that bride, as Saint Paul writes in Ephesians, He

took that pride. He took the church and he

cleansed it. He washed it with his blood and

he made it clean. See, there is a marriage feast

there. And what, what drove Jesus to

come down? What drove God, the Word, God

Incarnate, to take flesh and come down and take the church

for himself. But love, you see, there's only

God's love that brought it about, that His Son, His only

begotten Son, united the hearts of His chosen to Himself, His

chosen, which are in His church. John says that God so loved the

world that He gave His only begotten Son for us.

God so loved the world that He betrothed us to His Son, His or

our heavenly Bridegroom, and we being the Church, the bride.

So being in the Church, beloved, entails not only faith and

baptism and donation and being committed and helping in the

church and etcetera, but most importantly, love.

See, there are many in the church.

There may be many in the church again believing, baptized,

helping, donating, you know, aren't giving but lacking love.

And that's the garment that Christ is looking for within his

church. John chapter 13 verse 35, Jesus

John 13:35

says to his disciples and remember we are the disciples of

the disciples of Jesus Christ. Jesus disciplined his disciples.

He taught his disciples, he empowered them with knowledge

and they went out into the four regions of the world and

empowered us who are their disciples.

So John chapter 13 verse 35 is not only to the direct disciples

John 13:35

of Jesus Christ, but also to us who are the disciples of the

disciples of Jesus Christ, which makes us immediately or directly

also the disciples of Christ because we adhere to his

teaching and his discipline. He says by this they will know

that you are my disciples, that you love one another.

So the garment, the most important garment, and Paul

talks about this in one Corinthians 13, the most

important garment is not just faith and obedience.

The greatest is love because when there is love for God,

beloved, remember we spoke about this in one of the episodes when

we spoke about why we pray. It's not just entering the

presence of the Lord. It's not just speaking with the

Lord, communicating with the Lord, having time for ourselves

with the Lord, but when we pray to the Lord, it's that we love

the Lord and we want to speak to the Lord out of our love to the

Lord. So love is the garment, beloved.

Now in verse 22, we read that it was the master of the house that

came to the wedding feast and looked at the guests and he

examined the guests. So it wasn't the servants.

The servants let anyone in, right?

Who are the servants, beloved? The servants are the church

leaders. The servants are the stewards in

the church. You know, we are posed many

questions and one of them is Robbie.

Do you think that all those people that come to church are

worthy? Do you think that all those

people who come to church, who are in the church, are holy and

pleasing, are all good people? And our reply is no, of course

not. Me, the first of the worst, the

first of the worst. That's why I attend church.

Yes, I have an obligation as a priest and my brother priests

have the obligation to serve the altar to be the soul of Jesus

Christ. But hey, I'm also there.

The priest is also at the altar kneeling with a silent prayers

and beating his breast or beating his forehead and saying

me also, Oh my Lord, me also, Oh my Lord, I also, Oh my Lord, who

are wicked and are not worthy to be standing at this place.

Yes, those who attend May not be worthy, may not have the the

right, the meet, wedding, feast, clothing, but that's not yours.

And I beloved, that's not yours and mine to judge.

Now, though, the servants again being the Church through her

authority vested by Christ through the Holy Spirit, through

her canons and laws and liturgy, when the Church knows that there

is one guest in the Church that is not equipped with the wedding

feast clothing, which is love, what we're talking about knows

that there is a discrepancy. Well, then the Church by the

authority vested to her through Jesus Christ has the authority

to reprimand and to apprehend. But we don't stand at the door

and make sure that every person has love in their hearts.

We don't stand at the door and make sure that every person the

night before coming to church and to draw knee to the the the

Holy mysteries and to celebrate and honor Jesus Christ through

the mysteries have are befitting.

We don't do that. We allow that to the master of

the feast. But again, in the event when we

know that there is a person that is a guest of the church or a

member of the flock of the church who is living a life

contrary to the commandments and the holiness that God has called

us to, yes, the church has the authority to reprimand and to

apprehend. So now we know the the clothing,

the wedding clothes, we are likening, likening it to love,

and we know that it is the Master who will examine the

clothes. We can't read hearts.

We are not examiners of hearts and minds, No, God is.

Then the second point we read is that when the Master comes and

looks at all the guests, he didn't come and have a vendetta

against one guest. No, no, no.

He looks at all the guests and he finds one that does not have

the right wedding clothes. And look at what he says.

And he said to him, my friend didn't call him my son, he calls

him my friend. How did you enter here?

How is it that the servants couldn't see?

How is it that you have made it here?

How is it that you can be here and not be properly attired?

How can we be a part of a church which is the body of Christ,

which is the Bride of our Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ,

the heavenly Bridegroom? How can we claim to be a members

of this holy body but not be possessed in love?

How can we stand in a feast of love offering, in a feast where

the love of God is continuously echoed through the liturgy,

through the prayers, when we stand before the Lord and we

say, Oh Lord, I am not worthy, In truth, Oh my Lord, I am not

worthy. We stand before the Lord and

five times we say, Lord, absolve the sins and transgressions of

your servants. Five times we stand before the

Lord and we proclaim and we confess that we are sinners and

we are beseeching, pleading your gracious gift of forgiveness

which came through your love. We ask for that love, but then

that love is not within us. We're not attired with love.

It's just just like when Jesus says if you ask God to forgive

your sins, let me paraphrase it. And you haven't forgiven the

sins of your brother. Well, don't expect God to

forgive your sins. He was speechless of 'cause you

know, many people think we'll be standing before the, before the,

the, the, the, the gracious and well, the, the righteous

tribunal and judgment seat of the Lord.

And there's going to be conversation.

There's going to be going back. Yes, Lord, but if Lord, but no

Lord, but This is why Lord, you know, we're going to have our,

our prosecutor and our defense and we're going to present our

case. They're going to fight for our

case before the no, we will be speechless.

Speechless. You know why he was speechless?

Because the one who posed the question to him, the Master who

is Jesus Christ, is one who the servant could not give a

deception, a deceitful reply. How would he justify?

How could he justify beloved? How can we justify when there is

no love in our hearts, when we are not vested with the garment

of love as members of this wedding feast, which is the

church now, love, I don't want to go too much into that.

We need to really have a look at love according to one

Corinthians 13. Remember, love is not lovey

dovey love. It's not one of those fake

loves. Love must be genuine.

Love must be must possess the quality to the point where you

can rebuke someone. You can rebuke a brother and a

sister in love. Love must possess that quality

where you receive a lobby, loving, admonishment and

rebuking. This is the love that we need to

be possessing. Love for those who are suffering

love, compassion, kindness, mercifulness to those who have

heard, who have caused us heartaches and problems.

Love for those who beseech for love.

That is the garment that we need to be dressed with.

Beloved, when we are in the wedding feast in the Church, we

must possess this garment. You see, Saint Paul writes in

three Galatians for those who have been baptized, they have

been clothed with Christ. Christ is love.

Christ is love, praise and glory to his name.

So if I've been clothed with love, clothed with Christ, I

must be clothed with love. But sometimes, when we take our

sight of Christ, when we. When we want our own answers, we

want our own way of dealing with issues and circumstances and

problems, then we give away Christ.

We look away from Christ. Then we've looked away from love

as well. You cannot, we cannot deceive

Christ. Beloved, you could be at church

on a Sunday. You could be wearing your

headscarf, kneeling before the Lord, beasting, beating on the

breast, and it could be seen by others as how humble and how

loving and how you know how obedient you are to the Lord.

But there may be no love in our hearts.

That happens when we exit the church and we see someone who in

high school we had a beef with because she took away my

boyfriend or, or she's been texting.

She, she was being unfaithful to me and and she's hurt me or him

or her by the way, and we turn our backs on them and walk out.

Well then, today we learn that Christ is telling you and I that

you're not clothed with the proper garment to be in the

church. Now I'm not saying go away and

leave. No, we need to change those

garments. We need to walk away, get

changed and come back to the flock as well.

Because look at what the Master did, beloved.

But before we go there, before we go there, we cannot deceive

Christ. We cannot deceive Christ.

We cannot deceive the Holy Spirit.

We cannot deceive the church doctrines and the canons and the

liturgy and the Holy Scriptures. We cannot deceive.

We will be seen, we will be purged, and we are purged.

Each time we are at church. The Holy Spirit isn't, is

present. Christ is present through the

Word, through the Spirit, through the Eucharist.

God is there searching our hearts again.

We have been invited. We are a part of that Bridegroom

through our faith and baptism. But are we attired

appropriately? What can we say to justify our

lovelessness? What can we say to Christ to

justify our unrighteousness? What can we say?

What excuse can we give for our unholiness, Immorality.

Nothing. We will have to be speechless.

The only thing we can do is you know we do that with my lips are

sealed. Allow me to change my garments.

Help me to change my garments and this and the master commands

the servants bind his hands and his feet meaning putting in

check. See, we are put in check

beloved, when our garments are not appropriate for the church,

when we lack love, compassion, mercifulness, we are held

accountable. See, the accountability that we

have been held by is the same as being bound.

What we need to do is we need to again change those garments

because we are held accountable according to the parable and the

art outer darkness that Jesus or the Master is commanding his

servants to take out that guest, one of the Father's writes very,

very nicely. The outer darkness speaks of

those things far removed from divine virtue and glory.

When there is no love in our hearts, we have forfeited

ourselves from divine virtues. So being a guest in the Church,

the Bride, the body of Christ, and we are properly attired with

love, righteousness, morality, etcetera, then we will not be

bound by the contrary to what I just said.

We will not be bound and we will not be forfeiting the glory and

the virtues, because the good virtues come from the

overflowing of love that is in our hearts #1 for God, for

others, and for self as well. And when we possess the correct

wedding feast garments and the Master Christ who is always

purging and examining, then we will be approved.

And if we remain, then we will go to the other wedding feast in

Luke chapter 14, which is the end time feast.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Then we will be reclining as the Lord says, and He will serve us.

And what more do we want as service than to be in the

presence of the Lord in eternity?

Praise and glory be to His holy name now and at all times and

forever. Amen.

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