At The Cross: The Tunic John 19:23-24


How many of you have made plans to go to an event or activity, possibly one that you have never been to before, and you call around to friends or family that are going to be there and ask, “What are you wearing” or “What should I wear”?  Why do we do this?  It is because we don’t want to show up at whatever the event is dressed inappropriately.  We don’t want to show up in a t-shirt and shorts when everyone else is going to be wearing formal wear, and y’all know me, I don’t want to show up in a suit and tie, if everyone else is going to be wearing casual shirts and jeans.
Jesus tells a story about being dressed appropriately:
“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’"[i]
I always used to think this passage was extremely harsh on that man.  I mean consider the breakdown of the story.  The king had originally invited all “his people” …you know, his friends, family, and, most likely, the noble and elite of the region.  Yet all of them had indicated, for one reason or another, they indicated that they would not be coming…some of them even taking the opportunity to beat up on and murder the king’s servants.  The King exacts vengeance on those who had murdered his servants and, determined to have the party to celebrate his son’s wedding, sends out additional servants into the streets, to bring in whoever they can find…even from the edge of town, those living “on the other side of the tracks.”  The servants gather them all and compel them to come to the wedding feast.  The servants obey the king and gather everyone they can find and tell them to come to the party—without regard to who they are, ignoring their status, ignoring whether they were good or evil, they just brought them all in to the party.—they were the poor, the sick, the lame…the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and all those other sinners.  A few Samaritans might even have been brought in to help celebrate.
Things are going great, the party is rocking.  Folks are eating, drinking, maybe doing some dancing….I mean you and I have been to all kinds of wedding parties and now how extravagant some of them are…and this party was being thrown by the king.  So this amazing party is being held and the king walks in to see what is going and to his shock and disgust there is someone at the party who is not wearing a wedding outfit.  Infuriated, he has the guy cuffed and tossed out into the darkness…alone…because everyone else is at the party.
You’ve got to be kidding me!  How unfair is that?  Here this guy started off his day with no anticipation or thought that he might be going to a wedding party.  He was out walking the streets minding his own business when these men came up to him and informed him that the king was expecting him at the wedding banquet.  He protested, saying that he wasn’t prepared…he hadn’t bought a gift…he had other plans…he was trying to take care of his wife’s honey-do list, suggesting they ought to know what that was like.  Then they informed him it wan’t really an invite they were offering…it was more like a command performance.  So he goes…wearing the work clothes he had been in.  He’s there at the party trying to enjoy himself…the wine was good…the food a little on the dry side, but a few more glasses of wine and that wouldn’t matter.  Then the king walks in and singles him out, criticizes that he is underdressed and has him tossed from the party and told never to show his face around the palace again.  I mean, what was he supposed to do…that’s just not right.  How many of you are with me on this?
Now that I have you with me, I invite you to do what I had to stop and do.  Hold the outrage in check and step back.  Look at the scene again.  The banquet hall is packed.  Everyone has been brought in off the streets to the party.  This one man does not have on wedding clothes.  We’ve already covered that, right?  Think again.  Everyone has been brought of the streets…this one man does not have on wedding clothes.  Let it sink in….. All those other folks were in the same boat as this one man…they were brought in off the street, all were invited in, none of them would have been walking around with wedding clothes thinking they were going to party…the list was set…and they were not part of that class…and yet they found themselves at the wedding…and were dressed for the party.
To me, that only leaves one viable option…the king had provided wedding clothes for each of them.  He wanted them at the party.  He wanted them dressed for the party.  He provided them clothes for the party.  And yet, for some reason this man chose not to put on the clothes.  Was it arrogance?  Was it thinking it really didn’t matter?  Did he have a problem with the king?  Did he think he would have time to change later?  We don’t know…we just know he wasn’t dressed right while everyone else was…and he got tossed from the party.  And just maybe it was not the king being unfair, maybe it was truly the man’s fault.
So what does all this have to do with the verses that we read as our Scripture for this morning?  Why didn’t I just have our liturgist read the Matthew passage rather than the two verses from John?  It is because we are looking at the gifts that we find as Jesus travels from judgment to crucifixion, and the tunic of Jesus reminds us of this gift.
As Jesus’ tunic is stripped from him, Jesus is left naked and exposed, all dignity and honor have been visibly removed from him. Stripping Jesus of his tunic would be like having someone’s underwear removed from them in public today.  He was left in the nature of Adam and Eve, naked and ashamed of their sin…and while Christ was perfect and without sin, as he surrendered Himself to the act of crucifixion, His clothes were removed from him, and he was clothed with our sin.  It was the final act of Christ stripping off His Heavenly Garments and taking our our sin-stained selves.
Why?  So that we might be properly dressed for the wedding!  Over and over again through Scripture, the relationship of God to His people is that of a husband and his bride…and in Revelation we see the culmination of God’s restoration of Creation that of the wedding banquet of Christ and His Church.  It will be a Celebration like no other celebration…a feast and party prepared by the King of kings in which He invites all to come.
Yet Jesus’ parable reminds us that we must dress for the wedding.  When the King looks down upon the party, we best be wearing the right clothes.  What are they?  Where can we find them?  They are not in our closet or in our drawers and we will never find them in any stores or online.
The King has invited us and He gives us what we are to wear…and we find it on the cross.  As Jesus is stripped of His tunic to take on our sin…He offers us His clothes to wear.  Not the tunic, but His righteousness.  He trades outfits with us…He puts on our sin and offers us His sinlessness…He puts on our filth and offers His righteousness.
Paul writes, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.”[ii]. In our baptism we realize that God’s grace has moved in our lives and revealed to us that we are in need of a Savior.  We realize that there is nothing that we can do to save ourselves, and so we surrender ourselves to the Salvation that Christ enfleshes for us on the cross.  In surrendering to Christ, we allow Christ to dress us, and in the case of baptizing our children, we surrender them to His throne as well, and welcome Christ’s desire to dress us in His Righteousness.  We admit that we don’t have anything to wear, and accept what the King offers, cherishing the precious gift.  Christ was stripped of his tunic, probably caked with his blood and sweat, that we might find ourselves able to put on the white robes of victory when we stand before the throne, clothed not in our own sin, but in the righteousness of Christ.  In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…Amen.






[i] Matthew 22:1-13
[ii] Galatians 3:27

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