Our household object for today is our ‘best clothes’ and the Bible passage is a parable about a wedding banquet (Matthew 22:2-14).
Most people wear their best clothes to a wedding, perhaps even buying a new outfit for the occasion. Dressing up is something many people enjoy. Our toddlers at the Parent & Toddler group at church enjoy the roleplay costumes we have bought, where they can pretend to be a princess or superhero. There’s something special about looking your best! The sparkling costumes on Strictly Come Dancing or the ballet costumes we see when we go to the theatre are other examples of clothes which thrill us and impress us.
We cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, however, just because we wear nice clothes. The Bible talks about God clothing us with ‘garments of salvation… and a robe of His righteousness.’ (Isaiah 61:10) We need the righteousness of Christ in order to stand before God. Paul tells us ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ (2 Corinthians 5:21) Easter reminds us that we must clothe ourselves in humility and gratitude and receive Christ’s righteousness instead of relying on our own.
