THE BRIDAL GARMENT – JESUS CHRIST
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: “Die Bruilofskleed – JESUS CHRISTUS”
Translator: Robin Barker
“Is there a difference between "bride" and "wedding guests"? Explain to me through the Word of God, the difference between “bride” and “wedding guests”. Please quote for me the necessary texts, as well as the necessary references if possible.”
I will now share with you how I understand the bridal meal and wedding guests and the events surrounding it, but first quickly the following:
The Word is full of verses where Jesus is spoken of as the Bridegroom.
So – who the Bridegroom is – is very clear.
About the bride I quote just the following and I want to just mention that, according to how I understand the Word, everyone who has truly accepted Jesus Christ as their Redeemer and Saviour, are collectively part of His bride.
We are, as the Word explains it, everyone are parts of the same body and like a bride and her bridegroom becomes one, therefore Christ and His bride are also one – and I give you one example thereof:
ROMANS 12:5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
John says the following about Jesus:
JOHN 3:29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.
Come let us quickly read the section which the person asked the question about:
MATTHEW 22:1-14
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business.
6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.
9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’
10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
From MAT 22:1 until MAT 22:8 Jesus deals, as I see it, with the Jews who never wanted to completely/fully serve our Lord the way He wanted them to serve Him. They wanted, in the times they did actually served Him, most of the time also did not accept His authority over them, the way He wanted them to do. The manner in which they served Him, just became too much for our Lord – just like the king in the parable – when they would not, even though their Messiah stood in front of them, and despite the prophecies, accept Him:
JOHN 1:11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
The following from the Word can also be applied to the Jews:
JOHN 3:19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Then, 70 years after Christ, the Romans had had enough of the intractable Jewish nation, which rebelled very regularly and Jerusalem was destroyed.
From the historical writers, of that time, we are told that the human carnage amongst the Jews was horrific.
Jesus spoke on many occasions of these events and I want to share the following with you:
In the following section Jesus is coming from Bethany’s direction around the Mount of Olives and as He comes around the mountain, just before He descends to the city, Jerusalem lies outstretched before Him and then we read:
LUKE 19:41-44
41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it
42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.
43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.
44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
In this following section is Jesus on His way to Golgotha to be crucified and He is so weak that someone else had to carry His cross for Him, but in His weakened state He turns to the people who are weeping for Him, and says to them:
LUKE 23:28-30
28 Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.
29 For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’
30 Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’
Returning to the parable: From MAT 22:8-10 Jesus shares with His Gospel to the heathens, people like you and me, in other words, everyone who hears the Gospel and truly accept Him, but also those who are known as Christians, but who have not truly accepted Jesus as their Redeemer and Saviour.
Now, we must firstly notice: The people who were brought into the bridal meal, was from all walks of society. There was for example the rich with their clothes and then naturally there was the poor with their clothes and also the beggars at the corner of the streets with their rags and dirty clothes.
But when they were seated in the bridal hall, they all wore the same bridal clothing, because the King, as I understand it, provided all of it.
Then the King came into the bridal hall and saw that one of the people did not have bridal clothes on.
How was the King able to immediately identify that person out of the multitude of guests? You see, because the King knew the clothing very, very well.
Because the clothing which everyone must wear to gain access to the Heavenly Bridal hall, is Jesus Christ.
GAL 3:27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
I must, not for one minute, think that I can go into the Bridal hall and get away with it, just because I sit Sunday after Sunday in the church, and say and do the same things, as those who have truly accepted Jesus Christ as their Redeemer and Saviour.
Alone no Religion or Religious behaviour will open Heaven’s gate for me.
In other words, I will only go into Heaven unless I truly have accepted Jesus Christ as my Redeemer and Saviour.
JOHN 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Read the following again, while you carefully examine your heart:
MAT 22:11-13
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
So – What is the answer for the people who want to go into the Heavenly Bridal hall and always be with the King?
ROM 13:14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
If I can truly say this, I am on my way to the Heavenly Bridal hall.
Now I must live a life so that the people surrounding me can see my Bridal clothing and that they will also desire to wear these clothes.
How do I do this?
Jesus explains it this way:
MAT 7:16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?
MAT 7:17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
So, how must I take this action, or bear the fruit, that people will recognise me, as a Christian/disciple of Jesus?
GAL 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
GAL 5:23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
While I must still remember to take MAT 22:11-14 into consideration:
MAT 7:19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
MAT 7:20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Devout practises do not count in God’s kingdom.
MAT 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
Greetings,
Sakkie