DAILY DEVOTIONAL – August 20, 2019 : St Mark Lutheran Church

DAILY DEVOTIONAL – August 20, 2019

August 20, 2019

“To the Nines”

Prayer: Our God and King, You dwell in the brightest of Light that shines forth Your eternal holiness and righteousness. As Scripture says, You dwell in unapproachable Light. Our sin has stained us and darkened us. We have no place with You if not for Your indescribable love that has paid for sin in the blood of Christ, and that has purified our hearts and clothed us in Christ’s righteousness so that we may bask in the joy of Your presence for eternity. Strengthen our faith during this time of devotion in Your Word, for Jesus’s sake. Amen.

Scripture: Isaiah 61:10

I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God!
For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation
and draped me in a robe of righteousness.
I am like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding
or a bride with her jewels.

Devotion – “To The Nines”

Clothing and fashion have always played a significant role in not only identifying different cultures and peoples from around the world, but clothing and fashion also seem to be one of the primary ways each new generation defines themselves. Whether it be the flappers of the 20’s, tie-dyes that decorated 60’s, the bellbottoms of the 70’s, the spandex and pastels of the 80’s, the stonewash and flannel of the 90’s grunge look, or the grab bag of fashion that seems to have defined the 21^st century thus far…what we wear, or what we don’t wear, has always been one of the most significant ways that we not only express and attempt to define ourselves, but also how others perceive and identify who we are.

To be honest with you, if you were to look at my wardrobe, you probably wouldn’t think I even know what the word fashion means. Boring and plain would probably be the words most would use. Fashion has never really intrigued me, however, fashion has left me utterly baffled and confused on many occasions. I assure you I’m not making these up, but here are some of the honest to goodness high profile fashions that people actually paid money to make, that people actually paid money to buy and that models actually strutted down the runway in to the applause of all the experts who apparently know what fashionable is.

A woman’s dress made out of everyday dry cleaning material, complete with plastic protective cover, a wire coat hanger for a hat and a sock for a purse.
A skirt which was literally the floor mat for a car wrapped around a woman’s waist
A clear pair of jeans…which were not jeans at all, but clear plastic.
Pre-mudded jeans, which yes, were jeans pre-stained with mud
Sweater sleeves…yes, just the sleeves…not the whole sweater
A $3000 dress made out of nothing but straw hats
And my favorite…a pre-destroyed shoe. Yep, if you want your shoes to look like they just got sucked up and spit out by your lawn mower…you can have your very own pair for the low, low price of just $1,425 dollars.

Weird fashions aside, the truth is clothing does serve a much more serious and useful purpose. Clothing helps in showing respect and professionalism. Wearing flip flops and a tank top to a job interview will probably only help you get a job if you’re looking to become a lifeguard. We also use clothing to distinguish important and necessary people and services. Fireman, police officers, soldiers in the military, doctors…all where specific uniforms so that they can be rightly distinguished and given the necessary attention needed to help us when needed. Perhaps most importantly, and most fundamentally, we need clothes in order to survive. Having the right clothing can mean the difference between life and death when it comes to survival.

The right clothing no less makes all the difference when it comes to our salvation, our eternal life.

In Matthew 22, Jesus tells a parable about a king who prepared a magnificent wedding banquet for his son. All the best food and drink and music and dancing and everything you could need to have a good time was prepared, and the king sent out an invitation to all of his people to attend. Much like today, back in Jesus’ day and in that society and culture, there was appropriate and inappropriate clothing to wear to a banquet, and especially for that of a king’s son. You and I certainly would not show up in jeans and a t-shirt to a wedding banquet hosted by the President of the United States if we were invited. We would fully be expect to be prohibited from entering. The same was true in Jesus’ day, and in the parable Jesus tells, there was such a person who managed to sneak into the king’s banquet without the appropriate wedding garments and he was promptly ejected from the celebration.

The parable Jesus tells likens salvation to such a banquet. Jesus Christ is the king’s son, the king is God the Father and the bride is the church comprised of all true believers in Jesus Christ. God has invited all of humanity to attend this eternal heavenly banquet – the rich the poor, the powerful and the weak, the good and the bad. All are invited, but in order to be allowed in, you must be dressed appropriately. The problem is, none of us have the right clothes. All of us are covered in sin. Even our finest clothing falls far short of the brilliant, shining and perfect apparel that is required to attend God’s eternal banquet. The prophet Isaiah puts it quite graphically in 64:6 when he says:

All of us have become like one who is unclean

And all of our righteous acts have become like filthy rags.

Just like in the society that Jesus lived in, only the king had and provided the right wedding clothes required to enter the banquet – which was actually an ornamented robe you would receive upon arriving. Our only hope of entering into the joy of God’s eternal heavenly banquet is if God Himself dresses us, and the Good News of the Gospel is that God has provided us with the robe of righteousness that is required. As Isaiah also says in our text for today’s devotion:

As unrighteous, sinful and wicked people…if we have any hope of entering into the holy and perfect glory of God’s own wedding banquet, we cannot be stained…we cannot be soiled by sin. But God has provided the blood of His One and only Son Jesus Christ as the covering for sin, as the robe of righteousness we need to be accepted and celebrated into heaven. The King’s Son Jesus gave His blood on the cross where He died naked and alone for the sins of the world so that all who believe and put their faith in Him would be covered in His blood and clothed in His perfect righteousness; able to be accepted into the great heavenly banquet hall and accompanied by all the saints, the angels of heaven and the bright and shining presence of God Himself. In fact, God is so loving and gracious, that not only are we invited to celebrate the wedding of His Only Son Jesus, but God has also made us the honored bride of His Son as the church.

Scripture reveals just how incredible God’s love is. God knew we would never be able to dress ourselves in the holiness required to be in His presence, so instead, God dressed Himself in our sin and in our flesh and came to be present with us; to teach us, to reveal to us the salvation of God and to provide that salvation as Jesus willingly went to the cross where He allowed the garment of humanity He put on to be ripped and torn and destroyed. By God’s grace through faith in Christ’s death and resurrection, we are now clothed in eternal righteousness and holiness because of Christ’s righteous death on the cross.

Friends, our minds cannot even begin to comprehend how brilliant and awesome that eternal banquet will be, not because of the food or decorations or wonderful music and dancing, but because we get to be in the presence of the King Himself, the Risen Lord Jesus, whose presence alone is what makes heaven, heaven.

I can’t wait to get there, and pray that by faith alone in Jesus Christ, I get to share a table with each and every one of you. God bless you my friends, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.