TRINITY xx
THE parable of the wedding garment has a cruel sound.
How could the poor man, dragged in from the highway or the hedge to fill
a place at the king’s table, provide himself a wedding garment? The cruelty
disappears if we turn from the parable to the thing signified in it. We
are the men whom God’s mercy has brought to his table, and the garment
of glory is bestowed on us by his royal hand: ‘Put ye on' says the
scripture ‘the Lord Jesus Christ’. We come here to keep our holy feast
as members of Christ’s body; in making us his members Christ spreads the
garment of his own sanctity upon us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to receive us as though we were Christ
himself.
