Dressed for the Wedding

I've been to quite a few weddings, and I am quite familiar with the expectations that accompany most of them. I remember when I was a teenager, I received an invitation to attend my cousin's wedding, and my mom and I had a little "difference of opinion" on what was appropriate clothing to wear. 

I had spent quite a bit of time making a white dress for my school's spring banquet that year. It was beautiful and -- if you're familiar with Tolkien's elves in Lord of the Rings -- I had made that dress in the style of Arwen or Galadriel's garments. 

However, as my mom declared, "you don't wear all-white to a wedding; you aren't supposed to outshine the bride."

I was bound and determined to wear my elven-dress, so we compromised. I sewed a colored waistband around the dress so it was still -- largely white, but it also had a stripe of color across it. Both my mom and I relaxed.

With such a dilemma out of the way, my family marked our RSVP card that informed the bride and groom of our attendance, and we celebrated with them on their big day (and not a single person mistook me for the bride, I'd just like to say). ;)

All right, we left Haman at the end of Esther 5 yesterday with him happily constructing a gallows 75 feet high, custom-designed for his enemy Mordecai -- who for the record, is only Haman's enemy because of Mordecai's Jewish heritage, and because Jews are the traditional enemies of Haman's ancestors, the Amalekites. Haman and King Xerxes have just been the guests of honor at a banquet thrown by Queen Esther, and nothing can spoil the occasion for Haman -- who is nearly drunk on pride and power at this point -- except for the fact that Mordecai exists. But the gallows he built will take care of that in a few short hours.

Meanwhile, King Xerxes is restless. "That night, the king could not sleep, so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him" (Esther 6:1).

I'll pause here to say: If you ever have trouble sleeping, try having someone read to you out of a book that records barely-even-events like: "Bob paid his taxes on time. Amen. Sylvia donated her hair to a charity. Amen. Jill ran for city council. Amen." It's a perfect cure-all.

Something significant caught Xerxes' attention, though. "It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's officers who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.

"'What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?' the king asked.

"'Nothing has been done for him,' his attendants answered" (Esther 6:2-3).

When seemingly trivial events work together in perfectly connected ways to create a really big event later on, I've got one label for it: "It's a God-thing." Mordecai, caught up in resolving the assassination plot, may have felt like it was significant at the time, but then it quieted and went away, and perhaps Mordecai even forgot about it -- but God didn't, because look:

Every piece of this story leads right up to this point: A restless king, who has the chronicles of the kingdom read to him, who notices an unrewarded "trivial event," who decides to do something about it. A God-thing.

This is the turning point of Esther and Mordecai's story. 

Let's see what happens. "The king said, 'Who is in the court?' Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had erected for him" (Esther 6:4).

Y'all, this is quality story-telling here. Haman has glutted himself on his pride, he's in the middle of making yet another power-grab (see my blog post: Whose Watercourse Is This Anyway?), he's on the verge of destroying the man he's set up as his mortal enemy, Mordecai. All he has to do is get the king's permission to hang him high on those gallows, and his cup will overflow. No enemy in sight, as near the throne as he can get, and not a single fly in his ointment. He's reaching hard for the golden apple... and this happens:

"[King Xerxes'] attendants answered, 'Haman is standing in the court.'

"'Bring him in,' the king ordered.

"When Haman entered, the king asked him, 'What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?'" (Esther 6:6).

Here's some irony: When Haman originally brought forward the idea of killing off an entire nation within the king's realm, he was deliberately vague. He used language like: "There is a certain people dispersed and scattered among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom..." He accused this "certain people" of treachery and got the king's permission to issue an edict against this "certain people."

Now the tables turn. The king, with deliberately vague language in his turn, asks: "What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?"

And Haman, still heady with pride, immediately brings it home. "Now Haman thought to himself, 'Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?" (Esther 6:6).

So he thinks of the very, very, very best honor he can concoct on the spot: He puts himself as near the throne as he can get without actually, you know, climbing into it, and he suggests this: "For the man the king delights to honor, have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king's most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honor, and lead him on the horse through the city streets, proclaiming before him, 'This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!'" (Esther 6:7-9).

Alas for Haman. All his bright thoughts of how his cup of pride and power is about to overflow... become rubble at his feet.

"'Go at once,' the king commanded Haman. 'Get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. Do not neglect anything you have recommended" (Esther 6:10).

Ouch! The very highest honor Haman can come up with... conferred onto the head of the person he has taken up as his mortal enemy.

Here's the thing: Haman tried to use the king's clothing to designate himself as the king's favored one. In ancient times, wearing the king's garments was considered a mark of highest favor. It meant: I am the king's servant. I am loyal, and the king has placed his seal of favor on me. And Haman meant to enjoy every last second under that garment.

Here's something the prophet Isaiah has to say about this type of garment: "He has sent me... to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair" (Isaiah 61:1-3).

See... in that passage, there's a shedding of one type of garment and a receiving of another. It's a mark of distinction, of high favor.

Look at this: In 1 Samuel 18:4, Prince Jonathan takes off the robe he's wearing and gives it to David as a mark of royal favor, because David has rendered some impressive services to the house of Saul. He replaces David's clothing with the clothing of the royal house.

In a slightly different twist, in 2 Kings 2, Elijah is preparing to leave this earthly life and be taken to heaven, but before he goes, he asks his apprentice Elisha: "What can I do for you before I am taken from you?" And Elisha answers: "Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit." Elijah responds: "You have asked a difficult thing, yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours -- otherwise not.

"As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, 'My father! My father!' And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart. He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it... It divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over" (2 Kings 2:9-14).

A mark of distinction. Elisha asked for royal favor, the favor of the King, and it was given him when he took up Elijah's cloak.

In Mark 5, Jesus is making His way through a crowd of people and they're pushing around him so hard, there's no space. A woman who has been sick with an issue of blood for twelve years weaves through the crowd and touches Jesus' clothing, believing that she would be healed through the touch...

And she is. "At once, Jesus realized that power had gone out from Him." A mark of distinction; God shows favor to her for her faith. "Daughter, your faith has healed you," Jesus tells her.

In Matthew 22, Jesus tells a parable about a wedding banquet prepared for the son of a king. "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless. 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'" (Matthew 22:11-13).

And then in Revelation 3:5, John writes: "He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before My Father and His angels." 

If we are in favor with the King, we wear His clothing. When we are invited to the wedding, we dress appropriately. The thing about wedding invitations: You have to RSVP. When those invitations come in the mail, there's almost always a little self-addressed stamped envelope included that says: "I plan to attend," with a little blank next to it you can check, or "I do not plan to attend," and a little blank next to that option.

When we are invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9), we must RSVP, and then... we make sure our wedding clothes are in place. If we show up on the last day to stand before the Ancient of Days, and He asks us: "Where are your garments of white mentioned in Revelation 3:5? Where is the blood of My Son Jesus, Who died in your place for your sins, and all you had to do was accept His sacrifice in order to receive your wedding garments?"

Listen, outside of the wedding, it's dark and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And it's the place we go if we are not appropriately dressed. So mark your RSVP card; this wedding banquet, this marriage feast of the Lamb, is by invitation only.

Everyone receives an invitation (2 Peter 3:9). But only a comparative few will return their card.

Back to Haman, just so we know what happens to him. "So Haman got the robe and the horse. He robed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming before him, 'This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!'" (Esther 6:11).

You have to know he was almost choking on the words. The utter humiliation, so much more effective with the backdrop of his overflowing cup of pride only hours before. What's that phrase? "Let the punishment fit the crime." Let the fall from the summit fit the climb it took to get there.

"Afterward, Mordecai returned to the king's gate. But Haman rushed home with his head covered in grief and told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him" (Esther 6:12).

My, how the tables have turned. In 5:14, Zeresh is all: "No worries, honey, just go have Mordecai hanged. You'll be fine." But now, one chapter later, Zeresh's tune has completely changed: "Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him -- you will surely come to ruin!" (Esther 6:13).

Haman doesn't even have time to process this. "While they were still talking with him, the king's eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman away to the banquet Esther had prepared" (Esther 6:14).

I almost want to add: "Where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And though it doesn't say those words specifically, the spirit of this is fulfilled in Esther 7. But I'll get to that tomorrow.

During that longest walk through the city streets, leading his own mortal enemy and singing his praises, Haman had the chance to take a good, long, clear look at his choices that led him exactly to where he was. I wonder if he did. Or I wonder if he was still focused on the 13th day of the 12th month, the month of Adar, when he could finally be delivered from his thorn in the flesh.

We don't know what Haman's introspective thoughts were as he led Mordecai through the city and shouted out the king's favor over him. But we do know that the king's cloak was on Mordecai's back instead of on Haman's. We know that the king had designated Mordecai as the honored one instead of Haman.

And glancing ahead to the story wrap-up in Esther 8:15, we see this: "Mordecai left the king's presence wearing royal garments of blue and white, a large crown of gold, and a purple robe of fine linen."

Somebody RSVPed to the king. Make sure you've sent your RSVP in to the King of kings, before the wedding happens and the King finds you and asks you where your wedding clothes are. Don't be speechless when the question comes. Point to the cross and tell Him: "I got rid of my old clothes there; I replaced them with the clothes bought for me through the blood of the Lamb, Who takes away the sin of the world."

Amen.