A beggar lived
near the king’s palace. One day he saw a proclamation posted outside he palace
gate. The king was giving a great dinner. Anyone dressed in royal garments was
invited to the party.
The beggar went
on his way. He looked at the rags he was wearing and sighed. Surely only kings
and their families wore royal robes, he thought. Slowly an idea crept into his
mind. The audacity of it made him tremble. Would he dare? He made his way back
to the palace. He approached the guard at the gate
“Please, sire, I would
like to speak to the king.”
“Wait
here,” the guard replied. In a few minutes, he was back. “His majesty
will see you,” he said, and led the beggar in.
“You wish
to see me?” asked the king.
“Yes, your
majesty. I want so much to attend the banquet, but I have no royal robes to wear.
Please, sir, if I may be so bold, may I have one of your old garments so that
I, too, may come to the banquet?” The beggar shook so hard that he could
not see the faint smile that was on the king’s face.
“You have
been wise in coming to me,” the king said. He called to his son, the young
prince. “Take this man to your room and array him in some of your
clothes.”
The prince did
as he was told and soon the beggar was standing before a mirror, clothed in
garments that he had never dared hope for. “You are now eligible to attend
the king’s banquet tomorrow night,” said the prince. “But even more
important, you will never need any other clothes. These garments will last
forever.”
The beggar
dropped to his knees. “Oh, thank you,” he cried. But as he started to
leave, he looked back at his pile of dirty rags on the floor. He hesitated.
What if the prince was wrong? What if he would need his old clothes again.
Quickly he gathered them up.
The banquet was
far greater than he had ever imagined, but he could not enjoy himself as he
should. He had made a small bundle of his old rags and it kept falling off his lap.
The food was passed quickly and the beggar missed some of the greatest
delicacies.
Time proved that
the prince was right. The clothes lasted forever. Still the poor beggar grew
fonder and fonder of his old rags. As time passed people seemed to forget the
royal robes he was wearing. They saw only the little bundle of filthy rags that
he clung to wherever he went. They even spoke of him as the old man with the
rags.
One day as he
lay dying, the king visited him. The beggar saw the sad look on the king’s face
when he looked at the small bundle of rags by the bed. Suddenly the beggar remembered
the prince’s words and he realized that his bundle of rags had cost him a lifetime
of true royalty. He wept bitterly at his folly. And the king wept with him.
We have been
invited into a royal family – the family of God. To feast at God’s dinner table,
all we have to do is shed our old rags and put on the “new clothes” of
faith which is provided by God’s Son,
Jesus Christ. But we cannot hold onto our old rags.
When we put our
faith in Christ, we must let go of the sin in our life, and our old ways of
living. Those things must be discarded if we are to experience true royalty and
abundant life in Christ.
