There is finally one Marriage, one Husband and one Wife. There is the one Man, Jesus Christ — and there is the one Woman, His Holy Christian Church, made for Him as a suitable companion, corresponding to Him in every way, brought to Him and given to Him by His God and Father.
He is faithful in caring for His Bride and giving her life, in and with His own Body and Life, with His own Flesh and Blood — by His Cross and Passion and in His bodily Resurrection from the dead — in the Water and the Blood from His wounded side, in His Font and in His Chalice.
By these means of grace and salvation, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has made of you a member of His Bride, the Church; He has brought you to Him and given you to Him.
So are you called to be faithful to your Husband and Head, Christ Jesus, within your own particular place and station in life, whatever that may be. For you are named with His holy Name, and you have been joined together with Him, united with Him in body and soul, heart, mind, and spirit.
You derive your life, all that you are and have, entirely from Him; and thus are you given to live unto Him in righteousness and purity, now and forever. It’s not that you must earn your keep, or pull your own weight, or make a life for yourself, but that you would receive your life from Him alone, and so live in Christ Jesus your Lord by faith, by His grace, to the glory of His holy Name.
What that life in Christ Jesus looks like in the context of holy marriage here on earth is faithfulness and love in the lifelong union of one man and one woman, the male and the female, even unto death. The husband gives himself and lays down his life for his wife, that she might have life; and the wife submits to her husband and serves him in love, in the faith and confidence of Jesus.
The intimate union of male and female as one flesh, the intimacy of heart, mind, body, and soul, belongs to this lifelong bond and commitment of marriage, because it confesses Christ Jesus and His Church and thus declares the Gospel and the grace of God. It is to be a bond of faithfulness and loving devotion, because the Lord Jesus is faithful and devoted in His perfect love for you.
Casual “hook-ups,” temporary and conditional “shack-up” arrangements, perversions of sexuality, and all manner of unfaithfulness, including the breaking of the marriage bond by legal divorce — these all confess a false “christ” and false “gospel,” which do not give life but rob and destroy it.
Indeed, any and all attempts to engage in sexual intimacy outside of holy marriage, which is to say, outside of Christ Jesus and apart from His Word and Spirit, are not only sinful and unclean, but dangerous, deadly, and doomed to fail.
Of course, the “one flesh” union of husband and wife is also abused and broken within marriages — when spouses do not love and care for each other, but instead hurt or neglect each other, turn away from each other, or fend for themselves in competition with each other.
Simply living together in the same house, even sleeping together in the same bed, is not yet, by itself, the intimate communion of heart, mind, body, and soul that characterizes and constitutes the holy Matrimony of Christ Jesus with His beloved Bride, the Holy Christian Church.
Tragically, one doesn’t have to look very far or dig too deep to find examples of the brokenness, the disappointments, the failures, and the hurts that impact our human marriages here on earth.
By the same token, there is also the brokenness, the disappointments, the failures and hurts of those who have longed to be married or to be given in marriage, but who have no husband or wife to have and to hold, to love and to cherish in that blessed fellowship of a life wedded together.
All of which can easily make the very idea of “holy marriage” seem rather idealistic and naive.
And, as we have heard this morning, on account of the hardness of our fallen, sinful hearts, even holy Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send his wife away.
This “permission,” which God allowed through His Prophet Moses, should not be interpreted as any kind of acceptance or approval. It is rather an acknowledgment of failure, an accommodation for the sake of avoiding even greater wickedness and further hurt. But none of this is “good.” From the beginning, Jesus says, this is not at all what God intended. Elsewhere, the Lord clearly declares that He hates divorce, which is so contrary to His love and so antithetical to His Gospel.
Yet, the Lord God knows your frame, that you are mortal. He knows that your flesh and blood are full of sin and death. He knows the hardness of your heart and of your head. He knows that you are prone to selfishness, to look after yourself at all costs, instead of trusting Him and obeying His voice and loving your neighbor as you ought. He knows that you are likely to lash out in violence if you are backed into a corner and put on the defensive. And He knows that you still have much to learn and a great deal of maturing to do, before you will grow into the fullness of the stature of your Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the true and heavenly Bridegroom of His Church.
It is also a fact that genuine love, such as holy marriage properly requires, cannot be achieved or obtained by the force of the Law. Demands and threats and punishments will not bring about the self-giving and self-sacrificing love that belongs to real intimacy. To be sure, your actions can and should be disciplined. Your behavior can and should be curbed and moderated for the benefit and protection of your neighbors. But outward regulations and controls will not change your heart.
So it is that God permits divorce, as a tragic last resort, lest even greater tragedy unfold — lest husbands and wives resort to violence and murder. So might a father separate his warring children from each other, for a time, rather than risk trying to force them to get along with each other.
It’s not a matter of condoning sin or rewarding stubbornness, but a case of taking sin seriously and choosing the lesser of evils, while working to rescue the children from every evil of body and soul.
As a good and loving Father, the Lord your God is patient with you, long-suffering, and slow to anger. He does not punish you as your sins actually deserve, but He bears with you according to His tender mercies and His grace, while He also disciplines you as a beloved son or daughter.
But it is more than immaturity and ignorance at work in your hardness of heart; it is sin and death having their way with you, wreaking havoc in your body and life and in all of your relationships. Such things are another kind of “childish behavior,” altogether different than the childlike faith to which you are called. The hardness of your sinful heart is evident, for example, in the pout and stomping foot and rebellious “no” and temper tantrum of the toddler. The toddler must grow up — and so must the Christian also learn to live in faith toward God and in love for the neighbor.
The Law exposes your sin, your hardness of heart, your wickedness, your nakedness and shame. But you learn and grow by repentance and by faith in Christ, because holy love and holy marriage are found, not in you, but in Him, in His faithfulness, and in His sacrifice for the sake of sinners.
It is certainly not just the “good” little boys and girls whom He takes up in His arms and blesses, but He gathers to Himself the colicky infants, the tyrannical toddlers, the spoiled brats, the moody and distant teens, the dead-beat twenty-somethings, and the childish “adults” who still resort to pouting and stomping and hollering “no.” He calls them all to repentance, to be sure. Their sins, and all of your sins, are not good. But so does He also lay His hand on you in Holy Absolution.
And He does not cast you away from His presence. He does not send you away.
What He permits men to do, because of their hard hearts, He Himself does not do. He does not divorce His wife, but He wins her back, woos her to Himself in love, and reconciles her to Himself in the grace and forgiveness of His Gospel. He does not consider her trespasses or count them against her, but He bears all her burdens and all her weaknesses in Himself. He covers her guilt and shame and clothes her with His own honor, with His own righteousness and holiness.
He does all of this for you, in making you a member of His Body and His Bride, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. This is not idealistic or naive, but this is Holy Marriage, which is the Love of God in Christ Jesus, your Savior. He is faithful in giving Himself for you, that you might be His very own, to have and to hold forever. Even death shall not separate you from Him.
So, too, here within His Holy Church is where and how you get your bearings and take your cues, whether you are married or unmarried, widowed or divorced in this life on earth. For you belong to Jesus Christ, the true and heavenly Bridegroom, and you bear His Name in whatever it is that you are called and given to do. Both marriage and celibacy, here in time, point beyond themselves to the one Marriage of that one Man and His Holy Bride, which is forever and ever.
It is His Cross which sanctifies the crosses that you are given to bear in this body and life, whether the crosses of a spouse and marriage or the crosses of celibacy and loneliness. It is the sacrifice of His Cross that forgives you, redeems you, and saves you from all of your unfaithfulness, from all of your lust, from your fornication and adultery, and from your coldness and hardness of heart.
The Lord your God — the almighty and eternal Son — has made Himself to be like you, bone of your bone, and flesh of your flesh, and blood of your blood. He was conceived and born of the Woman, St. Mary, by the Word and Spirit of God, that you might be conceived and born of God by the washing of the water with His Word and Holy Spirit in His Holy Christian Church. Therein you are cleansed and sanctified and clothed in the beautiful white wedding garments of Jesus Christ and His perfect righteousness. Having no sins of His own, no flaws or blemishes, no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, He has bestowed on you His innocence and blessedness, even as He has taken upon Himself your sin and death and all unrighteousness. He has borne your temptations and suffered all your sorrows, in order to become your merciful and faithful High Priest, in order to bring you blameless into everlasting Life with His God and Father in Paradise.
This is what it means for the Lord Jesus Christ to be your Husband, your heavenly Bridegroom. And this is what it means for you to be a member of His Body and His Bride. He is perfected in this vocation through suffering, by His Cross and Passion, so that you are perfected and glorified in Him, in His bodily Resurrection from the dead. In His sleeping — in the deep sleep of His death upon the Cross and His resting in the earth — you have been taken from His side and formed in His Image, in the waters of your Baptism and in the holy and precious Blood of His Chalice.
Thus are you given to Him in Holy Marriage here at His Altar, as often as He feeds you here with His Flesh and Blood. And so does He take you into His arms and bless you, for now and forever.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment