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Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt, September 18, 2016


The Ultimate Relationship


Text: Revelation 19:6–9

We come here today to celebrate the union of Jim and Dixie who are entering into the covenant of marriage together. We are doing this within the framework of our weekly worship service because our time of corporate worship of God is in celebration and the anticipation of the marriage between Jesus Christ, the bridegroom and the church, as His bride. That is what I want to focus on for the next few minutes. This is to be the foundational principle that human marriage is built upon.

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.

7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;

8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

“The marriage of the Lamb has come”: This points us to the day of the return of Jesus Christ to claim his bride, the church. One reason this great multitude is so filled with praise is because the time has come for the Lamb of God to be joined unto His people, in a union so close it can only be compared to the marriage of a man and a woman. The marriage of the Lamb, who is the Messiah, is a picture used frequently throughout the Scriptures. In the Old Testament, Israel is presented as God's wife, who is often unfaithful (Hosea 2:19–20, Isaiah 54:5, Ezekiel 16). In the New Testament, the church is presented as the fiancé of Jesus, waiting for this day of marriage (2 Corinthians 11:2, Ephesians 5:25–32).

In Biblical times a Jewish marriage involved two major events, the betrothal and the wedding.

The betrothal was binding and could only be undone by a divorce with proper grounds, such as unfaithfulness. The young man prepared a marriage contract (or covenant) which he presented to the intended bride and her father. Included in this was the “Bride Price ", which was a custom in that society to compensate the young woman's parents for the cost of raising her, as well as being an expression of his love for her. This custom continues in many cultures. In Rwanda a women is evaluated on the basis of how many cows she is worth. On my first trip to Rwanda we were visiting the parents of a pastor that we were ministering with. One of our team was a 72-year-old woman from our church in Virginia. The father, himself in his eighties, walked up to her and seemed to give her a close inspection with a practiced and discerning eye. He turned to his son and replied that he felt she was still worth 2 cows. As it ends up this was a real compliment. In Israel, once the price of betrothal was established the young man to determine if the proposal was accepted would pour a cup of wine for his beloved and wait to see if she drank it. This cup represented a blood covenant. If she drank the cup she was accepting the proposal and they would be betrothed. The young man would then give gifts to his beloved, and then would return home to his father’s house. The young woman would have to wait for him to return and take her as his wife.

Before leaving the young man would announce, “I am going to prepare a place for you ", and “I will return for you when it is ready". The usual practice was for the young man upon returning to his father's house would begin to build a honeymoon room there. He was not allowed to use an existing room but had to build one for his bride. The work had to be done well as this was a reflection on his father and so the young man had to get his father's approval before he could consider it ready for his bride. If asked the date of his wedding he would have to reply, "Only my father knows."

Meanwhile the bride would be making herself ready so that she would be pure and beautiful for her bridegroom. During this time she would wear a veil when she went out to show she was spoken for (she has been bought with a price).

When the wedding chamber was ready the bridegroom could now go and receive his bride. He could show up at any time, so the bride would make special arrangements for being prepared. It was the custom for a bride to keep a lamp, her veil and her other things beside her bed and her bridesmaids were also waiting and had to have oil ready for their lamps. This should remind us of the Parable of the Ten virgins in Matthew 25:1–13,

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ 10 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

When the groom and his friends got close to the bride's house they would give a shout and blow ashofar, a ram’s horn trumpet to let her know to be ready. When the wedding party arrived at the father's house the newlyweds went into the wedding chamber for a seven day honeymoon period. Then all the friends really started celebrating for the seven days that the couple was honeymooning. When the couple emerged there would be congratulations on the consummation of their marriage and the marriage supper could begin. What is the significance of this for us? There are very powerful ways that this was demonstrated for Israel as God’s chosen people but we don’t have time today to really flesh that out. For our purposes today let’s consider how this applies to us as Christians who are awaiting Jesus as our bridegroom. Let’s first consider the betrothal. Mark 14:22–26;

Now as they were eating (the Passover meal), Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

At the Passover meal there were 4 cups that were passed around: the 1st cup, the cup of sanctification, would be passed around to begin the sacred meal of remembering God blessing of Israel at the original Passover in Egypt in Exodus 12. The 2nd cup, the cup of Deliverance, was passed around while the Scriptures concerning this were read and the Rabbi explained why this night was to be remembered. The 3rd cup, the cup of Redemption was passed around at the eating of the Passover meal in remembrance that a lamb was slain and blood was shed. The 4th cup, the cup of Restoration, was passed around after the meal and Psalm 136 was read. The passing of this cup was based on the statement, “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God.” Exodus 6:7

Essentially, at the Passover meal when Jesus offered the Cup of Redemption (Paul calls it the cup of thanksgiving in 1 Corinthians 10:16) he was making the offering of betrothal and for the disciples to accept the cup and drink from it was an acceptance of marriage. This acceptance meant that Jesus knew that a price would need to be paid by him that would meet the standard of the Father. He knew that the price would be his own life, the shedding of His blood on the cross. However, it also meant that once the offer was accepted by the disciples that they must remain faithful to the blood covenant they had made because they had been bought with a price. It was with this in mind that Paul reminded the Corinthians to remain pure in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

This idea of betrothal also helps to add more understanding to passages like John 14:1–4. Jesus has told the disciples that he will returning to the Father but at that point they still don’t understand the full implications of all that Jesus is teaching them and so he encourages to see this as part of the process,

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.

The promise was not to be seen as unusual but what should be expected. Jesus would return to his Father’s house to build onto it in preparation for the coming of his bride, the church. Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 24:36,

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Just like in Israel, the Father would let the Son know when the room was sufficient for the bride.

That is why the celebration that we just read in Revelation 19 is such a powerful scene. The bride has been waiting for the return of the Bridegroom to come and fulfill the promise that he made to her to make her his beloved. This is the scene that all creation has been longing for when all things are restored and made right. The eternal celebration of life restored to where it was originally intended to be begins with the marriage of the Lamb of God to his bride.

The Apostle Paul sees this as the example and motivation for marital love and faithfulness between husband and wife in Ephesians 5:25–33. Jim, Dixie by way of exhortation I want to read to you this passage from the paraphrase, The Message.

22–24 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.

25–28 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already “one” in marriage.

29–33 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.

This is Christ’ model for you and for us. As Christians we should be modeling this for a world that has lost this message of the sacredness of Holy Matrimony. I encourage you to be this model for your own joy and happiness and as a way of pointing to that day when Jesus returns to take us to our marriage feast for ever.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

©2016 Rev. Mike Moffitt

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