In Ephesians 5, Paul says that a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife and the two become one flesh, and then he says that this is a great mystery, but what he is primarily talking about is Jesus Christ and His Church.
It really is a mystery how a man and a woman come together. In Proverbs 30:18-19, it says, “There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.” The word there means miraculous, difficult, hidden, and it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to say “mysterious.”
Everything from the first time you met, and how you met, and all the circumstances that led to that moment. And the details that followed, the dates, the conversations, the prayers – a million details that go into it all. Sometimes movies like to play with going back in time and imagine what happens if one or two details are changed and what might not have been. What if Alahna hadn’t been welcoming people and handing out bulletins one random Sunday at church? What a mystery.
But it’s not just the meeting and the dating and the courtship, it includes this day. How is that by vows before God and witnesses and a sexual union that God actually makes two people into one? It’s what the Bible calls a covenantal union, but it’s a real union. It’s not just a contract. You can sign a contract on a rental house or to take a job, and if it doesn’t work out later, you can mutually agree to rip up the contract and no harm, no foul. But in a covenant, you can’t break it without doing violence. No matter how hard moderns try to pretend that they can do this surgery casually: “We’ve mutually decided on a new chapter for our family.” What God joins together, you cannot separate without great violence and pain.
But the union doesn’t stop after a few months or years. When you meet couples who have been married for many years, you begin to notice so many similarities between them. Sometimes couples even begin to look like one another in certain respects.
And Paul says, this is all a glorious mystery, but the really astonishing thing is that this points to the covenantal union between Christ and His Church. It’s remarkable enough to think that a man from one family can join together with a woman from another family and that God actually unites them in a true covenantal bond that begins a lifelong process of becoming like one another, but stop and think: as wonderful as that is, it’s still two people, two human beings.
But the Bible teaches that that is a picture of what God has determined to do with His people. The infinite God, the Creator God, Absolute Goodness, Absolute Purity, Absolute Exhilarating Life has determined to be united with people. Now that’s a mystery. That’s a miracle, a glory – it seems impossible.
And that’s exactly what John saw in his vision: a new heavens and a new earth, and the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev. 21:2). And he heard a voice declaring from heaven, Behold, they are husband and wife: they shall be His people, and He shall dwell with them and be their God. And of course, when that Great Wedding Day comes, all of the tears will be wiped from every eye – there will be no more death, no sorrow, no crying (at least not the sad kind), no more pain, because Jesus Christ will have made all things new – the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
And so today, as we celebrate this covenant union, we look in faith not only to God’s great blessing on Levi and Alahna, we look in faith to the Great and Final Wedding Day of history, when we are fully united to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. There was just another family wedding two weeks ago, and Levi and Alahna, no doubt you were very happy to be there, but I do not doubt that you were also thinking about this day in anticipation. And so all of us at every wedding are invited to think about the Last Wedding, the Final Wedding. For we are the betrothed. This whole world – God’s creation is engaged to be married. The covenant has been signed in the blood of Jesus Christ, and that day is coming. The dead shall rise and the bells shall ring and the trumpets will sound. And all will be well.
So Levi, your job is to love Alahna like all of this is true. Love Alahna like that Great Wedding really is coming. Love her like Christ loved Church and gave Himself for her. Love Alahna and lead her in greater holiness. Teach her about the love of Jesus in what you say, and how you say it, and in what you do, and how you do it. Let the shape of this ceremony and this day influence every day to come: you’ve left your father and mother and are being joined to your wife. She is your own flesh and blood. She is your own body. Take responsibility for her; care for her – like Christ loves the church.
Alahna, your job is to respect Levi and to submit to him like this vision of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is true. Look to Levi like the Great Wedding really is coming. Respect him and honor him as the Church respects and honors Christ. Listen carefully to Levi just as the Church listens carefully to Christ. A bride is adorned in a glorious dress because you are the glory of man, and today you become the particular glory of this man. Just as you are adorned today, let this glory influence every day to come: this is your glory to glorify God by glorifying your husband and his home. And let the center of that glory be the glory of grace – the glory of free grace. Which is what all of this is – pure gift, undeserved blessing from the hand of a supremely kind God. Thanks be to God.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.
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