The following message contains references to Isaiah 40:6-8, Ephesians 5:22-33, and the hymn "I know that my Redeemer lives" that were read/sung during the service. Their full text is at the bottom of this document.In the Roman empire, when a general won a significant victory, a great parade would be staged in his honor. The general would ride through the streets of Rome on an elaborately decked out chariot, wearing the finest of clothes and accompanied by the highest-ranking prisoners whom he took captive. But to prevent him from getting too caught up in himself, a slave rode with him in his chariot and whispered in his ear “Remember, you are mortal” throughout the parade.
Jared and Rachel, when I saw the Bible verses that you had selected for your wedding, I was reminded of this slave. Isaiah 40:6-8 is not a passage normally chosen for a wedding, and it sets a tone somewhat like the slave’s reminder: “Remember, you are mortal.” In a day of celebration like that of a Roman general’s victory parade, you want us to hear a Bible passage that reminds us that we are mortal, that our lives are brief, and we wither quickly compared with the eternal glory of God.
What is the answer to this reminder of our frailty? Do we seize the moment, grab every pleasure we can, and enjoy ourselves to the hilt because you only go around once? Is the answer to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die? Surely there will be food and merriment enough at the reception tonight; is that the answer to our mortality?
If that’s all there is, then why would anyone make the vows you are about to make to each other? Why promise to be faithful to each other “for better, for worse” if the point of life is to maximize our pleasure? Shouldn’t we do like so many people do these days, and preserve our freedom to jump from one relationship to another if that makes us happy? A lot of bachelor/ bachelorette parties these days seem calculated to try to persuade the engaged couple that the singles life that they’re leaving is more fun and better than the married life that they’re embarking on; why not stay single if the point of life is to fill it with as much fun as possible before you die?
But most of us know in our hearts that this is not the best response to our mortality. That’s why we celebrate weddings. We know that a life of throw-away relationships and endless chasing after pleasure is not satisfying or sustainable. We know that having someone in your life who has promised to hang with you in good times and in not-so-good times is a precious thing, and we may even realize that one of the most satisfying things we can do with the gifts and talents that God has given us is to invest them in another person.
All of these are excellent reasons to get married, but they don’t necessarily make our mortality any easier to face; in fact they may make it harder. We get married, we invest our lives in another person, we learn year by year how to live better with each other and how to love each other through thick and thin, then it ends. Even if we do it all right and our marriage thrives and grows, there will come a time when the phrase “till death do us part” takes a real and painful meaning for us.
6 All flesh is grass,If our flesh is the whole of who we are, if our entire existence is bound up in these bodies, made up of frail skin and bones, muscles and organs, then we are nothing. We fade like the California wildflower superbloom under the desert sun, an indistinguishable blip in the age of the universe, and we are gone. But the Bible assures us that we are more than flesh, and our life is more than biochemistry.
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
We are also spiritual, and the spiritual life in us is more fundamental to who we are than the bodies in which it dwells. In Genesis 2:7 we are told, “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” We are bodies made of dust from the ground enlivened by a spirit breathed into us by God. And the breath with which God breathed life into us is the same breath with which He speaks His word, which is eternal.
But if our spirit is eternal, why do we die? We die because humanity has lost the immortality we once had. Not long after they were created, Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s command to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Though God had warned it would kill them, they ate anyhow, and they died. Their death was not biological; their bodies continued to live for many more years, but spiritual. From the moment they ate the fruit, their connection to God’s Spirit was lost and they became spiritually dead. And just as a mother can pass on a drug addiction to her child, Adam and Eve passed on their spiritual death to their children, so we are born spiritually dead.
This is a terrible place to be. Spiritual death cuts us off from God and makes it impossible for us to live in true harmony with him, with each other, or even with ourselves. The evils of this world are the result of spiritually dead people like ourselves rebelling against God and hurting other people. And there’s nothing we can do on our own to fix it. Dead people cannot resuscitate themselves. We need a rescuer who can raise dead people to life. That rescuer is Jesus Christ.
In his life on earth, Jesus Christ raised dead people back to life. He himself was nailed to a cross and died a horrible death. On the third day after he was laid in a tomb, he rose to a new and glorious eternal life which he still lives today, sitting on the throne of heaven with God his Father.
And he offers that life to us. We, who are like wildflowers that bloom in a day then die, may participate now in the life that Jesus has, and, after we die, may be raised to the eternal life that we were made for, to live forever with Jesus in the glory and delight that he enjoys with God. For this to happen, we must be united with Jesus, and the way we are united with Jesus is in a wedding.
In chapter 21 of the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, the author John gives us a hint of what this wedding will look like, where he writes:
21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.In the end, God makes everything new. Jerusalem, the city of the people of God, is made new and glorious, and God brings it like a bride to her husband, who is Jesus Christ. Other places in the Bible describe the church as the bride of Christ; here we see their wedding.
Jared and Rachel, this wedding ceremony is patterned in part after that great and glorious celebration on the day when heaven and earth are made new. Rachel, you in your beauty are giving us a tiny glimpse of the beauty the people of God will have as the new Jerusalem, and your father was cast in the role of God as he brought you to Jared. And Jared, you are playing the part of Jesus Christ, as you receive your bride from the hand of her father. This tradition that we follow in conducting weddings is not merely a beautiful way of bringing people together in marriage, it is a profound illustration of how God unites himself with his people in Jesus Christ.
And the roles that you are playing here don’t end when you walk down the aisle. Jared, you will still have the role of Christ to Rachel, and Rachel, you will still have the role of the church to Jared throughout your married life. The passage from Ephesians 5 that was read earlier in this service shows us how this is to be done.
Jared, your part is to love Rachel as Christ loved the church. Your model is Christ washing his disciples’ feet, Christ feeding them, Christ teaching them, Christ dying for them. As Paul told us in Philippians chapter 2,
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.Your goal in all of this is nourish her and cherish her; to help her to thrive, that she might be as beautiful as God intends for her to be. This is what Christ did for his people, at great cost to himself, and this is what you are to do for Rachel, whatever it may cost you.
Rachel, your part is to submit to Jared’s leadership. The word “submit” has become so toxic these days that it is scarcely possible for some to hear it without clenching up inside. It feels like being defeated, vanquished, abused, and even humiliated. Though it should not be necessary to say this, this is not what Paul is asking of wives, nor what a husband who is loving his wife as Christ loves the church would ever think of doing to his wife.
It may help us to think of a really good swing dancing team. When we watch two swing dancers on the floor, we see the man leading the woman, and she in turn following his lead, not because she has been defeated, abused or humiliated, but because she trusts the man to be leading in a way that will make her look good. This is what Christ is doing for his church, seeking to “present the church to himself in splendor”, and it is what Jared will be seeking to do for you. Your job is to follow his lead, and to use the service that he offers you to do beautiful things that would never be possible on your own.
But both of you will find that all of this is impossible on your strength alone. We are not good enough, wise enough, strong enough or patient enough to love our wives as Christ loved the church or to submit to our husbands as unto the Lord. It is only because “your Redeemer lives”, as we sang in that hymn, and he is working in your lives to make this kind of goodness possible that you have any hope of success in this endeavor.
So this is my charge to you, Jared and Rachel, as frail children of a mighty God who has taken you up into his life – find your strength in the Lord, and press on. Excel still more. Learn to love each other better, to serve each other better, to respect and cherish each other better. Keep looking for reasons to be grateful for what the Lord is doing in your lives and what your spouse is doing for you, then say thanks for those good things. Press on with the hope of the glory set before you, the glory of the wedding supper of Jesus Christ, in which His church, of which you are a part, will be united with Him forever in a joy that transcends even the joy that you feel today. Do all of this to the glory of the God who saves you, and for the blessing of His people, who will see in you a hint of his love for us.
I Know That My Redeemer Lives
I know that my Redeemer lives
What comfort this sweet sentence gives
He lives, he lives Who once was dead
He lives, my ever living Head
He lives triumphant from the grave
He lives eternally to save
He lives, my mansion to prepare
He lives to lead me safely there
He lives and grants me daily breath
He lives and I shall conquer death
He lives, and while He lives I'll sing
He lives, my Prophet, Priest and King
He lives, all glory to His Name
He lives, my Jesus still the same
And oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives
I know that my Redeemer lives
Isaiah 40:6-8
40:6 A voice says, Cry!
And I said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
Ephesians 5:22-33
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
