I Now Pronounce You...
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To understand the meaning of the imagery in the Bible, and especially in the Book of Revelation, we must be willing to set aside our “knowledge” of the way things are and hear the Scriptures as the original listeners heard them. It is often a difficult step for us. We are far removed from their culture, their traditions and their rituals. We are often trapped by our own culture. We assume our own traditions are rooted in antiquity. We think our rituals are the way all people everywhere at all times have done things. Often we become unaware of the reasons behind our activities. In doing that, we empty the traditions and rituals of all meaning or substitute the original reason for a new one.
There is a story often told that illustrates how this can happen. A young wife was preparing a roast for a meal. As she prepared the roast, she cut a chunk of meat off one end and threw it away. Her husband asked why she did this. Her reply was, “I don’t know. It is the way my mother always prepared a roast.” The next time she spoke to her mother, she asked the reason behind cutting the end off the roast. Her mother replied, “I don’t know. It is the way my mother always prepared a roast.” The young wife then reached out to her grandmother with the same question. Her grandmother replied, “It is because all I had was a small roasting pan and the roast would not fit.”
Often the reasons behind our traditions and activities are as simple as that. There is no harm in not knowing the background. It makes no difference whether or not we follow the tradition. The danger in this situation is in insisting that there is only one right way to prepare a roast and that there is clearly something wrong with an individual who would put a roast in a pan without cutting the end off. We develop a false sense of superiority because of how we believe something should be done without ever examining the reasons behind our actions.
There are other times when understanding the meaning behind the action can add a depth of richness to the tradition or ritual. Understanding our own traditions can also lead us to be more accepting of the traditions and rituals of others. We can begin to understand that our way of doing things, though it has a richness of meaning for us, is just that - our way of doing things. It may not be the universal way of doing things and, unless mandated by Scripture, it may not even be the only right way of doing things.
Again, let me illustrate. Under normal circumstances today would be Communion Sunday. Here are Grace Community Fellowship we have several traditions concerning Holy Communion. Except for Christmas Eve, Maundy Thursday and Easter, we celebrate Holy Communion on the first Sunday of the month. The communion elements are already at the front of the church as the service begins. We sing Lamb of God as a communion hymn. We use a common loaf and a chalice filled with grape juice. We invite people to step out and come forward to receive the elements. We celebrate an open communion, inviting any and all to come and receive, regardless of age, regardless of church membership. We celebrate communion by intinction.
We do all of these things intentionally. Every aspect of our communion service is prepared with purpose. I have thought through each detail of it and every part has meaning attached to it. Some of that purpose and meaning may be obvious. Some of it may be less clear. This message is not titled, How We Celebrate Communion and Why, so I will not go into the rationale behind the ritual.
Our sisters and brothers across the parking lot at Fountain of Life UMC or down the street at Risen Savior Lutheran Church or Buffalo Christian Church or around the globe at a congregation of the Africa Gospel Church may share a few or many of those details with us. They may also differ slightly or completely. They may use wine instead of grape juice. They may use individual cups and wafers instead of a chalice and common loaf. They may distribute to people where they are sitting instead of inviting them forward. No matter how unlike our communion tradition is, they are not wrong or less spiritual, their tradition is simply different.
When it comes to understanding the timeless meaning of Scripture it is even more important that we understand that our way of thinking and our way of doing things is just that - our way. As I said earlier, we must be willing to set aside our “knowledge” of the way things are and hear the Scriptures as the original listeners heard them. We must understand that there is a significant chasm between our 21st century Western mindset, steeped as it is in a particularly Americanized Judeo-Christian culture and the first century Eastern mindset of the world of the Bible, steeped in Jewish thought and the Roman world. I believe that to truly understand what God is saying to us, we must do the hard work of first understanding what God was saying to them. The message remains the same. We just need to get out of our culture and into theirs before we can return to ours with the gems mined from Scripture.
This brings us to the passage before us today. During this time when we have been apart from one another, I have sought to encourage some sense of unity and togetherness by encouraging the use of The Daily Office. In this way, we have been together praying through the same round of thanksgivings and intercessions, even as each has personalized and added to those prayers. We have daily been in the same places in God’s Word, allowing God’s Spirit to work in our hearts and speak to our lives from the same vantage point. I have been encouraged by the number of people who have utilized the various methods of accessing The Daily Office that have been made available. As I said when I introduced it at the beginning of this time, The Daily Office is what God uses to feed my soul and I hope it does the same for you. As long as there is a desire for it, I plan to continue to make it available as life returns to whatever normal is going to be.
To support the use of The Daily Office and, honestly, to simplify things for myself in some small way, I have been preaching primarily from the passages laid out there. This morning we find ourselves in the book of Revelation. The full passage, which I read earlier, is Revelation 19:4-16. I want to focus on verses 6-9. Hear them again:
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.
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;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
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.”
This is where all that I said by way of introduction comes into play. To understand the importance of the marriage images of the Book of Revelation, we need to understand the wedding process at the time of the New Testament. It was in some ways it was like the wedding process that we are familiar with. In other ways, it was quite different from the wedding process we are familiar with.
Before we look at the stages of a marriage in the world of the Bible, we need to make sure we understand who the players are. This is, as it tells us in verse 9, the marriage supper of the Lamb. It is the Lamb who is of supreme importance here. That Lamb, of course, is Jesus Christ. He was crucified as the Passover Lamb and has been raised in victory over death. He has ascended into heaven and, in this picture from Revelation, is being united with his bride.
The Bride is the Church universal and triumphant. This image of being a bride, of being betrothed to God, was used in the Old Testament to describe the relationship between God and the people of Israel. In the New Testament the image has been transferred to the Church. It is important to remember that the primary message of the book of Revelation is a call to remain faithful no matter what happens. Over and over again, those who conquer, those who overcome, those who remain faithful through whatever comes and to the end are promised blessing.
So we have the Lamb, we have the Bride and we have a marriage in three acts. Because it is where the passage begins, let me begin with act three and work backward.
The Marriage Supper
The Marriage Supper
The marriage supper mentioned in Revelation 19:9 is the glorious celebration after Christ has come to take His people home. It is the obvious and eternal declaration that Christ has taken us to himself. The marriage supper is our great future hope. It is also referred to as the wedding supper or the wedding banquet. Jesus used the wedding banquet as the image for some of his parables that refer to the final judgment and a place in the eternal Kingdom of God. We are not yet experiencing the marriage supper. In fact, it is interesting that even in Psalm 23:5 where we have that great promise of a table prepared, the word for prepare is one of an act that is not yet complete, that is in the future. The marriage supper is not for the present, it is for the future. It is not a reality in our current world and our current lives, but knowing it is coming gives us great hope.
Jesus left us a hint of what it will be like. According to John, chapter 2, the first miracle Jesus performed happened at a wedding feast, a marriage supper. John tells us in 2:11 that this was the first of Jesus’ signs and that it manifested his glory. People have often debated the meaning behind the turning of water into wine and why it was significant enough to be listed as the first way Jesus revealed his glory to the world. I think it is possible that Jesus had the end in mind. I think that it is possible that he wanted, at the beginning of his ministry, to reveal a little of what eternity in His presence would be like. Through the quantity and the quality of the wine he left behind, He foreshadowed the marriage supper of the Lamb.
The Wedding
The Wedding
The second act, the climactic act of the whole process is the wedding itself. For the Church, the Bride of Christ, the second coming of Christ is the wedding. This is where we begin to see a disconnect between the world of the Bible and our culture. In our culture one of the first steps in wedding preparation is setting a date. In fact, most of the time when a couple approaches me about officiating their service they have already set a date and are hoping that I am available on the day they have chosen. The setting of the date may be dependent on the availability of a specific venue for the ceremony or reception. It may be a significant date because of some other event in the life or the history of the family. It may be a date locked in on the calendar, like Valentine's Day or New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Whatever the reason, setting a date is a crucial step of a modern wedding. Save the Date cards are sent and invitations are printed with date, time and location.
In the world of the Bible, the date of the wedding was not the crucial thing. The preparations were of primary importance. For our mindset, the preparations are driven by the date previously set. Ready or not, a wedding is taking place on May 24 at 4:00 p.m., so you had better be ready. As the officiant I have watched the panicked last-minute flurry of activity on more than one occasion. I like the weddings I officiate to start on time, so the clock is ticking and everything needs to be wrapped up. As a groom, as a parent, as a cook for the marriage supper, I have felt the time pressure. The numbers on the calendar and clock drive the preparations. Ready or not, here comes the bride.
In the world of the Bible, the date was driven by the preparations. Jesus used wedding language in John 14:1-4
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 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? 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. And you know the way to where I am going.”
I will get to what he meant by that in a moment as I talk about the third (or first) act, but I want you to notice something that reveals the difference between their mindset and ours. In verse 5 Thomas replies to what Jesus has said. If we had heard Jesus say, “I go, I will come again, I will take you,” our question would probably be a when question. We want to know when Jesus is coming back. We want to know when the wedding is going to take place. The question Thomas asked was not a when question, but a where question. Thomas already knew the answer to the when question - When things are ready.
We see the same thing in Matthew 25, in what we know as the parable of the ten virgins. The five foolish ones took their lamps but no oil because they thought the bridegroom would come soon. The five wise ones brought extra oil with them. If they had known the date and time of the wedding, they would have known the proper amount of oil to have on hand. But the wedding was driven by preparations, not a calendar.
The Betrothal
The Betrothal
In act one we have the betrothal. We would think of it as an engagement, but in the Biblical world it was much stronger than what we think of today. In the betrothal an agreement, a covenant, was made. The couple would be referred to as husband and wife, but they did not begin to live together as husband and wife. They were bound to one another and the engagement was broken by only the most serious of situations.
We find Joseph in this quandary with Mary (Matthew 1:18-21)
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Mary’s apparent adultery was grounds for the betrothal to be broken. Notice that Joseph is referred to as husband and that divorce was a possibility. This was before the wedding took place.
The betrothal was a commitment of fidelity to one another. During this time the bridegroom was doing what Jesus said he was leaving to do. The bridegroom was preparing a home for he and his bride to move into. When those preparations were complete, he would go to the home of the bride, the wedding would take place and the marriage supper would celebrate the new union.
Typically, the bridegroom would add a room to his father’s house. Generally, the bride would leave her family and move in with her husband’s family. When Jesus said in John 14 that his Father’s house has many rooms, he was assuring us that that is space for all of us. He said that when the preparations were complete he would come and get us, as the bridegroom went to the bride when his preparations were complete.
We are in act one. We in the time of betrothal. Jesus came. He asked us to be his own, to be his bride. He has gone to make preparations. When that is complete, he will come again and the wedding will take place. All of eternity will be the celebration of the marriage supper of the Lamb.
There is one other detail I want you to notice in the passage from Revelation 19. The Bridegroom isn't the only one who is preparing. The Bride is also preparing herself. The Church has work to do while we wait for Jesus to come and call us to himself. Look at Revelation 19:8 with me.
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
The Bride is given the privilege and the responsibility to be at work. The fine linen that we are to be dressed in for the marriage supper is righteous deeds.
I want to be clear. We do not enter into relationship with Jesus Christ by our actions, our works. We simply respond to his grace-filled invitation by faith.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
We receive - active verb
We believe - active verb
He gave - same word as granted in Revelation 19:8
We become children of God
And, of course, we know Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Salvation comes by grace, but through faith. This is the noun form of the word ‘believed’ in John 1:12.
To use the marriage language, a wedding without mutual consent is called a kidnapping. When I am planning a wedding ceremony I tell the couple that I am pretty flexible about what the wedding looks like. However, there are a couple of things that must be included. One of them is what we call the Declaration of Intention. I need both parties to affirm that they are entering into this marriage of their own free will.
We do not enter into relationship with Christ by our works, but part of the vows we take, the covenant relationship we have with Christ is to do good works, righteous deeds. When Jesus spoke of what would separate folks into categories of those welcomed into the kingdom and those rejected, he spoke of works.
James 2:14-18 clearly tells us of the importance of works in relationship to faith.
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
If we are still unsure he gives us verse 26 (James 2:26)
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
There is a great marriage supper being prepared. There is a banquet beyond imagining that is being laid out for us. Jesus has invited us all to be betrothed to Him. He says to all, “Come unto me.” To those who have said, “Yes,” he gives the promise that He has gone to prepare a home for us. When He is ready He will come again and we will celebrate that eternal and glorious banquet.
While we are writing we prepare. We prepare by doing works of mercy and justice. We prepare by soaking in the Word of God so that we can know the works that God would have us do. We prepare by allowing the blood of the Lamb to cleanse every nook and cranny of our heart and soul and mind, so that we can love our neighbor as ourselves in the very tangible ways that Jesus taught and showed. We prepare by listening to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit making us aware of the needs both around us and around the world and responding personally by giving of time, talents, energy and finances and encouraging others to join us in meeting those needs.
Those invited to the marriage supper are those clothed in the fine linen of righteous deeds. Let us not be guilty of making a mockery of the betrothal covenant. He is indeed merciful and forgiving, but to respond to the call to love God and love others is to give him our very best. It is to continually refill the oil in our lamps so that we have no worry of running out before we hear God say, “I now pronounce you...”