The Marriage

Revelation 20:11-21:8

I wrote this quite a few years ago but it was inspired by this passage.

Picture the scene.

The bride is standing in front of the church with her back to the congregation, but we all know that she is looking radiant as she gazes into the eyes of her loved one. Her black curls fall onto her white dress. The dress is covered with embroidery and pearls. It has a long train. One of the most splendid gowns we have seen.

Beside the bride stands the groom. He looks at the bride with eyes full of adoration as he dreams of the life they will share together, of the hours that they can spend in each other's company. He is wearing a suit of the most brilliant white, whiter than the purest snow, for he is Jesus our Lord and King.

The bride vows that she will love and obey for ever, as they believe in the love that lasts into eternity. They know that they will do anything, go anywhere for each other, even unto death. How they look forward to their future life of mutual devotion.

As we expect the honeymoon is wonderful. Hours spent in each others company, with eyes and cares for nobody or anythingelse. Time with the person they have chosen, an intimate and cozy time. The sky is blue and the sun shines, there is nothing to dim the light of their love.

Returning to their home there are presents, chores and bills waiting for them. The life of roses tends to drift from the fragrant and beautiful blooms to the thorny stem of the bush. Unfortunately she does not realise that the pleasing and the uncomfortable are all part of the same plant. She lets her eyes wonder to other lovers, they all take their share of her emotions.

The presents, although they were the best that their friends could give them are not quite good enough, nor do they satisfy all that society thinks that they ought to have. She is not willing to follow her spouse's time scale with regard to increasing thier possessions. She wants him to provide more for her NOW.

Then along come the children, offspring of the divine and the human. She begins to devote herself more to the little things that grow ostensibly in his name. He wants to name the children Praise, Prayer and Charity but she calls them Good Works, Altar Guild, and Church Bazaar. These children come in the name of the Lord, but insidiously cause the wife to turn her eyes away from spouse.

Above all is the desire to live for herself, to be somebody in her own right grows in importance. She glances back at the time before her decision to give herself to him and sees that the old freedom has gone, there is another person to consider as well as herself. She forgets to look forward to the joy which they anticipated, she forgets to gaze again into his ever-loving eyes.

There is more discord when she wants him to be what he is not, to be a visible and powerful king over the whole earth. He wants to take possession of the earth through the growth of their love.

The time comes when the only way out of the situation is for him to allow himself to be taken prisoner for her debts and to pay the price for her sins in the hope that she will see his look of compassion as he gazes at her from his cross. She might then come to him again in their new life together. This time she might rely on him to help her to find the person that she really is.

We, the church are the bride (Ephesians 5:25). It is wonderful that this marriage takes place every day of our lives. New people turn to Christ and announce their love for him and he is able to look forward to another loving relationship. He enters into the relationship even though he knows that we will not be faithful. But we let him down and wonder away from him. He gives his life for us. We can enter into a new marriage with the resurrected Christ. This one will last for ever as long as we keep glancing back at the cross, knowing that he would go through it all again for us.

He is the perfect marriage partner, very much married 'for better, for worse '.

We are such bad partners when we consider our marriage to Jesus Christ that we ought to view our earthly spouse with a slightly more tolerant attitude than is often the case.