Well, our May will start to calm down some. Two college graduations and then the marriage of our oldest to the wife of his youth has filled my family with joy, love – and sheer exhaustion. A good feeling. So as I sat there watching Josh marry Chandler, there was hardly a moment when my eyes were not ready to tear, when my mouth was not brimming with a happy smile and when my heart was not overflowing with a daddy’s love and hope for his son and future daughter-in-law. Marriage can be for two perfectly suited together as Josh and Chan but marriage can help suit us perfectly for what we should be. For in that moment’s view was the amazing reality that God is the one who transforms everything around us and in us if we will but learn from Him.
Let me start with this illustration[i]. There once was a stately prince and a peasant girl who fell in love. This prince had everything in the world at his control: power, dominion, wealth and his choice of many women. He was the perfect specimen of a man that ever lived – a catch. On the other hand there was this peasant girl – an average girl at best. Her crankiness and moodiness kept her from becoming more in her life and character. To look at her from anyone else’s eyes you would never believe she was worth much. But through the prince’s eyes, she was “to die for.” The prince did not want to live without her and asked her to be His bride. The prince promised his bride that He would come back for her soon, and the peasant turned princess pledged to faithfully await his return.
More amazing than that the Prince chose the peasant girl is how the peasant girl acted after his proposal. You’d expect her to bubble over about the upcoming wedding but instead, she rarely ever mentioned it. You’d expect her every waking moment to be spent in planning the big day but instead, she invested all her time and usefulness in the mundane realities of life. And you’d expect her to be faithful but instead, you could not tell her apart from any other peasant girl flirting with other courtiers.
I know you think this is a fairy tale, but it has happened. Can you imagine? What lowly peasant girl fortunate enough to be the object of a perfect prince’s eternal love would do such a thing? Would you not expect her to be captivated by His love and filled with wonder that she was fortunate enough to be loved by Him? That’s a good question, but only we can answer it. You see, the story of the prince and His peasant bride is not a fairy tale, or some medieval fable. It isn’t a story about anyone else at all, but rather a story about us, you and me, the church. We are the ones who are “The Bride of Christ” for Paul says in Ephesians 5:32 that “this mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church” (NASB). Jesus came to us as our perfect Prince and promised to be our Husband and then, promised to return to us and take us to our home together forever.
The most powerful image of the relationship between God and humans is marriage. Even in the Old Testament, Isaiah 62:5, God speaks through the prophet, “…as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you” (NASB). In Hosea 2:19-20 God promises His people, “I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion” (NIV). It isn’t a novel description – but it is a powerful one.
In a Jewish wedding, there was an initial engagement or betrothal. Often arranged by the family of a man and woman, the couple was considered husband and wife from betrothal even though they remained apart. Then at a future date, the groom would return to claim his bride. At that time there would be a wedding feast and a formal uniting of the couple, and they would live together and begin their life as a family. During the betrothal both groom and bride were supposed to remain faithful.
In the New Testament, Paul pleads for fidelity in the church at Corinth and says, “I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. For I promised you as a pure bride to one husband, Christ” (2Corinthians 11:2, NLT). In Revelation 19:6-9, John describes the return of Christ with pictures of the bridegroom coming to claim His betrothed: “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready…” (NIV)
These powerful images remind me of the perfect view at a wedding. It is not the front row although I loved being that close. It isn’t in the middle to see the expanse of the wedding party. It is seeing what God has done in this masterful thing called marriage – a life altering and soul enhancing relationship to connect each spouse to the knowledge of God’s relationship with us with just how deeply He loves us, and how intimately He wants to relate to us. This is no “one night stand” that God calls us to, but a “lifetime” of covenant life in growing closer to Him.
Then, when you return to the story I began with – the church as the peasant bride and Christ as the perfect Prince – we come to some key points that secure this view to keep our eyes on Jesus.
Christ chose us. In Jewish culture where the bride is chosen for you, you would hope she would be pretty, kind and honest – and in my personal case – a good cook. It certainly can be said that the Father chose Christ for us. But that means that the Father chose a cast of motley humanity full of sinners, liars, and cheaters and said to His Son, they are yours. Imagine if your dad brought a bride like that to you, what would you do? And then the story gets better, the Perfect Prince still chose the peasant bride. He chose us while we were sinners. He loved us what we were unfaithful. He came to us though our garments were soiled and our faces ruined from the sin of our lives and He said, “will you marry me?”
Christ loves us. Christ has fallen “head over heels” in love. Only love would lead one to be crucified his His bride: nails driven in His wrists and feet and a crown of thorns wedged into His head. Only love would do that. And the peasant bride, still unworthy of such a love, is easily likened to Isaiah’s description of sinners as those in whom “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (64:6, NASB). If it depended on us, there would be no wedding. But Jesus couldn’t bear to spend eternity without us. So with His blood he clothed us for our wedding. Isaiah 61:10 says, “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (NLT).
Christ is coming back. Now I have to tell you, given who we are and the way we sometimes behave, I can’t imagine why the perfect prince would want us as His bride. Christians are far from perfect. We are sometimes cranky and cantankerous. We fail to live up to our God given responsibilities. There are times when our faithfulness wears pretty thin, and our eyes wander. Sometimes our hearts get side-tracked and we let things like material possessions and power and prestige become more important in our lives than the bridegroom who loves us more than life itself. But He will return for us. Jesus said “if it were not so I would have told you” (John 14:1-3). And Peter says, “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming… So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him” (2Peter 3:11-14, NIV).
Jesus is the Perfect Prince. And He has chose you and me as His peasant bride. So what are you doing to be prepared for the One who chose you, loves you, and is coming back to take you Home?
[i] from Max Lucado’s book When Christ Comes.