P. Pilgrim
Just recently I had the privilege of seeing the daughter of good friends get married. The parents were filled with love and joy at the sight of the beautiful bride and groom. It was a very special time for them, after the many months of planning and preparations that had gone into make it the perfect day. The emotions filled them with gladness and hope for the future of the new couple. The institution of marriage is as old as man, as some form of marriage has existed in all human cultures and nations throughout history. Marriage is a legally and socially sanctioned union, between a man and a woman, that is regulated by laws, rules, customs, beliefs, and attitudes that prescribe the rights and duties of the partners and accords status to their offspring. The main legal function of marriage is to ensure the rights of the partners with respect to each other, husband and wife together have protection and security in the case of death or divorce. Wedlock also ensures the rights and defines the relationships of children in the family, it confers a legitimate status on the offspring, which entitled them to the various privileges set down by the traditions of that community, including the right of inheritance. In western society marriage is entered into by a man and a women who have chosen each other and enter into a covenant one with the other. A traditional vows states that the groom takes his bride ‘to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part.” Other communities it can be an arranged marriage by parents or grandparents, although the ceremony is completed before witnesses and in the sight of God, with the exchanging of rings as a picture of belonging on to the other. It is something special and unique in creation. The main purpose of marriage is the close bond and companionship that is formed between the couple and for the procreation of children from the union. It is the strongest of bonds that mankind can have and it should not be entered into lightly nor divided asunder. However, marriage has an even greater significance, it is the symbol of the union that Christ has with his church. The church the people who love God are the bride and Jesus Christ is the groom. The apostle Paul gives us a beautiful description of what Jesus Christ does as the groom. In Ephesians 5 verse 28, 29 ‘So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:’ As the husband of the Church, Jesus gave Himself up for her in a sacrificial sense upon the cross, but also by leaving His Father and holding fast to His wife. Jesus left His Father in Heaven to hold fast to His Church on earth and become one flesh with her, taking on human flesh for eternity. In becoming fully human, Jesus sanctifies or makes holy and redeems his chosen church. Another way he nourisheth and cherisheth his church is by lifting up His Bride out of shame and sin, “having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word”, Ephesians 5 verse 26. Christ claims his church for himself and calls them his beloved. There is the treasure of finding someone so special and precious that they will never let it go. The bride too calls Christ ‘altogether lovely’ implying that there is no one like him and no one else who could redeem and save her.
