Sacred things

Several years ago, some friends asked me to perform their wedding ceremony. After a check on the legal requirements for a wedding, I was happy to do so. There was a "wedding folder" that was handed around the meeting: the deal was that you could use whatever you saw in there that you liked, but you had to put "your" wedding ceremony in there too.

When I was working with the couple to set up the actual ceremony, an "older" brother commented to me that we really don't see a whole lot about weddings in scripture. He's right, of course. I don't agree with that brother on everything, but I have yet to hear him make a misstatement about what scripture actually says. I aspire to be him someday.

 

Scripture has some things to say about marriage, but it's almost silent on weddings. And this turns out to be a big deal.

Ephesians 5:22–33 is a fairly long section on marriage. And we like to quote it. But it takes on a new meaning when we pause to consider that it's extremely unlikely any of the Ephesians Paul addressed had been married in a church. It seems likely they would have been married in a pagan temple. 

As an aside, when I've tried to search for "church wedding history" online, and it's hard to find anything at all. One site claims the earliest record we have of a church wedding is from Council of Carthage (398 AD) ("History of Church Weddings"). I have no idea if that's accurate, but it's the best information I could find.

That means that the scriptural definition of a Christian marriage has nothing to do with the ceremony, who conducted it, or where it was conducted. As far as Scripture is concerned, if at least one spouse is a Christian, then it's a Christian marriage (1 Corinthians 7:12–15).

If a couple was married in a Mormon temple, or town hall, or a Catholic church, or a Baptist church, or in a Buddhist ceremony, as long as one of them is a believer, then it's a Christian marriage. We should let that sink in.

I've spent a whole lot of time writing about new creation on my blog. I am convinced that a Christian is not merely a forgiven sinner, but is a new creature in Christ Jesus. I am convinced that the one who believes God is justified freely from all sins, and is acquitted in God's sight (Acts 13:39, Romans 4:5). The Old Testament saints had that too (Romans 4:1–8), what they didn't have was union with Christ.  

And I am convinced that the failure to see the Christian life as something entirely new – from an entirely new source, and with an entirely new Object – is the source of so many problems we see around us now (Galatians 6:15).

We have been buried with Christ so that we should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). And notice it's not our good intentions and hard work that empower that newness of life, but being raised with Him.

That new life – that entirely new thing we have and are in Christ Jesus – expresses itself in shockingly ordinary things. Ellis Potter points out that the Lord, having been raised from the dead, cooked fish and bread for His disciples on the beach (John 21:9–13).  So is there anything more spiritual than kindling a fire and cooking fish on it? I don't think there is.

 

The thought that none of the Ephesians had a Christian wedding – but they all had Christian marriages – shows that when we come to the Lord, all parts of our lives are His. He is Lord over the "Christian" parts of our lives, and He's Lord over the "non-Christian" parts of our lives.  Everything we do, even the most mundane things, are now to be done for Him, to Him, and in His name (Colossians 3:17).

The teaching of the Pauline epistles is that a Christian doesn't get to have a "Mundane" compartment and a "Holy" compartment: our whole lives are in the "Holy" compartment.

We talk a lot about our union with Christ: He died, and I died with Him (Galatians 2:19–20). He was buried, and I was buried with Him (Romans 6:4). He was raised, and I have been raised with Him (Colossians 3:1). I – the man I was – was so bad that the only remedy was to put me to death (Romans 6:6). Now, I am uniquely able to bring forth fruit to God (Romans 7:4), because I have died with Him. I don't strive to have died with Christ, I accept it as true, and count on it in my thinking (Romans 6:11).

So I am a man who has died with Christ. I am a man who is waiting for a new heavens and a new earth (2 Peter 3:13), but I'm not just sitting here, waiting for them. No, I am called to live this life – the life of Jesus manifested in mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:11) – in this fallen body, in a fallen world. 

Not every part of the life of the man I was is capable of resurrection. Those things are to be put to death (Colossians 3:5ff). And notice, a man who has not died cannot mortify. It is those who have already died and been raised who are called to mortify.

But there are things in a fallen man's (or woman's!) life that cannot remain after that man (or woman!) has died and been raised with Christ. And those things have to go. If we can't do it in the name of Christ, we ought not to do it.

 

But a shocking number of things that were part of that old life are now claimed as Christ's. God doesn't care what kind of marriage ceremony you had, your marriage is now a picture of Christ and the church. And notice, it is a picture of Christ's love: it might be a bad picture, but it is a picture.

On this side of the Cross, even what you eat and drink is Christ's business. And notice Scripture doesn't then go on to tell us what those things are (or ought to be). That would be simpler. It says we are to eat and drink them "to the Lord," even while we have freedom in choosing what they are (Romans 14:1–6).

So might say there are two compartments in the Christian life, but they aren't "Mundane" and "Sacred." They are rather, "Sacred" and "To be Mortified."  So we don't get to keep any part of our lives that aren't sacred: if part of my life isn't under Christ's lordship, then it's something I need to put off, mortify, be done with. If it's something that's allowed, then it's under His lordship, done for His glory, in His name.

I spent most of one Saturday a few years ago cooking chicken and dumplings for an assembly potluck. It was work, but it was a labor of love. At that time, I might have considered that to be non-spiritual effort. Sure, it's effort done out of love for the Lord, for His people, and to bless them. But I wouldn't have considered it to be spiritual.

But now I look back on that, and I think about how the Lord made wine for a wedding (John 2:7–10). And He baked bread and broiled fish for the disciples (John 21:9). So yes, cooking for the Lord's people is not only spiritual, but it's also following in His footsteps. It's doing something the Lord Himself considered worthwhile.

It's not a mistake in John's gospel that the "signs" in that gospel start with Lord's making wine at the wedding (John 2:11).

So there, we started out talking about weddings, and we've come back to what must have been the greatest wedding. Imagine what it would be like to have the Son of God as the sommelier at your wedding! There is a greater wedding coming, but I really do believe the wedding of the unknown couple in Cana probably ranks second.

The Lord  takes up things of this life, and calls them His own,  and puts them under His lordship, and commands us to do them for and to Him, in His name.  That makes them sacred. That sanctifies them.