Marry her the right way: Part 2

In the first blog I was arguing that the groom should at least be able to find the bride waiting for him and not the other way round and I got some helpful responses. One of them was that the waiting being referred to as we wait for Christ is different from the waiting in the hall when the groom is waiting for the bride. The other comment was that the passage in the Bible where Christ is being referred to as the groom is just an illustration. There were also comments that the waiting on the man’s side is closely related to how Adam got Eve. It was God who brought Eve to Adam and not the other way round. Adam had to wait for God to bring Eve so that is why the man waits for the bride. When you look at all the responses, they have meaning. One person gave a reason that while marriage is a picture of Christ and the Church the wedding ceremony is not.

My response then would be that if we are only considering Adam and not Christ then Adam’s argument stands. However, if we are considering Christ as well then we have some things to think about. If a couple is going to wed and have the picture of Christ and Church in mind, I believe it would be good for them to depict the pattern of the marriage supper of the lamb where Christ comes to take his bride away. The two should at least meet in the middle just as Christ will meet the Church in the sky. "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and the with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord"(1 Thes 4:16-17). This should be done in order to show the world what our marriages as Christians point to. I believe every genuine Christian wedding must point to Christ and the Church which many already do. This is for obvious reasons.

It’s true that the wedding ceremony is not marriage but I believe it is a step into marriage. Meeting the Lord in the sky is a step into the marriage supper of the Lamb just like engagement/courtship is not marriage but it is a step into marriage. I believe we as a church are in the engagement period. So we cannot say why do we have to meet the Lord in the sky? The answer is because that’s what the Bible says and you cannot change it. You will have to make that step before you get to the marriage. Same way we should not say why do we have to depict the image of Christ and Church? Is it really necessary? The answer is obvious. It’s because it’s a Christian wedding and that’s what Christian weddings should do. We also cannot say why did the Lord have to betroth us and not take us into the marriage supper directly? It is obvious isn’t it? So meeting the Lord in the sky is a step into the great marriage. If it’s a step into the marriage and its going to happen then our weddings must portray that. If the man and woman are going to wed and decide to follow this pattern then it must be done the right way. By the way it does not mean if you decide not to then you will not go to heaven or you will be sinning or your marriage will fail. This is not what gets us to heaven or what makes successful marriages. It’s about showing one of the steps into the marriage the same way Christ and the Church will make one of the steps into the great marriage by meeting in the sky. And if Christ will meet us in the air then we must also represent that in the wedding by having the bride and the groom meet somewhere in the middle. The groom takes the bride from the bride's Father and off they go to into marriage. The groom must not just stand like a statue waiting for the bride to come. At least this is not what Christ will do. He will come from somewhere and we will see him and then he will wait for us. If we think this act is less significant then we also shouldn't consider courtship and engagements to be important because they are only steps into marriage. In as much as they are significant steps into marriage they are not marriage. And if you do consider them to be less important then you may as well consider your “engagement” to Christ to be less important. We also shouldn't worry if courtships and engagements are not there since what is important is the marriage. We should just go straight into the marriage. I rest my case.