Ehrhard-Legoute Wedding

Legoute-Ehrhard Wedding
Ephesians 5:22-33
28 May, 2011
Blessed Savior Lutheran Church—Florissant, MO

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

3.

Three times in Holy Scripture it is said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen 2:24; Mt 19:5 & Mk 10:7-8; Eph 5:31). Whenever Scripture speaks once, Luther says, “there the Holy Ghost, faith, and other gifts of the Spirit must necessarily be.” Where Scripture speaks three times, we ought to give double attention to what it is that our Lord intends to sanctify by His Word.

The Father first speaks these words at creation, when no suitable helper can be found for Adam. So from his side, God creates woman—bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. She is man’s complement, filling in the spaces where he cannot help himself. God sanctifies marriage with these words; a holy estate instituted in the holiness of Eden. And it is by this holy estate and the union of man and woman that God continues His creative work, the unique aspects of two individuals becoming one flesh in their children. “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Ps 127:3).

The Son of God repeats the Father’s words in order to defend marriage against sinful abuses. The Pharisees came to Jesus looking for some justification for getting divorced from their wives—after all, even Moses allowed it. But Jesus says to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Mt 19:8).

Rachel and Lionel, unlike the first marriage where God joined together a righteous man and woman, today God is joining together two people with hard hearts. That’s the reality of sin. Not all days will be like your wedding day. Your heats will harden in sin against each other. You’ll bicker, you’ll fight, you’ll think that it was foolish to get married in the first place.

But the problem will not lie with your marriage—God has joined you together, let not man separate you—but the problem will lie in your own heart. Therefore, the solution will always and only be to have a change of heart. Jesus calls that repentance.

The third time the institution of marriage is invoked is by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians. But the words you heard read in the epistle were not St. Paul’s own opinions or advice about marriage—they were the preaching of the Holy Spirit. Here the Third Person of the Holy Trinity not only instructs Christians how to treat marriage, but also reveals to us why marriage is so important that God would repeat it three times in Holy Scripture.

2.

St. Paul writes, “’Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery in profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (v 32). Today, your union in one flesh as man and wife is pleasing to God because it is a picture of Christ’s union with us in the flesh.

We confess a God who is incarnate—enfleshed—by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary. The same Son of God who defended marriage against the abuses of the Pharisees is Himself the product of the fleshly union of God and man. The unique aspects of God and the unique aspects of man come together in the person of Jesus.

Earlier in his epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul writes that it was the eternal intention of God that He would wed Himself to His creation through the incarnation of Jesus—and He did so with the precise purpose to redeem us. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish”

Rachel and Lionel, Christ has wed Himself to you—hard hearts and all—in order to sanctify you with water and the Word of God, and to redeem you and all the sins within your marriage. Rachel, you are redeemed to gladly submit to Lionel in your marriage, just as you and he together gladly submit to the Lord. Lionel, you are redeemed in your marriage to give yourself up for Rachel in love and to treat her as you would your own body.

1.

Three times in Holy Scripture it is said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” I can only think of one other phrase in Scripture that is repeated as often: “Take, eat; this is My body…Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood” (Mt 26:26-28; Mk 14:22-24; Lk 22:19-20; 1 Cor 11:23-25).

In the same way that you will give each other rings in a few moments “as a pledge and token of wedded love and faithfulness,” so also has Christ given you a pledge and token of His love and faithfulness in the Holy Sacrament of His body and blood. When you go to the Sacrament, be reminded that your God is a God of flesh, who redeemed your flesh, and He is pleased with your union in one flesh.

St. Paul writes that marriage is a mystery.

THE GREAT MYSTERY OF YOUR MARRIAGE IS THAT IT REVEALS THE NATURE OF GOD’S LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

JWE

VD+MA