Marriage and the New Creation

In the sermon on Sunday, we noticed that Jesus roots his teaching on marriage based on the creation story in Genesis 1-2. But that’s not the only thing Jesus had to say about marriage. Jesus also gives his own revelation on marriage in the age to come. As we said, people were always going to Jesus to see what he would say about hot button issues, and in every generation, marriage is a hot-button issue. Sadducees came to him and asked him a question regarding marriage, but it actually was more of a test to see what Jesus would say regarding life after death.

Sadducees believed that people died and that was it. Based on their interpretation of scripture (the Law of Moses), they rejected the notion of life after death, which they regarded as a pagan influence. They were the ruling party in Jerusalem, and their teaching was official Jewish doctrine. As much as people see Pharisees as Jesus’ enemies, they were the party he had most in common with theologically. Both Jesus and the Pharisees believed that at the end of this age, God would physically resurrect the dead and bring them to judgment (Daniel 12:2).

The Sadducees had a good question regarding how that was to work practically. They brought to Jesus a scenario of a women who had seven different husbands die. In the resurrection, would she be married to seven men? That seemed like a wicked way to live forever. God would surely not be the author of that kind of existence, would he?

Jesus replied thusly: “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:34-36).

Marriage is for this age only, this age which is frequently characterized as that time of refining and testing in preparation for the age to come. In this age, marriage is bound up with our mortality, our need to have children, and our own psychological needs. For Christians, it teaches us how to live in a small, divine community of love, refining our character and allowing us to live a life of love for which we were made. In the world, marriage is fraught with difficulties and social inequalities, with women traditionally viewed more as property than as mission partners. (Christians ought not pretend to be immune from this.) Whether for character refinement or for social arrangements, neither of these will continue into God’s new age of perfection and new life.

If we do not experience marriage in the age to come, what will fill that void in human experience? As much as we know, God and community will be there, family seems to make life “complete” here and it’s hard to imagine happiness and fulfillment without it. Another picture of the future is John’s vision in Revelation, where he sees the holy city Jerusalem (representing) God’s people, coming down from heaven to earth, “prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). This is what I mean when I say that we are to find our completeness in Christ. Many churches are a bit more comfortable in worship than ECC with the idea of Jesus being our husband and using language of intimacy in worship of him. It is uncomfortable to think of that sometimes, but it’s very much true. Our missing piece, the one to whom we say, “You complete me,” is Jesus Christ. That’s the primary relationship we’re called to foster now and for eternity. And Jesus says we also find him in other people, especially “the least of these” (Mt 25). Digging into fellowship with other disciples, whether we’re married or not, is a way that Jesus has designed that we work on our intimacy with him. I’ve heard some say that in the coming age, it’s not that we will be married to nobody, but in a sense, married to everyone, experiencing the deepest and purest love and devotion with all God’s people.

Because of this, Paul says to go ahead and get on with living as though we’re already in that age, because, in a sense, we are. Because the kingdom of God has broken into the world through Jesus, and because he will be coming back soon (yes, Paul was living in this hope even back then), why bother with secondary matters? Paul says that single people ought to stay single, and that “those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away” (1 Cor 7:29-31). There is nothing wrong with marrying, but we ought to be focused on higher things – building for the kingdom. How do those with wives live as though they didn’t? I wouldn’t think that it would mean to abandon one’s spouse, but together, the couple are no longer to structure their marriage according to the age that is passing away, but find that they now live in a different story and are a part of a new family in Christ. Together, their primary call is to build up the family of God rather than their own bloodline. Together, they focus on growing into the loving character of Christ rather than preserve traditional social arrangements. The breaking in of God’s new age takes away the status and stigma the world associates with being married, single, divorced, widowed. We are all one family together, finding our completeness in Christ, loving each other and treating each other as family members with dignity.

May this week bring many opportunities to grow in selfless love, and may you boldly seize those opportunities.