A Lutheran Wedding
Happy May!
This month, help support our efforts to contend for the freedom to proclaim the faith.
There was a great wedding in Leipzig, Germany, in the mid-1730s. We don’t know whose wedding it was, and we wouldn’t think anything of it today at all, had not Johann Sebastian Bach composed a cantata for it. A cantata was a piece of concerted music, about 20 minutes long and split into various movements, made up of sung Scripture passages and poetic verses. Almost all of Bach’s cantatas end with a hymn stanza.
Think for a moment about which hymn stanza would best conclude a cantata at a wedding. What words should be echoing in the ears of bridegroom and bride as they prepare for married life together? Which would be best?
Hold that thought, and go back over 1,300 years from the time of Bach and over 1,500 miles from Leipzig to the 390s, to Syrian Antioch, where John Chrysostom is preaching a series of sermons on Ephesians. He gets to the great marriage passage in Ephesians 5: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:22-27).
Knowing that marriage is first and foremost about Christ and the Church, Chrysostom preaches the Gospel beautifully: “‘And He gave Himself up for her,’ it says, ‘in order that He might cleanse and sanctify her.’ Ah, so she was unclean! So she had blemishes! So she was deformed! So she was worthless! Whatever sort of wife you take, you will not take such a bride as that one that Christ took, the Church, nor one as far away from you as the Church was from Christ. But for all that He still did not loathe her nor hate her on account of her excessive deformity.”
Though himself a celibate, Chrysostom was a good pastor and knew the common plights within marriage. He knew how suspicion and backbiting can wreak havoc on a marriage: “Let no one be believed who criticizes the husband to his wife. And neither let the husband heedlessly believe something against his wife. Nor let the wife get unreasonably worked up about his coming in and going out. Nor, under any circumstances, let the husband show himself deserving of some suspicion.” Chrysostom knew the importance of the head of the house directing his wife and children with the Word of God: “Teach the fear of God, and all things will flow as from a fountain, and the house will be filled with myriads of good things.”
Rev. Andrew Richard is assistant pastor and the headmaster at Mount Hope Lutheran Church and School, Casper, WY. He also serves on the Board of Regents for Luther Classical College. This article was first printed in and is reprinted here with permission of Ad Fontes.
Be Informed
Dr. Michael New of the Charlotte Lozier Institute explains Colorado’s attempt to fund abortions through state Medicaid dollars. Listen here.
Be Equipped
A recent study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecologists notes that of 13,777 late-term abortions, “a staggering 1,541 resulted in a live birth. That means 11.2% of these babies were born alive—only to be left to die without medical intervention or outright killed.”
Be Encouraged
“By the washing of water, John made God’s divine intentions clear. Jesus was our brother indeed, on a heavenly mission to rescue and purify us from all sin. Dear Lord, keep us patient as we wait for You. Amen.” –Rev. Paul Koelpin, Martin Luther College
