Liturgical texts: Genesis 22:1–19 / Hebrews 9:11–15 / John 8:46–59a

Marriage texts: Genesis 1:26-28 / Ephesians 5:1-2, 22-33 / Matthew 19:4-6

https://app.dropwave.io/episode/c00c0298-4ce1-4013-96c9-c76d79182919/judica-passion-sunday-lent-5-ad-2026-holy-matrimony-of-sean-and-esra.mp3

++ JESU JUVA ++

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

According to the church year, it's an unusual time for a wedding. Crosses are veiled. The Gloria Patri is removed. Joy is restrained. According to the lectionary, it’s an unusual time for a wedding. Today’s Gospel records the most pointed argument between Jesus and the Jews. They call Him demonic; He says they are liars. Rejecting Him, they will die in their sins. Yet even as they reject Him, Jesus proclaims His divine and saving Gospel to them. He promises them eternal life.

Today Sean and Esra have come to church to be joined in holy marriage. They desire to begin their married life in church and with God’s Word and blessing. As God has done since the creation of the world, today He joins man and woman in holy matrimony. A wedding is a time for great joy. It might seem kind of disjointed to bring these two observations together, yet we are reminded that God’s institution of holy marriage is an earthly picture of the union between Christ and His church. The marriage of Christ and His Church is lived out here — in the Church’s Liturgy. We will explore this under three headings: Commitment; Conversation; Consummation.

Even so, we must beware to not reduce the marriage vows to be mere commitment, conversation, and even consummation. Sean and Esra, is not your commitment one another that sustains your marriage. Neither is it your speaking to one another — or even your one flesh union.

Today is not about you. It’s not really even about your wedding and the joy that we share with you. Today is the Lord’s day. God is the one who has brought you together. God invented marriage, and He is the one who gives a wife to a man, who gives a husband to a woman. God puts you into the office of husband and wife. God joins you together. That’s what He will do at His altar today. Sean, today God attaches His Word to Esra and declares that she belongs to you as your dear wife. Esra, today God attaches His Word to Sean and declares that he belongs to you as your dear husband. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate (Matthew 19:6). So we consider Christ and holy marriage.

First, commitment — or, what the relationship is.

It is not good that man should be alone (Genesis 2:18). From heaven He came and sought her To be His holy bride; With His own blood He bought her, And for her life He died (LSB 644:1).

Throughout the Old Testament, God required His people to offer animal sacrifices to atone for their sins. But the sacrifice that Jesus makes is not like the Old Testament system. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12). Jesus gives Himself. He sacrifices. He lays down His life — He dies! — that His Bride would live.

We see in the table of duties from Ephesians 5 that husbands are to love their wives “just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Ephesians 5:25). Husband, you are called to love your wife as Christ loves His bride. You are to sacrifice yourself for her. If the need arises, you are to die in order to save her life. But in the day-to-day, it means you must put your selfish desires to death for her sake.

Husband, since you are the head, the consequences of neglecting your duty are much more serious than if your wife refuses hers. You’re a picture of Christ to your wife. If she neglects her duties and doesn’t subordinate herself to you, then she illustrates how the Church struggles with subordinating herself to Christ, her Husband. She shows that for now the Church still has a sinful, rebellious flesh, which is true. But if you neglect your duties and don’t love your wife, you say something about Christ, and what you say is false (Christ and the Church, Andrew Richard, p. 23)

Husband, this is why the most important thing you can do for your wife is to come to the Divine Service and receive Christ’s love. Unless you receive the love of Christ as a member of His Church, you won’t have any to give her. Receive Christ’s forgiveness for your failings. Christ’s gift and commitment to you is what enables and strengthens you to love your wife. In today’s Old Testament, Abraham has this kind of commitment to the Lord's word and command — even to the point of giving up his own dear son — because he trusts that the Lord is good. Husband, through your Lord’s gift to you, you now make your wife holy with the Word of God. Speak of God’s Word to her; pray for her. You, also, must pray. You must remember that you are under the authority of God’s Word and that you need God’s help to do your duty.

Wife, you are called to willingly subordinate yourself to your husband. In our sinful minds, we hear ‘subordinate’ or ‘submit’ and we think it means ‘be oppressed.’ But this is a matter of God’s good order. According to God’s good order, Christ is the Head; the Church is His body. The Church is subordinate to Christ. And what a horrible place she’s in! She has to be dependent on a Head who gave His life because she couldn’t save herself. She has to be loved by One who feels her pain and thinks nothing of His own personal benefit. She lives under the authority of the One who bears all her sins away.

Being subordinate has to do with the order by which God gives blessings. Wife, you have the divinely given duties of being served, being loved, being given to. Wife, you are called to willingly subordinate yourself and submit to your husband as the Church does to Christ. To respect and trust your husbands as the Church receives Christ. In this way, the love of bridegroom and bride is embodied in commitment to one another.

Second, conversation — or, how the relationship lives; what keeps it alive.

Just as you cannot have a relationship with someone without spending time with that person and speaking to one another, so also with God. The Church’s holy Liturgy is fundamentally a conversation. God speaks first. He always speaks first. You do not bring yourself to God. God brings you to Him. Apart from His work, you remain dead in your sins. He calls. He initiates. He makes alive.

And just as it was God’s speaking that brought you to faith, so it is in the Divine Service. This Divine Service begins with God’s name placed upon you; His absolution spoken to cleanse you, covering you with the righteousness of Christ; His Word read and preached. The Body and Blood of Jesus given from the altar. Having heard God speak, the Church responds. She submits to His Word because whatever He commands and whatever He promises is for her good. She answers Him with confession; with prayer and praise; with thanksgiving.