Trinity Last
Dear friends in Christ. We come today to the final Sunday of this Church year. Our attention today is again turned to the Last Day, the day of Jesus’ return, the Day of Judgment. In His parable that we just heard, Jesus tells us the theme of this Sunday: Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. The whole point of Jesus telling us the parable is so that we are prepared for His coming on the Last Day. What Jesus describes in the parable using the imagery of the ten virgins awaiting the marriage celebration is the outward, visible Christian Church. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. What made some of them wise and some of them foolish? The wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. They were prepared in case they had to wait longer than they thought they would have to. And it was a good thing they did because the bridegroom was delayed.
The point for us, dear Christian, is clear. We must never take our faith for granted; we must never think that our faith and perseverance in the faith is something we can do later; we must never stop watching for and expecting Jesus’ return lest we look out for and concern ourselves only with the things of this world and so lose the things of Christ and heaven. So what does this being prepared for Jesus’ Coming, the day in which He shall come to judge the living and the dead, mean? It means, first and foremost that we have faith in Jesus in our hearts; that we now make faithful and diligent use of God’s holy word and sacrament—those very means/ instruments through which God works to create and preserve faith. It means that with our faith and confidence in the grace and mercy of God in Christ, that faith and love burns brightly also in love of neighbor and shows itself in all sorts of good work. Through this faith, which clings to Jesus and His holy word and which is active in love, we are ready when Jesus comes—be it on the Last Day or, if Jesus seemingly delays, at the moment of death.
In His parable, Jesus introduces Himself as the Bridegroom: ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Here is an image of Jesus that extends from the Old Testament to the New—Jesus/ God as the heavenly Bridegroom. Probably the most familiar NT example of this is what St. Paul writes [Eph. 5.25 f.]: 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. Here the Blessed Apostle describes the Church as the Bride and Jesus as the Bridegroom. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Also in the OT, the Lord describes His dealing with His people in terms of a marriage; and their unfaithfulness to Him is described as adultery. Perhaps this imagery is no more clearly in view than in the OT prophet St. Hosea, who records the Lord’s words of our text. As an object lesson to show the people their unfaithfulness to the Lord and yet His faithfulness to them, the Lord commands Hosea to marry a prostitute: When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” Here the Lord was calling Israel to repentance, showing them their sin; showing them they had fallen away from the true Lord; that they had fallen into spiritual adultery. Even though the Lord had shown them every grace and blessing, the Israelites turned away from Him and began worshipping the gods/ idols of the people around them. So what does the Lord do? He shows grace upon grace! Even though the people had rejected the Lord, He says, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her; and then finally come the words of our text: And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. The Lord, in grace, calls back to Him the one He loves but who had committed spiritual adultery against Him.
As we examine our text, we will see that the Lord is a faithful Bridegroom to His Church, to each of His dear Christians. Even when by our sin we fall away from the Lord, commit spiritual adultery, He is faithful to us, to His bride the Church and He seeks us out to restore us and cleanse us.
What a glorious word this is: the Church is the Bride of Christ; Jesus is the Bridegroom of His Church! Each true marriage, then, is a reflection/ image of that relationship between Jesus and His Church. Don’t think there’s nothing Satanic about the attempts to “redefine” marriage today; don’t think there’s nothing diabolical about the attacks on marriage: shacking up, lackadaisical attitudes toward marriage and divorce, having children out of wedlock, casual attitudes on sex, etc. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
Since the Church is the Bride of Christ, what is the foundation of that marriage? The Lord in our text: And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. Notice, three times Christ here says: I will betroth you to me. The foundation of this marriage between Christ and His Church is His ardent, fervent love for us. Except perhaps for the love between a parent and child, there is no love more ardent on earth than that between the bride and groom. Here, I [Jesus] will betroth you to me… The foundation of the marriage between Jesus and His Church is love. And here that love shows itself as Jesus entices, courts, persuades His beloved, the whole Christian Church.
Looking at our text, we see how remarkable this is—remember this is His OT people He is addressing, those who had rejected Him, who had gone off and worshipped other gods. He had every right to “divorce” them, to let them be and remain in their sin and damnation. But He doesn’t. He loves them; He speaks kindly to them; He tries to persuade them to return to Him. I will betroth you to me.
That same love is still the basis of the marriage between Jesus and His bride, the Church. We will daily and often sin, even grievously so; by our sin, we will turn from the Lord and serve other gods—the gods of money, power, prestige, etc. But the Lord loves us and seeks to draw us back to Him. This is His grace. With St. Hosea who takes back again his unfaithful wife, we have a beautiful object lesson of the Lord’s grace who takes us back after we have been unfaithful to Him by our sin. I will betroth you to me.
But just like love alone is not the foundation of a marriage, so also the marriage of Jesus and His Church is not based on love alone. Instead, what does Jesus say in our text? I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice. The foundation of the marriage between Jesus and His Church is also grounded on righteousness and justice, that is, the righteousness of Jesus and the divine justice He endured. This is another way of saying what St. Paul wrote: 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. Jesus’ righteousness is the foundation of the marriage between Jesus and the Church. Precisely because we sin, we have no righteousness by which we can earn, merit God’s gifts and favor; we have no right to a relationship with Jesus. But Jesus is our righteousness. He came to this earth to keep all of God’s holy law for us—and He did; by His perfect obedience and keeping of the law for us He offered the holy God what He demands of us. Now we can have a right relationship with the holy God.
Not only did Jesus, as our righteousness, obey God’s holy law for us, but He also took all of our sins with Him to the cross where He was judged by God as the world’s sinner. All of God’s wrath over our sin was poured out on Him not us. We are forgiven our sins; we have the righteousness of Jesus. In Christ, we are rescued from all unholiness and ungodliness. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her…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.
But Jesus promises more in our text, a further foundation of the marriage between Him and His bride the Church, you and me: I will betroth you to me … in steadfast love and in mercy. In Jesus, we are forgiven our sins; before God we have His perfect righteousness. But the fact remains that we are still sinners and will daily and often sin. Does that annul our relationship with the Lord? Does His love toward us stop with our sin? Absolutely not! I will betroth you to me … in steadfast love and in mercy. In pure grace, the Lord promises to show mercy and compassion to us in our weaknesses; He will overwhelm us with spiritual and heavenly blessings. In His steadfast love and mercy, He will bear our weaknesses, help and comfort us and rescue us from every trial.
How the Lord speaks so comfortingly as He entices us and allures us to Him I will betroth you to me, that we be His bride, the Church. And He adds the beautiful promise: And I will betroth you to me forever... I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. This is an everlasting union with Jesus. It begins now and goes into all eternity. It is eternally the same. The marriage between Jesus and His Church is not “till death do us part” but forever. This is an eternal faithfulness—never will the Lord withdraw mercy; in the faithfulness of God we have this pledge that it will stand forever. Faith holds to that —our Lord’s work and His promise that stands forever.
Even if we turn away from the Lord, His work, mercy and promise still stand and we can return to it. That’s what happens in confession. By our sin we have turned away from the Lord, but His word and mercy stand firm. And I will betroth you to me forever...I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. In faith, trusting in that work of Jesus and that word of forgiveness we go back to it. That glorious foundation of that marriage between Jesus and His Church: And I will betroth you to me.
Hear again St. Paul: 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. There’s baptism, the washing of water with the word, and the blessing of baptism, the forgiveness of sins: holy and without blemish. That faith that baptism works/ creates is the ring, if you will, by which we are betrothed to Christ, become the bride of Christ, and so become one body, heart and spirit with Him; each person who believes in Jesus is betrothed to Him in baptism by faith and so we have all things in common with Jesus. That means our sins are His—and He paid for them on the cross; it means that His holiness is ours. It means that His heaven is our heaven. That marriage between Jesus and His Church means that we are in Him and He is in us. In a wonderful way in the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus comes to us and gives us Himself—His body and blood that He may be in us and we in Him. How blessed for us that we, dear Christian, the Church, is the bride of Christ. It is a marriage on the firm foundation of His righteousness and judgment, love and compassion. And I will betroth you to me. INJ