Roblog

On Saturday, April 8, 2023, I had the privilege both of walking my daughter, Hannah, down the aisle to give in marriage to her soon-to-be-husband, Garret Landry, and of then giving the wedding homily, which follows.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”  And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”—Revelation 21:1-5

Everyone loves a happy ending. Or, at least, they should.  There are those who insist that happy endings are bogus, and that books and films that incorporate them are sentimental and unrealistic.  Critics, philosophers and the generally jaded have always resisted happy endings because, they say, that’s just not how things are.

Most of those Eyeores also say that those who long for happy endings are denying reality and are longing for a fantasy-fairy-tale existence that will never be.  It’s just escapism. They say the reason why we like happy endings is because we want there to be a happy ending; it just makes us feel better to believe that everything turns out all right.

Well, they’re wrong—praise God. The reason we like happy endings is not because we just want them to be true; we like happy endings because God created us for a happy ending. God made and saved his people for the ultimate happy ending: to spend eternity with him.  It is not escapism to long for wholeness and completeness in joy—it’s the very fulfillment of what we were made for! 

And that vision of that fulfillment is what we started this wedding ceremony with, from Revelation 21:1-5.

Here, in the second to the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, God decides to wrap up the entire story of redemption—with a wedding. But not just “a” wedding, it is the wedding—the wedding that all true weddings anticipate: The Marriage of the Lamb of God, God’s Son, to his Bride —every last one of those for whom the Lamb died to save, from the beginning of history to the end. They’re all here, in this vision. As Jesus said in John 17, he has not lost one of them.

So, as history ends and eternity begins, God draws every eye to look at his Son’s Bride. He’s saying, “Look at her! There was nothing that could keep me from getting her, nothing that could keep me from preparing her for my Son. Not Satan, not even her own sin and imperfection, not even her being prone to wander.” 

God’s heart’s desire was to get a Bride for his Son—so he loved her from before the foundation of the world, sent his Spirit throughout the ages to call her to himself, one by one, heart by heart, and sent his Son to redeem her, paying the full penalty for her sin on the cross, then rising from the dead to raise her to eternal life. What faithfulness! What commitment! Jesus truly paid it all to make his Bride his own, forever.

So how does today’s wedding compare to that one? Well, God won’t break the bank for the wedding of the Lamb, because he owns everything! Seriously, today’s wedding is but a shadow of that one; God means for all weddings, our marriages, our lives as husbands and wives to ultimately point to this wedding and its Groom:  Jesus.

God draws our attention to the Bride of Christ, redeemed by Jesus, at this wedding at the end of the ages, in order to draw our attention, before that time comes, to the faithfulness of Jesus. He sought us, he bought us—and so the rings you will wear, the vows you make, the union you will become, all of these are pointing you both to the God who loved you and gave himself for you.

So, Garret—show Hannah Jesus—because he is her Savior and Lord. Lead her to Jesus in your prayers, in your words, in your time in the Word. Just like you, without Jesus she can do nothing—but in him she can face all things. Love her like Christ loves his church—sacrificially, and to the very end. 

Hannah—show Garret Jesus. He needs the grace of Christ just like you, so he can shepherd you, care for you, and build you up. Keep him before the Lord every day in your heart and mind, in your honor and respect for him.

And both you—forgive one another, as Christ forgave you. You’ll need to do that every day, but he will give you the grace you need every day to do that. And never forget that he is with you. In this passage he says, “The dwelling place of God is with man.” That will be the face-to-face reality one day—but until then he has promised to never leave you or forsake you—you are not alone.

Finally, I also think God chose a wedding to end the Bible because weddings are new beginnings. He says here in verse 5, “I am making all things new.” Your new life together is a picture of the new life that will be ours with Christ, forever. So let God make every day something new in his grace—ever after—until you go to be with him or he returns. And no matter what, you will truly live happily ever after. That’s what you were made for. Here—and forever.

In the very last paragraph of the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis puts it this way:

“And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” (Lewis, C.S. The Last Battle. New York: Harper Collins, 1994, p 228.)