“More than Tradition, More than Command; It’s Mystery!” by Rev. Richard P. Laeder, Emeritus

ST MATTHEW Sunday Aug 23 2015 | Pentecost Proper 16 Year B  

Isaiah 29:11–19, Psalm 14, Ephesians 5:22–33, Mark 7:1–13

 

Grace, mercy and peace be multiplied to you from God the Father of our head, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

SERMON TEXT: ““Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” (Ephesians 5:31–33, ESV)

 

SERMON THEME/TITLE: “More than Tradition, More than Command, It’s Mystery”

 

When a man and a woman meet and begin to focus on each other something happens. For me and my wife Bonnie it began at a Mr. Hotdog stand in Saginaw. Ain’t that romantic? Then it was a date chaperoned by my older sister. Sweet, huh! Then it was an engagement ring. Then it was 15 months separation while I served my country with a couple of tours to Viet Nam. Then it was marriage and then three children. And – well, you know how it goes. When a man and a woman meet and begin to focus on each other something happens; and there is no mystery in that. It’s all chemistry and hormones and emotions and all those natural things.

 

However, there is something else that happens in a marriage of one man with one woman that has been ordained by God; and that is a mystery; a mystery revealed in Christ and the Church, which is the Una Sancta, the one Holy and apostolic Church. This union consists of only the children of God, the born again regenerated and consecrated believers, people who all together comprise the body of Christ who is its head. That is the mystery. That is so much more than tradition and so much more than command. And the marriage of one man with one woman emulates and mirrors this heavenly union of godly perfection. To God be the glory!

 

But of course, when marriage is redefined by people to be something God did not intend, then the mirror image of the heavenly union is distorted and in some cases, not reflected at all. And that image is distorted when in the marriage of one man with one woman there is a distortion or a misunderstanding of what exactly marriage is and why we celebrate it as a godly estate and tradition.

 

Some think MARRIAGE is only TRADITION. Others think MARRIAGE is only COMMAND. Some others think MARRIAGE might be a combination of both TRADITION and COMMAND. But God has ordained and established the human in creation as male and female for the mutual respect and honor of each other. That goes far beyond just getting to know one another personally, emotionally, and carnally.

 

It’s knowing one another intimately in Christ the head of the spiritual body. If that union is solid, then marriage will be solid. Conversely, if the marriage is not solid, the intimacy with the head, Christ, is suspect. In other words, when the male and the female are both subject to the authority of their head, Christ, they are better at “Keeping the body in control,” as St. Paul says in another place. The marriage remains blessed and functional. 

 

That’s what submissiveness is. It is not cowering under some subversive, regimented, authoritarian, demeaning and abusive kind of relationship. That’s not submissiveness. That is subjugation and suppression and pure evil at its very core.

 

And that is just what we are in our very nature except for one thing and one thing only. And that one thing is so much “More than Tradition, More than Command. It’s Mystery!”

 

Human TRADITIONS change with time. For example, some people prefer a goose for Thanksgiving, not traditional turkey. In doing this, they make a new tradition. Political will changes over time. For example, the collective mind of a nation might change respecting how it chooses to be governed. They make a new tradition for themselves, like God's people desiring a King to rule over them. We all know how that turned out, don’t we. And yet, God was still loved them for the sake of His own covenant promise.

 

It might be surprising to some, but in this text there are no COMMANDS. I know someone is going to take me to task on this over the word submit in verse 22 where Paul supposedly says, “Wives, SUBMIT to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.” (Ephesians 5:22–23, ESV) Actually, that word isn’t even there in the original text. It is brought into the thought from the verbal noun in verse 21 which reads: “SUBMITTING to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5:21, ESV) which is a whole different thought, not a command.

 

Think of it this way; the way Paul thinks: the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of Church, His Body. And what did Christ do for His Body, being that no one ever hates His own body? he honors her and blesses her in what he says and does. This is what Christ did for His body, the Church. “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.” (Ephesians 5:25–27, ESV) Notice to whom He makes her acceptable.

 

So we see the choice and who is the active agent involved here. It was Christ’s choice to make His body, the Church holy to Himself. That is, to provide everything she needed in order that He might present her to Himself in splendor, with no spots or wrinkles on her clothing. Nothing like that. No, God’s decision in Christ was to present His bride a Holy unblemished body to Himself. And that He did through self-sacrifice of His own Son on the CROSS.

 

Men, this is why the Word of God gives this as a comparison: “Husbands, love your wives, AS Christ loved the church.” (Ephesians 5:25, ESV) This is how we keep ourselves under our head, in submission to Christ, remembering that our wives are God’s gifts given to complete our body. Remembering the first time we laid eyes on our spouse and something just clicked in our being and said, “I really want to know this one.” Jesus’ sacrifice on the CROSS is Christ’s sacrifice for mankind; a sacrifice made for the male and the female, the husband and the wife, that together they may be sanctified in Christ, who desires to know us: for scripture declares: ““Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”” (Ephesians 5:31, ESV) ahh the mystery revealed. God desires us.

 

There is no tradition, no command that can make this kind of union, this kind of oneness, perfect. The mystery of CHRIST and the CROSS through the shed blood of Jesus, makes the union of the BODY [the Church] with the HEAD [Christ] perfect. This is the mystery of our …

 

SERMON TEXT: ““Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” (Ephesians 5:31–33, ESV)

 

So you see, MARRIAGE as ordained by God is so much “More than Tradition, More than Command, It’s Mystery!” And the marriage of one man with one woman, in Christ, is what Paul is talking about. It makes the body complete [for the CHURCH, which is mirrored in the MARRIAGE of one man with one woman]. Amen!

 

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep our hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus now and unto life everlasting. Amen.