Enough Good About Marriage
Wednesday of Pentecost 24
7 November 2018
How easily we despise marriage. We think of it as boring, or constraining, or fusty, but that is just our own sinful misperception and misinterpretation of a good and gracious gift of God. Our eyes see and experience evil because they themselves are evil. To the pure all things given by God are pure and good and holy (Titus 1:15). We should repent of the darkness in our eyes. We need to see marriage as God sees it.
 
God reveals what marriage really is to us in holy Scripture. It is the highest and greatest human good. We could never know on our own how great marriage is except that God's Word reveals it to us. Marriage is a presumption that is instituted everywhere, even if bent by our perversity. We might even have invented it, if God had not. Marriage is written into the code of the creation. However, we would not know its full blessedness and benefits if God had not revealed them to us in His Word. It is the first and primary civil institution (Gn 2:20-24). It is the building block of all kingdoms and every authority. It is a glorious sign of the love of Christ for his bride the church (Eph 5:22-33). One cannot say enough good about marriage.

Rev. Dr. Scott R. Murray
Memorial Lutheran Church

   Martin Luther
"Marriage should be regarded as it is in God's Word, where it is adorned and sanctified. It is not only placed on an equality with other estates, but it comes first and surpasses them all-emperor, princes, bishops, or whoever they please. For both Church and civil estates must humble themselves and all be found in this estate, as we shall hear. Therefore, it is not a peculiar estate, but the most common and noblest estate that runs through all Christendom."

Martin Luther, Large Catechism,
1.209-210
Ephesians 5:22-33

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. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
 
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. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "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.
(ESV)
Prayer
O Lord, save me from the darkness of my own eyes, that I may see what You have given to me in holy marriage. I'm truly sorry that I do not see it as a holy thing that You have given. Through Your Word, send Your Holy Spirit to give me the eyes of faith that I might extol and honor marriage and family. Amen.
 
For all those who are struggling with marital conflict, that God the Holy Spirit may clear their eyes and that they might see marriage as a gift of our gracious God
 
For all those who suffer from mental illness, that they would find their help and support in the mercy of God through Christ
 
For all those who mourn, that they would be comforted
Art: Albrecht DURER, The Adoration of the Trinity (1511)
Memorial Lutheran Church
smurray@mlchouston.org
http://www.mlchouston.org
©  Scott Murray 2018