The Perfect Marriage

“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready… Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Rev. 19:7,9

This Bible verse refers to a very special occasion, an occasion that brings much joyful preparation and expectation: a marriage celebration.

The ministry of Jesus for mankind started at a wedding. His first miracle was performed at Cana where He turned water into wine to supply the needs of the hosts who had not made provision for his guests. The second one takes place in Canaan where He Himself will receive His own bride “arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, ” as we read in Rev. 19:8.
Jesus, as a man that He was, had certainly the same needs of every human being, need of attention, of affection, of understanding, but in DA, p. 89 we read: “No one upon earth had understood Him, and during His ministry He must still walk alone. Even His disciples did not understand Him… His life on earth must be spent in solitude.”

Did He mind this? Did he ever complain about His loneliness or His trials? Never. As we read in Hebrews 12:2 “who for the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross.” His eyes were not fixed on the cross he had to bear, but much further than that in time and space. His eyes were fixed on the event we read in Revelation, in the celebration of His own wedding to His undefiled bride to whom He had been betrothed since the very beginning.

His only desire upon the earth was to become one Spirit with His Father, as we read in 1st Corinthians 6:17 “But He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him.” He knew that in any earthly relationship He could just become one flesh and He knew very well the weakness of the flesh. And in the best of cases, one mind. But He knew that in order to fulfill His commission for which He had abandoned all He was and had, He needed to be one Spirit with the Father, to have the indwelling of the Spirit.

Very surely, as He was performing the miracle in Cana, His thoughts were fixed on His own wedding, when the bride He had come to buy with His own blood, would be ready to receive Him. As He saw the water turning into blood, His thoughts did not remain in the water mixed with blood that would come out of His side as He would be pierced by-a soldier, but He thought of the wine He would once again share with His redeemed ones at the celebration of His own wedding. Only thus could He rejoice with others.

This thought, this longing of the heart of any young man or woman to be joined with His chosen one for life and eternity accompanied Jesus during His whole life upon the earth. The only difference was that His longing was not centered on one person, but in the whole of humanity, and that was what triggered each and every one of His acts.
As he shared the Last Supper with His disciples in full knowledge that one of them would deny him, and another would even go further, to the point of betraying Him, He girded himself to wash their feet and didn’t skip a single one of them.

That time, as He lifted the cup to thank the Father for the sacrifice He was about to perform, even though He was thinking of His blood and revealing to His disciples the great mystery, His eyes were always going beyond time and space. In Luke 22:18 He says: “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” Yes, his eyes were set on the kingdom to come. The kingdom of God is about to come, first in our hearts if we have as our first longing to be one Spirit with the Father and second and ultimately as a tangible reality.

As the Lord takes the cup in the upper room where he is gathered with His disciples, He says: “Drink from it, all of you.” Matt. 26:27, and in verse 28 He adds “For this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
There was certainly pain in Jesus’ heart as He had to acknowledge that His precious blood from which He invited all to partake to be cleansed was only going to be shed for many, but once again, He didn’t remain in that thought, but immediately said, according to Matthew’s report: “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” Matt. 26:29

Yes, His eyes were always set on the goal, on the joy ahead of Him when He would be joined with His bride forever. Let us read again Rev. 19:9, “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Do you realize you have been called to the wedding supper of the Lamb, not just as a guest but as the bride? A bride that is not going to be disappointed after the honeymoon is over, a bride that will be the center of attention of her beloved one for life and eternity.

And to have an idea of what that wedding celebration is going to be like, I will share a short paragraph of EW, page 19: “Oh, that I could talk in the language of Canaan, then I could tell a little of the glory of the better world. I saw there tables of stone in which the names of the 144,000 were engraved in letters of gold. After we beheld the glory of the temple, we went out, and Jesus left us and went to the city. Soon we heard the lovely voice saying “Come, My people, you have come of great tribulation and done My will, suffered for Me, come in to supper, for I will gird Myself and serve you.” And I saw a table of pure silver; it was many miles in length yet our eyes could extend over it. I saw the fruit of the tree of life, the manna, almonds, figs, pomegranates, grapes, and many other kinds of fruit.”

This is what is awaiting us in heaven. There are grapes on the table, but Jesus is not eating any, He is not even drinking its juice because He is waiting for us so that His joy may be perfect as He shares His glory with His bride.
May the Lord help us to see beyond time and space, may He enlarge our heart and put in it the same longing for our wedding to be performed as the longing in our bridegroom’s heart.
AMEN.

Theresa Corti