August 23, 2015 Text: Ephesians 5:22-33
Dear Friends in Christ,
“Jack and Diane two American kids doing the best that they can.” Except this Jack and Diane are not the ones immortalized in the John Cougar Mellencamp song.
Jack and Diane had a storybook romance. Two young believers who meet at a Christian college and get married. Surrounded by family and friends and in the front of the Lord’s altar they promise to love each other until death parts them. Chapter 1.
I think you know where this sermon is taking us. Marriage. Something that has been around for thousands of years and something we still don’t understand even as many of us live it. It’s too simplistic to just say God made us differently. But He did. I could wow you with sociological statistics that have been consistent since creation. Couples that stay married through Christ improve society, community, the country and the world. It helps raise children and gives better economic advantages. Yes, it is all true. But why? Well, as Christians, our answer always comes from Holy Scripture. 9 human beings in black robes do not define it. The media or talking heads does not draw it up. It’s simple really, marriage is . . .
“GOD’S DESIGN”
Jack and Diane’s marriage in chapter one was typical of most marriages. But the first chapter is never the whole book. Lurking beneath the surface was a darkness affecting Diane. Some of it was past experiences; some of it was a body chemistry out of balance. In the darkness, nothing was right in the world. She started verbally attacking the man she married. Cutting words sliced Jack’s heart to pieces.
Diane was not giving Jack the respect that men need. She would say things like, “Why don’t we have money to do fun things.” “You never listen to me.” “My mother told me I should never have married you.” No matter how good he was at things it was never good enough for Diane. She always found something small to criticize. These words were crushing to Jack’s spirit and resentment set in.
Diane had forgot the words of our text, “let the wife see that she respects her husband.” (v. 33b) She does this not in servitude, but in love for Christ. God calls wives to respect their husbands, knowing that in Christ’s forgiveness the husband is made perfect. Each wife can know that Jesus Christ loves her completely. If a woman has failed in this matter of respect, Jesus Christ has already taken that failure to the cross. In the same way that Christ takes responsibility for our eternal salvation, wives are called to let their husband take responsibility for their physical safety and provision.
The hardest chapter to live was the one where Jack no longer had the strength to endure. His heart had been sliced so many times; he couldn’t piece it back together. He almost gave up everything. Everything.
But then the Holy Spirit sent this thought to him, one he had known from childhood. “Jesus loves me. He gave himself to the cross for me. He always speaks well of me. He loves me without reservation.”
It was hard work rather than magic. In the power of the love of Jesus, Jack began to serve Diane.
God said in Genesis 16 that sin would result in husbands ruling over their wives instead of tenderly loving them. God is calling husbands to put the needs of his wife above his own – “to love his wife as himself.” (v. 33a) A husband can do this in honor of Christ, who gave his life for him. If a husband has failed in this matter of loving his wife, Jesus Christ has already laid down his life for the husband’s failure.
Marriage is a Gospel picture of Christ and the Church.
Jack and Diane began to realize this. Slowly and with the help of medication (also a gift from God!), Diane responded to Jack’s love. She encouraged him with her words, “I’m proud of all you do to take care of our family.” “You are such a wonderful money manager.” As Jack served Diane and Diane in turn respected Jack the darkness slowly receded. A new chapter was written. The love of Christ and the beauty of God’s design for marriage were restoring their life-long union. “Jack and Diane two American kids doing the best that they can . . . by God’s design.”
Amen.