An Arranged Marriage

“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son.”  Matthew 22:2

Jesus told a parable to the religious leaders about a king who had arranged a marriage for his son and invited whom he desired to come to the wedding.  Each one of the invitees decided it wasn’t worth the effort to attend and treated the invitation as something trivial.  They even killed the servants who had delivered the invitations which seems rather drastic, but remember this is a parable told to make a spiritual point.  The king was irate, sent his army to destroy the murderers, and burn down their city.  Again, a drastic response, but was an actual foretelling of events that would occur in the not too distant future from that time.  The Jews, the invitees, would reject Him and persecute His disciples.  Their forefathers had already murdered God’s prophets whom God sent to warn them and prophesy of His coming kingdom.  About 40 years after Jesus’ ascension back to the Father, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the city of which many of its residents had rejected Christ’s invitation to follow Him.

I began to think about the arranged marriage of the king’s son.  It was a widely practiced custom in ancient times to arrange a marriage between a young or older man and a young woman.  (The old man and the younger woman makes me think about movies where the leading man is an old geezer, and the leading lady is a young chick.  Hollywood rarely pairs an old guy with and old gal.)  A contract would be drawn up, a dowry paid to the bride’s family, and the two would be married.  I think this custom is still practiced in some foreign countries.  Having to marry someone that you are not in love with seems strange and somewhat repulsive to those of us who believe in falling in love and deciding to marry our sweetheart, although many today have decided to skip the “I do’s” before the Lord and everyone else and just live together.

The thought came to me, though, that God has already arranged the marriage for His Son, Jesus Christ.  His bride, the church, the body of born again, regenerated believers, were chosen to be His bride before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).  Before we were born, before Jesus came to earth as Savior, we were selected to be His bride.  The contract was sealed with the blood of Christ, and the dowry is the incorruptible inheritance reserved in heaven for us (I Peter 1:4).  Unlike the earthly arranged marriage in which two people who really do not know nor love one another make vows to one another, those who are believers in Jesus Christ know Him, love Him, and look forward to the day when the heavenly wedding will take place.  This will be a marriage bond that no one will desire to break.