Reflecting on Luke 20:27-40“The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. In the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead (people) will neither marry nor be given in marriage.” (Luke 20:34)
This verse has always perplexed me, since I was told God designed marriage.
If redemption is the restoration of creation, why not the restoration of marriage?
Is Jesus saying God’s gift of marriage will end in the age to come?
Notice that Jesus is describing marriage in this age, the age of sin and death.
Marriage in Jesus’s time involved arranged marriages – being given in marriage.
Daughters were given in marriage at that time as part of patriarchal culture.
They left their families and joined the man’s family – the opposite of Genesis 2:24.
Maybe Jesus doesn’t mean pre-Fall marriage, but post-Fall “this age” marriage.
Maybe our way of marriage “was not this way from the beginning.” (Matthew 19:8)
The church today talks as if it understands God’s ideal for marriage.
But like the Sadducees, we understand things through the lens of “this age”.
We cannot comprehend how things were before “this age”, or “in the age to come”.
None of our marriages meet God’s ideal; Jesus renews them with redeeming love.
Redeeming love meets us in our “this age” brokenness, to restore us to life!
Gracious love, not some ‘marriage ideal’, is God’s will for marriage in “this age”.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, not even You lived up to a marriage ideal. Help us not to condemn others for not measuring up. Humble us all and help us to be gracious and loving in all our relationships, including marriage in "this age".
The relationship between Christ and the church is what our relationship should be between husband and wife. Before the fall, perfect harmony. After the fall, discord. In all our relationship we need to be like Jesus showing perfect love one to another.