August 14, 2022 - INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE HEART

By Rebecca Read

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb

As many of you know, I’ve been planning my wedding for the past eight months. I was never a girl who dreamed of her wedding. If anything, I imagined a small, low-cost gathering somewhere remote. It turns out, the reality for me is a bit different. It has been challenging, but thankfully God has provided many willing friends and family to make it all possible.

Several months ago, the Lord put Revelation 19:6-9 on my heart. Here, we read about the marriage supper of the Lamb. I love this image of the Church as the bride and Christ the Bridegroom at a marriage supper table – the eternal marriage. It’s a good reminder to me that the endless details of my wedding don’t need to overwhelm me. As a follower of Christ, my wedding is a tiny reflection of His great wedding. It’s not about the tables and placemats, or the elaborate outfits, a wedding is about glorifying Christ.

While praying about this marriage supper of the Lamb, God has been reminding me in His Word of the many stories in the Bible about being seated at a table. At the end of Jeremiah, Jehoiakim, king of Judah, in the 37th year of exile, is released from prison by the king of Babylon. His prison clothes are taken off, and he’s invited to dine at the king’s table. That’s how the book of Jeremiah ends. It’s a strange and abrupt end, but it’s always stuck with me.

In the Gospels, Jesus loved to sit and eat with people. At the Last Supper, Jesus tells His disciples at the table about the betrayal He is going to experience. That is, the breaking of His body and the pouring out of His blood, what we now take part in and remember as Communion. Just like me and my wedding, we have to be continually reminded of what God has done for us. Nothing we plan, and nothing we do is about us. It should all point to Him.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11, addressed an abuse at the Communion table. He warns against the division he is hearing about in the church, and depriving others of the Lord’s Supper. He reminds them that “whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). That’s a big declaration! As Christians, our weddings, and all the more, our marriages and relationships, must point to what Christ has done for us. Let us remove division from the Church. Let us reconcile relationships, and let us be temples of the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to flow through us so that others might receive their invitation to this Great Wedding.

And like the wedding at Cana, the wine of this wedding will be the endless filling of the Holy Spirit. At this table, we won’t long for the loved ones we have lost, for there will be no more tears, death, sorrow or crying. All things will be made new (Revelation 21:4-5). And the most amazing part of this invitation is that it extends to everyone – no expense spared.

“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:3-7).

We are heirs of His grace because of what our Bridegroom (Jesus) has done for us. Our prison clothes are removed, and we dine with the King of kings.

Church, let us be a people focused on the eternal, that in all things we might put Christ first. Let us be ministers of reconciliation, remembering every cost of this Wedding has been paid in full that we may take our seat at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.