The Great Sacrament of Love

King David knew that God loved him, even after he had sinned gravely—with Bathsheba and then by taking a census of the people against God’s will. God still loved him and forgave him, promising to build David a house—a house of descendants—who would rule his people forever (2 Sam. 7).  

First in that line would be Solomon.  

Solomon married Naamah when he became king. Their courtship and marriage are eloquently described in Psalm 45 and again in the Song of Solomon (3:5-5:16). Jewish and Christian tradition also applies these erotic texts to God’s love for his people. Marital love is the paradigm of divine love.  

This chapter explores how Christ—the true Son of David—is the bridegroom, who calls his bride, the Church, into an intimate exchange, making the great sacrament of love into the ultimate paradigm of worship. 

Marriage in the Bible 

God created man in his image and likeness as male and female (Gen. 1:27). For this reason, “a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh” (2:24). When Adam and Eve said “yes” to this call, “God blessed them, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth’” (1:28). 

So God begins the human story with marriage to reveal his image and likeness.  

Throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, God reveals his desired relationship to his people as spousal, calling them his bride, with a marital covenant. Sin and idolatry are described as infidelity and harlotry (Hos. 1:2-2:20, etc.), and worship becomes a spousal dialogue of love. Paul calls marriage the great sacrament—sacramentum magnum (Eph. 5:32)—a sacred sign of God’s love that reveals himself to his bride. So we cannot understand the Bible or worship without a good understanding of God’s design for marriage. 

The wedding ceremony or banquet—with its bride and bridegroom—always pointed to something heavenly. As Isaiah pointed out, “For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Isa. 62:5). The inspired Song of Solomon also reveals God’s immense, spousal love for his people, calling his bride out of the fallen world—Lebanon—to join him in Jerusalem—heaven (4:7-12). 

In the New Testament, John the Baptist identifies Jesus Christ as the bridegroom (John 3:28-29, Matt. 9:15, etc.). Jesus also works his first miracle and begins his public ministry at a wedding feast (John 2:1-12). Jesus also uses the wedding feast to describe the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 22:1-14, 25:1-13). Paul reminds us how Christ reveals his total self-giving, spousal love for us in his passion and death on the cross: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25-26). This makes marriage into the great “sacrament” or “mystery” of Christ’s love for the Church (vv. 29-32). 

As earthly marriage is but a sign of our heavenly marriage that is to come, our Lord tells us, 

The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection (Luke 20:34-36; see Rev. 18:23).  

The Bible culminates with the great heavenly worship of the wedding feast of the Lamb, describing our encounter with Christ in heaven (Rev. 19, 21-22). His bride, when her members are baptized, takes on the name of her husband, Christ, becoming Christian. Christ gives us his name—it is the family name of his Father—making it known to us as he has worked to keep us in that name (John 17:6,11-12): “I made known to them thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:6,11-12,26). Jesus writes his name upon our foreheads so that we can worship him in heaven (Rev. 3:12, 14:1). In this heavenly worship, we will see God as he is in the greatest possible intimacy: face to face (1 Cor. 13:12, Heb. 12:14, 1 John 3:2, Rev. 22:4). 

In Bible Worship, Fr. John Waiss reveals how Scripture connects marriage, worship, and God's covenant with his people. Get your copy today and experience the biblical foundations of worship like never before!