Our text from the Old Testament and even a portion of our Gospel reading for today sounds like we might be hearing a wedding sermon. I would suggest that our text will help us to see, among other things, God’s beautiful gift of gender, that is His gift of distinction between male and female roles, which will help us to rejoice even more God’s gift of vocation. And we will rejoice in God’s gift of good order, especially in the good order He gives to our marriages and our churches.
Before we get to the Old Testament text I would like to draw your attention to the Gospel lesson for this morning. In the Gospel lesson the Pharisees have come to test Jesus and have asked him the question, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” They figure that if Jesus answers “yes,” they will then label Him a liberal and turn people against Him and if He answers “no,” then they will label Him a conservative, even a legalist and will turn people against Him that way. They figure they have Him either way. Jesus answers their question by taking them back to our text for today from Genesis and tells them what God expects out of marriage.
Getting to our text, the context of our text is the beginning of the world. In Genesis chapter one we read of God’s action in creating all things out of nothing. We also read that as God completes all of creation He declares everything as “very good.” When we get to Genesis chapter two we have a recounting of creation and man being given permission to eat from every tree in the garden, except one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now remember, we are still on the side of the world before the fall into sin. At this time everything is good and even very good, that is everything is still perfect, and yet, God comes and says that something is not so good. He says, “it is not good for man to be alone.” Verse eighteen reads, “18Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him’” (v. 18). How could it be that man was alone? He was in perfect communion and fellowship with God. Besides, only with sin came loneliness. Clearly, God was saying that a woman was an essential, intended part of His creation, both for Him and for man.
Before creating the woman, God brought all the animals before Adam to have him name them. Picking up at verse nineteen, “19So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him” (v. 19-20). During this process of naming all the animals, the man saw how he was different from all God’s other creatures. He also saw their distinct differences in being male and female. He saw that without the woman, he was incomplete.
Again, as our text tells us, “. . . for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.” So, The Lord created the woman. Picking up at verse twenty-one, “21So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ 24Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (v. 21-25). The Lord put Adam into a deep sleep. As Adam slept, the Lord took one of his ribs and from that rib He created the woman. He brought the woman to the man and Adam said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.”
And God instituted marriage. He says that “a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.” Notice in God’s institution of marriage that marriage is one man and one woman for life.
Unfortunately, in the very next chapter of Genesis we come to see the man and the woman break their perfect union with God. The devil comes in the form of a serpent and tempts Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve gives some to Adam and he eats. Disobedience enters the world. Sin separates Adam and Eve and us from God. This is the point of where we are reminded of why we have so many problems with each other in life. Because our relationship with the Lord is broken, so our relationships with each other become strained and broken. Why do we fight with our brothers and sisters? Why do we fight with our parents? Why do we fight with our spouse? Because sin has broken our relationship with the Lord and with each other.
Fortunately for Adam and Eve and for us, immediately after the fall into sin God promises a Savior who will restore our relationship with Himself and with each other. In the New Testament we get to the fulfillment of God’s promise as God sends Jesus to restore the union between God and man. Jesus comes to pay for the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden as well as for the sins of all people of all places of all times. Jesus comes to give His life on the cross for our sins. Jesus restores our relationship with God and with that relationship restored our relationships with each other can begin to be restored. That does not mean that everything, everyone and every relationship is or will be perfect, for we still live in a sin filled world, but with our relationship with the Lord restored, we have a better chance of working on our relationships with each other.
In an implied way, our text speaks of an order of creation. This order of creation is expressed in many New Testament passages that talk about those things our society and culture despise, male headship and female subordination. Our text shows us quite clearly that God is not speaking of superiority and inferiority, but complimentary, distinct and unique roles. In other words, God shows His great love for us in giving us the gift of good order in creation through the giving of the unique roles He gives to men and women.
Getting back to our text, according to our text marriage is that you leave your father and mother, unite with your wife, and become one flesh. Marriage is a leaving of your father and mother. It is a leaving to begin your own distinct family. That does not mean that you have given up your father’s family, rather it means that now you are your own family and that becomes an important part of your life, just as some day your children will leave and start their own family.
Marriage is also what some describe as cleaving and uniting. You will cleave or hold on to each other as husband and wife. You will be united into one flesh. Again, you will unite with each other and form your own family unit.
Marriage fulfills our psychological need for companionship, our physical need for procreation and our moral need for decency. At the very beginning of our service of Holy Matrimony we hear these words, “This is an honorable estate instituted and blessed by God in Paradise, before humanity’s fall into sin. In marriage we see a picture of the communion between Christ and His bride, the Church. Our Lord blessed and honored marriage with his presence and first miracle at Cana in Galilee. This estate is also commended to us by the apostle Paul as good and honorable. Therefore, marriage is not to be entered into inadvisedly or lightly, but reverently, deliberately, and in accordance with the purposes for which it was instituted by God. The union of husband and wife in heart, body, and mind is intended by God for the mutual companionship, help, and support that each person ought to receive from the other, both in prosperity and adversity. Marriage was also ordained so that man and woman may find delight in one another. Therefore, all persons who marry shall take a spouse in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust, for God has not called us to impurity but in holiness. God also established marriage for the procreation of children who are to be brought up in the fear and instruction of the Lord so that they may offer Him their praise.” And marriage is for life, which means that there is work involved.
But what about being single? Does this text imply that there is something wrong with being single? I do not think so. As a matter of fact, when we get to the New Testament, Paul speaks of the high gift of singleness. I believe that our Genesis text is speaking about marriage, but even more than just marriage. Our Genesis text reminds us that God desires that no person live in isolation, but rather that we all live in relation to others. I also believe that our Genesis text reminds us that men and women have been given a blessed complimentary relationship even apart from marriage, as a matter of being different as male and female. In other words, God has created us not as just humans, but as men and women in compliment with one another, serving separate roles from one another to live our lives to the glory of His holy name.
God has created us as male and female. As men and women God gives us each vocations in which we are to serve others and in serving others we serve the Lord. Therefore as men and women we serve the Lord by studying His Word, by encouraging each other, by praying for others, and by sharing God’s Word with others. Our caring for one another is an example to others of how we live our lives as living sacrifices to the Lord, that is how we live in vocation as Christians. As Christians we are privileged to care for one another by calling on our members who are ill, or shut-in, or who are not attending and to encouraging them. It is our privilege to encourage those who are here, to build each other up in the fellowship of the Lord.
One more important point in our discussion about marriage is the fact that God often compares the marriage of a man and a woman to the marriage of Christ to His bride, the church. Jesus left all of the glory that was His in heaven in order to come to earth to live perfectly for us in our place because we cannot. He came to take our sins upon Himself and to give His life for ours on the cross. It is Jesus’ death on the cross which brought us back into a right relationship with Himself and with the Father in heaven. It is this restored relationship with the Father that makes it possible for us to restore our relationships with one another. As a man and woman become one in marriage, so Jesus makes us one with Himself for eternity! And it is the Holy Spirit who works through the Word and the Sacraments to stir in our hearts the desire to do works of service, to work at restoring our relationships with each other and to work at bring others to the Lord and to His house for worship.
This morning we celebrate the Lord’s gifts and blessings. We celebrate His giving us life at conception. We celebrate His giving us new life, through the waters of Holy Baptism. We celebrate that He has given us eternal life through His giving us faith and forgiveness, paid for by Jesus on the cross and given to us through His means of grace. And we celebrate that He has given us and calls us to our vocations wherein He works and moves in us to live lives to His glory. We celebrate and praise the Lord for His gift of gender. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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