15 January 2024 Mark 2:18-22
The Bible’s favorite metaphor for the kind of relationship God wants with us is marriage. It is a very particular view of marriage, too: “A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Not many texts are repeated three times, verbatim, in the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the letters of Paul, but this one is (Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:5-6, Ephesians 5:31).
God wants a relationship with us so close that people can’t tell where we end, and He begins.
There are plenty of hints out there making the point that marriage is a uniquely excellent arrangement for us humans. Demographers and other analysts have frequently pointed out that married people live longer, have better health, and make more money than single people. They have far fewer incidences of depression, or any other mental illness. They have better education, get in the workforce early and stay in longer, and are happier in their work than single people. They have more children than single people, have a better relationship with their children, their families, their neighbors and colleagues. They are more involved with their communities, are more generous to the needy, and more willing to help whenever there is a problem.
They are also happier – in fact among the happiest people in America. The Wall Street Journal has surveyed Americans each year for over half a century, trying to determine, among other things, who the happiest people are. In 2023 it was reported that the happiest Americans make up about 12% of the population, and one of the most striking features about them is that most of them are married, happily, for a long time, and are very- to deeply religious.
You’d think that a country knowing all that would be promoting marriage, since it is such an obvious source of economic, social and personal well-being. Curiously, however, marriage rates have been declining steadily since the 1970s. As of 2021, 25% of 40-year olds had never married, up from 6% in 1980, the highest rate ever.
It may be, then, that the most effective evangelists for these days will be the senior citizens in our churches who have been married for a really long time. All the data indicate that these people are onto something. They have what everyone wants – the secret to a truly, deeply happy life: Get married, stay married for a really long time, love so deeply that people can’t tell where wife ends and husband begins: “And the two shall become one flesh.” Our old married people believe that, and much more.
No wonder that the Bible’s favorite metaphor for the kind of relationship God wants with us is marriage, a very particular view of marriage, too: “The two shall become one flesh,” a relationship so close that it is impossible to tell where we end and God begins. That is the way our joy, and God’s, will be complete. Our old married people believe that.
“I and the Father are one,” Jesus said (John 10:30).
“Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and in fact will do greater works than these because I am going to the Father,” Jesus said (John 14:12).
“As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me,” Jesus said (John 17:21).
Our old married people believe that. They really are onto something.
Комментарии