Harmony 5: Water into Wine (John 2:1-12)

Now on the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,  and Jesus and  his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine left.”[1]  Jesus replied, “Dear woman,[2] why are you saying this to me?[3] My time has not yet come.” His mother told the servants, “Whatever he tells you, do it.” 

Now there were six stone water jars[4] there for Jewish ceremonial washing[5], each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the water jars with water.” So they filled them up to the very top. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the head steward,” and they did. 

When the head steward tasted the water that had been turned to wine, not knowing where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), he called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the cheaper wine when the guests are drunk. You have kept the good wine until now!”[6] 

Jesus did this as the first of his miraculous signs, in Cana of Galilee. In this way he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. After this Jesus went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there a few days.

I could spend a lot of time on how, throughout church history, people found every minute detail loaded with meaning, and they may well be right. Check my footnotes. I just don’t have time to address everything. I am going to hit three bigger picture observations from this event.

JESUS SANCTIFIES THE ORDINARY

From the beginning, Jesus was not about spotlights, glamour, or show. He uses “the foolish things of the world” right out of the ministry gates. This is consistent with what Paul later writes to the church in Corinth.

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish (uneducated) things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak (without influence) things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly (lacking nobility) things of this world and the despised (without merit) things—and the things that are not [esteemed]—to nullify the things that are [esteemed], so that no one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)[7]

Jesus uses the things that “are not”:

• servants, not prominent community leaders.

• clay pots, not silver bowls.

• water, the most basic liquid on the planet.

• a poor person’s wedding.[8]

• “Galilee of the Gentiles.”

• 5 recorded disciples, and he had to ask a couple of them to join.

• “They believed in him” after this, as if maybe not all of them were quite sure what they had signed up for.

 Jesus sanctifies the ordinary. This is the way of the kingdom. He calls ordinary disciples. He hangs out with the ordinary people in common places. He transforms ordinary things into extraordinary gifts. Jesus didn’t need movers and shakers, halls of power, mansions, a spotlight, or an honored place with the Pharisees.[9] In fact, he tended to resist all those things throughout his ministry. He sanctified the ordinary.

If you think of yourself as ordinary, don’t let that discourage you. Jesus intends to sanctify you. He will take the “are not” part of you and make something of it for your good and His glory.

JESUS PROPS UP HYPERLINKS (earthly realities analagous to heavenly realities)

Jesus brings wine to a wedding (two images LOADED into the New Testament in reference to the church – the bride – and Jesus – the groom. More on that later). The first thing official act John records is Jesus ensuring the success of an earthly institution that was going to be referenced to describe heavenly realities.[10]

Theologians use the word “accommodation” to describe how God communicates to people. He accommodates us by using language and imagery we can understand.  Think about how your language changes with your kids as they grow older. How you explain something to them when they are 3 is very different from when they are 8, or 15. The realities of the heavenly kingdom are often explained in the institutions, language, and images of earth. This is an accommodation to help us understand things about God and His Kingdom.

• God as a Father and Husband

• Church as a Bride or a Mother

• Christians as children of God, brothers and sisters with each other

• Marriage as a covenant of mutual love, care and respect.

I have been blessed to have those analogies bring an overall good response in me: Great dad and mom and extended family; I love being a husband a father; my sisters are amazing; marriage gets deeper and better the further it goes. None of these people or institutions have been perfect; sometimes it’s been really hard. I don’t want to make it glossy where its not. It’s just that when someone says to me, “God is our Father,” that brings me comfort, not anxiety, fear, or disgust.

We have hyperlinks embedded in us. We hear those words or think about those things, and we are taken to a place in our hearts and minds. We make a connection. I think we, as the people of God, have a vested interest in strengthen the integrity of these things so we and others don’t have terrible hyperlinks embedded in us. We do this by a) valuing them ourselves in word and deed, and b) bringing gospel health and healing in the culture around us through spreading the Good News of the life-saving, life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ. 

• I am interested in the church teaching and modeling godly fatherhood (and a holy view of masculinity in general), as well as bringing gospel-centric stabilization to fathers and men everywhere. When people hear that God is a Father, I want to help “make straight the path” to the salvation and transformation Jesus offers rather than settle for potholes on the road to the Kingdom.

• I am interested in the church teaching and modeling godly motherhood (and holy view of femininity in general) as well as bringing gospel-centric stabilization to mothers and women everywhere. When people hear that church is their mother, I want to help “make straight the path” to the salvation and transformation Jesus offers rather than settle for potholes on the road to the Kingdom.

• I am interested in the church building holy marriages/families and then stabilizing marriages/families all around us. When people hear that the church is a bride with a divine groom, or God adopts as his children, I want the to help “make straight the path” to the salvation and transformation Jesus offers rather than settle for potholes on the road to the Kingdom.

This isn’t about political action, though surely God has ordained government to restrain evil and support what is good. I’m talking about first being salt and light, and then being scattered throughout our neighborhoods to bring gospel preservation and truth in what we say and what we do.

For that matter, this is true of the language we use to describe aspects of God’s character – and thus God’s action in the world. We, as followers of Jesus, have an interest in properly defining and living out things that are part of God’s nature and will for the world

• Love needs true definition and consistent incarnation so that when we talk about God’s love and our love for God and others, we bring gospel illumination to a very murky word. 

• Justice needs true definition and consistent incarnation so that when we talk about a just God’s justice, we bring gospel illumination to an often misunderstood word. 

• Mercy and grace need true definition and consistent incarnation so that when we talk about a God’s mercy and grace, people have already seen a gospel illumination in the mercy displayed by God’s people.

 In all these things, we have the opportunity to “make straight the path” to Jesus through our words and our lives.

JESUS: GROOM AND MASTER OF CEREMONIES

Jesus rebuked his own mother – respectfully – when she asked him to do something about the wine problem. Commentators, preachers and theologians disagree on what is going on here. The equivalent Hebrew expression in the Old Testament had two basic meanings:

1. When one person was unjustly bothering others, they could say "What to me and to you?" meaning, "What have I done to you that you should do this to me?" (Judg 11:12, 2 Chr 35:21, 1 Kgs 17:18 ).

2. When someone was asked to get involved in a matter that was not their business, she could say, "What to me and to you?"Or, "That is your business, how am I involved?" (2 Kgs 3:13, Hos 14:8).”[11]

 So did Jesus mean:

• “This is not our problem. If they run out of wine, they run out of wine.” That would seem at odds with Jesus’ character.

• “It’s not time for me to do miracles.” Which is basically what he told Satan in the wilderness when he didn’t do a miracle, so I struggle with that explanation.

• Some say he was just honoring his mother’s request – but then what happened to, “I must be about my Father’s business”? Or the times he tells people they must prioritize God over people, including their families?

 I have an opinion that I hold in an open hand. I think he is saying, “I am not responsible for thiswedding feast. I am not the master of ceremonies or the groom. Not yet.” Not yet. But that hour will come. After all, Jesus as the groom taking the church as His bride[12] is a primary image throughout the New Testament.

The Mishnah Kiddushin (where the Talmud deals with “dedication” or betrothal) talks about how a groom secured a bride. This is a different culture, to be sure, so whatever you think of the process, watch for the analogy.

·      The groom (and/or his father) traveled to the bride’s home to “purchase” her with a “bride price.”[13]

·      When the bride consented, the marriage contract, or ketubah, was established

·      The father handed the groom a cup of wine, which he gave to the bride and said, "This cup I offer to you."

·      If she drank it, they were betrothed. They had given their lives to each other.

·      This betrothal (kiddushin, meaning “sanctified” or set apart) made them legally husband and wife

·      During that time between betrothal and marriage, the groom would construct a home.

·      The groom would return for his bride without advance warning. The bride needed to be ready (see the parable in Matthew 25:1–15).

·      The groom’s arrival was announced with a shout, and the wedding feast commenced shortly.

·      On the 7th day of the wedding feast, the bridegroom lifted the veil of the bride. This moment of revelation was called "the apocalypse," or, "the unveiling." 

·      For the first time she was fully revealed to Him, and the marriage would be consummated.

So….

·      Jesus traveled to earth to “purchase” His bride, the church, for the price of His blood. Purchase from whom, you ask? Hmmm. Well, the Bible says that outside of Christ, “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (I John 5:19) We are in bondage to the Devil as “master” and at times even a “father” (John 8:44, I John 3:8), prince of this world (John 12:31; Ephesians 2:1-3) or ruler (John 16:11). I think this means we are born into (or have sold ourselves into) Satan’s headship as our abusive father/husband/master. Jesus offers betrothal that dissolves our ties to the ruler of the darkness of this world and makes us members of God’s household, no expense spared.[14]

·      Jesus gives a bride price: the Holy Spirit. The church consents.

·      The marriage contract is established; the church is sanctified, or set apart, exclusively for Jesus.

·      God the Father handed Jesus the cup of His suffering; Jesus says, "This cup I offer to you." #lastsupper

·      In communion, we symbolically accept His life and give him ours. We are betrothed (“sanctified”), but waiting for the final consummation.

·      During that time Jesus is “preparing a place” for us (John 14:2-3).

·      Jesus will return for the church (1 Thessalonians 4:17). The exact time of his arrival is not known (Mark 13:33). The church needs to be ready![15] “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.” (Revelation 19)

·      His arrival will be announced with a shout (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

·      In Revelation, "The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ” we see the "unveiling" of the Bride as she is received by Christ, the Bridegroom. 

·      The consummation for the church? “Then we will fully know as we are known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Final note. Seven blessings were pronounced at the wedding. The 7th Blessing summarizes the others, after which the bride and the groom share wine:

"Blessed art Thou, 0 Lord, King of the universe, who has created joy and gladness, bridegroom and bride, mirth and exultation, pleasure and delight, love, brotherhood, peace and fellowship. Soon may there be heard in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy and gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the jubilant voice of bridegrooms from their canopies, and of youths from their feasts of song. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who makest the bridegroom to rejoice with the bride."[16]

 We are closing with communion today. It was the betrothal ceremony initiated by Jesus 2,000 years ago. “This do in remembrance of me.” He is preparing a place; he will return, and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and His bride, the church, will begin. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

"Blessed art Thou, 0 Lord, King of the universe, who has created joy and gladness, mirth and exultation, pleasure and delight, love, brotherhood, peace and fellowship. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who through your Son has made the way for bride, the church, to rejoice with the bridegroom – our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May our words and our lives fill the streets with the jubilant voices of joy and gladness.”

__________________________________________________________________________

[1] Ancient commentators speculated this was the wedding of John the Baptist or another near relative - which is why Mary would know of this hugely embarrassing shortage of wine, and perhaps explaining why a shortage of wine was a problem for Jesus to help solve. Also, notice Mary does not ask for a miracle. She asks for Jesus to help solve a problem. Some think Mary may have been hinting they should leave: “A question of great interest arises - What did she mean by her appeal? Bengel suggested that Mary simply intended: "Let us depart before the poverty of our hosts reveals itself." (Pulpit Commentary)

[2] This is a respectful way of addressing a woman within that culture.

[3] What do you have against me? What is there between us? What do we have in common in this matter?” It’s “a phrase that emphasizes distance and often hostility.” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible) It was a Hebraic idiom that means in essence “What do we have in common?" Demons spoke similar words when confronted by Christ ("What business do we have with each other, in Mk 1:24+, Mk 5:7+). (Precept Austin)

[4] “That there are six (one less than the perfect seven) indicates that the Law, illustrated by water being reserved for Jewish purification, was incomplete, imperfect, and unable to bestow life. This water is changed into wine, symbolizing the old covenant being fulfilled in the new, which is capable of bestowing life. The overabundant gallons of wine illustrate the overflowing grace Christ grants to all.” (Orthodox Study Bible)

[5] Those pots were to be used for washing for ritual purity. “To employ waterpots set aside for purification for non-ritual purposes violated custom; consistent with Jesus’ values elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus here values the host’s honor above ritual purity customs.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the New Testament) 

[6] "The Old Covenant is the inferior wine: Jesus is the good wine.

[7] “These verses should serve as a rebuke to Christians who curry the favor of prominent and well-known personages and show little or no regard for the more humble saints of God.” (Believer’s Bible Commentary)

[8] Most commentaries speculate that the hosts had cut it close on the wine to save money.

[9] If you find yourself chasing and clinging to the powerful, beautiful, famous people in the spotlight of culture or church, that’s not a spotlight found in Scripture. Be careful. God’s favor is not on the boastful and proud.

[10] Earthly marriage and weddings are important enough to prop up, even if they are only echoes of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb and the wedding of Christ and the church. 

[11] Explanation from the NET Bible

[12] For example, Revelation 21:2, 9–10;  19:7; 22:17. “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.” (2 Corinthians 11:2–3).

[13] When a dowry is paid, it is paid by the bride’s family. This did not happen in Judaism.

[14] “Betrothed to God at a Price.” https://www.patheos.com/blogs/beyondalltelling/2019/04/betrothed-to-god-at-a-price/2/

[15] In Revelation 19:1-9 : “And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they who are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

[16] Translation from https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/313725/jewish/The-Seven-Benedictions-Sheva-Berakhot.htm

Following God: Marriage, Sex and Sexuality (Part 2)

“We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female. Together they reflect the image and nature of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman as delineated in Scripture (Genesis 2:18-25; Matthew 19:5-6). It is intended to be a covenant by which they unite themselves for life in a single, exclusive union, ordered toward the well-being of the spouses and designed to be the environment for the procreation and upbringing of children.”

 * * * * * 

“If we are made in the image of God as male and female, and if joining and one flesh as a profound mystery that refers to Christ and the church, then our understanding of the body, gender, and sexuality has a direct impact on our understanding of God, Christ, and the church. The body is not only biological. The body is also theological, because it tells a Divine Story. It does so precisely through the mystery of sexual difference and the call of the two to become one flesh. This means that when we get the body and sex wrong, we get the Divine Story wrong as well.”[1]

Here’s the Divine Story as it unfolds from Genesis to Revelation: 

·      The Bible opens with a Trinitarian God acting as Creator, “maker of heaven and earth.” In Genesis, God is a generative God who is an “infinite communion of person.”

• He creates the imago dei who are told to be in communion (“common union”)(Genesis 1:27; 2:24).[2]  

• Throughout the Old Testament, God compares his relationship with Israel to a marriage.  “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:5)  “I’m going to marry you, and this time it’ll be forever in righteousness and justice. Our covenant will reflect a loyal love and great mercy; our marriage will be honest and truthful, and you’ll understand who I really am—the Eternal One.” (Hosea 2:19-20)

• Jesus, the new Adam, leaves the home of his father in Heaven and the home of his mother on Earth for the sake of his bride, the church (Ephesians 5), with whom he will become one (Romans 6:5) and through whom we will become one with others[3] as we fill the earth and make disciples  

• The Book of Revelation describes the final wedding Feast of God and his people, the lamb and his bride. [4]

If the Divine Story of the Bible uses marriage as an analogy, it seems important to understand not only how marriage, but how sex (male and female) and the act of sex all contribute to this story. We are going to dive into this with the following foundation: 

God intends sex to be an act of covenantal initiation and renewal in a ‘dualitarian’ unionthat points us toward the nature of God and Jesus’ love for the church.

Christians are essentialists. Let me explain.

• As imago dei, we are "male" and "female," which together point toward who God is and what God is like – “let us make male and female in our image,” says Genesis.[5]

•  Because the God of Genesis is generative, it should be no surprise that his imago dei are essentially gendered; how we will “generate life” is built into our genitals and our genes and passed down in our geneology ever since Genesis.[6]

• The means by which we have the inherent capacity to generate life reveals our essential nature; together, men and women reflect on the essence and nature of the God who made us.[7]

•  We experience “common union” during sex. We aren’t just animals. “Animals are able to mate, but they're not able to enter communion. Only persons are capable of the gift of self that establishes a ‘common union’”….[8] Two become one as a finite communion of persons, an echo of triune infinite communion of persons. .

Look at the “common union” of Adam and Eve.[9] When Eve arrives on the scene, the imagery is that of Adam's flesh and bone being divided and separated “according to the opposite of him” so that they are suitable and matching.[10]

When Genesis notes that a husband and wife "become one" in marriage, the Hebrew word for that oneness is echad, which is also used in the most famous Jewish prayer, the Shemah: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is echad." The linguistic connection is not accidental.[11] To quote Tim and Kathy Keller at length from The Meaning Of Marriage:  

“There is a hint that the relationship between male and female is a reflection of the relationships within the Godhead itself – the Trinity. Although all people, men and women, are bearers of God’s image, resembling him as his children, reflecting his glory, and representing him as stewards over nature, it requires the unique union of male and female within the one flesh of marriage to reflect the relationship of life within the triune God.

 As Genesis says, male and female are “like-opposite” each other – both radically different and yet incomplete without each other. God’s plan for married couples involves two people of different sexes making the commitment and sacrifice that is involved in embracing the Other and performing different roles in the act of creation, which brings about deep unity because of the profound complementarity between the sexes. [This] tells us something of the relationships between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

 There may even be echoes of the church here[12] – one body with many parts, one “corpus” comprised of two, uh, corpuses (?) Corpi (?).[13]

“This is why the two become one flesh: to reveal, proclaim, and anticipate the eternal union of Christ and the church. There will be no marriage in heaven not because it will be deleted but because it will be eternally completed...”[14]

 Koinania is an overlooked work in the New Testament. According to the NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon, it means “fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation, intercourse; intimacy.”

1.   “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to koinania,to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42)

2.   “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a koinania in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a koinania in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16)

3.   “ And do not neglect doing good and koinania, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” (Hebrews 13:16)

4.   “What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have koinania with us; and indeed our koinania is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ….but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have koinania with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:3,7)

 The church, I believe, is meant to offer another place of communion – “common union” – that anticipates eternal communion with God and God’s people.[15]  By immersing ourselves in the life and calling of the church, we intertwine our body (in a very practical sense) with the spiritual church body in a way that points toward future eternal koinania with the saints in the presence of Christ.

In fact, we can all be spiritually fruitful  - generative - by making disciples[16]. There is still room to image God’s creative and procreative nature outside of marriage (though the procreation is of a different kind).[17]

This, too, is part of the Divine Story: there is a koinania community (the church) in need of both male and female image bearers; there is a spiritually covenantal marriage with God (through salvation) that anticipates our eternal marriage; there is a fruitfulness that follows (disciple-making). 

 * * * * *

God intends sex to be an act of covenantal initiation and renewal in a ‘dualitarian’ union that points us toward the nature of God and Jesus’ love for the church.

In biblical times, a covenant was a strong bond in which two people would pledge mutual faithfulness and commitment, often at the cost of their life. Covenants were complex, serious, and deeply binding. God is a covenant-making God. The Bible cannot be understood without the concept of covenant.[18]  When Adam and Eve “cleave,” that’s a covenant word (Genesis 2:22-25).[19]

I am going to quote Tim Keller and his wife extensively here from The Meaning Of Marriagebecause they explain this better than I can.

“The covenant brings every aspect of two person’s lives together. They essentially merge into a single legal, social, economic unit… they donate themselves wholly to the other… Sex is understood as both a sign of the personal, legal union and a means to accomplish it. The Bible says don’t unite with someone physically unless you are also willing to unite with the person emotionally, personally, socially, economically, and legally. Don’t become physically naked and vulnerable to the other person without becoming vulnerable in every other way, because you have given up your freedom and bound yourself in marriage. 

 Then, once you have given yourself in marriage, sex is a way of maintaining and deepening that union as the years go by.. Sex is perhaps the most powerful God-created way to help you give your entire self to another human being. Sex is God’s appointed way for two people to reciprocally say to one another, ‘I belong completely, permanently, and exclusively to you.’ You must not use sex to say anything less.  

So, according to the Bible, a covenant is necessary for sex. It creates a place of security for vulnerability and intimacy. But though a marriage covenant is necessary for sex, sex is also necessary for the maintenance of the covenant. It is your covenant renewal service.”

 In the biblical narrative, sex is an act intended by God to initiate and renew covenant – marriage - that is meant to be indissoluble. [20]  It’s not as if covenants dissolve if a married couple can’t have sex. Age, illness, circumstances – these can all get in the way of sexual covenant renewal.  This is also not suggesting that nothing else renews, sustains, or deepens covenant. I’m just making a point about sex: it is intended by God to be experienced as an act of covenant initiation and renewal. 

I Corinthians 6:17, which is often quoted in reference to this binding nature inherent to sex, makes it clear. Paul notes, 

“Do you not know that a person who is united in intimacy with a prostitute is one body with her? For it is said, ‘The two shall become one flesh.’”

 Paul wasn’t just saying, “Do you know if you combine bodies you will combine bodies?” That’s pretty obvious. Paul is simply referring back to Genesis 2:24 (and Jesus’ affirmation of it in Matthew 19) where a husband and wife ‘cleave’ together, reminding his readers that every sex act is an act that brings about a “oneness” whether we want it to be or not. 

 I suspect that’s why Paul says that sexual sins are unique (1 Corinthians 6:18). There is no other act that by its very nature is intended by God to initiate or affirm a covenant. [21] This was as radical of an idea then as it is now.[22]

* * * * *

God intends sex to be an act of covenantal initiation and renewal in a ‘dualitarian’ union that points us toward the nature of God and Jesus’ love for the church.

The New Testament writers add another theological layer to marriage by claiming that the sacrificial love of a husband for his wife is supposed to image the love of God (the groom) for His church (the bride). [23] So, to the Christian, marriage and sex have always been about far more than a skin-on-skin act or a social contract. John Paul II described the body and sexual union as ‘prophetic’. Prophets speak for God, revealing mysteries God has given to them. Marriage and even marital sex is a prophetic proclamation of God’s love for the church.[24]

This idea of sex as covenantal would have entirely changed the dynamic of sex for a husband and wife. To a Christian, sex is a way of saying, “You are the one with whom I wish to bind my life. I have committed to you, I have pledged to give myself wholly to you. We are bound together in every way and on every level. We have no secrets; we are naked and unashamed; we are a covenanted union of service, sacrifice and love.”[25]

This brings us back to where we started: 

God intends sex to be an act of covenantal initiation and renewal in a ‘dualitarian’ union that points us toward the nature of God and Jesus’ love for the church.

 ____________________________________________________________

 [1] Our Bodies Tell God’s Story, by Christopher West

[2] Some have argued that because Heaven (masculine in Hebrew) and Earth (feminine) are the first things generated, and they “bring forth” living things – they are fruitful – they might be the first example of this pattern in Scripture. 

[3] (Galatians 3:28; 1 Corinthians 12:13), 

[4] Revelation 19:7-8.

[5] I suspect this is part of Paul is referring to in Romans 1:20. “The body… has been created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and us to be a sign of it,” says John Paul II, as quoted in Our Bodies Tell God’s Story.[5] Our creation as male and female is what Christopher West calls a “sacramental reality: a physical sign of something transcendent.”  This is the theological reason why the Bible never discusses the marriage covenant as the union between people of the same sex. In the biblical narrative, same-sex couples cannot be the “like-opposite” union of “otherness” that represent the triune image of a complementary and generative God.

[6]  “From stem of Latin genus (genitive generis) "race, stock, family; kind, rank, order; species," also "(male or female) sex," from PIE root *gene- "give birth, beget," with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups.” – Online Etymology Dictionary 

[7] Genesis 1:27: “ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

[8] Our Bodies Tell God’s Story, by Christopher West

[9] The Bible places them in the Divine Story as ‘archetypes’ - real people whose lives are universally significant. Simply the definitions of their names suggest as much: Adam means “man” or “earth” in Hebrew; Eve is “life” or “life-giver.”

[10] The Hebrew expression כְּנֶגְדּוֹ (kÿnegdo) literally means this. 

[11] As Nancy Pearcey notes, “Biblical morality is teleological: The purpose of sex is to express the one-flesh covenant bond of marriage.”

[12] Puritans called marriage “the little church within the Church,” a place to test and also develop spiritual character.

[13] Ephesians 5 - marriage reveals the mystery of Christ and the church. 

[14] Our Bodies Tell God’s Story, by Christopher West

[15] There will be no marriage or sex in heaven; they are sacraments (a visible expression of an invisible reality) that will pass. Not so, the communion with Christ between saints.  

[16] Paul refers to Timothy as his son in the faith (1 Timothy 1:2); he refers to himself as the father of many children in 1 Corinthians 4.

[17] “The New Testament Church conceived of marriage and singleness as alternative locations, each a worthy form of life, the two together comprising the whole Christian witness. The one declared that God had vindicated the order of creation [in Genesis], the other pointed beyond it to its eschatological (“end times”) transformation. In other words, marriage points to Genesis, singleness to Revelation.” – Christopher West

[18] There are three main ways we see this unfold in the Bible: God’s covenant with His people; the covenant of marriage; and the covenant fellowship within the church.

[19] Malachi 2:14 and Proverbs 2:17 also use ‘covenant’ to describe marriage.

[20] “Sexual intercourse in marriage is not merely the satisfaction of individual appetites, as eating is, but it links two persons together – literally and spiritually. It brings about what it symbolizes (the bond of oneness) and symbolizes what it brings about.”  Richard Hayes, The Moral Vision Of The New Testament

[21] Think about it: every covenant in the Bible has physical sign: Covenant of Creation (Adam) – Trees of Life and Knowledge (Genesis 2); Noahic Covenant – rainbow (Genesis 9); Abrahamic Covenant – circumcision (Genesis 17); Mosaic Covenant – Sabbath (Exodus 31); New Covenant – baptism (Romans 6) and communion (Luke 22)

What is the physical sign of the marital covenant? Sex.

[22] Martha Nussbaum has written that the ancients were no more concerned with people's gender preference than people today are with others' eating preferences: “Ancient categories of sexual experience differed considerably from our own... The central distinction in sexual morality was the distinction between active and passive roles. The gender of the object... is not in itself morally problematic. Boys and women are very often treated interchangeably as objects of [male] desire. What is socially important is to penetrate rather than to be penetrated. Sex is understood fundamentally not as interaction, but as a doing of some thing to someone...”

[23] “When we scan a menu, we think, what will be the tastiest? What do I fancy right now? And with sex we can instinctively think, what would satisfy me the most? This is a natural way to think. But if this is all that dominates our minds, we risk missing something that's right at the heart of what sex is for: giving. Paul didn't write that each partner is to take their marital rights from the other, but that each is to give to the other what is their right. Sex is not a commodity to be transacted but a means of devotion to the other.” - Why Does God Care Who I Sleep With? Sam Allberry

[24] As Rick Warren has written, “To redefine marriage would destroy the picture that God intends for marriage to portray. It's the picture of Christ in the church.”

[25] There are two times in Song of Solomon that the bride says, “I am my beloved’s and he is mine; he browses among the lilies” (2:16 and 6:3) Have you ever wondered what that means? What does belonging to each other have to do with browsing through a flower garden? In Song of Solomon 4:5, Solomon praises his wife by saying, “Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies.” When it’s her turn, she says, “I am my beloved’s and he is mine,” then borrows his metaphor and makes him the gazelle: “he browses among the lilies.” Why? The marital covenant is designed to be initiated, sealed and celebrated by sexual love. For more on the imagery in Song of Solomon, “The Hunt” is a decent introduction to the language of Song of Solomon (http://www.christdeaf.org/bible/TheHunt.html.)  See also, “What’s The Difference Between Erotica And The Song Of Solomon?” (thegospelcoaltion.org)