If You Love the End Times So Much Why Don’t You Marry It?

By Rev. Gaven M. Mize

Dear Faithful One, you are cordially invited to a wedding banquet. It will be quite the feast, in fact. The groom has been prepared from before the foundation of the world. He has taken on human flesh and stepped into a world that hated Him. But, don’t worry, it will hate you, too. Thankfully, there is much to eat and drink. And you won’t be alone. The truth is that a whole host will be around you. And the music, singing, and the angelic choir are seemingly out of this world. The groom has paid the cost; you reap the reward.

Yes, I’m sure that as a dog you didn’t expect even a crumb from the master’s table and yet now you will sit at the table prepared by the Master Himself. I know that it seemed like only yesterday that the servant was told to go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges, so that the house would be full. It’s true. You don’t belong here because of your sinsoaked and stained clothes, but you are now wearing the wedding garment. That water mark on your head—forged and engraved by the Word of God—is a dead giveaway that you were brought to the table kicking and screaming.

Oh, here the groom approaches! The feast is prepared! You are the bride and you are the guest!

I know that this example of a wedding/banquet invitation doesn’t reflect that of our modern-day style. And having recently gotten married myself, what I most recall is how much invitations were per-word and that 217 of them cost a fortune. That being said, to where does this invitation beckon you to come and join in on the festivities? I think most people would reply, “Heaven.” In fact, I think if you were to ask many people what the end goal of Christianity is the overwhelmingly popular answer would be along the lines of, “The goal is to get into heaven.” How terribly incorrect that is! The whole point of Christianity is that you are face to face with Jesus. Further, you get to have communion with Him and He forgives your sins. Christ is your leader and you follow—stumbling and falling all the way, but dragged onward solely by the Holy Spirit in faith which trusts in Jesus. Because of this you are also to have fervent love toward one another.

So, where do we go in the meantime…before that glorious day when we experience this Wedding Feast in the flesh through our own resurrection? The answer is simply: Go to church. Flee to the altar of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. When you partake in the liturgical life of the church you sit at the feet of the Master and He proclaims to you His great and good Law that you would know and come to be horrified by your sins. He then graciously provides you with the Gospel and reminds you of the wedding garment of righteousness that you wear in baptism. In church, you weave in and out of the liturgy until you come to a climactic chorus: With angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify God’s glorious name. And with the words from Christ, “…take, eat, this is my body; take, drink, this is my blood…for the forgiveness of all your sins.” Dogs, though you are, you are not only given a crumb from the Master’s table, you are also invited to eat and to drink your salvation in Christ. And when you have eaten your full and have drunk deeply from the cup, you hear these words from your pastor, who is in the stead and by the command of Christ as he prays, “Gracious God, our heavenly Father, You have given us a foretaste of the feast to come in the Holy Supper of Your Son’s Body and Blood.”

“A foretaste of the feast to come.” That is, the grace and forgiveness that will be with us in paradise, is with you at the Sacrament of the Altar. But, that can’t be right, can it? John the Baptist pointed to Christ in the flesh and proclaimed that He was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Christ, who is the Lamb as St. John confesses, tells you that He gives His body to eat and His blood to drink in John Chapter 6 and that those who partake in the eating and drinking of Christ’s Body and Blood already have eternal life and that Christ will raise them up on the last day.

And there we have it. The liturgy and the sacraments all crescendo to the utmost point when Christ, the Son of God, returns to earth and the times come to a close. Every time you eat the flesh of the Son of God and drink His blood, you are passively prepared by the One who is coming for you at the end of time. You partake in the foretaste now! You see dimly in the mirror now; soon you shall see, taste, and be face to face with Christ, Who comes to raise the living and the dead. As the Angel of the Lord revealed to John in Revelation 19 as the times were coming to the close with Christ’s return, so also John speaks the reality for we who believe and have tasted and seen that the Lord is good: “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” You have a promise here. When Christ returns at the close of the age you will hear the sweetest of invitations: “Let it be done for you as you have believed. The marriage feast is prepared forever, for you.” And at every Divine Service God intends for you to experience a delightful foretaste of this glorious wedding and the resurrection to come!

Rev. Gaven M. Mize is the pastor of Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hickory, North Carolina. A graduate of Concordia University of Wisconsin and Concordia Theological Seminary, Rev. Mize is in his second year of CTS DMin program. He is married to Ashlee Mize, who is awesome. Mize is in his second year of CTS DMin program.