Yeah, that’s a picture of me and my beautiful bride on our wedding day — April 16, 2005. In the picture you’ll see some of our best friends and closest family members. I remember my flood of emotions on this day: “Wow, she’s gorgeous! I can’t believe I’m getting married! I wonder if she knows I snore at night and have bad breath in the mornings?” Anyway, weddings are big events, aren’t they? Just last week, I attended Brian Clark’s (our intern from last summer) wedding and was once again reminded of all the planning that goes into making that day special. You have to invite all of your family and friends, you have to pick out the right church, the bride and groom have to pick out the perfect invitations, flowers, colors, food and on and on. It is supposed to be a day where you go all out…I mean, it’s only supposed to happen once. For one day, you and that special someone have the spotlight on you as people join you in celebration of a commitment to a life-long marriage. It should be a big event…after all, it’s supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime event (unfortunately, divorce can make it happen multiple times throughout someone’s life.)
Weddings — ideally, a once-in-a-lifetime event. Jesus was involved in a once-and-for-all event. When Jesus took on human flesh and came to earth, he had a mission — to provide rescue and forgiveness of sins through the sacrifice of His life. Jesus was obedient to the Father and went to the cross providing a once-and-for-all sacrifice for sin. Three days later, the tomb was empty and Jesus had defeated Satan’s biggest weapon — death. What can we learn here? Jesus’ sacrifice was so amazing…so powerful…so perfect and complete that it took care of everything. Jesus’ sacrifice provides forgiveness for the world once-and-for-all. Unlike things in the Old Testament, Jesus’ sacrifice doesn’t have to be repeated. It lasts forever and ushers in a new hope: that one day Jesus will come back and rescue those who trust in Him and fix all of creation. Because Jesus’ sacrifice was a once-and-for-all event, we can be assured that He can be trusted and therefore we can feel good about obeying Him. I hope that we all can remember the power in what Jesus did on His Big Day.
