Sacrament of Marriage in the Bible

[JCollins14]

My father in law is a retired Lutheran pastor (ELCA). This past weekend he asked me “where in the Bible does the Sacrament of Marriage appear?” My first thought was the Wedding at Cana, but he laughed saying there is nothing in the that story that suggests marriage as a sacrament. I am fully aware that Lutherans don’t believe that marriage is a sacrament. He is testing me and my faith and I want to go back with an intelligent answer. Is there a passage in the bible that gives weight to our sacrament of matrimony?

 

[Mtatum1958]

You might want to go back and read the referenced passages in this article.

biblical Roots of Marriage.

Of course, if he already has made his determination on marriage and laughed at you, I doubt his sincerity.

 

[Wesrock]

Why does it need to explicitly appear in the Bible? As Catholics we disagree with his approach to scripture and the sacraments, which (his own position) isn’t explicitly given in the Bible either.

 

[Sbee0]

St Paul literally called marriage a Mystery. (Eph 5:31-32). The origin of the word “Sacrament” literally translates to the word “Mystery” - which are aspects of our faith are both seen and unseen. It’s also a special calling and a sign of Jesus and His Church (Matthew 19:10-11)

 

[Francis]

@JCollins14

My first thought was the Wedding at Cana,

Your right ccc 1613 On the threshold of his public life Jesus performs his first sign - at his mother’s request - during a wedding feast.105 The Church attaches great importance to Jesus’ presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ’s presence.

but he laughed saying there is nothing in the that story that suggests marriage as a sacrament.

Well people laughed at Jesus too when he spoke the truth. ccc [1614] In his preaching Jesus unequivocally taught the original meaning of the union of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the beginning permission given by Moses to divorce one’s wife was a concession to the hardness of hearts.106 The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble: God himself has determined it "what therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder."107

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm

Mt 19:5-6 – leave father & mother, join wife, 2 become 1 flesh

Mk 10:7-12 – what God joined together, no man separate

Eph 5:22-32 – union of man & wife image of Christ & Church

Heb 13;4 – let marriage be honored among all

 

[Sbee0]

Why does it need to explicitly appear in the Bible? As Catholics we disagree with his approach to scripture and the sacraments, which (his own position) isn’t explicitly given in the Bible either.

Yes. Also “once saved always saved”, a favorite of fundies is not only unbiblical but it’s anti-biblical as there is scripture saying the complete opposite.

 

[po18guy]

Is he married? If so, ask him why.

Jesus makes numerous references to male and female, marriage etc. Even more so, he indicates that marriage is indissoluble, as it is God Who has joined the two together.

I wonder if you should ask him if Jesus was a Lutheran.

 

[Vico]

My father in law is a retired Lutheran pastor (ELCA). This past weekend he asked me “where in the Bible does the Sacrament of Marriage appear?” My first thought was the Wedding at Cana, but he laughed saying there is nothing in the that story that suggests marriage as a sacrament. I am fully aware that Lutherans don’t believe that marriage is a sacrament. He is testing me and my faith and I want to go back with an intelligent answer. Is there a passage in the bible that gives weight to our sacrament of matrimony?

St. Paul states that marriage is a mysterion. Translated to Latin, mysterion is sacramentum, a sacrament. Matrimony is a sign of Christ and the Church by faith and a calling (vocation). See Ephesians 5:31-32 and Matthew 19:10-11.

Ephesians 5:31-32 (sacrament, mystery)

“For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.”
32 This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.

Matthew 19:10-11 (Calling to celibacy or to marriage)

10 [His] disciples said to him, “If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” 11He answered, “Not all can accept [this] word, but only those to whom that is granted.

 

[rightness]

Actually, as a Lutheran, they believe in Sacraments that are in the Gospel, not the entire Bible. They call Baptism and the Eucharist the “Sacraments of the Gospel” that Jesus explicitly tells that these must be done, therefore, to defend against their teaching, we use their weapons, the Gospel, as well.

And there are two key points. As the Catechism does say in CCC 1613, the Wedding Feast of Cana is important. Jesus blesses the wedding, at His mother’s request, with the first sign of things to come, turning water into the best wine, and not just some wine, but gallons of it. In the time of Jesus, weddings were 7 days long, so if the bride and groom failed to provide, the wedding would be shameful, thus Jesus gives His blessings directly in this event.

The Wedding Feast of Cana, as we mentioned that it is where He has His first sign, is the start of His ministry. It is also a type (look up typology if you don’t know about types) of the wedding of Adam and Eve. As God would begin His work creating the world with a marriage, Jesus would start His work creating our salvation with a marriage. The first commandment from God is to “be fruitful and multiply” as the first covenant that God established because marriage is the embodiment of God Himself. The love unceasingly exchanged from Father to Son, and that love manifests into the Holy Spirit, then God said “Let US make man in OUR image”. Notice the plural, and thus Man and Woman become one in order to give an offspring just like what God is.

Second, I like to use Matthew 19 in this way to really establish the link to the Gospel to Genesis because the first marriage in the Bible is the foundation of everything. When Jesus says, in Matthew 19:4, “Have you not read that He who made them from the beginning made them male and female”. Think about it, if Lutherans believe in the Trinity, isn’t Jesus just referring to Himself? Of course to avoid too much anger from the Pharisees, Jesus made that statement in third person. Just think of Jesus saying this: “Have you not read that I who made them from the beginning made them male and female”, then you start to see how Matthew 19 is really Jesus telling us that we should remember what He did in the beginning because before Abraham, before Moses, He was, and to say that the Sacrament of Marriage isn’t in the Gospels… well, they just need to listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 19 as a reminder that He established the Sacrament of Marriage in Genesis 1.

 

[HopkinsReb]

Yes. Also “once saved always saved”, a favorite of fundies is not only unbiblical but it’s anti-biblical as there is scripture saying the complete opposite.

Not really relevant to Lutherans, though…

 

[TNMan]

This is true.

 

[BartholomewB]

St. Paul states that marriage is a mysterion . Translated to Latin, mysterion is sacramentum , a sacrament. Matrimony is a sign of Christ and the Church by faith and a calling (vocation). See Ephesians 5:31-32 and Matthew 19:10-11.

Ephesians 5:31-32 (sacrament, mystery)

That’s an interesting approach, starting from the Latin word sacramentum. I’ve been looking at the Bible Gateway site and, as far as I can make out, the word occurs only sixteen times in the Vulgate, eight times each in the OT and the NT. The NT references are:

• Eph 1:9, 3:3, 3:9, 5:32

• Col 1:27

• 1 Tim 3:16

• Rev 1:20, 17:7

It’s only in Ephesians that the word is ever used in connected with marriage. So I’d say it looks like your best bet. All the same, your Lutheran father-in-law is clearly very confident that he knows his Bible and has all the arguments at his fingertips. Let us know how you get on!