Even if there is no marriage in heaven (based on a single, elliptical verse of Scripture), I think Patrick's larger point is that Christians are restored in the world to come. And the intervening separation enriches the reunion.
Life is a refining process, burning away the dross, to leave pure silver in the world that awaits us. The best carries over while the worst is left behind.
Patrick made his point well even if my wife was uncharacteristically unromantic.
I'm curious... how are we to read Matthew 20:30 if not as a straight-forward teaching that there is no marriage in Heaven? I'm not wedded to the idea of going back to bachelorhood so perhaps you could court me to your position. :)
I appreciate your take on this, Steve. I don't necessarily agree, but I don't necessarily disagree either. I don't think enough is revealed to us in the scriptures to be dogmatic about it. My conclusion with this is that knowing about marriage in the resurrection isn't important for our spiritual development (or possibly that it is important that we not know).
It's only good hermeneutics to take Mat 22:30 at face value tempered by the understanding that it's only one passage and it's merely tangential to the central flow of thought. But to speculate a different meaning is just that - speculation. If the scriptures teach anything, it's that our hope for relationship in the resurrection has more to do with Christ than with each other. So the last pane of the Christian Hope strip would scripturally be more representative of marriage in an Eph 5:32 sense, or even in the sense of the parable earlier in Mat 22. The heavenly wedding / Bride of Christ imagery is well-represented as a recurring theme in scripture and thus far better as a central message.
BTW, people can click on the images to enlarge to full size.
ReplyDeleteI showed this to my wife and she furrowed her brow and said, "But there's no marriage in Heaven!"
ReplyDelete*facepalm*
Even if there is no marriage in heaven (based on a single, elliptical verse of Scripture), I think Patrick's larger point is that Christians are restored in the world to come. And the intervening separation enriches the reunion.
ReplyDeleteLife is a refining process, burning away the dross, to leave pure silver in the world that awaits us. The best carries over while the worst is left behind.
Patrick made his point well even if my wife was uncharacteristically unromantic.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious... how are we to read Matthew 20:30 if not as a straight-forward teaching that there is no marriage in Heaven? I'm not wedded to the idea of going back to bachelorhood so perhaps you could court me to your position. :)
I've discussed it here:
ReplyDeletehttp://triablogue.blogspot.com/2007/12/is-there-sex-in-heaven.html
http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2008/11/family-life-in-afterlife.html
http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2011/01/till-death-do-us-part.html
Thanks for the links. I'm in the process of giving it a think through. Are you getting this from a commentary or is this your own exegesis?
ReplyDeleteA combination of commentaries and my own reflections.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your take on this, Steve. I don't necessarily agree, but I don't necessarily disagree either. I don't think enough is revealed to us in the scriptures to be dogmatic about it. My conclusion with this is that knowing about marriage in the resurrection isn't important for our spiritual development (or possibly that it is important that we not know).
ReplyDeleteIt's only good hermeneutics to take Mat 22:30 at face value tempered by the understanding that it's only one passage and it's merely tangential to the central flow of thought. But to speculate a different meaning is just that - speculation. If the scriptures teach anything, it's that our hope for relationship in the resurrection has more to do with Christ than with each other. So the last pane of the Christian Hope strip would scripturally be more representative of marriage in an Eph 5:32 sense, or even in the sense of the parable earlier in Mat 22. The heavenly wedding / Bride of Christ imagery is well-represented as a recurring theme in scripture and thus far better as a central message.