From Sacrifice to Wedding Feast

Throughout Scripture, the overarching pattern for redemptive eating is the sacrificial meal (e.g. the Passover, Peace Offering, covenantal meals). Even the inauguration of the Marriage Supper in the Lord's Table is centered in sacrifice. Why then is the final declaration of redemptive eating styled as a Wedding? The connection may be traced along several lines. In biblical times, the notion of a wedding without a banquet was unthinkable. So intertwined were the ideas marriage and feast that one of the definitions of the Greek word for wedding (gamos) is actually “wedding feast.” The connection may be seen in the meaning of the root (gam) which is “to join.” To wed is to join together. But, in biblical times, sharing a table was also a means of intimate fellowship. Covenant meals indicated that two parties were now joined together in a new relational context. Marriage is a covenant (Mal 2:14). So feasting at a wedding was an integral component of the marriage event. Comparing the meaning of marriage and the sacrificial meals also reveals a stunning connection. In the Passover meal, the lamb stood in place of the worshipper who then took the sacrifice into himself. The imagery is one of radical identification. The unblemished innocence of the lamb became the worshipper's righteousness even as the sins of the worshipper were born by the lamb. Marriage is about such radical identification as the husband and wife become one. The Peace Offering meal indicated that the worshipper's fractured nature and broken relationship with God was restored. In marriage, those who are incomplete in themselves (cf. Gen 2:15-24) are joined to their counterpart to be made whole.